Dan’s Adventure

In order to hire a car and drive abroad one typically needs an International Driving Permit (IDP). Its essentially a version of your own country’s driving license translated into multiple languages. The IDP is not however a license in its own right, it is merely confirmation that you hold a driving license in another country. It must therefore be accompanied by your original driving license when you use it abroad.
IDPs can be purchased from motoring associations in most countries. In the UK, both the AA and the RAC issue IDPs …

Over the weekend Dan’s Adventure has received a much needed face lift. Several aspects of the original design annoyed me, but the ones that prompted me to make a change were:

It was too blue
The navigation tabs didn’t look right
It felt too much like a standard blog

The last of those may seem daft considering this is after all a blog. The new design uses a magazine style layout with featured content at the top, newest items in each category on the right, and popular articles at the bottom. The use of …

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I spent the bank holiday weekend in London visting friends and enjoying lots of skating, a bit of roller hockey, too much alcohol and plenty of sunshine. The cheapest way of travelling between London and Glasgow was by bus, so on Wednesday night I boarded the sleeper bus to make the 8 hour journey.
I bought a copy of the June/July issue of Wanderlust to read on the bus as it has a feature on Indochina, covering lesser known destinations and itineraries for Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The majority of the …

“Aright mate, how ye daein?” is yelled in a nasal tone from the back seat as I board the over night Megabus to London. “Dae ye want some wine?” his friend asks as a bottle of Buckfast is waved in my direction. Its telling that the seats near them are all unoccupied, I also opt for a seat away from them.
As we try to sleep we have the pleasure of being serenaded by Rangers songs; “If ye cannae dae the bouncy yer a Tim! If ye cannae dae the bouncy …

Over the last two months I’ve made six trips to Monklands travel clinic and two trips to Strathaven health centre for vaccinations. Thankfully today was my final visit to Monklands where I received the last of my Rabies and Hepatitis B vaccinations. I have now had all the vaccinations that I require for my trip.
At Monklands I also picked up my prescription for anti malarial tablets. I left the hospital with a brown paper bag full of Doxycycline.It needs to be taken daily whilst in malarial zones, as well as …

Vietnam is one of the few countries for which I cannot get a visa on arrival. Unlike many other visas which are valid for a period after issue, Vietnam visas are valid between two specific dates. This is an advantage as it lets me apply for it now, but it also means that the dates I provide are fixed. I considered applying for a 15 day visa as I am planning to spend 2 weeks in Vietnam, but the 30 day visa gives a bit of flexibility if my entry …

As a British passport holder I need visas for Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. I was planning to apply for all of them by post, starting this week with Kenya, but I have been advised that it will be cheaper to wait and get them on arrival at the respective borders. I wanted to get them in advance so that I wasn’t the one person on the tour that everyone was waiting on. I’ve been assured though that most people will be getting their visas for Tanzania and Zambia in this …

The Great Firewall of China refers to the Chinese government’s censorship of the internet. Using techniques such as IP blocking, URL filtering, DNS blocking and redirection, and packet filtering the government prevents internet users within China from accessing content which they do not approve of. International news sites, such as the BBC, and sites which publicise China’s human rights abuses, such as Amnesty International, have been blocked for a long time. greatfirewallofchina.org maintains a list of sites curently blocked by the Great Firewall.
There are several ways in which The Great …

Getting from Glasgow to London is the start of my adventure. I’ve looked into all the usual suspects for making the journey cheaply; Ryanair, Easyjet, Virgin Trains and National Express. The train is usually my preferred option because once you take in transfer times from airports at either end, check in times etc it usually takes just as long as the train, but with the train you can actually be doing something for the five hours rather than waiting and queuing repeatedly. Unfortunately I no longer have a young person’s …