Journey Begins

My prediction has been confirmed!! Now Portugal will see Spain in the round of 16. And what is the best news? I get to see them LIVE!!!! InsyaAllah..

Currently logging in from KLIA. We already get the boarding pass KL-Dubai, then Dubai - Cape Town. Can't belive that I am actually on my way :) Still a bit nervous as I am not in the stadium watching the game yet.

Game 56 : Round of 16 is 1H (Spain) vs 2G ( Portugal)
Venue : Green Point Stadium, Cape Town
Time : 1630 H 29th June 2010 (Local time) or 0230H 30th June 2010 (Malaysian time) a.k.a my ~birthday!!! what a day..what a day to be ;)

Jabs update

Previuosly a friend told me to get jaundice jap for people going to Africa. I went to see my doctor to ask for what else do I need to get (vaccination). First the dr said yup I have to get jaundice shot, but since its not a stock items and normally clinics do no have it, I must go to KL to get it and supposed to be done 10 days before...(alamak..dah lepas dateline la...) But she said I have to get it anyway. She did not even have to clinic's name that supposedly have the shot.

So dengan tak puas hati I went to second Dr, this one lagi best, he said I don't have to take any shots...(really??) Apparently he told me that he and his family went to South Africa already and they were not required to take any jap. South Africa is still OK, but if you are planning to go to other parts (Kenya,Nigeria,etc.) you may want to check. So the only thing that he offers me is the H1N1...

Haish...macam-macam kan? Nak travel baru tau sume benda ni ;p

Freak Out!!!

I am freaking out right now. Many things to be done, yet I have settled none yet. Listing down:

1. Buy backpack, crocs,meds
2. Packing kat PD
3. Get shots (jaundice and malaria)
4. Charge battery camera
5. Bwk balik Sony Camera
6. Beli kompas kiblat
7. Settle (at least try to) my work!!
8. Put OOO note (out of office)
9. Print out waktu solat for Cape Town
10. Travel insurance!!!!
11. Pay my installment (car, home, CC, etc...)
12. Create hard copy folder for all info (waktu solat, itenary, ticket confirmation, etc..etc)

What else? Am getting cold feet...countdown 5 more days....

Confirmation pix!!!

As requested by Dieya ;)

Tickets Physically Confirmed!!

I went back KL last weekend, and my sis said I got a letter from Sweden. I was like ?? I don't have friends in Europe, (as if I exchange letter with any people living in Europe)..hahaha...

So I opened it, yeay!!!! its my physical confirmation to enter South Africa for the reason to watch World Cup!!!! The security level was so high that the confirmation slip even have my name printed on the bottom line (the same kind of line at RM 50 , the little shiny ones with RM50 printed on..) For money its a mass production OK la... but this is individually printed with my name ;) Will update the pics later. Hhhooooorrrraaaayyyyyy!!!!!!

Not Needed

This is maybe an old news, but at least confirms that I do not need a visa to go to Cape Town ;)

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/bm/news_lite.php?id=419978

Yeay!!!!

Its either 50-50 or total 0!!

Oh.. I forgot to mention, updated game schedule says that I have a good shot of seeing either Spain or Portugal in the round of 16!! I may also not get to watch them, depends on their position in group stage.

Portugal in group G, Spain in group H. I will be watching Match 56, which states 1H vs 2G. So winner of group H versus the second place of group G. The other criss-cross match will be played a day earlier in Johannesburg (1G vs 2H). So maybe both of them will play there instead, I don't know. But the point here is only one of those (Spain and Portugal) is going to move past Round of 16!!. This is due to the group standings and by chance(really??) they are positioned so. This is not fair!! Or maybe my understanding is wrong? I don't know...

We shall see ...... ;)

Planning Kicks Off!!

Last Friday and Saturday, I met with Ija and we have kicked off our planning stage. I did some reasearch before on places to go etc, but that is just a brief list. What we did on Sat was to detail out the itenary, plus the sequence of events (cheewah..macam nak plan Turn Around pulak...hehehe...)

We managed to complete 50% of the itenary plan. There are still lots of things to do. Just so that I would not missed anything, let me list it down here:

1.Flight tickets - checked
2.Accomodation - Confirmed with Zebra Crossing Backpackers, checked
3.Airport shuffle - checked
4.Visa - last I checked, no visa needed to enter South Africa, will double check and confirmed
5.Enrol for Travel Insurance - not done yet
6.Detail itenary - halfway done
7.Contact the places to go (if at all reservation needed) - will follow after the itenary completed
8.List of stuffs to bring - clothes, meds, memory cards, camera(s), sleeping bags?

What else...what else...I'll add on later. (*v*) V

Travel Insurance

This is the first time ever I am planning my own trip. Hence, I did more research compared to those other time. Its now confirmed that I am going to Cape Town, South Africa. Few people raised their concern wrt safety of the venue. I know people are skeptical when it comes to African country. Well, I have my doubts too, when I first went to Phillipines, but I went there with colleague and on business trip, so the concern is not really there.

After going there, I think most of these things are the fear for the unknown, and therefore this time am going to persuade Ija to take any of the travel insurance available to our case. We have to be prepared, better safe than sorry. I have looked at HSBC, still looking at other insurance provider. Will discuss with Ija on which one to take.

Why do we need insurance during travelling? Read HERE

Tickets Confirmed!!

We have been doing research for air tickets since last year, and that time flight schedule is not out yet. Typical ticket price to Cape Town in the range of RM 6K to 11K, depending on which airline we pick. Since we are travelling using our OWN money, the cheaper the better. So I thought of waiting for at least MAS travelfair to score a great deal. It was in Feb, little did I know the travel period for the whole month of June is a blackout period, which means to discount, no bargain and no offer, which translate to normal price!!!

So we waited for MATTA fair which was last 2 weekends. And to my horror suprise, South Africa is not one of the targeted destination. Not even one booth that I saw have travel tour to South Africa. The ticket price for all airlines have no promotion for South Africa, what the ****? One of the biggest event will be going on in June, and yet nobody in Malaysia is interested to go?

I know that Malaysians like to go to more 'popular' sites, Europe, Australia etc...but this a world class event!! Come on people!!

So at last Ija and I decided to purchase return ticket from Emirates. We are scheduled to depart on 27th June and coming back on 6th July. That is a long break ;) Ticket price is RM 5151. This is considered quite cheap. We have to transit in Dubai, so total one way journey is almost ~20 hrs.

Update : Shaz pulled out due to personal reason. So just me in Ija in 'Escape to Africa'!!

What kind of a fan am I?

Obviously not a good one. Only now that I thought of checking whether or not Portugal made it to finals in SA!! Seriously ketinggalan zaman. Am glad that they are in, but they are in tough group I might say.

Portugal is in Group G, which stand Brazil, North Korea and Ivory Coast. Man, these are tough opponents. Spain looks in better position with Chile,Honduras and Switzerland in the same group. The other group seems to be evenly balanced on the weak and strong side, but for Group G, I foresee that C.Ronaldo will have to go head to head with mean looking Drogba and they really have to outplay Brazil by miles to go through the next round. North Korea, although I don't really know the team and how they perform, I think given from the country background, would expect nothing less than a good fight from them.

Portugal really have to step up their game to survive the qualifying rounds. 151 days more to go!!!