Things you always wanted to know; why do you do this and not that; and how it all came to fruition is what you can read on our ABOUT pages. Our previous trips, FAQ's and how to keep us on the road longer; all on the renewed ABOUT section.

page number 1: about Sonya and Aaldrik
page number 2: about this site
page number 3: about our preparations (you are here)
page number 4: about our previous trips
page number 5: about donating to us
page number 6: advertise on this site
page number 7: F.A.Q.

As you can imagine: before we can leave on such a long trip through so many countries, there's heaps to do!

- getting travel insurance, vaccinations, bank accounts, fax numbers, equipment;
- doing a bicycle maintenance course, first aid course, teach ourselves a bit of Spanish (never really did this
- one...), building and maintaining this website;
- organising a farewell party, selling our belongings, finding a home for our beautiful pussycat Lotje;
- and read up on all the visa requirements, rules and regulations, weather, and all the other stuff we'd like to
- know before we go.

The health section on this page will show you what we went through medically before we left on our trip and what happened while we were on the road; it also has a section about our insurance and why we never used it. The money section shows everything where money is involved, including our calculations of the amount needed on our 5 and a bit year round the world trip.

While travelling on a bike around the world, you are vulnerable to a lot of different things: traffic, climate, bureacracy, dogs and health issues. You can do something about the latter ones. By getting vaccinations beforehand, you can leave your home well prepared and that's one worry less !

What we did? After a consult with the local GGD (health care centre) in Arnhem, the Netherlands, we decided we needed the following vaccinations to keep us going for the first few years:

We have had some new jabs, see our Time Schedule below.

We'll have to be informed about the malaria risk around the world and take precausions by taking tablets with us. But so far ew haven't been in areas where we thought the risk was big enough to take tablets.

And next to all this, we've bought a water purifier, the Katadyn Pocket with a weight of 550 grams.
It filters 1 liter per minute and the element can filter up to 50,000 liters. It protects against bacteria, protozoa and chemicals in the water. After 50,000 litres, you can buy a new cartridge and start again.

HOSPITALISATION AND MEDICATION

As I said before, we haven't claimed anything on our insurance policy. Although Sonya has seen the inside of a hospital on several occasions, the price tag (if any) was always too low to bother the insurance company with.

We visited the local hospital in Pompei, Italy, after Son was bitten by a dog; the consultation and treatment (cleaning the wound and subscribing ointment) were free (according to the local practitioners there is no rabies in the Pompei area and so far they are right).

Sonya had her ankle x-rayed in Istanbul, Turkey; put in plaster (which later needed to be removed) and had to pay 30 euro, inclusive of the doctors advice (thanks to Seyfi for bartering the price down for the plaster!!). We then bought a set of crutches for 20 euro, which we later donated.

In Osh, Kyrgyzstan, we saw the doctor, the x-ray woman (who wanted a bribe, but didn't get one) and went for more plaster (this time Sonya's wrist) at the staggering cost of close to 3 euros...

In Agra, India, the hospitalisation of Sonya (when she got attacked by a violent sciatica) was free. Including all the x-rays (6) and time of the specialists that attended her (also six).
The MRI scan (in a private clinic) set us back € 80. But the ambulance ride to and from there was free...

We bought a lot of medicine over the counter in several cities in India and Nepal, mostly due to an upset stumach of Ali (giardia), but everything can be obtained without prescription and won't break the bank...

What we used so far and for what:
Tinidazole: against Giardia (Ali, Nepal)
Ciprofloxacine: antibiotic against diarrhea (both of us from Iran to Colombia)
Mebendazole: against worms...

Ali visited the local hospital in La Pintada, Colombia, after a fall. Consultation of the doctor cost 19,900 Pesos, roughly € 7. They didn't have an x-ray machine (only available on Saturday), so we couldn't find out if anything was broken in his arm or not, but so far...

OK, we need money to travel the planet, even on a bicycle. But how much? We need it for accommodation, food, water, the occasional boat trip, equipment, maintenance, we have to fly every now and again, for relaxation, going out, internet cafés, postal services and more...

After extensive reading we came up with the following:

BUDGET
According to us, we'll be needing an average of € 25,00 per day (July 2005 € 1,00 = approx. US$ 1,25). On average, because we think we'll be spending more in Europe, Japan and North America, and less in Asia, South America and Africa. So we've split up the world in 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries.

It doesn't look like a lot, but we're vegetarians, we don't smoke, we've got our own transport and sleeping facilities; we think we're able to do this on the budget mentioned above.

FLIGHTS
Flights between continents / countries will set us back the following amount of money (approx. October 2008):

VISA
We'll be needing all kinds of visa, especially to get through Asia. This comes with a price tag...
This is what it cost us so far (travelling on a Dutch passport):

NOTE: the cost of a visa depends on the passport you're carrying; it can make a lot of difference! US citizens for example pay US$ 100 for a Pakistani visa, whereas we paid US$ 36. German and French travelers don't pay to get in to Turkey, we paid € 10, Canadians pay € 45...
Check out our 'country information' pages for more details.

And how are we getting the money?

We worked! Hard, for a solid three years... and saved a hell of a lot of money during those years.
The plan was that we wouldn't have to work while on the road, but hey, that was the plan. We cheated a little bit and have build quite a few websites along the way so far ( www.sonali.tk - justifiable web design). Hopefully this will keep us going even longer !

We sold everything when we left the Netherlands; we won't be needing it anymore. We'll be traveling for five years and a bit and after that, we'll set up camp somewhere else, with other things. Time for a change, so to say.

We are carrying a bank card (debit card), American Express travelers cheques, a credit card and we'll use PayPal when necessary and possible.

If you would like to see us staying on the road even longer, than you can do so by donating money to us! Here's how it goes: click the button below and it will take you directly to our Paypal account. Give us whatever you think is necessary to let us live our dream. Thanks!

August 16, 2007 Money update

sonali.tk - justifiable web design keeps www.tour.tk going

Not only are we looking for possible sponsors / advertisers on our site, we work too!
Having acquired a taste for building websites in the Netherlands, we are now looking across borders as easily as we are crossing them ourselves. We think everybody should be able to own their own website if they want to, regardless of their wealth. That's what we call justifiable web design !Please visit our website at www.sonali.tk to see what we have done around the globe so far. And if you are interested in having your own website at a most competitive price, then get in touch with us at info@sonali.tk

A new year, new beginnings. After talking to several experts in the field, we have decided to give adverts another try. The site has got a major overhaul and looks even better than it did before... We have also decided to expand our other sites and try our luck with advertisement there too. Who knows, we might be able to stay on the road longer after all...

We have build our own shop with the use of Amazon: our bicycle touring and outdoor shop . Everything sold here pockets us a percentage. All the books mentioned on the site are for sale via Amazon. Same deal: a small percentage of the sale goes to us.

The GoogleAds give us revenue on a click-through basis.

December 2009 Money update

We are now selling our photographs on the web via a few stockphoto sites! It is a lot of work and we spent quite a few hours tapping away when we were in Santiago, but we now have about a hundred photos on 5 different sites. We first submitted to Shutterstock , and we are selling around 40 photos a month here. That gives us an extra income of around US$ 10 per month. Not that much, but once they're on, you don't have to do anything, just wait till the check comes in :-) We hope to put a lot more pictures on these sites soon, so we can increase our revenue. More stockphoto sites we like and use: Depositphotos , Dreamstime , 123RF & Bigstockphoto.