As my first entry to my amazing blog, which will describe my adventures in Pakistan, I just want to share with you, what to think about before leaving to a foreign country for 1 year.

 

1. Visa

To arrange visa can be quite an interesting experience, if it takes very long. For me, the longest was the process of application, which took around 2 months. After that, I visited the nice Pakistani embassy twice and my visa was ready.

If you ever need to visit the Pakistani embassy, don't hesitate to ask me for directions and info.

Here is Klepo's description, but there is an easier way too, when you go to Oberdobling station. :)

 

2. Insurance

It is quite neccessary to arrange insurance for the whole trip, just to be on the safe spot. As I was researching the various travel insurances that we have in Slovakia, I came to the point, that it really does not matter what they offer (because they offer about the same) or how much it costs (it costs about the same), but its more about the reliability of the company. My insurance is with Allianz for 1 year and it cost me 5 406,- SKK. After I got this insurance, I cancelled my health insurance in Slovakia, which I recommend to everyone, who is leaving for longer period of time.

 

3. Vaccinations

My experience with the Department of foreign diseases (Oddelenie cudzokrajnych chorob) is not very positive, because the communication with them is very bad. I recommend to check what vaccinations you need online (it is cheaper) and see how many you can get with your own doctor (i could get all of them like that), which is again a lot cheaper. Be carefull about the prices and check them before (eg. I don't recommend to get vaccination for hepatitis A,B with Twinrix, as it is very expensive and you can get the same effect with separate vaccinations).

 

4. Tickets

To get the cheapest tickets, I always buy my tickets directly through the airline, because I don't have to pay the service fees for the providers (eg. letenky.sk, pelikan.sk and similar). A great website is http://www.momondo.com and the cheapest way to get to Pakistan is with SkyEurope to Istanbul and then with AirArabia to Karachi (alltogether around 200 - 250 EUR one-way)

 

5. Shopping

According to the advice that I got, I didn't do much shopping before (as the clothes there are supposed to be cheap :). The stuff that I for sure needed to buy was following:

 

• Souvenirs - alcohol, slovak flag, postcards, info materials and other random slovak-themed stuff ;)
• Medicines - list of neccessary medicines for travel here. (I don't know if I missed something, I will tell you later if so..)
• Other stuff - all the stuff you need for starters (for me it is toilet paper, cosmetics, sanitary equipment etc.)

 

6. Packing

My question now is, how to pack everything I need into 20 kg luggage. So what will I take? Probably:

- Clothes :)

- Shoes

- Notebook

- Few books (those about Pakistan)

- Random stuff like passport, money and glasses ;)

 

Oh and one last very very very important thing is to say goodbye to all the people you will miss. I had a farewell party today, which was nice and I was really happy for all the people that came to see me. Apart from that, I was meeting with my friends the whole last month and I can only say, when I think back, that the whole month was amazing. I will not name the people that I will miss, because for sure they know who they are. Many hugs to you all. :)