| mimihops12:31 UTC21 Jan 2008 | Hi,
my husband and I are new to freighter travelling, and wanted to inquire about a few things before actually contacting several companies offering those journeys.
Our idea is to fly out to South East Asia and travel around a couple of countries (Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, ), and then on the way back take a ship. Therefore for the starting point of the journey would be better to leave from Singapore or Malaysia. As for the destination, it would probably be best if we could get off the ship somewhere in Italy (Genoa, La Spezia) as this is fairly close to Austria (our home country).
So here are some questions:
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are we assuming correctly that this will take somewhere around 20 days typically?
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how long in advance do you think we would have to book it if we planned to take the ship beginning or mid of January 2009?
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how does it normally work with payments? Do you have to pay it all up in advance, or do you make a deposit first when you book it and then pay just before you embark?
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has anyone done that particular route already, and if so what were your experiences?
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any companies/ships that you can particularly recommend, or some that you would avoid (maybe also naming the reasons)
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if you take a cargo ship that spends 2-3 days in a certain port, how does it usually work? Do you during the day leave the ship, go sightseeing, then come back in the evening to sleep on the ship? Anything in particular that you should know about, be careful about (heard something that sometimes thieves come aboard ships?)?
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does everyone normally need some sort of medical certificate, or is that only for older people (we are 33 and 31 btw)
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anything else worth know about that we didnt ask? (like I said, we are really new to this, and have only just started researching)
Thanks in advance for your help
Shaista & Björn
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