Can't believe there's two weeks left scrambling with the last visa for china and can FINALLY start thinking about packing :)
Stay tuned
Saturday, 28 July 2012
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Panic! Visa Time!!!
Well it has indeed been a while hasn't it. Finally we have plane tickets and our letters of invitation for Russia, Mongolia and China. So with 32 days to go off we trek to the consulate with a whopping great visa fee PER visa, many an appliation form, photos and our beloved passports.
Cannot express enough the anger related to timing on this....travel agents can be seriously hopeless.
6 months ago-Me "Do we need to do anything else to finalise our visas??"
Agent "No all taken care of your paperwork will be with you 45 days prior to departure"
4 weeks to go- Agent Emails us "here you are girls, here are your LOI's now all you need to do is fork out another $300+ dollars for all three VISA applications, fill out the form make sure you have passport photos for each one and make sure you mail them off to the consulates ASAP because they take 2 weeks to process per VISA."
Ummmmm ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!? Oh the profanities!!!!!! Talk about a panic attack.....Aimees frantic call to the consulates reveals it should only take 4 days per VISA, still ridiculous considering we were told don't worry!! At least we were able to calm down :/
Following my earlier post about 10kg limit..... *sigh* had to scrap it when I was informed its only 7kg! Still trying to work out a packing list in my brain and deciding which camera lense I can do without.... :(
All 3 of us are scrambling to get our funds in order at the moment especially considering during our entire trip we change currency no less than 8 times!!! Travellers cheques for me I think and American Dollars to exchange.
Was very excited when I realised I have 4 weeks paid leave accrued :D very very pleased considering all my cash seems to be floating off elsewhere at the moment. Still trying to work out a daily cash budget otherwise I'll be broke before Beijing (mental note for excellent Blog post title should this occur). Debating the great laptop question...... do I take one or do I just use my phone?? what about photo uploads, goodness knows that I won't have room on my memory cards.....new camera BTW sony a55 my new baby and dirt cheap from eBay in tippy top condition :)
ah well that's enough from me.....until next time
Cannot express enough the anger related to timing on this....travel agents can be seriously hopeless.
6 months ago-Me "Do we need to do anything else to finalise our visas??"
Agent "No all taken care of your paperwork will be with you 45 days prior to departure"
4 weeks to go- Agent Emails us "here you are girls, here are your LOI's now all you need to do is fork out another $300+ dollars for all three VISA applications, fill out the form make sure you have passport photos for each one and make sure you mail them off to the consulates ASAP because they take 2 weeks to process per VISA."
Ummmmm ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!? Oh the profanities!!!!!! Talk about a panic attack.....Aimees frantic call to the consulates reveals it should only take 4 days per VISA, still ridiculous considering we were told don't worry!! At least we were able to calm down :/
Following my earlier post about 10kg limit..... *sigh* had to scrap it when I was informed its only 7kg! Still trying to work out a packing list in my brain and deciding which camera lense I can do without.... :(
All 3 of us are scrambling to get our funds in order at the moment especially considering during our entire trip we change currency no less than 8 times!!! Travellers cheques for me I think and American Dollars to exchange.
Was very excited when I realised I have 4 weeks paid leave accrued :D very very pleased considering all my cash seems to be floating off elsewhere at the moment. Still trying to work out a daily cash budget otherwise I'll be broke before Beijing (mental note for excellent Blog post title should this occur). Debating the great laptop question...... do I take one or do I just use my phone?? what about photo uploads, goodness knows that I won't have room on my memory cards.....new camera BTW sony a55 my new baby and dirt cheap from eBay in tippy top condition :)
ah well that's enough from me.....until next time
Friday, 15 June 2012
Let the countdown begin...
So here we are with 55 days left until take off.....a 10 week adventure will begin. One where three best friends can either bond like superglue on fingers or fall apart like a biccy that's been in the tea too long.
The planning is somewhat complete, schedule sort of set and the money paid (mostly).....so where exactly is our intrepid trio off to???
Kazakhstan - Almaty and Astana
China - Beijing
Mongolia - Ulaanbator and surrounds
Siberia - Who Knows!
Russia - Moscow and St Petersburg
Finland - Helsinki
and of course Scotland, up around the Tulibody sector and if I'm feeling even more intrepid I shall make my own jolly way up to John O'Groats the tippy top of Scotland.
The trio includes myself Jen, Bec and Aimee......they are the resilient bookends in my life <3
Of course being the smarty pants that we are we leave the most obvious trip tasks to last like choosing travel insurance and instead taking MONTHS to consider the most important thing about any holiday...what do you pack?!?! I'm being very methodical about this and attemptng to abide by the rule, less is more which will probably mean I'll be asking the girls for bits and pieces becase I didn't feel during packing that something was worthy of the nod of approval.
Having already gone to the extreme of completely packing my brand new Kathmandu 50L backpack with EVERYTHING I was going take 6 months in advance totalling 10kgs....YES!!!!! I'm so practical........ however regarding the idea of 'clothes sharing' I have been recieving negative feedback regarding my neutral colour palette of clothing. Whats wrong with everything goes with everything??? So what if I look like some kind of Rockstar-Treehugger with my Joan Jett inspired haircut at least I will never run out of options.
I failed to mention my overall plan..... I am determined to have my backpack fly over in hand luggage with me (hence the 10kg limit)...and yes I WILL succeed otherwise I owe you all an ice-cream :)
Though I definately don't expect to have it fly back in overhead luggage, my determination is purely based on a drive to prove that I can do it.
I think I will be a little bit more reliable in blogging than actually writing in a diary when it comes to travel based on the fact that on my first attempt at 9 years old in the US I distinctly remember my mum asking me my thoughts so that she could write my travel diary for me, though I did draw some wicked pictures of boarding passes ;)
On my second attempt when I travelled to France I managed to complete a few days worth and then quickly resorted to buying 1000's of postcards to show everywhere I have been, which are still happily snug in a box somewhere. Hmmm it just dawned on me that they may have been the cause of my lack of funds halfway through the trip :/ cheers dad!!!!!
Ah well this was only meant to be a blurb and now it's turned into a novel, clearly I'm keen on the ease of blogging.
Updates soon...CHAO!!!!
xo
The planning is somewhat complete, schedule sort of set and the money paid (mostly).....so where exactly is our intrepid trio off to???
Kazakhstan - Almaty and Astana
China - Beijing
Mongolia - Ulaanbator and surrounds
Siberia - Who Knows!
Russia - Moscow and St Petersburg
Finland - Helsinki
and of course Scotland, up around the Tulibody sector and if I'm feeling even more intrepid I shall make my own jolly way up to John O'Groats the tippy top of Scotland.
The trio includes myself Jen, Bec and Aimee......they are the resilient bookends in my life <3
Of course being the smarty pants that we are we leave the most obvious trip tasks to last like choosing travel insurance and instead taking MONTHS to consider the most important thing about any holiday...what do you pack?!?! I'm being very methodical about this and attemptng to abide by the rule, less is more which will probably mean I'll be asking the girls for bits and pieces becase I didn't feel during packing that something was worthy of the nod of approval.
Having already gone to the extreme of completely packing my brand new Kathmandu 50L backpack with EVERYTHING I was going take 6 months in advance totalling 10kgs....YES!!!!! I'm so practical........ however regarding the idea of 'clothes sharing' I have been recieving negative feedback regarding my neutral colour palette of clothing. Whats wrong with everything goes with everything??? So what if I look like some kind of Rockstar-Treehugger with my Joan Jett inspired haircut at least I will never run out of options.
I failed to mention my overall plan..... I am determined to have my backpack fly over in hand luggage with me (hence the 10kg limit)...and yes I WILL succeed otherwise I owe you all an ice-cream :)
Though I definately don't expect to have it fly back in overhead luggage, my determination is purely based on a drive to prove that I can do it.
I think I will be a little bit more reliable in blogging than actually writing in a diary when it comes to travel based on the fact that on my first attempt at 9 years old in the US I distinctly remember my mum asking me my thoughts so that she could write my travel diary for me, though I did draw some wicked pictures of boarding passes ;)
On my second attempt when I travelled to France I managed to complete a few days worth and then quickly resorted to buying 1000's of postcards to show everywhere I have been, which are still happily snug in a box somewhere. Hmmm it just dawned on me that they may have been the cause of my lack of funds halfway through the trip :/ cheers dad!!!!!
Ah well this was only meant to be a blurb and now it's turned into a novel, clearly I'm keen on the ease of blogging.
Updates soon...CHAO!!!!
xo
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