Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Visa Numero Uno

Our trip to London last week concluded with us successfully securing our first visa! We can safely enter and exit Mongolia during the months of May, June and July should we so choose!

It was all very straightforward with only the small hurdle of a taciturn and disdainful Monoglian civil servant to be cleared. We were in and out with visas in place within two hours. It was an extra £20 well spent if you ask me! We could have left our passports there and saved the £20 but we were on a tight deadline as we had to fly home again and didn't want to risk being stranded without passports in London. We could also have elected to apply by post but we were heading to London anyway so it seemed as easy to just go and do it in person.

I was due to apply for Russian and Chinese visas this week but have been struck down by something yucky in my tummy. However if I improve I might get one of them sorted towards the end of the week, and the other one can wait til next week.

We have also booked and paid for our round the world tickets with Trailfinders in Cork and they were full of helpful advice and joie de vivre! It was an easy way to spend a lot of money!

Details of the intinerary will follow but I'm loathe to say too much at the moment in case I jinx myself again...

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Plans are afoot

Well the bad news (if you want to look at it that way) is that we will be Ireland bound for another few weeks. But the good news is that things are beginning to move for us and there is an end in sight!

We should be leaving these fair shores (once again) towards the end of the month and in the meantime it is my job to "organise us".

By the time we leave this time we will have a fully planned itinerary, visas and plane tickets!

We had previously planned to organise on the road as we were travelling in Europe for so long and the visas that we needed would have expired before we got to use them! So now the plan is to spend less time in Europe and we should be in Russia in early to mid May! I'm very excited....

We can organise visas for Russia and China here in Dublin and even get them processed in 24 hours by paying extra and the Mongolian visa can be expressed through the London consulate.

I'm feeling much calmer and more in control of the whole process now. So wish me luck as we try to get this show back on the road!