Mission Countdown....
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Coventry,
United Kingdom
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Well, today we had 3 more injections. Japenese Kekkyphonilitis, Rabies and Hep B which all went fine thankfully. We've already had Hep A, Typhoid, Yellow Fever pumped into us which was a disaster in so far as we couldn't move our arms for 3 days afterwards! We were like extras from Shaun of the Dead!
Now I am sitting at my computer with reams and reams of plastic wallets, visa application forms, India train timetables, Packing suggestion lists, Foreign and Commonwealth Office information sheets, TravelPod Forum open, my diary........David is downstairs building our kitchen in our building-site of-a-house which is almost finished completion - hooorah! He's done all the plumbing, electrics, plasterboarding, fitting of units, everything while I have been designated as Honeymoon Organiser and Planner. Not sure who's got the best deal here.......my highlighter pen is steaming and the printer is on Fast Draft!
We finally booked the honeymoon last week with Trailfinders who I can thoroughly recommend. Their staff are so friendly and efficient and helpful and their website is brilliant enabling you to download visa application forms for Trailfinders to process on your behalf, their telephone visa helpline (and you talk to a REAL human being! woohoo!) is excellent and you can log in and check your booking at any time.
I have made my first travelling mistake! and we haven't left the country yet. I am a naturally friendly person and will chat to anyone at any time! so I thought it was amazing that a man from Mumbai was being so incredibly friendly on a travel forum in recommending hotels and sights and his country to us. I was very excited at meeting such warm people while we are away. That is until he invited himself to our wedding in Northern Cyprus and kept repeating "if I do good work you put me up in nice hotel yes? hahaha". On the 3rd "hahaha put me up in nice hotel" request, I immediately blocked him from my emails since he initially said to me "I charge nothing for advice on hotel, I just love my country". I checked him out via google and he seems quite respectable - Director of his own company but just made me feel bit uneasy. So, I will have to learn to Curb My Enthusiasm for people just a bit while we are travelling or I may get us into sharky waters!
Getting these visas and organising everything to go, even though is hard work, is actually really interesting. In a nutshell, we are leaving UK for Northern Cyprus in May but going via Istanbul for one night so we don't have to fly with Turkish-Cypriot Airways (we'd rather eat our eyeballs fried in batter quite frankly), then after the wedding in June we will return to Istanbul for 3 days to sightsee, fly to Mumbai and travel round india for approx 5 weeks, then fly to Hong Kong for 3 days then fly to Beijing for 2 months of travelling overland from Beijing down to Singapre via Shangai, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam etc then fly to Australia for 5 weeks, then fly to New Zealand for 4 weeks then fly to South America (Santiago, Buenos Aires, San Paulo, Lima etc) for 4 weeks, then our final trip will be LA and Canada then home!!!!! Some of these countries are no problem at all for visas but some are just proving a right headache to try and work out where to get them, when to get them to fit in with our schedule and why to get them!! I really feel like I am doing a degree course in International Studies!
As well as all this of course, we are also planning our wedding..actually most of it is done thanks to my obsessive compulsive wedding lever arch file WITH sections and of course our wedding planner in Cyprus which we need for legal help. There is no panic at all, everything has been very straightforward and stress free. Phew! but nevertheless there are still things to sort out...like Music! "NO! darling! I am NOT walking down the aisle to the music of Star Wars!!" (that's a complete fabrication for comedy value!!!)
AND we are also at the same time finalising parts of my late father's estate, signing papers and organising certain items to be had etc.
Let's just say, David and I don't things by half so now you get a real idea of what these blogs will be about: Humour, Chaos, Adventure and definitely a good read, come back often and carry on the laughter at our expense!
Bye for now
xx
