Welcome back Phase 1 subscribers!

It took me longer than expected to get the email notification working after Me-Go’s redesign, but it is finally back. If you received an email asking you to confirm your request it’s because you were on my previous list of subscribers. Now, of course, it’s possible that you didn’t want to hurt my feelings by unsubscribing last time and that’s okay. Only my immediate family is forbidden from unsubscribing (namely my little brother) so I won’t take it personally if you don’t respond to the confirmation email. Let’s just say that I will assume that you’ve changed email addresses or were eaten by wolves and aren’t deliberately trying to avoid me.

All of my new readers are welcome to subscribe as well. Basically, what it does is email you every time there’s a new post in this blog. As the Phase 1 subscribers know, sometimes on the road the blog can go a week or so without updates. There’s internet in most of the world, but I don’t think it’s reached the Gobi Desert yet! Personally, I prefer to subscribe to blogs, otherwise I will forget to check them. Of course, there is also a RSS feed on the bottom of the sidebar on the right hand side of this page as well for those of you who prefer RSS readers.

The subscription interface is located in the sidebar under the “extras” section. Or you can simply follow this link. You can also unsubscribe there as well. However, if you are in my immediate family and you unsubscribe I will just re-subscribe you, so don’t waste your time, Jason.

If you weren’t checking in because you had not received emails then you’ve missed a lot of the pre-trip planning going on for the fast few months. If that interests you check out the Pre-Trip Planning category on in the sidebar or look through the past few months of archives, also in the sidebar. The basic details are: I’m leaving next Thursday, June 8th and will spend six days in Seoul, South Korea before flying to Mongolia. I’ve worked out a rough route for visa and weather-planning purposes in this post.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my trip as much as I plan to.

I am a big Macintosh fan. My school didn’t use computers growing up and we were a PC household—my dad liked to build his own computers out of spare parts. When I began college I was exposed to the world of Apple Computer. Most people who know me probably think it was the bright design, but this was back before the iMac came out.

In any case, Macs have been my computer of choice for the last 11 years. When the iPod came out I was in love. It was well designed, matched my white iBook and was something coveted by PC users, but only available to Mac users! Now, of course, Apple makes iPods that work with PCs. My iPod is a 2nd generation model, manufactured in 2002, and it traveled with me all around Asia during phase 1.

Unfortunately, over the years the battery has worn down. At best, it held a charge for 10 hours, but now it’s closer to 2 hours. That’s not very long at all when I’m regularly faced with 24 hour train rides so I decided to replace the battery. Rather than go through Apple, I decided to do it myself for less than 1/3rd the price. Of course, with a device as old as mine there is no warranty to void so I popped off the back cover and got to work.

The inside of the iPod is not too scary, but getting the back off took a lot of work. In fact, even with the plastic pry tools provided I managed to draw blood. But what’s a little blood and sweat between me and my iPod? The new battery only charged half way overnight and I was worried that going through a third party dealer was a bad idea. After a frantic email to customer support I realized that my outlet was too overloaded and moved it to it’s own outlet—apparently my iPod is a primadonna, but I guess I would be too if I was that pretty.

Right now it’s playing Sufjan Stevens in an attempt to test the battery life. The battery manufacturer promises to double the life of the original battery, possibly up to 20 hours. If this holds true I will be one happy traveler.

On Monday I went to Germbusters, my friendly neighborhood clinic for travel vaccinations and infectious diseases. I really just wanted my Typhoid shot because it had been two years since my last one. Of course, I was prepared for the Typhoid shot, plus the consultation and injection fees—which should have been around $100. However, I was persuaded to get the meningitis and MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccinations as well. There was recently an outbreak of mumps in the Midwest United States and it was soon clear that those of us that only got one shot as children required a booster. I was required to have a meningitis vaccination before starting college, but that was over ten years ago! I was due.

Interestingly, the one shot I went in for turned out not to be a shot at all. Typhoid can still be administered as a shot, but it is also now available in a series of four pills to be taken at home. I opted for the pills, because they are the same price as the shot, but without the additional injection fee. At the end of my appointment I walked out $260 poorer with two sore arms, a fistful of prescriptions and a cooled live typhoid vaccine in my bag.

If you are looking to vaccinate yourself for an upcoming trip be sure to shop around at a few clinics, as prices can vary greatly. Here’s the breakdown:

$56 Typhoid, oral
$89 Meningococcal
$55 MMR-II
$35 Office visit
$25 Injection fee (2 shots)

Two days after getting my passport back from the Chinese Consulate in Chicago I sent it off to the Uzbek Consulate in NYC. Over a week has passed now and I am crossing my fingers that it will not only return with a 30-day Uzbek visa, but that it will return in time for my flight to South Korea. I didn’t planned for the extra six days my passport was held at the Chinese Consulate because of the May Day holiday (the U.S. doesn’t really celebrate May Day) so I’m cutting it a bit short.

Most of you have no idea how much research went into visas for Central Asia alone. With the help of David at Stan Tours I decided to try my luck at an Uzbek visa in the U.S. Apparently, I can get the visa in Bishkek, Kyrgzstan, but it might take a week and require a LOI (letter of invitation). LOI’s are a holdover from the days when Uzbekistan was part of the USSR. When it became it’s own country Uzbekistan (and it’s ’stan neighbors) kept the bureaucracy and red tape that Russia is know for to this day. The silly thing about this particular piece of red tape is that a LOI can be easily issued to anyone who wants one—through a regional travel agent for $25-40. So, like usual, it’s all about money. Considering the Uzbek visa already starts at $100 (less for non-Americans), a budget backpacker can spend a lot before even entering a country in Central Asia.

The entrance cost, red tape and inflated lodging costs are why backpackers are still less likely to be seen in the ’stans than oil executives. I’m sure this will gradually change (Kyrgzstan now offers visas on arrival at the airport), but it won’t be a Thailand any time soon. Turkmenistan still requires a fully guided tour to get more than a seven day transit visa and my entrance to Tajikistan will require a visa, LOI, GBAO travel permit and police registration.

Even with all of the research I did on Central Asian visas online and in books, I was never certain I had the correct information. My doubts we confirmed when I realized that every visa issuing office has different policies. The Uzbek consulate in NYC has different rules than the embassy in DC, and even different rules than the embassy in Kyrgzstan. In addition, the rules are different for every nationality and seemingly change depending on the whim of the issuing agent. After a week of phone calls to the Washington Embassy I got a hold of a man who confirmed that I didn’t need a LOI. His answer to my question about visa lengths was met with a series of questions about why I was going, what cities I wanted to see and if I was an independent tourist. The answer was an uncertain “I suppose that would be alright.” So I suppose all I can do is sit back and wait to see if it’s still alright the day my application comes up for consideration.

I haven’t written much about what’s been going on in my life besides the planning of this trip. One thing in particular has taken a lot of time away from my preparations—fashion design. I started taking classes at a local college a few years ago while working full time. My main goal was to learn how to draft patterns for myself and my Halloween costumes. Since I was home in-between phase 1 and 2, I decided to make good use of my time and take the more advanced level of patternmaking and construction classes. I would have loved to continue on this semester to tailoring or the senior-level patternmaking classes but they weren’t offered. Instead, I took textile design and wearable art classes.

The classes were very time consuming, which was partly my fault. For my final project I decided to make a dress out of rawhide. I was shopping at the local leather warehouse and found a bin of scrap rawhide pieces. I bought about 12 lbs. of scraps and dyed each piece with homemade dyes—blueberry, red cabbage, onion, beets, coffee etc. For a long time my refridgerator was full of tubs of dye.

After months with a utility knife, awl and a 20 ft. roll of artifical sinew I had a full length rawhide dress. It’s incredibly uncomfortable, but it’s ‘wearable art’ so that’s okay. The school recently had a fashion show for the students and my dress was worn by a fellow design student whom it fit perfectly. She didn’t complain once about the scratchy material or when she almost fell over trying to get into it. The dress was also featured in today’s Daily Herald ‘Neighborhood’ section.

Now that classes have wrapped up I will no longer be distracted by fashion or textiles and can dedicate all of my time to final trip preparations.

The other day someone reminded me that I am leaving for this trip in one month. One month! Sometimes I forget, and it’s scary because I haven’t been able to find either of the two ‘to-do’ lists I’ve made. But I have made a lot of appointments this week—for immunizations, a haircut and the USO tour to the South/North Korea DMZ. Yesterday I drove into Chicago to pick up my Chinese visa. Unlike when I dropped it off, I got there right after the office opened. Surprisingly, there was already almost 50 people in line to drop off applications and only 3 to pick up visas. The lovely people at the consulate granted me a double entry visa with 60 days per entry. And I can enter as late as November 4th! Evidently finger math does work.

This goes to show you that it can’t hurt to ask for what you want when it comes to applying for visas, especially at the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. This is the second time I have been given more than the standard issue 30-day visa, which can be hard to get depending on who you are and where you’re applying. Still, it never hurts to smile and say “thank you” in Mandarin. Now that I have my passport back I’m going to FedEx it to the Uzbek Consulate in New York and cross my fingers.

Generally speaking, I am always in a state of pre-planning. As soon as I knew I was coming home from Bangkok I made of list of things I should buy there. It included things like jeans, t-shirts and a backpack cover for my next trip. When I got home, I subconsciously analyzed every purchase I made to determine how it would fit into my upcoming trip. I can’t tell you how many pairs of shoes I passed on, knowing that I would just have to pack them up when I leave. I even passed up shoes that were on sale! I bought a hat and a pair of pants for my trip sometime last summer. I was scouring the sales flyers for a few months before finding the coat I will take with me for half price. I’ve stepped up my search for shoes and shirts in the past two months and am still on my quest for the perfect day bag. I’m on the edge of the realization that I will have to settle for the closest thing and then customize it myself. I would say there are three contenders still in the running.

You may wonder why I’m buying new things when I had everything I needed for phase 1. My clothes held up admirably, after being worn every day, not being washed for weeks and then being washed against rocks in the Mekong river in Laos. Unlike some ‘backpackers’ I feel very strongly that you should start out with good fitting, well made clothes and I want to start fresh. I also learned a few new things—like even though nylon pants pack small and dry in minutes, they still give me heat rashes. I also learned that, despite my naïve optimism, adding velcro to button down shirts isn’t enough to keep my chest corralled. I now know to add reinforced snaps in-between the buttons instead. I also found that my day bag was a bit small at times—hence my current search for the perfect day bag.

My current commitments are winding down—my textile design/wearable art class finishes up next week as well as my weekly babysitting commitment. This will give me the extra time I need to insure myself and my property, buy a new camera, construct the perfect day bag, add zippers to my all of my pockets, dye my hair brown, pack up all of my worldly belongings—you know, the usual stuff.

Although I toyed with switching gallery management software to either Zen Photo, Pixel Post, Gallery or Simple Viewer, I ended up finding exactly what I needed in an updated version of what I was using before—Photostack.

Photostack now supports nested galleries, so the gallery is now organized by country and then by city. The move has highlighted some navigation issues, which I hope to fix as soon as I get the descriptions up! If you are a veteran reader you will notice that there is no new content in the gallery—you’ll have to wait until I get to South Korea for your next fix.

So much time and effort has gone into my visa planning, particularly for Central Asia, that I’m surprised it’s finally time to start applying for them. Thankfully, the first two countries I am visiting—South Korea and Mongolia—give US citizens free visas on arrival. China isn’t quite so easy, and because I will pass through it on my way from Mongolia to Kyrgzstan and then again from Kyrgzstan to Tibet I need either a double entry visa or two single entry visas. Most countries issue 30-day single entry visas and anything else requires more money and information. I could certainly get a single entry visa here, at the Chinese consulate in Chicago, and then another visa somewhere in Central Asia. Technically, I could get my first Chinese visa in Mongolia, but all of these scenarios are risky. There’s the risk that the embassy won’t be open, the risk that I will have trouble applying (or even be denied) if I don’t speak enough Chinese or Russian and the risk that I won’t have enough US cash to pay. Ultimately, if I can get all of my Chinese visa needs met before I leave I will be better off.

I drove down to the consulate last Thursday to drop off my application. Because I am stubborn when it comes to parking, I drove around the River North area for 15 minutes looking for a meter. Somewhere in there I ended up back on the expressway through a combination of being in the wrong lane and one way street restrictions. After doubling back into the city I decided to bite the bullet and pay for the garage. The confusion was not over, as I wandered around Erie Street trying to find the embassy. I knew the office had moved a long time ago, and I thought that the last time I was there in 2004 I was at the new building. For 10 minutes I was walking back and forth on Erie looking for a two story building on the North side of the street when the actual office was in a high rise on the South side.

Finally, I arrived on the 5th floor and began my long wait behind 30 other applicants. The consulate is only open from 9-12 & 1-2:30 during the week. I arrived about 1:10 and made friends with the two Chinese born Americans behind me in line. They both had postage paid return envelopes for their passports, which I didn’t know was allowed. In my experience, visa application processes in most countries are vague at best. The questions on the applications aren’t always clear and the instructions on websites are purposely vague. The Chinese consulate’s website main visa information does not mention the mail back option and even goes as far as to say that I am not eligible for a double entry tourist visa:

To apply for a Multiple Entry (L) Visa, the applicant shall meet the following requirements:

(1) The applicant is the husband/wife, or son/daughter, or parent of a Chinese citizen, who shall submit proof of relationship, e.g. the original and the photocopy of a marriage certificate, a notary certificate of kinship etc., or an invitation letter from his/her family in China; or,

(2) The applicant owns real estate in China, who shall submit the original and a photocopy of the property ownership certificate.

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