Me-go: Around-the-World

Preparations for Phase 2 have been coming along. I still haven’t confirmed my route for the first few months but I have ruled out a lot. Surprisingly, airfare to Beijing is cheapest directly from the airlines’ websites. Beijing, rather than Seoul, appears to be the cheapest place to fly into to get to Mongolia. I could book a train ticket from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, which takes something like 36 hours–including border formalities and switching the train wheels to a different gauge. I thought this train ticket would be under $50 but it looks like it may cost more like $100. Considering the flight from Beijing to UB is $350 it might not make enough sense to go to the trouble of getting into Beijing, buying a ticket and?sorting everything out. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind seeing The Summer Palace again and it may be cheaper to pick up some visas in Beijing?rather than sending my?passport to Washington.

Speaking of my passport, it expires in 2007 and I need six months of validity to enter most countries. I sent it away for a replacement earlier this week. Hopefully it will return to me in a timely manner because I need to apply for visas before I leave. I have been?trying to figure out what visas I need in advance besides China and where I can get them the fastest, cheapest and with least amount of extra paperwork. Americans often pay more for visas than every other nationality because the U.S. charges so much to enter this country. But sometimes it’s cheaper to apply for visas outside the U.S., for instance I got my Cambodian visa in Vietnam and Myanmar visa when I was in Thailand.?

I’ve also been watching the post-holiday sales for a few things I need like silk pajama pants (they fold up really small), and a jacket. This trip is going to be a bit tougher on my back than Phase 1 since I’m going to more climates and need to carry more clothes. I will be traveling through 14,000 foot mountain passes and spending time in Tibet and Nepal so I?definitely need a coat this time. A lot of people insist that the best packing technique is to buy everything for cheap in Asia. But in my experience nothing fits me in Asia and fake stuff falls apart within weeks so I’m?going to pay the extra money to be comfortable and prepared. The jacket I bought has two jackets that zip together, hidden pockets to hide money from Maost rebels in Nepal and an obnoxiously large hood–all for 50% off! It should protect me against the elements as well as all of the bodily fluids that one usually encounters on a Chinese bus (I can think of at least five!).