I woke up at 8am with a reasonable 8 hours of sleep behind me and no jet lag. Although I am a bit sleepy as I type this, it’s nothing like the jet lag I used to experience when I first started traveling. I find the best way to beat jet lag is to act…
Having a year to plan this trip, you would think I’d be organized but I wasn’t. Leaving on Thursday was hard—I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing, that I wasn’t ready to go. Leaving for my last trip was easier and more exciting. I had never been to Asia before or traveled continuously…
Today is the day! In a few hours I get on a plane in Chicago and fly to Seoul with a brief plane change in Tokyo. I will arrive in Seoul around 7am Friday cst. Of course, it will be time to go to bed there so I have to plan my plane sleeping well.…
I got my passport!!! I don’t know if I have ever been so happy to see a FedEx man in my life. Thanks for worrying along with me, we can all now let out a sigh of relief.
On Thursday I left a few messages with the Uzbekistan consulate in NYC about my passport. When I talk to an assistant I was told to call back at 5pm to speak with the man in charge of visas. When I called at 5pm I received voicemail again, but this time I had the visa…
With seven days to go I am still waiting on my passport. After phone tag with the Uzbek Consulate in NYC I have discovered that they are holding it hostage. One would assume that the processing time would be 5 days—which is normal—but the Uzbek Consulate asks for 10. Even with 10 days of processing,…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
With my departure date (June 8th) coming fast, I have started getting nervous about getting things in order. I have a two page list of things to do before I leave, but one thing I need to schedule is a vaccination appointment. Many of you may know that I’ve traveled extensively before phase 1 of…
In preperation for my trip I am overhauling this entire web site. Because I am in the middle of switching servers and publishing platforms (from Movable Type to Word Press) there will be a little downtime on the site. More than anything it may look a little strange as I work on getting the new…
I met two friends for dinner the other day. We met at a Starbucks to decide where we wanted to eat and I arrived late. My friends were sitting at a table with two chairs so I sat at the table next to them. It wasn’t until I was getting up to leave a few…
After much deliberation on dates, routes, visas, festival crowds and more I have booked my second flight–this one from Seoul to Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia. I will spend six days in Seoul, which is a bit more than I initially wanted. However, one extra day isn’t such a big deal and I can wander around town…
As you know, I’ve been planning my air travel and routing for a while now. Through all of my years of experience doing this sort of thing I’ve realized that the most logical route might not be the best. As I discussed in this post, I narrowed my options for getting to Mongolia to transit…
Pay attention, America. You’re breaking my heart. “There is no doubt that constitutional freedoms will never be abolished in one fell swoop, for the American people cherish their freedoms, and would not tolerate such a loss if they could perceive it. But the erosion of freedom rarely comes as an all-out frontal assault but rather…