Long time...

Wow! It's been a while since I've updated this blog. China trip was great, but so long time ago. Since then, we went to Spain, Vietnam, Mexico, England and some new places in the US. It's been really hard to make time for more trips as dancing takes up majority of our free time and money. I was not updating my photos much either even though each trip was photographed to infinity. I might at some point go through all the photos and organize them into a nice looking page. For now, we're still selecting when and where to go...

My photo for schools in Bangladesh

One of my photos has been selected for an exhibition! The exhibition is organized by My Favorite Travel Photo in Melbourne arts space, Dante's Upstairs Gallery and will be held on September 7. The photos from the exhibition will be auctioned to raise money to build schools in Bangladesh.

The most exciting part for me is that one of the judges was Richard I'Anson who is a photographer for Lonely Planet. He also wrote the book I was reading during my trip to Costa Rica where I took the photo. This is the book: Urban Photography.

About the photo. It's "Costa Rican Dancers" which is the first photo of the post. I took it on the first day in Costa Rica. We arrived in San Jose and went to a restaurant in the mountains. The group of dancers performed traditional Costa Rican dances. One of the best features of the restaurant is the spectacular view of the the Central Valley:

Katya

Technorati : costa rica

Hooray to the Chinese embassy

I'm all set with the visas to China. Yes, exactly, it's visas, the multiple. With my Russian passport, I need a visa to enter China and another one for Hong Kong. Both visas are issued by Chinese embassy, but mine had a slight complication.

At first we thought that getting the visas would be a piece of cake. We gave it to some random shop in China town who ran to New York with our passports to get the visas. We both got the Chinese visas alright, but my Hong Kong visa was missing. The reason: the consulate did not know how to deal with Russian passports. What? It's like you go to a dentist, who drills a big hole in your tooth and then says 'Sorry, don't know what to do next'. And we already had our tickets set to fly back from Hong Kong.

Some research showed that it's really hard to get any information about the Hong Kong visa on the web since Chinese embassy really doesn't have anything on the topic. It appeared that the Hong Kong is not only a separate territory, but also has separate immigration institutions. So, they recommended to send my passport to Hong Kong. Right. It also appeared that Russia is one of few countries not allowed to enter Hong Kong without a visa.

After that my passport traveled to Texas and visited Houston consulate 2 times. Just searching on the web showed this agency that specializes in visas - Passports Plus. I've never heard about them, but they turned out to be exactly what they promise. They called me multiple times, reported an issue with my visa, ran to the consulate twice and eventually got me my passport with the visa and all wrapped up in a plastic case with their ad all over the case. Good job! On a side note, Chinese visa really did not require anything except of the will to travel to China. Hong Kong visa required all this crap about me that really showed that there is no way I could get a visa to Hong Kong if I lived in Russia.

Worries are now behind, my passport is stamped with 2 good looking Chinese visas, and I'm all set to go.

Katya

Technorati : China, Hong Kong visa, travel

Packing light

We still have several days to use for planning and packing. And packing wise apparently takes a lot of consideration. First, this is the longest trip I've ever taken, of course that's excluding the very-very long trip to the US. Second, at some point about 5 years ago I have decided not to take a backpack on a trip ever again. I can still remember the 2 week trip to Mexico with this heavy thing on my back. So I decided - never again.

And I've been true to the second statement for a while. I took my wheeled bag to many places even to those that are considered as backpack heaven. For example, in Bangkok I only had to carry the wheelie for about 10 min because the streets there are really unwheelable. Anyway, I thought I have graduated from the lagging the heavy stuff around for ever.

This time, however, I'm getting back to my old ways. We have a very extensive trip plans and I really don't know how this all is going to go. I just can not possibly take stuff for every day of the 3 weeks. In addition, I just don't want to worry about bags and other stuff. So, inspired by some interesting discussions, I am taking my backpack out from the storage and trying to pack light. And it's hard. It's hard especially because I'm taking my big and super heavy SLR camera. Of course, there is no way I leave the camera at home, so I'll have to wear the same clothes over and over (scary thought). Meanwhile, I still need to get rid of some 2-3 pounds of stuff form the bag.

Here are some links about light packing:

This one talks about how to pack and what kind of things are good for light travel: What to pack

This one, while very business-like, has some very interesting ideas about the topic: How to travel the World with 10 pounds or less

Katya

China trip - tentative schedule

Here's our rough schedule so far:

1. 4 days, 3 nights in Beijing


2. Overnight train to Datong


3. 1 day, 1 night in Datong


4. 2 day, 1 night in Wutai Shan


5. 1 day, 1 night in Pingyao


6. Overnight train to Xi'an


7. 2 day, 1 night in Xi'an


8. 1 day, 1 night in Hua Shan


9. Flight to Shanghai(from Xi'an)


10. 3 day, 3 nights in Shanghai


11. Flight to Guangzhou


12. 3 day, 3 nights in Guangzhou


13. 3 day, 4 nights in Hong Kong

Welcome

This is the first posting for Tuan's and Katya's travel blog. Our next trip will be through China starting shortly.