On moving ahead... and saying goodbye.

Time for a bit of a catch up, me thinks! Time is starting to fly by and I really don't know where it's going.

Let's see... I'll start by catching you up on the plans for the big trip. There were some tense moments a few weeks ago when the visa advisor at Trailfinders told us that we were unlikely to get visas for either India or China (the start and end points of our trip) due to the fact that our UK visas would be expiring while we traveled. In other words, they don't like it if you don't have permission to return to the country in which you applied for the visa. We were a bit thrown by this news as it had never occurred to us (nor had it ever been said to us when we sought advice) that we would be expected to return to the UK. I mean, we have valid Canadian passports so there's somewhere they can kick us out to, right? On top of that, we have a flight itinerary which clearly shows us leaving both countries and eventually landing in Toronto, and Noise has a written contract to prove that he has a job in Toronto, so what's the problem? Do they really, seriously think that we would try to STAY in either country? I don't think so. However, all that said, the Trailfinders chap told us that they wouldn't be able to handle the India visa for us but suggested that we give it a try on our own, which really just meant that Noise had to stop in there on his way to work one morning and submit the applications, and I went a few days later on my day off and picked them up. Let me just point out that the timing was FOUR days. Four days and we had our passports back with Indian visas installed. I'm really not sure what the problem was at Trailfinders, but they certainly lost themselves two customers and several hundred pounds in fees, because we decided at that point that we might as well do them all ourselves. Yesterday I collected our passports from the Vietnamese embassy with fresh visas applies and tomorrow Noise will submit them to the Chinese visa application centre. I'm still a bit nervous about China, but we'll see how it goes. We don't need a visa for Thailand.

Speaking of Thailand, we're really hoping that the protests in Bangkok are under control before we go, otherwise we may have to avoid Bangkok. Which would be a real shame. I've started looking at hotels again, I stopped booking things when we had the visa debacle but now we need to get started again. Last night I managed to find what appears to be a decent inexpensive hotel in Delhi (it's impossible to find a hotel in India that doesn't receive mixed reviews, but this one at least has the majority of reviews positive), and saw a couple of options for Udaipur as well. I've singled out a hotel in Hanoi in Vietnam based on recommendations from our friends P and K who are traveling at the moment and stayed there (backed up by rave reviews on tripadvisor). I've also chosen a hotel for Bangkok, assuming that we go there! I haven't booked any of them yet, waiting for confirmation from Noise that I'm not missing some important point. We've already booked the hotels in Chiang Mai and Ko Phi Phi in Thailand. Oh, and in Beijing. Let's see, that just leaves Agra, Mumbai, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Shanghai, and Xi'an. Hmm, well at least I'm making progress!

I packed my bag yesterday. :) I just wanted to get an idea of how much space I really have. Anyway, I pulled out everything I wanted to take and it fills up about 85% of my backpack. I might do a cull at a later date but I refuse to go to Asia for 7 weeks with only one pair of shorts and two tank tops!! But I will be traveling pretty light. Then I put on my backpack to see how heavy it is full of clothes and it's not bad at all! Unfortunately the other items I still have to add are the heavy ones - like the 4 Lonely Planet books. We can carry 2 each, I guess, and I claim the Vietnam and Thailand ones! The Vietnam book is about a third of the size of the India book.

We're wrapping up things here in London as well. Our flat has been let and the good news is that the new tenants want our patio furniture! One less thing we have to get rid of. It will soon be time to start selling things, though. Too bad we can't have another yard sale! We've booked the shippers to come on the Saturday morning on that last weekend and the goal is that once they've gone and taken all those items with them it should just be us and our backpacks left here. Then we need somewhere to stay for a couple of days, preferably with sheets and pillows. The cleaners will come Saturday afternoon to do the professional clean on the flat and then we're done. I've only got 5 and a half weeks left of work, which I am extremely excited about. :) I've figured out that I have 23 more days to work. I can do it!!

In other news, it was my birthday this past weekend and I was able to celebrate with a whole weekend of specialness. On Saturday Noise took me on the London Eye, something that I had been wanting to do for 2 years! He booked us a champagne flight so we sipped a glass of bubbly while making our way around. It was quite fun and I have always been fascinated by the mechanics of the thing. After the flight we made our way to a restaurant on the south bank called Ping Pong. It's a dim sum restaurant and we had made arrangements to meet some friends there for dinner. How lucky I am to be able to have a birthday dinner with such good friends!!

Sad point of the evening, though, was in having to say goodbye to my good friend AT. She started as a colleague but it didn't take long before we were very good friends. I owe a lot of how much I have enjoyed my time in London to her (and other friends), and I always knew that we would make friends here and then move away, but didn't think it would be so hard. I know that we'll be friends for life, but it seems that I always make these great friends and then can't ever live close by to them! All my best friends are long distance relationships. :( Except for Noise, of course. I don't know when I'll see her again, but cross your fingers for me that it will be at her wedding in South Africa next April!!! We're working on our budget. :)

Noise spoiled me, as usual, on my birthday. He made me cupcakes which I am still enjoying, and cooked me my favourite dinner of BBQ'd hamburgers. And he had gone out and gotten me a present which was a surprise and I hadn't asked for, but very thoughtful and something I definitely wanted. Ok, it's track pants, which I know sounds silly but I really wanted them and he remembered! So points to him. Then for our usual Sunday afternoon, half hour before the stores are closing, mad dash on impulse buy, we went to the Apple store on Regent Street and bought ourselves an iPod touch. And I know we bought it on my birthday, but it's not my present and is for us to share. I can remember that, really. Oh iPod touch, where have you been all my life?! I cannot believe that we went this long without one. I had no idea how awesome it would be. Anyway, the main reason that we bought one now is to take on our trip. This way we can watch movies while traveling, use it as a computer whenever there's a wi-fi connection, and play games and so on. Seriously, 10 minutes with this thing and I was ready to toss my beloved Blackberry out the window and get an iPhone. So yesterday I went on amazon and used my 20 GBP gift card to buy some items. Namely, a case for the touch, an ear phone splitter so that we can both watch movies, and a mains plug so we can charge it (and our nanos) from the wall while traveling. I also bought another 2GB SD card for our camera and a lightweight bike lock that we can use on our bags when traveling by train for security, and some earplugs. All for 19.99. :) Such fun.

Well, I think this post is plenty long enough, so I'll sign off for now. Sorry for the delay between posts (and hence the length of this one) but I was busy hosting my favourite sister for a week as well! It was fantastic having her here, and next time I see her it'll be at home! Catch you on the flip side!!