Almost ready

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With a couple of weeks to go, I had to get organised. I wanted an ipad but didn't really want to carry something that large around (nor spend the amount of money that Apple decided was acceptable). Dean thought we should bring a laptop, but again, I didn't want to have to lug a piece of equipment larger than a book. The mini ipad wasn't coming out until after we left, so that left us with the android market. A Samsung was the best option, so I bit the bullet and purchased a Galaxy Tablet. JB Hifi were basically throwing them out to make way for the next model. With the tax refund, it was a winner. We could make calls, search the internet and keep check on the email. Or so we thought.

The O'Briens were heading to Vietnam in September, so Jeannine kindly added our visa applications to her mailbag and within a week we had been accepted as visitors to that beautiful place, once again. A different story with the Chinese visas.

I drove into South Melbourne thinking that a country with one billion people couldn't really be that concerned with a family of three from Australia passing through on their way to Vietnam from South Korea. How naive. I didn't make it pass the security guard the first time. He advised me to go back home, organise our plans and then come back when we were serious. What?????

So, with my tail between my legs, I arranged flights to Beijing and from Hong Kong and a tour on the mainland. Would that be enough, I wondered??? Did the Chinese government seriously think we wanted to land there and stay??? How many people would do this?

On the second visit, I made it past the security guard. After utilising the photocopier in the waiting room (forgot to photocopy the passports - lucky I had change), I lodged the applications. A couple of people around me were angry that they still weren't meeting the stringent requirements, so I consider myself lucky that our application was accepted. I didn't want to waste my second visit to South Melbourne, so I had a look around the shops, found some lovely presents for Stella and Christy and then had a coffee in a beautiful cafe. So it wasn't a total waste of time.

A lot of people were very interested in our trip and were super keen on letting us know of all the diseases we could potentially contract while away. This got me thinking, so I visited the doctor and let her know we were going to be away for over four months - most of them in South East Asia. She was slightly concerned and said at the very least we should have tetanus, hepatitis and something else which I forgot. She was also very worried about malaria and told me a story about one of her patients who developed malaria after visiting Cambodia on a school trip. In the end Eleanor and I got some jabs and decided against the malaria medication. DEET, I hoped, would be our protection.

With a couple of days to go, I began to pack. Deciding what to take was very difficult. In the end, I just shoved things into the suitcases (mine and Eleanors'😉 and thought that if we needed things we would just buy them at a later date. Which, as it happened, we did.

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Comments

[Lisa]

I beat you to Paris, Janey!
Delighted the family is on the move! We got in to Paris yesterday...our studio apartment has 94 spiralling and well-word wooden stair from the street level to our door. Far too many when wining and dining... Looking forward to reading about your adventures!