Caroline Leaves for Europe. April 30, 2013.
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USA
The adventure starts with Caroline heading out from San Francisco airport to London. Only 4 bags!
We Are Still At Home in Beautiful San Francisco.
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USA
We are sorting out and organizing as much of the logistics and paperwork that we can do in advance: visas, carnet de passage for the car, getting our place ready to be rented out, and lots of assorted paper work.
While traveling we will rent out our place and to that avail we have started packing away some stuff already. The first objective is to de-clutter the place before the photographer comes over to take photos for the marketing page.
I have never liked packing, I still don't, but it is necessary. After the photo shoot the packing can start in earnest. I want to have just about everything packed away before leaving for Europe on April 29th; Stephen has assured me he will be able to survive with a minimum of things and that way he won't be left with too much to do anymore.
On my beloved 'MINIKE' we keep changing our minds: to store it or to sell it?
Friday, March 22
The first 28 boxes left for storage tonight! We are using Eagle Moving & Storage, run by our good friend and neighbor Joey. Really nice to work with him as it totally removes the stress out of the packing and storing process.
Wednesday, March 27
Apartment photo shoot (for our rental agency).
Saturday, May 18
The Big Move. Eagle Moving and Storage and Skycraper Crane and Rigging turned up in the morning to pack up all furniture and items left for storage.
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While traveling we will rent out our place and to that avail we have started packing away some stuff already. The first objective is to de-clutter the place before the photographer comes over to take photos for the marketing page.
I have never liked packing, I still don't, but it is necessary. After the photo shoot the packing can start in earnest. I want to have just about everything packed away before leaving for Europe on April 29th; Stephen has assured me he will be able to survive with a minimum of things and that way he won't be left with too much to do anymore.
On my beloved 'MINIKE' we keep changing our minds: to store it or to sell it?
Friday, March 22
The first 28 boxes left for storage tonight! We are using Eagle Moving & Storage, run by our good friend and neighbor Joey. Really nice to work with him as it totally removes the stress out of the packing and storing process.
Wednesday, March 27
Apartment photo shoot (for our rental agency).
Friday, April 5
Marketing listing for our condo-for-rent went live.
Monday, April 8
Booked passage for Sterlin from Los Angeles to Sydney.
Wednesday, April 17
We signed tenants for our loft/condo from June 1st, for a year (with a possibility to extend).
Sunday, April 21
Our Buddha panel is moving to its temporary home in Bamboo Asia; which is our friend and neighbor Anjou's restaurant.
Here's our Buddha at Bamboo Asia! Couldn't think of a better place for it!
Thursday, April 17
Drinks with the Neighbors. Thank you all for coming, it was a fun evening. Special thanks to Anjana and Anjou for the delicious food.
Photo 2 courtesy of Paul Homchick.
Friday, April 26
We had a lovely time, over drinks and appetizers, getting to know our tenants. We got on very well! Very excited to have them look after our place while we're gone.
Saturday, April 27
We dropped off Minike at its boarding home while away.
Saturday, May 18
The Big Move. Eagle Moving and Storage and Skycraper Crane and Rigging turned up in the morning to pack up all furniture and items left for storage.
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Joey from Eagle Moving and Storage.
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Our chaise longue is just a tad to big to
make it down the stairs, so Jason from
Skycraper is the man to ring.
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Stephen trying to raise some sympathy
later that evening.
Health and Vaccinations.
We both went to Downtown Medical to get the necessary inoculations and prescriptions. their website doesn't look like much, but service is prompt and good. They take walk-ins but make an appointment if you can, it reduces the wait time and makes things a bit smoother.
These are our handy Health Passports. We got our first one from the 'British Airways Travel Clinics' in 1992 in the London Days, prior to backpacking through Africa. Caroline obtained her 'extension' in 2011 from Downtown Medical in San Francisco.
- Typhoid: Valid for 2 years. Injection. USD 85.
- Hepatitis A: New-ish vaccine. 2 injections: first now (USD 90), 2nd with 6-12 months so will follow up somewhere in SE Asia.
- Polio: Booster injection. USD 60.
- Hepatitis B - Havrix: 3 injections: first 2 about a month apart, 3rd after about 6 months. 1: USD 90 - 2: USD 264 - 3: USD 129.
- Tetanus: Tdap combined Tetanus, Diptheria and Pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine. Injection. USD 70.
- Malaria: Prescription. Cambodia.
- MMR: Injection.
These are our handy Health Passports. We got our first one from the 'British Airways Travel Clinics' in 1992 in the London Days, prior to backpacking through Africa. Caroline obtained her 'extension' in 2011 from Downtown Medical in San Francisco.
Documents.
Friday, March 1
We applied for, and today got issued, 2nd US passports. It turns out it is not that difficult to get these, as long as you can give a good reason why you need it. I explained about the trip we are about to embark on and that a 2nd passport would help enormously with the visa applications en route. When applying at various Consulates you always have to leave your passport for a 'number' of days, which might also make it tricky to check-in to hotels, take out or change money, and what have you. I didn't even need to supply booked tickets; the officer looked at our planned itinerary and wished us good luck on our trip. The whole process took .... 2 days only! The 2nd passports are valid for 2 years only.
Tuesday, April 9
Picked up International Driving Permits from AAA. Very easy to get: 2 passport photos, US drivers licence (or copy of front and back when applying for someone else as well), filled in application form and US$15 each. The IDP is issued on the spot.
Monday, April 15
We got our Russian Visas today. We applied for and got granted 3-year multiple entry visas. Not only do we now have the White Sea covered (Leg 1: Europe) but also Leg 4: Russia. This means we shouldn't have too many issues getting back into Russia after Mongolia, and possibly after Kazakhstan. We used Go To Russia who made the application process very easy and painless. It helped that we had all the documents (voucher, invitation letter, detailed itinerary) for our first entry on June 3rd, 2013. Cost: USD 319 each.
We applied for, and today got issued, 2nd US passports. It turns out it is not that difficult to get these, as long as you can give a good reason why you need it. I explained about the trip we are about to embark on and that a 2nd passport would help enormously with the visa applications en route. When applying at various Consulates you always have to leave your passport for a 'number' of days, which might also make it tricky to check-in to hotels, take out or change money, and what have you. I didn't even need to supply booked tickets; the officer looked at our planned itinerary and wished us good luck on our trip. The whole process took .... 2 days only! The 2nd passports are valid for 2 years only.
Tuesday, April 9
Picked up International Driving Permits from AAA. Very easy to get: 2 passport photos, US drivers licence (or copy of front and back when applying for someone else as well), filled in application form and US$15 each. The IDP is issued on the spot.
Monday, April 15
We got our Russian Visas today. We applied for and got granted 3-year multiple entry visas. Not only do we now have the White Sea covered (Leg 1: Europe) but also Leg 4: Russia. This means we shouldn't have too many issues getting back into Russia after Mongolia, and possibly after Kazakhstan. We used Go To Russia who made the application process very easy and painless. It helped that we had all the documents (voucher, invitation letter, detailed itinerary) for our first entry on June 3rd, 2013. Cost: USD 319 each.
Saturday, May 4
Today the Carnet de Passages en Douane for Sterlin arrived. This is equivalent to a passport for the car and allows us to temporarily import Sterlin into countries without having to pay import duty.
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