Friday, February 29, 2008

Lucy and our Last Night at Home


Wow, we just can't believe the day of departure is here. Lucy the Cat is looking at our suitcases and seems to know what is coming next. She always gets dejected whenever she sees us pulling out the suitcases. But she doesn't know that this time someone will be staying in the house with her. Trey, who will be staying with, her loves cats.
We also got some great news today. Our friend John, who lives in Shanghai will be coming to the the airport to meet us.
Here's an update on Patrice and her recovery...
She got an "all clear" from her surgeon today. So look out Shanghai, here we come.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Communications

Dealing with Verizon Wireless International turned out to be a real pleasant surprise. Amy isn their Int'l department was very helpful when it came to explaining how to set my phone to receive calls in each country. She even went as far as explaining how to tweak the settings to receive the lowest roaming charge. (stay in GSM mode whenever possible)
So it looks like I will be able to update this blog at almost any point along the trip from from my Blackberry. Here's the challenge.. how to not be so connected to work that it is almost as if I hadn't gotten away. Stay tuned.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Yikes! Appendicitis



We spent last night here at University Hospital. For a couple days Patrice had some stomach pains. A CT scan and our family doctor (Dr Bradford)and the excellent surgeon (Dr Laird) he referred her to confirmed the worst. Her appendix had to come out. Patrice was a little nervous since the surgeon is the same age as our daughter. Turns out that's old enough because she did a great job. The good news is that the recovery time is supposed to be one week. We are greatful that this did not happen in rural China. One condition of Patrice taking the trip... I have to carry her bags for the first two weeks. Well, it beats going alone. Hey everybody, keep us in your prayers.
P.S. as I edit this it's Tuesday night and Patrice is healing slowly. I am doing my best to keep her from over-doing it. At this point it still looks good to leave Saturday.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Chart Our Course




Here is a big world map so you can see where we're headed. This is subject to change as we just found out. China Airlines decided to cancel one of our flights at the last minute. We think this may also happen during our trip. It's just one of the challenges we going to have to face and laugh-off as needed. As you can see, all our destinations are in the Northern Hemisphere. This is a make the trip a little shorter. Some day, maybe we'll do it again in the Southern Hemisphere. We'lll see how this goes first.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Shots!

Three or four sessions. Hepatitis a, Tetenus, & Thyphoid.
We rejected or thought the risk was minimal on..
Japanese Encephalitis, Malaria, and Polio.
At this point Patrice has 2 black & blue arms

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Itinerary

Depart March 1
CHINA
Shanghai MR 3 ~ 7, Ningbo MR 7, Yangshuo MR 9~13, Hong Kong Mr 14
INDIA
Delhi MR 15~17, Agra MR18, Jaipur MR19~21,
U.A.E.
Dubai MR 22~23
EGYPT
Cairo MR 24~26, Luxor MR27~29
ITALY
Rome MR30~APR1
HOME! April 2
This is a little summary of our itinerary. For details, stay tuned to this blog. At this point we have some things we are looking forward to seeing (the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Pyramids in Cairo) but we are going to be flexible.

Travelling lite

This is my suitcase with the flap open. It is from Rick Steves and only measures 21 by 14 by 8" deep. We were determined to go 100% carry-on since we are taking so many flights. The size an weigh were determined by the airline that was the most restrictive.. China Airlines. Max carryon is 11 pounds! The suitcase does not have wheels, but does have a shoulder strap. Three outfits a sweater and light jacket. We are really counting on the laundry service at some of the hotels where we are staying. At this point I don't know if everything will fit in here.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Shoes

Since we are travelling light (be sure to read our blog about just how light we're travelling) I knew we would be doing a lot of walking. After trying on 20 some pairs of shoes in 5 different stores, I finally found the right pair on line at www.shoebuy.com You guessed right. 30 days, one pair of shoes.
Ted Northrup
704-332-5557
www.mapshop.com

Extended Prep

OK. Thought I had better add this post so nobody thought the only thing we did to prepare for the trip was take a sleeping pill.
First of all, since we own a travel oriented business, we had a little bit of an inside track. (http://www.mapshop.com/) We have been talking to lots of other customers taking trips to exotic places for the last 15 years. We also decided it was best not to leave our business for more than a month. That we can be gone that long is a testament to the caliber of our Map Shop family.
The next part of the prep came with some introspection on what we wanted to see and why we wanted to see it. And the realization that we were not going to be able to see everything we wanted in 30 days. So our goals came down to this. What are the hot spots in the world in terms of the future and what the coolest antiquities to see. So these are our stops. China, India, UAE, Egypt, Rome. Our othr goal is to see, meet and understand the people in these places too. maybe do something good along the way by attending Rotary meetings and discerning where a real unmet need might be. There'll be more details about the plan in another post.
Next Patrice read guidebooks for each area and planned an itinerary that gave us a little down-time in each place. She booked us a full set of tickets before the airfares and oil-prices went thru the roof. And of course we saw the doctor for a check-up and a full set of vaccinations. Finally, we convinced a friend of the family to live in our house while we're gone so our cat Lucy doesn't go crazy. That's enough for now. More another day as we get closer to leaving.

Preparation - 2 weeks to go

Wow. We have been planning this trip for over a year now. I can't believe we're leaving in 2 weeks. If you have been following our itinerary, you'll know we need to do this trip in a relatively short time frame. That's why we chose to fly west and go all the way to Shanghai on our first "day". Since it's a day that is over 30 hours long, we are going to have to sleep on the plane. The only time I ever got close to achieving that feat was after 4 bottle-lets of Scotch on my way to Japan. The next day wasn't pretty. So a doctor suggested Ambien. I tried it last night to see if it would knock me out. It did. Maybe it did leave me a little crazy because here I am starting this blog. So now, on the 14 hour flight to Hong Kong I can zone out.