Tourist Visas for China, Mongolia, and Russia

I took a trip into Seoul today to arrange getting tourist visas for China, Mongolia, and Russia. Our friendly tourist agent, Mrs. Kang from "You Tour Agency", kindly accepted this task so I had to drop off our passports, photos, and won.

The visas cost 45 000KRW and 60 000KRW for China and Mongolia, respectively. Russia was 25 000KRW for an invitation plus another 70 000 KRW for the visa, ouch! Fortunately, once we're into Europe we're home free and need no visas! (Thanks to being Canadian and agreements with the European Union).

Plans are starting to materialize; we'll be in China from the 1st to the 13th of September at the latest (we're allowing for some flexibility so we can leave if we're tired of Bejing). Then into Mongolia until the 17th which is when we'll be allowed into Russia. It's no problem if we go in after this date, but a month from the 17th we must be out of Russia.

Airline Tickets Purchased!

Thanks to expedia.ca and Mary's mastercard, we've got our tickets! We're coming home on the weekend instead of the 29th so we can have time with our families right away and it won't be too much of an inconvenience for somebody to pick us up =)

Here's the flight itinerary:

Sat 26-Nov-2005
Dublin (DUB) Depart 12:30 am	to	Chicago(ORD) Arrive 2:50 pm Terminal 5	5895 km (3663 mi) Duration: 8hr 20min	American Airlines Flight: 93
Economy/Coach Class, Lunch, Boeing 767-300
Chicago (ORD) Depart 5:35 pm Terminal 3	to	Toronto (YYZ) Arrive 8:12 pm Terminal 3	702 km (436 mi) Duration: 1hr 37min	American Airlines Flight: 1956
Economy/Coach Class, MDC MD80
Total distance: 6597 km (4099 mi) Total duration: 9hr 57min (12hr 42min with connections)

Beginning and End Dates Finalized

We've got our time frame all set:

August 30th - Cruise on a ferry from Incheon to Tanjin
November 26th - Fly from Dublin, Ireland to Toronto, Canada

It turns out to be much cheaper to fly out of Dublin. I can't understand why it would be so much cheaper, but the cheapest flight from London, England to Toronto is $830 yet a flight from Dublin is only $461! Of course we do have to take an extra trip to Dublin....so lets see how much that is...€4.99 flight + €11.99 service fees and taxes!

Initially, we thought of flying to New York City from Dublin (it's even cheaper), but we figure we'll be itching to be home by then. We'll have to save NYC for another trip.

Now that we've got our time frame we can start filling it in, woohoo!

Packing List

This post will be updated as we figure out the things we need to haul along with us over our three months of travel.

Every travel guide we've got (mostly Lonely Planets) say to pack light; no one ever comes back saying they packed too little. So we're going to be very skimpy on our packing list.

Since we're traveling from late summer to late fall, our packing has to accomodate the change in weather from hot and humid to cold and snowy. The best way, we think, to do this is to use layers.

Trans-Eurasia Packing List

Item	Qty.	Got it!
*not necessary to survive, but handy nonetheless and take up little space
Clothes
Pants	2	X
Shorts/Capris	1	X
Undies	7
Socks	7
T-Shirts	4
Documents
Passport
Visas
Tickets
ID Photos
Insurance	1	X
Photocopies of above
Other Essentials
Backpack	1	X
Money belt	1
Toiletries	N/A	X
Compass	1	X
Extras*
Water Bottle	1	X
Spoon/Knife	1	X
Ball Point Pen	2	X
Tape	1
Business Cards
Flashlight	1	X
Umbrella
Games (playing cards)	1	X
Tissue (travel size)	4	X
Calculator	1
Paper Notebook	1	X
Swiss Army Knife	1	X
String (washing line)	1
Wetnaps	18	X
Sink plug	1
Ear plugs	1	X
Good books	4	X
Gifts (souveniers) - Toonies	25	X
Electronics
iPod	1	X
Handheld GPS	1	X
Digital Camera	1	X

Introduction

This blog will chronicle the journey of myself, Craig, and my better half, Mary, across over 1/3 of the world beginning in Seoul, South Korea and ending in Fort Erie, Canada.

Our journey starts on August 30th, 2005; the day following our last English class. We will detail preparations and provide a diary of "The Journey" as it unfolds.