Mongolia, oh Mongolia...

So... I've come to the conclusion that while the fine folks at Visa Connection are wonderful in their attempts to help me, they're not always the best at figuring things out...

First off, I received a call at the end of last week telling me that my Mongolian visa would have to be sent in as a "Double Entry/Exit" visa, valid for 180 days, because the Single Entry/Exit visas are only good for 90 days from the date of issue, and my entry into Mongolia is more than 90 days away... The *PROBLEM* is that Mongolia, apparently, is pretty picky about double entry visas and normally reject applications for them.

It took me until today to actually think about the numbers and realize that someone in Vancouver can't do basic math. If I apply for my Mongolian visa in mid-May, that means I'll have until mid-August to get into Mongolia. That's just fine, as my PLANNED date of entry is August 4... ... A couple of phone calls later and now Visa Connection will hold my British passport until May 15, then send it off for my Mongolian visa.

Again, I don't want to sound like I'm saying bad things about them... They've been wonderfully enthusiastic about helping me get what I need. Language barriers have been... problematic... with their staff though, and I seem to think that they're not used to having to do multi-country visa applications too often.

On the up-side of things, my friend Deddeda Stemler has told me that getting a Vietnamese and Cambodian visa at the border shouldn't be a problem at all. I just need to show up with cash and passport photos and it should be all good. This in itself is somewhat encouraging, and I'm finally becoming a *BIT* less worried about ending up in a Chinese or Vietnamese prison for inadvertently trying to enter a country illegally.

Also worth noting is that I've gone and signed up for my SCUBA refresher course through the Ogden Point Dive Center. It's been nearly 10 years since I went diving, but I've got 250 dives, for a total of over 200 hours of underwater time logged. Hell, I used to be a certified Rescue Diver, a-way-back-when, so I'm hoping it should all come back to me pretty quickly. My old Advanced / Rescue instructor, Erin Bradley, owns the store, so I'm looking forward to saying hi to him and catching up a bit too.

Visas are a pain...

So, already I've hit a snag with visa applications. The fine folks in Cambodia and Vietnam won't allow you to apply for a tourist visa more than three months in advance of your trip. This means that to get a visa to enter Vietnam in September (the current plan) I would have to send in my visa application some time in late June.

If things go according to plan, I'll be in Russia in June.

This could be a problem.

While the fine folks at VisaConnection were wonderful helping me out of the weekend, I have to admit to being a little bit non-plussed that they "forgot" (their word, not mine) to mention this minor detail to me while I was filling out paperwork in their offices. I got a phone call around noon today explaining things instead.

SO... The current plan is to try and apply for my Vietnamese and Cambodian visas while I'm in China, and, failing that, head straight to Thailand after China and apply for them there. I've been told the Cambodian and Vietnamese Thai embassies will not have a problem doing this, but no one seems to be really sure if you can get away with doing it in China...

*grins* ... It's a bit frustrating, but those of you out there who know me know that I love it when things get interesting :)

Paperwork's in...

So, I dropped off my passports (yes, plural, I'm traveling on my British *AND* my Canadian passports to save some time and money with the visa processing), and most of my paperwork, at Visa Connection in Vancouver earlier today... I still need to fax them my proof of medical insurance, which I brilliantly forgot in Victoria, and which is needed to enter Russia... Gonna have to do that on Monday or Tuesday... As soon as I can find the paperwork, though I think I know where it is...

It's a bit nerve-wracking to just *LEAVE* a pair of passports with a company, but these guys come very highly recommended (Thanks Brian !) so I'm not too worried... I should have my Canadian passport back on May 1, and my British passport back on May 23rd... Each loaded up with 3 visas... Russian, Mongolian, and Cambodian on the British one, and Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai on the Canadian one. The Visa Connection people seemed to think this would be best, though I'm still not *QUITE* clear as to why...

I picked up a Thai visa as well because I figure if there's anywhere I'm going to want to just crash out on a beach for a while, it will be Thailand, and the last thing I want to do is get stuck with only a 30-day limit in the country... The Thai visa was pretty cheap, compared to the Mongolian and Russian ones at least, so I figure it's probably money semi-well-spent as an insurance policy, if nothing else...

The total bill came to just over $1600, for 6 visas, all with "level 3" or "level 4" expedited processing... If I didn't fork out the dough for em', it would take about 6 months, maybe even a bit longer, to get everything I need processed and such, AND I would have had to deal with 6 independent embassies... With these guys, it was 2 1/2 hours of paperwork, in one office in downtown Vancouver, so I guess it's a worthwhile investment as much for the convenience as the speed...

More updates as they come.

T - 57 Days...

So I booked my flight to London today, and a whole schmackload (Yes, that's a noun. I don't know why spell-check won't recognize it) of hostels across Europe and Asia. Now All that's left to do is get to Vancouver, get my visas (here's to keeping my fingers crossed) and getting the hell out of here in a timely manner. I'm booked on a 9PM Zoom flight out of YVR (Vancouver International) on June 1. It should, in theory, get me in to London Gatwick at around 4PM or so on Saturday the 2nd, with a brief stop in Belfast along the way. (What kind of airline stops in Belfast BEFORE going on to London? Weird...) From there I expect to spend a week-ish in London, a week-ish in Budapest, then on to Kiev... Most of my itinerary up until I enter Russia is pretty flexible, so that's all with a grain of salt of course...

It feels good to finally be booking things, especially after the Merit Travel fiasco (DO NOT use Merit Travel if you're in Victoria. I won't go into the specifics here, but WHEW... Talk about a bad experience...)

Hooray for Lensbabies !

Just playing with my lensbaby the other day and came up with this in Fan Tan Alley. I have *NO* idea who the guy in the hoodie is, he was just this vaguely sketchy-looking dude wandering around, but I liked the shot...

It's strange. I never really played with my lensbaby that much when I first got it, but I've started to enjoy it a bit more lately... It hardly has much use for editorial work, but it can sure be fun to muck with if I'm in an artistic mood.

We are the web.

This youtube video has been making the rounds in the blogosphere lately, particularly among those of thus in the information distribution industry, but I thought it would be worth re-posting here. It's a wonderfully mastered clip created by Kansas State University Anthropology professor Michael Wesch. It's definitely worth a watch, even if you HAVE seen it before.

It scares me to think where we're going to be in another 20 years...

Just an update...

So the last week or so has been fairly busy... I shot the Swim Canada Spring National Championships, an event that, sadly, I don't think a single media outlet cared about... Seems kinda silly to me, what with new Canadian records being set and all, but then, I've never understood why some sports are more important than others... Of course, the world's were going on in Melbourne at the same time, so that stole a lot of attention as well, but still...

Not much else has been going on. I've had a couple of shoots for PR companies and such, but nothing overly exciting of late... My dad and I had an absolutely fascinating interview yesterday for an upcoming Hume & Hume. I can't really go posting about it until after it goes to press, but for those of you with any kind of interest in cryptography, make sure you flick through The Monitor section of the TC on April 8.