Last Updated: November 2, 2009
I´ll leave our original travel list below, as it will be interesting to see how else it changes as we travel. It has become clear in a very short period of time that planning to spend just one or two nights in a city before traveling on to another stop becomes too stressful too fast. It´s just too much time spent packing, unpacking, and racing around a town to try to see as much as possible. Our new, revised travel route is below. We´ve eliminated a few stops in exchange for fewer but slightly longer stops.
*The grey dates are estimated. If there’s no estimated date listed, we’ll probably just be spending a day or two there.
Ireland (9.04 – 9.23)
England (9.24 – 9.26)
Netherlands (9.27-9.29)
France (9.30 – 10.26)
Spain
Germany
Czech Republic
Poland
Estonia
Russia (11.26 – 12.1)
Mongolia (12.6 – 12.19)
South Korea (12.23 – 1.4)
No dates yet for the rest
Japan
New Zealand
Tasmania
Australia
Thailand
Cambodia
Laos
Vietnam
Bangladesh
Nepal
India
Turkey
Greece
Italy
Spain
Morocco
Previous Update: November 2, 2009
Our travel route has been revised a few times, but we think we’re pretty set at this point. Everything is subject to change, and some of these are only going to be pass-through stops of a day or two, but for anyone hoping to meet up with us, our rough travel direction is below :
*Most dates are estimated. If there’s no date listed, we’ll probably just be spending 1 – 4 days there.
Ireland (8.28 – 9.16)
Scotland
England
Netherlands
Belgium
France (9.30 – 11.17)
Switzerland
Austria
Czech Republic
Poland
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
Russia (11.26 – 12.1)
Mongolia (12.6 – 12.19)
China
South Korea (12.23 – 1.4)
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I recently finished reading “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
” by Jack Weatherford, a fantastic book on the history of Genghis Khan and the Mongols. As with all empires, the Mongol dynasty had its high point and its eventual collapse – and just like Rome (and other empires) the Mongol dynasty had been so large and solid, that its disappearance was unthinkable.
From Weatherford’s book:
“With so many empires striving to maintain the illusion of the Mongol Empire in everything from politics to art, public opinion seemed obstinately unwilling to believe that it no longer existed. Nowhere was the belief in the empire longer lasting or more important than in Europe, where, in 1492, more than a century after the last khan ruled over China, Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand that he could reestablish sea contact and revive the lost commerce with the Mongol court of the Great Khan. With the breakup of the Mongol communication system, the Europeans had not heard about the fall of the empire and the overthrow of the Great Khan. Columbus, therefore, insisted that although the Muslims barred the land route from Europe to the Mongol court, he could sail west from Europe across the World Ocean and arrive in the land described by Marco Polo.”
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There have been a number of trip preparations going on as we now enter t-minus 30 days until we leave – however most of them have not been particularly photogenic, so our updates have been minimal, but the header basically says it all.
We have mailed our passports off (always frightening) to get our first round of Visas. As an American citizen there are an amazingly huge number of countries that we can visit, visa-free. I looked at our estimated course, and then went to the travel section of the US Department of State website where there is a very complete, very helpful list of every country and their visa requirements. It turns out that out of the 60 countries I looked up where there was even some remote chance of us potentially visiting, only 7 required Visas (that had to be obtained ahead of time). Those were: Russia, China, India, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Belarus. The only one there that we’re not planning on visiting is Belarus, although the fact that it’s described as a complete cold-war throwback of a country makes it appealing (for the cultural interest) while simultaneously unappealing. We’re using a processing service called itseasy.com to handle both the Chinese and Russian passports. For Russia, it’s actually required to have an invitation to visit the country. In practice it turns out that practically any hotel you book with with handle the official invitation documents. In our case, we’re going with a Russian Homestay, though in the documents that were sent to us after the reservations were made, the organization said that for ease of processing we should just include the following information, and then gave us the name of a hotel. Intriguing! We’ll see how all that works out at the border.
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