The constraints I am currently facing are that to make use of my Airmiles, I need to fix an end date for the overall trip. To do this I need to have a rough idea of what I want to do in the main area of the trip - Northern China - and how I am going to proceed on from there. This will give be the basis for a rough time spent in each part of the journey and hence the window in which to book air tickets. Contacting specialist travel agents has led me to the conclusion that one of the things it has occurred to me to do - a kora round Mt Kailash - is not probable. The combination of cost (about 20,000 yuan); duration (needs a trip of 21 days); the need to have a driver and guide for all the time I am there; and the permits and visas needed (a Chinese Visa, and four special permits - as it is so remote, and within an area the Chinese keep very strict control of) all mean that it is probably a no-go. As a consequence I am looking at what I might do in and around Amdo and the Qinghai Plateau.
Travel planning
I've now received my replacement passport, so can start sorting out tickets and visas. It took the secure delivery service an attempted delivery, a letter, two telephone calls to their office, a second successful delivery (which itself involved two phone calls to the courier) to get the passport into my hands. All because the first driver decided that because the canal basin is not ultra-visible, he could not find it. It is visible, but does not prominently advertise itself.
Finished sorting out my telephone contract and number, and now all I have to do additional to that is the purchase of an international SIM card sometime before I travel.
It has become apparent that the travel situation in northern China, the Tibet Autonomous Region, and the Uygar Autonomous Region is so difficult - in terms of permits, visas, remoteness, terrain, and lack of public travel facilities - that I need to use specialist local travel agents. I am currently contacting various agencies that I have been recommended it order to get a hold of this specialist knowledge.
Finished sorting out my telephone contract and number, and now all I have to do additional to that is the purchase of an international SIM card sometime before I travel.
It has become apparent that the travel situation in northern China, the Tibet Autonomous Region, and the Uygar Autonomous Region is so difficult - in terms of permits, visas, remoteness, terrain, and lack of public travel facilities - that I need to use specialist local travel agents. I am currently contacting various agencies that I have been recommended it order to get a hold of this specialist knowledge.
Travel Planning - associated tasks
Sorted out a new mobile contract today, with a view to making it more readily accessible where ever I go. Also made appointments with my financial advisors for reviews of finance and banking facilities. None of these tasks were strictly necessary for the trip I am trying to arrange, but the trip was the motive for me getting off my chair to actually do something about them.
Also learnt more about the Airmiles devaluation and the process they are going to go through to roll it out - none of which is good news if I am to use Airmiles as a method of paying for what air flights I actually do.
Doesn't feel as if I have achieved much, as the new phone resulted in me spending a lot of time at my computer changing email addresses, links, and information. Still this is one set of tasks that should not need any attention for at least 18 months.
Also learnt more about the Airmiles devaluation and the process they are going to go through to roll it out - none of which is good news if I am to use Airmiles as a method of paying for what air flights I actually do.
Doesn't feel as if I have achieved much, as the new phone resulted in me spending a lot of time at my computer changing email addresses, links, and information. Still this is one set of tasks that should not need any attention for at least 18 months.