A treat for anyone who has been checking...

There's not too much to report on the travel front. I've a few things underway, like the purchase of a backpack and getting my vaccinations sorted, but otherwise it's pretty much all as organised as it can be until I get my travel documents from the tour operators in January or February.

Still, there is one more big-ish thing I have yet to organise: my leaving party! It will be on Saturday the 10th of February, probably at my house, and it will be a Pirates versus Ninjas theme! It will be favourites.

To help those who aren't yet secure in their pirate or ninja identity, I made a quiz for you to take. Thus, anyone who doesn't know whether they are a ninja or a pirate, doesn't know the meme, or just plain doesn't get it should click here. Everyone else should too, just for shits and giggles.

^.^

On the day I turn 26...

...I will be in the desert, on a camel. Where the star is on the map.

For those who haven't yet figured it out, this is a map of my itinerary in India:
Delhi - Kolkata, Kolkata - Delhi, Gecko's tour around Rajasthan.
For more info, see my first (proper, trip-related) post.

Click the picture for a larger version.

This is what my day will look like on the 15th of March, 2007:

"We arrive into Bikaner by train early this morning and transfer to our hotel. There we can buy some breakfast before driving to Himmatasar - the starting point for our camel ride. We ride for around 2 hours to our lunch point and then on to the main Dunes of Raisar to witness a beautiful sunset. We then continue to our overnight camp where small tents will be provided or you can simply sleep under a star filled sky."

Sounds pretty sweet, although I have a feeling I'll be missing people. Do you think the camels will be extra-nice to me because it's my birthday?

Yeah, me neither.

There's a hole in my bank account.

Well, it's done! No backing out now. I paid for my travel today - I used a bank cheque in the end, because it turns out internet banking has a limit of $1000 on one-off payments. Bah, quoth I. Still, it's sorted now. It's all tying up loose ends and preparing for the day from here on in! Not to mention enjoying the summer.

As part of the paying thing, I have finalised my dates (although there is no charge for me to change the return dates in case I get bored and want to come home (not likely!) or run out of money (...yeeeah, quite a bit more likely... hehe)). I will be leaving on Monday the 26th of February at 2ish and arriving back on Monday the 17th of September at 3pmish. That's two Mondays off work for anyone who cares to use me as an excuse. ^.^ And I will be back just in time to see Turandot. What an amazing coincidence. I will be back in the southern hemisphere on the 12th of September when I'll be in Brisbane, visiting the expat branch of mum's side of the family - thanks for the offer, guys! There are, of course, lots of other dates to do with my journey, but I will post them closer to the time with things like which countries I will be in on which day with my Contiki and such.

Loose-ends-wise:

Before exams I will have to drop my passport in to Jain to get my visa for India, and ring Mrs. Cartmell (my Isle of Man homestay lady) to tell her my ferry dates, and then I can relax (haha) until after exams.

Then, after exams (if that magical time truly exists) I start thinking about talking to doctors about courses of vaccinations, and doing anything else I have't thought of yet, like emailing or MSNing individual overseas friends to see if they will be amenable to having a visitor (this means you Alida, Tony, Jamie, etc, etc...). Ooh, and I get to go backpack-shopping!

It's real

Today is the 24th of October. This time in four months, I will be walking through a gate to a plane to Delhi.

Four months.

Rhymes with TT

Today I found out for certain something I had thought but wasn't sure of: there are no tickets to the Isle of Man TT. You go there, stand on the side of the road, and watch it. How cool is that?!

You can buy tickets to sit in the grandstand in Douglas if you want, but you can't book those - you just buy them on the day. Given I'll be staying so close to the grandstand (5 mins walk, I think she said) I will have a good chance to get there early enough to buy tickets, should I so desire. Awesome.

Reasons not to post while stressed and sleepy

1. Because posts come out looking like the last one. Heh.


So. I have in my hot little email account a missive from Jain, my travel agent. It tells me all about my plans, and how much money she would like to have for it. So far it looks good, apart from only having 128 days travel insurance when I'll be away for between 180 and 240 days, and not having any - sorry, not having no - booking for the ferry to the Isle of Man. Otherwise, my plans look like this:

26 Feb 07, 1420hrs Auckland Intl - Hong Kong Intl. Non-stop, 11hrs 25mins. Urgh. Then, after an hour and a half rattling around Hong Kong Airport, I go from Hong Kong Intl – Delhi (Indira Gandhi Intl) Non-stop, 6hrs 20mins.

In Delihi I stay two nights at the “Bajaj Indian Homestay”, which is not a homestay. I don’t know anything about this place yet except what is on the website; it just turned up in this email. It looks rather nice, and they will apparently feed me an ‘American Breakfast’ daily which should be good while I try to be not too adventuresome with food choices while I settle in, in deference to my belly…

On the 28th of February (Indian time) I catch the train from Delhi to Kolkata (Calcutta). On the advice of pretty much everything I’ve ever read about Indian train stuff, I’m going for the 1st class, air conditioned carriage which sets me back $200ish but decreases my risk of being woken by people trying to get to know me or my money better. It leaves at 5pm and arrives the next day at 10ish.

I then spend 9 nights at the... quirky... Fairlawn Hotel in Kolkata. They feed me American breakfast foods too. I hope this doesn’t mean those strange cereals I hear about… Oh, wait, they don’t eat those for breakfast anyway. Have a look at this page, and scroll down to read a review/description of the place (right hand column).

On the 8th of March I get the train back to Delhi, arriving at 10am-ish. From there I have one night’s pre-tour accomodation at the “Hotel Singh Palace” before embarking on my “Backroads of Rajasthan” tour with a company called Geckos for 17 nights. Check it out, I get to go camel-riding!

Then I’m back at the Bajaj for one night before flying British Airways from Delhi (Indira Gandhi Intl) at 0805 for 9-and-a-half hours to arrive in London, at Heathrow where I have a night at Contiki’s pre-tour accomodation (the Royal National Hotel) to get used to the time-zone change before spending the 28th of March until the 12th of May on my “Ultimate European” Contiki tour where I see all of Europe, right out to the Occidental and back, including a bit of Egypt.

Insert the Isle of Man TT here, and some aimless wandering which has yet to be decided (this means me visiting you, Alida, and possibly anyone else who is somewhere around the UK or the continent).

Coming home I go back through Hong Kong and (so far) Melbourne for Phillip Island (another motorbike race, duh). The date of my return is not set yet, because Jain can’t yet book that far in advance and I don’t know when the bike race is on. I will talk to her about keeping the home-time date open, I think. But, no matter what, I will be back for October the 1st, if not before, to get organised for 2008's study. If the Aussie GP is after the 1st I will do that in a seperate trip.

All this for a mere many-thousand dollars. Which leads me to one issue... how do you give someone that much money? My eftpos card won't let me make transactions that size... If anyone knows, leave me a comment, otherwise I will have to go to the bank and ask them. Feel free to comment anyway; let me know what you think of my plans, my tours, my fashion sense, my odour... whatever really.

^.^

Whistle while you work

So. I should probably start this. I'm kind of intending this to be my travel blog while I'm away gallivanting across the wide world.

...

So, started.

Dad, Col and Col's g/f Deanna

Short Hair Take II

It has been demanded, so here they are. Pictures where you can actually see my new haircut. Well, more or less. :p

Once more, with glasses

Grunok's short-haired head

The quality of these pictures is somewhat lacking, but I think you get the idea... hehe. It will be practical in many ways, I think. And it looks kinda cute, if I do say so myself!

Female Troll sketch

Llamas!

Fiance sent me a link to a llama trekking site in Britain. I found this link on it. Go there. Love llamas.

An Elderly GHEREGHUT of Santharia

Slow cavernous evolution

Cave troll background sketch

Updated Troll

A few more bits done. I still have some things to go, but mostly just tidying up, I think. And some large alterations, but that'll be a different pic.

Preliminary Elderly Cave Troll

Here's Vesk take one. No fine detail yet (except teeth). More shadows etc to come also.

Which pic to pick?

Art wanted a different pic than the one I provided for the teampage - he said it was too fuzzy. Which should I provide?

Thaedras picture

Here is the final version of one of the other sketches shown below. I am very proud of it. Just goes to show what 12 hours' painting can get you.

Roughs for Pikel

Rough coloured versions for Thaedras' avatar