How did we acquire so much stuff??  It’s all going.  My house seems like Mary Poppins’ carpet bag, the more you pack the more shows up.  I’ve been packing for two weeks and it doesn’t seem like I’ve made a dent and the pile of boxes is growing when it should stay small.  We’re trying to store only valuable or sentimental things.  We’re not even storing any furniture and I think we’ll still have a fairly big storage unit.   Bigger than I’d like. 

For the move we’re trying to decide between renting a U-Haul type truck and doing one of the PODS or Door-to-Door options.  They seem about the same price – around $1,000 to get down the coast from Seattle to LA.  It would be nice just to drive our car and not a big truck with the car being towed behind.

Today we went to the University of Washington Medical Center- The Travel Service http://depts.washington.edu/travmed/ for our vaccinations.  We’d scheduled our annual physicals early just in anticipation of the trip, but our family doctor recommended going to a specific travel clinic.  The Travel Service was incredibly efficient! They took down our itinerary and then bombarded us with options and recommendations.  For our proposed list of India, South America (and Europe) they recommended: Typhoid, Polio and Yellow Fever.  The first two are mostly for India and the last for our proposed trip to see the Amazon area of Brazil. 

In addition to a mountain of pamphlets for things we can’t be inoculated against they handed up prescriptions for two segments of anti malarial (Malarone Atovaquone), altitude illness (Acetazolamide) and prolonged Montezuma’s Revenge (Azithromycin).  They also recommended that we consider getting vaccinated against Japanese Encephalitis and Rabies. 

Sometimes it’s hard to walk the line between being responsible and protecting yourself and being overly zealous.  I suppose if I get bit by a dog in a remote village I’ll be glad I was over zealous – it almost happened near some gypsy caves in southern Spain, but I was close to great hospitals there. 

They gave us handy booklets with our official records inside to carry with our passports.   I have to admit I have renewed respect for the mosquito and will be on guard applying DEET like it’s my job.

I just waved good-bye to our Bed, Bath & Beyond roomful of nickel plated lamps as if they were our children marching off to their first day of school.  I also sold (to the same woman) this rug I’d purchased five years ago at Costco, and as the rug and the lamps pulled away from the driveway I had this feeling that I’d made a horrible mistake.  I wanted to go running down the street to get my things back.  How is it that your possessions become the vessels of your memories? I have  crystal clear memory of our first apartment when I see that rug, and to be honest I don’t like it any longer.  And the roomful of lamps could be purchased again tomorrow at the same store.  They’re replaceable and yet I still feel like I’ve lost them.  They are just valueless, cluttering things, and yet they can remind you of events and people the way a certain smell can.    An unexpected moment of zen amid the decluttering, readying organization of launching ourselves into travel orbit.

I went to REI again to look at backpacks.  Gabe thinks I’m obsessed by backpack hunting.  I definitely am, but it’s going to be my only possession and seven years after lugging my LL Bean backpack through Europe, I still remember the shoulder pain and don’t want to relive it.  I checked over the Gregory, Osprey and REI backpacks that I’d looked at before and put weights in them and walked around.  As I was looking over one of them, I saw that it didn’t have a separate zip area for my sleeping bag, I realized that for 7 weeks I’d be taking everything out of the backpack and repacking every night as it only had top access.  The helpful REI employee told me to check out the travel bags upstairs.

I’ve always felt like travel bags are so silly.  I was recently at the Rick Steves Europe Through the Back Door Travel Center in Edmonds, WA, and thought all the specialized luggage was gimmicky and a waste of time.  Generally I like Rick’s simplicity – but buying a simple backpack there when most people have one just like it back home?  Anyway, upstairs at REI I found a great selection of travel backpacks there and fell in love with the Eagle Creek Thrive 75 Womens Fit.  It’s so comfortable, organized and useful.  But I think it’s still too big.  I’d fill it up and it would be just as heavy as my current bag.  Lucky for me they have a 45 and a 55, which are about the sizes I’m looking for.  The next question is: Does $180-$200 sound like too much to pay for a backpack?  I’m working on simplifying my possessions and spending less.  I just can’t stomach paying that amount.  It seems like the epitome of western hyper-gadget-over-thinking consumption.  I think I can get around that by trolling craigslist.

The visas are in the mail coming back to us!  We are so impressed by Travisa Outsourcing’s service.  Their tracking and services are incredible.  Check out this order history below:

Order History

Date/Time	Action
08/11/2009 9:32am PST	India visa application completed online
08/14/2009 2:15pm PST	India visa application arrived in the mail at Travisa Outsoucing
08/14/2009 3:03pm PST	Application assigned for processing
08/14/2009 3:21pm PST	Passport and supporting documents received, payment processed.
08/14/2009 3:49pm PST	Documents prepared to go to Embassy.
08/17/2009 8:16am PST	Documents dispatched from Travisa Outsourcing Office to Consulate
08/17/2009 8:53am PST	Documents received by Consulate
08/18/2009 9:15am PST	Outsourcing office has verified the visa is processed correctly. Ready for pickup between 4:30pm and 6:00pm. If mail back, waiting for FedEx pick up and is likely to be mailed out tomorrow.
08/18/2009 11:41am PST	Passport mailed out.

 As it shows we completed and mailed the application on August 11th from Seattle.  It arrived in San Francisco on Friday August 14th.  Monday morning is was at the consulate and Tuesday the 18th it was shipped back.  I expect to received it Friday, which would make 10 day processing including almost a week of shipping. 

In addition to simple tracking, they send email alerts notifying applicants when the passport was received and shipped back. 

They offer to ship themselves for an addition cost.  We saved by shipping USPS including a prepostaged envelope for the return trip.  I would definitely use Travisa again.  It was my impression that they were just used for processing India’s visas by mail but now I see that you can use them for many other visas.  For $13 it seems worth the headache!

We did some math on passport photos.  We’re getting tired of paying what seems like a ridiculous about of money every time we apply for a new visa or passport.  They’re typically $7.99 or so for a set of two.  As we’re in need of two for our India visas and will likely need more in the future, we thought we’d settle the issue by getting ten each to carry with us as we travel.  As you can imagine that adds up!  $39.95 a person ~almost $80 and we haven’t left the country yet.  So we looked up the US passport photo guidelines and off we went.  Here are the steps:

1. Look up guidelines so you know how to take the pictures ie no shadows, neutral expression etc.

2. If you’re techy go to photoshop and crop the photos as directed otherwise simly use www.epassportphoto.com

3. Use the “Do It Yourself” option to save your own photo rather than print with their services.

4. Upload to Snapfish or other photo printing program and order however many copies you need.

You can also simply bring it in to a Walgreens or other photo processing center but I found it simpler to upload from my computer and have it printed out and waiting for me at Walgreens. 

Total Cost for 10 passport photos each = $.76

 Total Savings $79.14

We’ve officially decided that a 6 week trip to India will  be the first leg of travel on our year abroad.  We chose it for a number of reasons, the most important being it’s a country we’ve both discussed going to for a couple of years but never felt we could due to the amount of time it would require to see it properly.  Six weeks seems like a long time to travel there, but now that I’ve been researching online I see that many people stay there for months.  It’ll be a good amount of time to see the country and test out long term travel wings.

Flights are incredibly cheap for traveling to India in October/November this year.  I’d love to book them but am hoping to come up with a rough itinerary so that our flights make sense.  At a quick glance it seemed like flying into Kolkata and flying out of Delhi, would make sense, and then I read about Sikkim.  I’ve become obssessed with the little corner of India sandwiched between Nepal and Bhutan, partly as I’d never realized it was there and partly for the need of a permit, the mountains and the homestays they offer.  And of course, Sikkim is so close to Tibet now I’m thinking if I’m on the other side of the border how would I not visit Tibet? It would seem that mountains and politics stand in the way of that, but we’ll see. 

If we were to visit Sikkim and stay with a family there we’d do it in October or early November as soon as we arrive in India as it looks like the temperatures are already cold at that time.  This would mean no Pushkar camel festival which runs until November 2nd.  As they’re on oposite sides of India there’s no way to do both.  However, G is interested in a camel trek in the Great Thar Dessert so perhaps we’d get camels, desserts and Pushkar in but no festival.  I hear the prices are 5-10 times the normal rates anyway.

To add Tibet or not? If it’s a week more and not too much more effort and money I’d love to do it.  Finding information about how to do this has been frustratingly difficult.

I’m looking for a new backpack to take with me on our travels.  I have an old LLBean backpack that is really heavy.  I used it in Europe on a number of occasions and found it unbearable.  Of course I realize that it was because I had it stuffed to the gills with unnecessary items, but even empty it was many pounds heavier than this Gregory.  I want to take as little as possible with me but am struggling to balance that with being practical and comfortable.  The 50 is as big as I’ll go, and I know that most hardcore travellers would balk at that size.  It is a top loading backpack.  Many people on the gear forum of lonely planet recommend a travel backpack for a RTW trip.

Ooh, I just found this helpful post from Lonely Planet user RPM: “Bag size really depends on your size, I’m 6’2″ and took a 70l whilst my wife is 5’3″ and took a 50l. Whilst you may read about very small packs and travelling light those size packs are about the norm for most long term backpackers.”  I’m glad to know that these proportions worked out as I am about that height and had settled on that size and my husband as well.  He wasn’t sure quite what size, I’ll have to see if his is about 70l.

Acouple of other options to look at  Eagle Rock Thrive Women’s 75l, Osprey Men’s Waypoint 60l, Osprey Aura.

We’ll have to think about this.  We need to figure out exactly how much backpacker and how much normal traveller we’ll be.  I love my Samsonite wheelie and it’s gone everywhere with me.  Now I’m getting cold feet on the backpack idea….I need to look at the blueprints to see how rural we’ll be.  As I see it the more walking and dirt roads that we do the more backpack we need. The more city and bus that we do the more wheelie is practical.  Also the less moving we do the more wheelie is practical.  Sounds like I have to go back to the drawing board on figuring out our itinerary before I can figure out the luggage.

I can’t believe how much time has passed since my last post.  We’ve done more thinking but really  have gotten caught up with summer in Seattle.  There’s no better place.  I suppose that we should have finished our planning during the overcast and dreary months.

My current task is finalizing the megalistplan.  While doing this I am concurrently carrying out the first two items on the plan: finding out what we’ve been vaccinated for and what we need to add on to this list and downsizing our belongings.  We’ve had a decent number of vaccinations but I know we’ll need more and it’s best to get those done and documented sooner rather than later.  As to our belongings they seem to fill up every nook and cranny of our house.  Most of our things will be in storage until we finish our traveling so we’ll downsize to the most important things so we don’t have to pay as much and also because the effort of moving and packing.  It’ll be nice to have a reduction of things.  I worked in a bookstore my freshman year of high school and as cliche as it sounds picked up Waldenand fell in love.  I pass by my dogeared and highlighted copy on the bookshelf from time to time, but honestly never had many possessions to quite understand his cry for simplicity until now.  Can’t say I’ll give up any of my shoes, although less now makes more of an argument for new strappy leather heels in Argentina.

I’ve decided to keep a blog detailing the research and planning that we’re putting into our year abroad.  While we hope to keep our plans relatively loose we also want to make the best use of our time.  I don’t want to get to Patagonia and find it completely snowed in!  We also loooove the process of researching travel.  I’ve travelled blindly and armed with research and find that that research makes my trips much more fulfilling as long as I leave myself open to serendipity! 

On to the planning.