The drive to SF was pretty quick and we were parking near the Indian Consulate around 10am. The plan was to drop off our passports and visa application at the Indian Consulate first as they process visas the same day. So you drop them off in the morning and pick them up in afternoon...same day service is great. After that we were going to run over the Vietnamese Consulate and drop off our applications and have them mailed back to us. We had it all worked out, we even planned lunch with some friends in SF and dinner with CJs step dad and step brother. It was going to be a great day in the city.
We parked the car about a block away from the Indian Consulate and stopped by the bank to get some cash on our way. We then crossed the street with passports, visa application, and cash in hand. We strolled up to the Indian Consulate only to see a large sign reading "CLOSED" in the window! Republic Day was not on our list of holidays and we had no idea the consulate would be closed. We had to change our plan. We stopped by the Chinese Consulate and thought about changing our itinerary to include China if they could process visas in the same day. They can't though and we're not going...at least not on this trip. The Vietnamese Consulate was still on our schedule so we made our way over there and dropped off our visa applications without hassle. There was still time for lunch with our good friend Erin and we were on the road back to Sacramento by 1:30.
Despite the photos, we got all our visas!
So here's the itinerary for our 120 days on the road.
February 6, 2007: Los Angeles - Hanoi, Vietnam. Once arriving in Hanoi we make our way south by train to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and up the Mekong River to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. While in Cambodia we'll visit the temples in Angkor Wat and Siem Reap.
March 6, 2007: Siem Reap, Cambodia - Bangkok, Thailand. Not sure where we'll go while in Thailand, but we have 10 days to explore. A few of those will be spent in Bangkok and a trip to Chiang Mai may be in our plans as well.
March 16, 2007: Bangkok, Thailand - New Dehli, India. India is an intriguing country. We don't really know what to expect while we're there. India is probably the place we are least prepared for and most excited about. We'll have 3 weeks to make our way from New Dehli down to Mumbai with stops in Jaipur and Agra to see the Taj Mahal.
April 6, 2007: Mumbai, India - Istanbul, Turkey. After 2 months in Asia we now make our way to Europe. After a few days exploring Istanbul we'll move north by train to Sofia, Bulgaria before landing in Belgrade, Serbia to see my uncle Keith. We'll stay in Belgrade for 4 or 5 days and then explore the rest of the Balkan states including at least Croatia and Montenegro. Around April 27 we'll take a ferry across the Adriatic Sea to Ancona, Italy then take a train to Rome where we'll stay in a timeshare (courtesy of my mom, thanks mom!) for a week. On May 5 we'll take the train north and spend a few days in Tuscany and Florence and a couple days in Venice before making our way to Austria. In Austria we hope to visit Salzburg, Arnfels and Vienna then continue north into the Czech Republic. Prague is supposedly beautiful so we'll spend a few days analyzing those rumors. After the Czech Republic comes Germany where Berlin, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf are on our list of cities to visit. From Dusseldorf we'll continue north to Amsterdam and Brussels where I'm hoping I'll be able to attend my 15-year high school reunion. Our last leg leads us to London where we'll fly back to LA on June 6, 2007.
We leave in a week and we're looking forward to an exciting journey. We'll try to keep this updated with photos when we can.
Dr. Phil says "Stay at the A to Z Queen Cafe Hostel in Hanoi, its a great place!" Thanks Doc, we'll be sure and stay there, they'll even pick us up at the airport!
