Five visas, one departure date

The visas are in the bag! It's taken just under four weeks to get five visas and one new passport, but we are finally set for part 2 of the 'Beeg adventure'. And we have a departure date - 5 September - and most of our itinerary.

For family and friends (or random blog-reading wierdos) following our trip this is our confirmed itinerary so far:

• 5 Sept: Joburg to Casablanca (via Abhu Dhabi)
• 1 Oct: Casablanca to Cairo
• 9 Oct: Cairo to Mumbai (via Abhu Dhabi)
• 12 Nov: New Delhi to Istanbul
• 29 Nov: Istanbul to Caracas, Venezuela (via Frankfurt)
• 3 Dec: Caracas to Miami (via Bogota)
• 13 Dec: Miami to New York

As from here onwards it could be:

• New York - Mexico - San Francisco - Sydney OR
• New York - San Francisco - Mexico - Buenas Aires - Sydney OR
• New York - San Francisco - Mexico - San Francisco - Sydney

We are still trying to work out which of these routes will be cheapest. I can tell you that finding out that information is an exhausting exercise, where you suddenly find yourself flicking across a dozen websites and feeling as if you are being sucked into the computer. I don't know how people managed in the days before the internet, but the term 'information overload' is one constantly ringing in my ears and I'm sure 'madness induced by internet search' is a rapidly growing clinical condition.

Just one little example:

Objective: Buy tickets from Caracas to Miami or Fort Lauderdale on 3rd or 4th December

1. Frenetic searching Caracas to Miami flights
2. Frenetic searching Caracas to Fort Lauderdale flights
3. The direct flights are too expensive.
4. Look at cheaper flights with one stop over.
5. The cheapest flight is via Port of Spain (2hr stopover) to Miami
6. Where is Port of Spain I ask myself? Somewhere in the Caribbean?
7. Open another window, Google Search: It's the capital of Trinidad & Tobago.
8. Do I need a transit visa? Does Larna need a transit visa?
9. More frenetic Google searching
10. According to Trinidad and Tobago's tourism website - incredibly, Zimbabweans are among those who don't need tourist visas, but Kiwis and South Africans do.But do we need transit visas?
11. Google can't answer, so I ring the T&T embassy in Pretoria. Yes, the 'poppie' on the end of the line tells me after consulting someone, I need a transit visa.
12. Back to my Expedia results - looking for flights to Miami via somewhere else. Find $400 tickets via Bogota.
13. Double check to make doubly sure Bogota is, as I suspect, the capital of Columbia. It is!
14. According to SA Dept of Foreign Affairs website I don't need a visa for Columbia. Numerous other websites including Lonely Planet, say Larna does not need one either. We're in business.
15. I book the Caracas to Miami via Bogota tickets!

(If you made it to the end of this list, I congratulate you!)

Bunny chow! Two visas down, three to go

The picture is of Larna about to tuck into one of the legendary mutton 'bunny chows' at the Golden Peacock restaurant in the Oriental Plaza, Jo'burg. For those who have not had the pleasure of eating one of these its basically a hollowed out white bread loaf filled with piping hot, spicy curry. (The Golden Peacock uses specially baked breads with thicker bottoms to keep the curry from spilling out. How ingenious!).

We were served by a charming white-haired, ear-muff wearing Indian waiter (it was a bitterly cold day), who showed us the proper way to eat a bunny - forget knives and forks, you break off bits of bread and mutton with your fingers, dip this in the seperate curry sauce bowl provided, insert in mouth and...mmmm mmm mmm!). He also explained the origins of this quintessential South African dish: when Indians first came to South Africa (to work on the mines I believe), they would sit together at lunch time and pass around a loaf of bread filled with curry and everyone would get to partake.

On the subject of all things South African and Indian, I am happy to report that I picked up my Indian tourist visa today from the Indian High Commission in Jo'burg. India feels so much closer now that I have the sticker in my passport, a passport by the way, which is rapidly running out of empty visa pages. I have three blank pages left. (I should get my new passport this week, come on Dept of Home Affairs, YOU CAN DO IT!)

So I now have an Indian visa and an American visa. I still have to get an Egyptian visa (hoping to apply tomorrow) and a Moroccan visa. Larna still has to get an Indian visa, which she should hopefully sort out this week.

Larna's pics: Italy and Spain

Still in a very chilly Jo'burg. We're starting to put our travel plans together for part 2 of our 'Beeg adventure' set to include Morocco, India, Egypt, Turkey and the USA. A few visas to get and tickets to book before we depart. At this stage, it looks like we'll head off again around the start of September with Casablanca our first destination.

On the subject of travel, Larna took a heap of great photos in Italy and Spain. Here are just a few of my favourites...

Italy - Venice and Verona

Napoli

Pisa

Bologna

Avignon, France

Barcelona, Spain

Madrid

A morning at the Dept. of home affairs

(My feet: three months of wearing sandals over a European summer...)

Greetings from a wintery, but sunny Joburg (yesterday the mercury hit 23 degrees!)

Well I spent this morning at the Department of Home Affairs, Edenvale branch, applying for a new passport. Edenvale is a rather run-down satellite city of Johannesburg about 15 minutes from my folk's house.

Going on past experience, I expected a chaotic morning, but to be honest I was quite impressed.

The initial scene inside did appear rather disorganised with people standing all over the place looking bewildered, but a large bossy, matronly woman went asking people to sit in the chairs provided - "I promise you no one will jump the queue," she barked, before giving a very stern lecture to a few guys in football jerseys who I think are couriers for companies that carry out passport services, warning them about pushing in.

A middle-aged, white-haired "tannie" (Afrikaans for 'auntie') behind the counter checked my application. She reminded me of one of those librarians one used to encounter at the public library - silver hair, thick glasses, an officious manner but quite friendly, if you got on their good side.

I had my right thumb print electronically scanned (I was impressed with the technology), moved to the next counter to pay the application fee, then had fingerprints taken in the old fashioned ink way and then had to queue again for the last step: 'live capture'. This involved having my passport photo digitally taken, signing my name digitally and giving two more digital thumb prints.

The whole process took about an hour and in two weeks time (so I have been told) I will receive an SMS telling me to pick up my new SA passport with 32 empty pages!

On Friday I have an 8am appointment at the US consulate for my B1 tourist visa. Hoping it all goes smoothly. From there we can start applying for our other visas...

Photos: Spanish landscapes

Photos of the incredible Spanish countryside on the train from Barcelona to Madrid: