Happy New Year! As Jay mentioned, my New Year resolution is to work less and travel more – a beautiful thing! So far it’s going well... First trip is one that has been on my list for a long time - China! You see, my grandfather spent time in China & Japan at the beginning of the 1900’s during the Boxer Rebellion. Although I was too young to pay attention much to his stories, there is still much of the legacy he brought back from China still treasured by various parts of the family today. I'm ready to chart my own adventure... John and I are planning to be traveling for close to a month! A month! We are joining the Regent Seven Seas Voyager for the 18 day “Dynasties & Dragons” as she cruises China to Beijing, Dalian, Shanghai, Xiamen then Hong Kong, next to Taiwan, for visits to Kaohsiung and Taipei, finally Japan to Kagoshima, Kyoto and finishing in Tokyo. We’ll take a few days in Beijing to see the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and hopefully time for some shopping too; at least, that’s the plan! Suggestions and recommendations are welcome; if you've “been there done that”... just let me know what you consider to be a “must see” or “got to shop here” I'm open to ideas – please e-mail me at patti@perx.com ! I may sound blasé about going here and going there, but this is biggest/longest trip I've ever taken! And I'm oh, so excited!
We were confirmed just after Christmas, so there has been a flurry of activity since then to get our air in place, hotels confirmed (it’s Chinese New Year!), fill out the paper work for the Chinese Visas, fill it out again, get the photos for the visa, send off the packet with our passports – first time I've done that and I'm not too thrilled to be without my passport for whatever reason. John and I went over the list of things required for the visa just checking and double checking... but I still got a call from Visa Central. Although we had included a copy of our round trip international air itinerary, it didn't contain our record locator... or names, foolish me! Elvira Canario from Visa Central, called and we gave her the record locator and it was a quick fix for her to print it out, include it with the other paperwork to submit to the Chinese Consulate and we’re back on track. Ah, but wait! Another call and they need the complete air itinerary door to door, including the US... really? Luckily, Visa Central’s got our back. After a quick e-mail with the info, we should be good to go now, hopefully that’s it for the visa and now we just hang out, plan some more and wait!
