the good, the bad (many times)

the good: even with the substantial delay with the australian visa, i was happy to find out i'd still have time to get me the indian visa, since their website says it takes 5 days to process it

the bad: after i mailed the application, my passport and the fees to san francisco, they told me it would actually take 10 to 15 days to process the visa and then return my passport. it would be way too late and i can't leave the country without my passport

the good: after losing the money i already paid, and paying yet an extra fee, i arranged so they will send me my passport back in time for me to leave the country

the bad: i'll get my passport, but no indian visa in it

the good: i did some extra research and realized there's no visa on arrival for india. it was gonna suck to get there and then find out i can't get in

the bad: without the visa or a possibility to get one, i can't go to india

the good: after freaking out for 5 minutes, i contemplated my options and decided to go to bali (indonesia) instead of india. the airfares are around the same as if i went to india

the bad: i had to cancel 2 flights and pay a fine for them

the good: indonesia is cheaper than india, and the money i'm going to save staying there should be enough to cover the cost of the fines i'll have to pay for the canceled flights

the good: from indonesia to south africa, i won't have to waste a whole day at the airport for my connection flight, which would happen from india to south africa

the good: indonesia is a paradise

the good: beaches

the good: i'm slightly crazy, so i can go from worried to upset to desperate to calm to focused to excited in a matter of minutes!

ps: a couple of hours after i changed the plans, canceled the flights and booked new ones, i got word from the indians saying my visa was granted and it's been mailed to me already. bummer. maybe i'll try to visit them later, before the visa expires..

here's a little bali for you:

the monkey forest (just in case you're tired of beach pictures)

--- pt ---

o bom, o ruim (varias vezes)

o bom: mesmo com o atraso do o visto australiano, eu estava feliz de saber que eu ainda teria tempo de pegar o visto indiano, ja que o site deles diz que o processo demora 5 dias

o ruim: depois que eu mandei os documentos, meu passaporte e as taxas pra san francisco, eles me disseram que levaria de 10 a 15 dias para processar o visto e depois disso, retornarem meu passaporte. seria muito tarde e eu nao posso sair do pais sem meu passaporte

o bom: depois de perder o dinheiro que eu ja havia pago, e ainda pagar outra taxa, eu consegui fazer com que eles me mandassem meu passaporte antes que eu saisse do pais

o ruim: eu vou ter meu passaporte. mas sem o visto indiano

o bom: eu pesquisei um pouco mais e descobri que a india nao da vistos no aeroporto. ia ser pessimo chegar la e descobrir que eu nao posso entrar no pais

o ruim: sem o visto e sem a possibilidade de pegar um, eu nao posso ir pra india

o bom: depois de enlouquecer por 5 minutos, eu estudei minhas opcoes e decidi ir a bali (indonesia) ao inves da india. as passagens sao mais ou menos o mesmo preco

o ruim: eu tive que cancelar 2 voos e pagar uma multa por causa disso

o bom: indonesia e' mais barato que a india, e o dinheiro que eu vou economizar ficando la' deve ser o suficiente pra cobrir os gastos com as multas que vou ter que pagar por causa dos voos cancelados

o bom: da indonesia pra africa do sul, eu nao vou ter que desperdicar um dia inteiro no aeroporto esperando pela minha conexao, o que iria acontecer saindo da india

o bom: a indonesia e' um paraiso

o bom: praias

o bom: eu sou meio louco, entao eu passo de preocupado pra triste pra desesperado pra calmo pra concentrado pra animado numa questao de minutos!

obs: algumas horas depois que eu mudei os planos, cancelei os voos e reservei os novos, eu recebi noticias dos indianos dizendo que eles ja tinham me dado o visto e que o passaporte estava a caminho. bummer. talvez eu tente ir pra la mais pra frente, antes de o visto vencer...

um exemplo de bali:
(foto)
a floresta dos macacos (no caso de voce ja estar cansado de fotos de praias)

point of no return

and i've done it.

for my christmas gift (but not really), i finally booked the flights for the 1st and 2nd legs of the trip..

and i made some (literally) last minute changes, basically changing the departure date from feb 2nd to jan 31st, and skipping auckland (new zealand) on the itinerary, so i have the whole week on the south island...

i'm planning on booking the 3rd leg flights on the 1st week of january..

happy ho ho ho!

changes: keep 'em coming!

todd is not my contact on sta anymore. keponi is the new person, and he's been doing a great job so far..

with that being said, we've been working on the itinerary, and of course, some changes were made and there are some more to come:

1. colombo (sri lanka) is out;
2. instead of a week in bangkok (thailand), i'll probably end up extending the stay for about 10 days more, so i can visit the neighbor countries. it's one of the cheapest places to travel in the world;
3. nairobi (kenya) is just about out. i'm waiting on some quotes, but chances are it's going to be replaced by south africa (either capetown or johannesburg);
4. there might be a prague (czech republic) stop before athens (greece).

and there's a couple other small changes, i'll show them when i have this ones figured out.

i feel like the plans are getting more solid.. sweet!

first itinerary changes

i've been studying and i made some changes to the itinerary...

1. as i mentioned i was plnanning to do, kuwait city (kuwait) and doha (qatar) are out.
2. then instead of adding beijing (china), i added hong kong (china) after thailand.
3. from hong kong, i'm going to colombo (sri lanka) - i know nothing about this country, but i like the name, the flag, and oddly enough, i always wanted to go there!
4. from colombo (sri lanka), to mumbai (india) instead of dehli (india).

the rest is the same..

i've been researching on the visas and costs of each country.. as far as i've found out, i'll need visas for fiji, australia, sri lanka, india, kenya and egypt. not too bad...

also, i have to do some more research on nairobi (kenya). the little i read so far said it will be raining season by the time i'm planning to be there, and that means animals hiding and mudd everywhere... i might have to find another africa destination...

then again, so far, the itinerary is (without dates):

LA to Nadi (Fiji)
to Auckland (New Zealand)
to Sydney (Australia)
to Bangkok (Thailand)
to Hong Kong (China)
to Colombo (Sri Lanka)
to Mumbai (India)
to Nairobi (Kenya)
to Cairo (Egypt)
to Athens (Greece)
to Madrid (Spain) -> meet my sistah!

and it all starts in about 7 months. damn!

out with the old

let me tell you about pandas..
they live with their mom until they're around 2, then they're on their on.
they are not social, don't live in groups, don't make friends.
they only have social encounters during the breeding season, and after mating, they're on their on again.
they live in the bamboo forests, they play with bamboo, and 99% of their diet is bamboo.

for a while, in my low times, i used to say i wanted to be a panda...
i wouldn't need or miss other people, even family; i wouldn't have to deal with social pressure; and all i would need to live a perfectly happy life would be around me: bamboo.

well, all i will say for now is that i have changed. i changed a lot. from little details to how i see the world, and i decided to revive and restyle this blog to document the biggest step yet on this new take on life.

sounds deep?
i'll explain later...