preparations

Since we are not yet travelling, there isn’t much to tell. But we’d like to brief you about the preparations, that had to be done before embarking on our eight months journey. Some examples:

• Quit our jobs: it’s easier than you might think…
• Terminate the tenancy of our appartement.
• Quit several monthly paid contracts (insurance, electricity, internet etc.).
• Attend a language course in Chinese: Because we’ve already been to China twice, we know how hard it is to communicate only in English.
• Buy equipment: Since we know how it is to climb 4000m+ mountain summits in only jeans and sneakers, we took this point very seriously. For the first time, we took professional advice on technical clothing, appropriate footwear and ergonomically designed backpacks.
• Get the necessary vaccinations.
• Obtain a Nepalese visa: very easy and uncomplicated.
• Obtain a Chinese visa: very difficult and complicated, because we want to stay in China for at least 60 days. We had to appear personally in the embassy four times in order to present all the necessary documents, which include a round-trip ticket (partially cancelled by now), a list of all the places we want to visit as well as 34 hotel reservations matching the travelling route (all cancelled by now).
• Say good-bye to friends and family: that’s the hardest part.