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Other Preparations
Of course, finding a good travel agency, which is doing a lot of the preparation for you, and getting all the required visas is a very big step towards the actual trip. However, there are lots of other preparations too. The part from home to Moscow I arranged by myself, including places to stay, train tickets and all. The whole part from entering South Korea I did not prepare at all. From there I would travel the way I had always done before: decide on a final destination and a latest date to arrive, some places on the way to visit and just go and see, decide all the rest on the spot. The final destination and time was clear: I would meet my wife and kids October 3rd at Narita Airport, Tokyo, when they came over as well. But again, from there nothing was prearranged. Or not much, I should say. Towards the end of October, when the rest of the family would return to Switzerland again, I had booked two weeks of Japanese lessons for myself and a place to stay. But, for example, my flight back to Switzerland was not arranged. I would do that shortly before coming back (which I did not know exactly, when that would be either).
Copies of all the documents, such as passport, traveller checks, visas, tickets needed to be made. I also scanned them and put them temporarily up in a protected area on my homepage, so I might still have a chance to get to a copy even if something happened to both the originals and the copies I carried. Of course, I hoped that I'd never need these extra copies. Another thing which I arranged and hoped I would never need were vaccinations. This, I learnt from previous trips, is something which should be done well in advance. Some vaccinations may take up to six months to complete.
Having had a look at the various information collected, I also bought some functional equipment, such as a light but wind proof jacket because in Mongolia it could become rather cold and windy, some air- and watertight bags which could be used in heavy rain and sandy areas to protect my stuff, an extra big bag, souvenirs from Switzerland, etc.
My local train station did a good job booking the tickets and sleepers to Moscow and Denise Sommer of
TSA, the travel agency which I used, did a really wonderful job of arranging all the tickets, reservations, tour guides, private tours, accommodation and everything from Moscow right to entering South Korea. TSA also sent me a detailed travel initiary and a helpful guide booklet. Really very professional and helpful.
My plan was to leave on 2007-Aug-18. However, as that week I would spend in Stuttgart at a Red Hat training to renew my RHCE certification to the latest version, everything needed to be ready and set at least one week in advance, which it was. On Friday I did the multiple-hour practical test for the RHCE version 5 and got on the train from Stuttgart back home, arriving late at night. Go to sleep, change my luggage and then, Saturday afternoon... GO!