Why Can't It Be Easy?

Whirling Dervish

Whirling Dervish in Cappadocia

Why, because if it was easy it would make for a boring blog!! I said in my last blog I had to go to Ganja for vaccines and passports for the cats.  The vet only had one 4n1 vaccine and promised to send the other 3 along with the "stamped" passport in a few days.  As usual, it was week 3 and about 15 calls and he still had not sent them.  I had paid him $150 and it was looking like, I wasn't going to get the passports or the vaccine and lose all the money I gave him (PCV's don't make much money as you know).  Well, finally he did send them but of course without being stamped.  Now I have another problem, Butch who I thought was a boy is maybe not a boy but a girl and maybe a little pregnant.  Oh no, she/he is just too young (still a baby herself), another hurdle.  I am still scheduled for the end of the month to fly them out, so we will see what the vet has to say. I will be so happy to see them on the plane off to California.

After they are off, I will finish my COS (close of service) paperwork, and hopefully I will not have to travel back to Baku.  I am leaving the 16th of June for Tbilisi, Georgia where I will be seeing a couple of friends and saying goodbye.  I leave from Tbilisi to Tel Aviv, Israel and I am planning to hike the Jesus trail from Nazareth to Capernaum (68 kilometers), I will do this over 5 days, staying at guesthouses, hostels or camping.  First I will travel to Jerusalem (3 days) and then to Petra and Wadi Rum in Jordan for 3 days where I will stay at a Bedouin camp and ride a camel.  After the hike, I will go back to Tel Aviv where I will catch a flight to Tokyo, Japan.  I will stay there for 6 days and I will climb Mt. Fuji.  I then (hopefully) will be going to Beijing.  I am going to the Chinese Embassy next week to apply for my visa.  I have a letter from the Country Director (as the Chinese Embassy in Azerbaijan does not give visa's to non residents) and I also have an Invitation from a former supplier in China I worked with when I was a Import/Export Manager.  I am extremely excited about going to China, so hopefully my visa will be approved.  I was going to take the ferry from Japan to China, but it takes days and cost the same as an airline ticket plus the ferry will only get me to Shanghai or Tianjin (which is an hour train ride to Beijing), so flying it is!!  My tentative itinerary is to travel to Beijing (Forbidden City, Great wall), Xian (Terracotta Warriors),  Shanghai (Paris of the East), Yangtze River Cruise, Hangzhou (meet my friend) and Hong Kong.  I am taking fast trains and I have read that the trains go as far south as Singapore.  I am not sure (haven't gotten that far).  My gold is to secure a visa and then work on the itinerary!!  I want to go to Thailand and then end my trip in Australia.  So let's see how far I get!!  I will blog along the way, so it should be fun.

Life Challenge: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.....  John F. Kennedy