The Countdown Is On - We Leave Tuesday

Okay, so it's Saturday morning of President's Day Weekend. The weather in San Francisco is *gorgeous* - sunny, not a cloud in the sky. It's the kind of day that in February is to be relished because sooner or later the rains of late winter will arrive and we will all be soaking wet or cooped up indoors.

I am now officially on vacation having finished up my last day at TagAviation yesterday. The 'out of office' auto reply I left went something like this 'I'll be on vacation from Feb.20 through March 7th. I will not have access to email or voicemail. In case of emergency call my director'. And that was that.

The white 3X5 index card containing my remaining to-do's reads:

bank
keys
pharmacy
REI
dry cleaners
blog

Looks like I'm working from the bottom up.

So, here we are, I have no idea how much I will be able or will want to update this thing while I'm traveling. But! At the very least it'll be home to the myriad pics I take on this adventure.

What I can now report is that setting up a trip like this requires a fair amount of time, effort and patience. Not to mention a willingness to get stuck with needles. My good friends and coworkers have all heard about or witnessed my post vaccination woes. I am happy to report that yesterday I received the last shot I'll need for awhile - the twinrix (hepa/hepb combo) did leave me tired and a little sore last night. My first round of shots was a month ago; probably haven't seen anything like that since I was a kid on the child vaccination schedule. Needless to say the experience has given me new appreciation for my immune system.

Aside from having dead viruses injected into your system trip preparation for this part of the world it's all about the details of working with your Bhutanese tour operator as entry into Bhutan is strictly limited for tourists. Nepal is much easier; you pay for a visa upon entry and get to where you're going.

Once again, the interweb proved to be a lifesaver when trying to get to the heart of how things work. My thanks to Adrian Jones for putting together the Bhutan Travel Advice page that appears as part of his larger travel blog. Had I not found this early on in the planning phase I probably would have floundered quite a bit.