Super Awesome Links!

The Desolation Travel website is still under construction, but at least we now have one page of content, and we already have a couple of blog posts up at our blog.

Clicking here (or on the image above) will take you to an absolutely stunning collection of photographs taken by Ben Rich in the Chernobyl Dead Zone area of Belarus.

Please check out our blog: http://desolationtravel.blogspot.com
to read the story of Ben's trip to the Dead Zone

Because what I needed was another web project...

http://www.desolationtravel.comPhoto by Nicola Simpson, quote by Ben Scott, edited by me.
(Don't get too excited... there's no content yet.)

Taxes, money, and (sadly) rethinking Nicaragua

Property tax bills have just come in the mail. As you might know, between me and my mother, we have four properties, so this isn’t exactly a fun time of the year. Additionally, my house is in the city of Waycross, which has absurdly high property taxes, considering. My first year of home ownership, my property taxes were nearly $500. Now, I pay a monthly fee for water/sewer/trash, so what is it my tax dollars are paying for? The non-existent police presence? The fact that the defaced street signs which say I live on the corner of Ass and Ass have been there since before I bought my house? Anyway, after I had to pay my first outrageous property tax bill, I applied for homestead exemption. This greatly reduced my property taxes; last year they were something like $60.

This year, there was a yellow notice attached to the tax bill which reads:

The state homestead tax relief grant that funded an increased homestead exemption for homeowners for the last several years will not be available this year. Declining state revenues during the current recession means there is no money for the state to give tax relief to homeowners. This will mean a property tax increase of $200 to $300 on the 2009 tax bills for many Georgia homeowners. The grant appropriated by the General Assembly and the Governor for the past several years to counties, cities and schools had given tax relief to homeowners in the form of a credit on their tax bills. According to legislation passed this year, the grant will only be made available in the future if state revenues grow at least 3% plus the rate of inflation.

I owe $416 on my property taxes this year. I should at least get some new street signs.

Meanwhile, as much as I do very much want to go to Nicaragua as part of the WorldVets.org spay/neuter program, my mother pointed out to me that for the amount of money I’d be paying to take part in that program, I could pay for all of the kittens we got this spring to get fixed, now that they’re getting old enough. After thinking about that, it is kind of hard for me to justify going, despite the fact that I really would love to make an overseas trip to pretty much anywhere right about now. So, that being said, I’ve decided not to go to Nicaragua :-(

To Rob B and Diana E, it turns out that I entered the wrong email address in ChipIn... it’s still *my* email address, but in ChipIn sends money to PayPal based on the email address provided, and to receive money through PayPal, one’s email address must be confirmed. In order to confirm your email address, you must provide PayPal with your bank account number. I have only one bank account, and it is linked to my pre-existing PayPal account, and therefore can't be linked to any other. As a result, I can’t “confirm” my account or receive your donation anyway – must be a sign that I’m not meant to go. No worries; PayPal will refund your money if I can’t confirm my account (and I can’t).

Combining my favorite thing with what I want to become...

My friend Linda pointed out to me that WorldVets.org is taking a spay/neuter trip to Nicaragua during the exact same time that Waycross College has its spring break. The trip is open to vets, vet students, pre-vet students, vet techs and vet assistants. Now, how could I possibly pass up the opportunity to do my very favorite thing (travel to a foreign country) while assisting with something I care a lot about (spaying and neutering dogs and cats) which could help get me into vet school? Well, there is the problem that I am completely broke, as my ten hours a week at minimum wage doesn't even cover all my bills, much less allow me to put money into savings for a trip to Nicaragua. I have several different ideas for how to come up with the funds. One of these ideas will involve completely refurbishing my online store - but I can't start on that until after this week of exams is over. In the meanwhile, I am simply asking for your help. And as my birthday is September 25, you could also think of it as a birthday present :-)

In which I don't go to Connecticut

Melissa just got a job offer in Connecticut. For those of you who don't know, Melissa had been living in Orlando, FL. I had agreed to go with her to help take care of her baby until Alex (her husband) got up there in mid January. This agreement was based on me still being unemployed as of December 31st, the day we'd planned to leave. The humane society hired me on December 29th. Now we had simply assumed that given the economic climate, I would still be unemployed. As such, I had one of Melissa and Alex's cars here in Georgia. Alex has the other one in Orlando, and Melissa and the baby were car-less in North Carolina, where they were visiting Melissa's older sister. So on New Year's Eve, after I got off work, I drove Melissa's car to North Carolina. The next day, I rode back to Georgia with Melissa's sister who was going to Florida.... then this morning I went back to work. Meanwhile, Melissa and her niece left at roughly the same time to drive to Connecticut. Whew! Happy New Year everyone :-)

Melissa

Melissa and Madeline

Melissa's sister's super awesome dog

Approved!

The cats and I will be rocketing into Atlanta on November 2nd! Wahoo!! All I need to do is figure out how to scrounge up $1500 between now and Wednesday. Plus that extra $400 I'll need to pay at the airport. Feel free to contribute to the whole getting-me-home fund :-)

See you next week!

We're heading to the southwest part of Kyrgyzstan to visit Osh and Arslanbob... we'll be back on Thursday, August 28. See you then!

Lookee what I got!

I ordered three airline approved cargo pet carriers, which arrived yesterday. Now I can take my cats with me when I leave in November. I only ordered them a few weeks ago, and I was worried that they wouldn't make it in time (I'm still waiting for that fitted sheet my mom sent me in January...), but they reached Bishkek in record time. The kitties will have plenty of time to get used to the carriers before we ship out. I had initially planned to ship the three older cats in cargo and carry Heelix on board with me... but she's growing so fast, she may very well be bigger than Lucy by the time November rolls around. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Back from Naryn!

Our three-day weekend in Naryn was great - just wanted to let you guys know that we made it there and back safely. I'll have a full post up about our trip on Wednesday. Probably.

Also, the burglary fuckers in Waycross apparently made off with my swords. And possibly my video camera, although as I don't remember where I left it, it's difficult for my mom to check.

And lastly, a feral cat that we feed in Waycross, but which we haven't been able to catch and fix, just had kittens. So if anybody in FL/GA wants a kitten, let me know. My mom's trying to socialize them, so they won't be feral like their mom.

Part Two: From Istanbul to Bishkek

Istanbul was fabulous, even though I only had enough time to explore the neighborhood where my hotel was located. I awoke, well rested, and went downstairs for my free breakfast. Now, I’m not normally a breakfast person, but the breakfast buffet at the Gunes Hotel was excellent: pastries, breads, eggs cooked every which way, fruits, veggies, and a huge selection of cheeses. I consumed an enormous amount, especially for me. Which turned out to be a good thing, as I didn’t get another meal until over 24 hours later. Thank goodness I packed triscuits and peanut butter cups!

After breakfast, I called Turkish Airlines, and received some very good news. My backpack had been located – still in Chicago – and they promised to have it delivered to The London School in Bishkek by Friday. Fingers crossed that it shows up!

I packed my things and checked out of my hotel room... and still had three hours before the bus would arrive to take me to the airport. I left my bags with the concierge and set out to do some exploring. I wish I’d known I was going to have free time in Istanbul; I would’ve come prepared with a list of things to see and do. Instead, without any maps or knowledge of the city, I simply started walking. It turned out that my hotel was located in a residential/shopping area, and not within walking distance of anything historic and/or touristy. Nonetheless, it was an excellent walk. The weather was the perfect temperature for wandering about in just a sweater and scarf, the sky was a brilliant blue and the sun was gleaming. I felt perfectly safe, and everyone I encountered was quite friendly. I *definitely* want to come back to Istanbul at some point in the future. Below are some random photographs from Istanbul, mainly of mosques. Never having seen a mosque in real life before, I felt the need to photograph the ones I found.

Istanbul from an overpass near my hotel

At 2:00pm, the shuttle bus came and took me to the airport. In contrast to the previous day’s shenanigans, checking in was simple. Even though I had time to snag something to eat in the airport, I was not yet hungry after my enormous breakfast, so I simply loaded up on water. I assumed that on a five hour flight, we would have some sort of food service. But alas, no. Whoops. Other than lack of food, the flight was pretty nice. It wasn’t crowded at all, and I had enough space to stretch out across three seats and sleep comfortably. We arrived in Bishkek an hour early, although someone from the school was there to meet me. He drove me to my apartment and dropped me off.

My apartment is HUGE. Rather barren, but huge. Here are some pictures:

This is the first thing you see when you walk in the door.

The first door to the left leads to the bedroom

At the end of the long hall is the bathroom

To the left of the bathroom is the living room / kitchen.

Another view of the living room / kitchen

The view from my window.
I also have CATS. Three cats, to be exact. I’ll have photos of them and the school and stuff later. Right now, I think I need to go take a nap.

Part One: From Jacksonville to Istanbul

I should know better than to fly American Airlines. I don’t normally, however, as AA and Turkish Airlines are international partners, and as I was flying Chicago-Istanbul-Bishkek on Turkish Air, flying Jacksonville to Chicago on AA seemed the thing to do. Ever since my very first international flight (to Ireland, back when I was 12), I have had problems with AA every single time I’ve used them. How is it they’ve managed to stay in business? I should also add that I’m feeling more than a little peeved with Orbitz right about now. Surely they should’ve updated me about... well, you’ll see.

The problems started when the check-in clerk in Jacksonville couldn’t provide me with boarding passes all the way to Bishkek, nor could she check my bags any farther than Istanbul. She seemed quite confident in her explanations of *why* she couldn’t, and how I’d just have to re-check my bags and get my next boarding pass in Istanbul, and how it wouldn’t be a problem. In hindsight, I suspect she may have been talking out her ass.

The plane out of Jacksonville was seriously delayed, which meant I had to run full steam across the Chicago airport in order to catch my flight. I was the very last person to board the plane, and was already having doubts about whether my bags would make it. Then, after all my airport sprinting, we sat on the tarmac for over two hours before takeoff. Of course, as I was mainly relieved to have made my plane, I wasn’t too bothered by this. The flight was quite pleasant, and as it wasn’t full, I had plenty of room to stretch out once we were airborne.

We landed in Istanbul two hours late – which didn’t bother me, as I knew I still had a three hour layover even with the delay. International transfer passengers (like myself) were instructed to go to the transit desk upon deplaning. I figured I’d get my boarding pass for Bishkek and instructions on what to do about getting my luggage checked all the way through. What I didn’t expect was to be told that THERE WAS NO SUCH FLIGHT TO BISHKEK on December 31st. I was told I needed to purchase an entry visa for Turkey ($20), go through customs, pick up my luggage, then go to the ticket counter for more information.

So I did all that. Except for the part about picking up my luggage, because only one of my bags was there. I guess this is why you don’t buy nice luggage; yes, my brand new, red, awesome (and expensive) backpack that I bought in South Korea didn’t make it. While this was pretty stressful in and of itself, I’ve lost luggage numerous times before, so I know the procedure pretty well. (And the Turkish Air lost luggage people were way more friendly and helpful than the bitchy old man in Moscow’s Sheremetevo.) I filled out all the necessary paperwork, and got the numbers I’m supposed to call to check and see if they’ve found it yet. They even claim that they will send it to me in Bishkek; far better service than Aeroflot and their suitcase warehouse.

After dealing with all the lost luggage rigmarole, I stood in line at the ticket counter. While up until then, everyone with whom I’d dealt on the entire trip had been quite pleasant, this woman was, unfortunately, rather bitchy. She seemed to think that I was simply insane for assuming that I had a flight to Bishkek on December 31st, and was somewhat confrontational about the whole thing. Finally, she did a search for passengers with my name. She said that I was booked on the January 1st flight to Bishkek, but there was a problem with my ticket, and I’d have to go to the ticket sales office. What kind of problem? “Some kind of e-ticket problem.” She either could not or would not be any clearer than that.

I was having stressful fantasies about being forced to purchase a new ticket at the ticket sales office in order to actually make it to Bishkek. Luckily, the woman at the ticket sales office was very nice. She explained that the December 31st flight to Bishkek had been canceled, and that my ticket had been transferred to the January 1st flight. She also said that Turkish Airlines would pay to put me up in a hotel overnight. Yay. She gave me a new e-ticket receipt, and said that I could use it to check in the next day.

Turkish Airlines set me up with a room in the Gunes Hotel (http://www.guneshotel.com.tr/), and the staff there was excellent. And by excellent, I mean super friendly, attractive young men. The room was pretty nice as well, although I swear the bathroom was bigger than the bedroom! (Sadly, while the hotel has free wireless internet, apparently my computer claims that my wireless network device is not installed. Bah!) So there I was in Istanbul for 24 hours, on New Year’s Eve of all days. I actually thought about going out and finding something to do with my evening... but I made it as far as the nearest grocery store and back before collapsing into a much needed sleep. I awoke a good hour after Istanbul had rung in 2008, watched CNN for a bit, then slept straight through until morning.

The hotel toilet had this scary device which, if turned on, blasts a violently strong stream of water sluicing between one's ass cheeks. While I did check to see if water really came out of that strange tube, I didn't do it while sitting on the toilet - I was frightened!

Look - Turkey sells kefir!

Fund Raiser!

I'm heading to upstate New York to visit my friend Youngmee for a few days, so I won't be blogging again until Saturday at the earliest. In the interim, I'd like to ask that if you enjoy the content of this blog, please consider donating to help support my journeys and daily blahgging. (My soon-to-be job in Kyrgyzstan only pays $500/mo plus accomodation, so any little bit helps!) Thanks in advance; I'll see you on Saturday!

Something cool for travelers and/or photographers

If you love photography and/or travel, you should definitely check out Everywhere Magazine. It was created by the same people who created JPG Magazine, and it operates on the same principle: User Created Content. You can upload photos, stories, or simply names and locations of interesting places. I've been uploading as much as possible (you're limited to 20 photos per day) since in a little more than three weeks I will be in the land of spotty internet. My Everywhere travelogue is here, if you're interested. Sadly the themes for Issue 2 of the magazine (which is published as a full color magazine on high quality paper) are Los Angeles, Places Reborn, Turkey, and Hotel Bars, for which I don't really have any submissions. (Here's hoping they choose Russia and South Korea at some point!) Anyway, I definitely recommend the site... it's tons of fun. And if your photo or story gets published, you'll receive $100 plus a free subscription to the magazine! (If you create a travelogue, please send me the link.)

Know what I got in the mail today?

A brand new passport complete with biometric chip!

Wondering what I mean by biometrics? Click here.
Aren't they pretty inside?
In fact, there's a different picture on every page.