On a journey of a thousand miles

The Chinese philosopher Loa Tse famously remarked that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. He did not however offer any practical advice such as what to pack for this journey, as we discovered the past few months.

Some of our friends took to the philosophical idea by suggesting that we should take as little as possible. Between Irene and I we have decided to follow the good advice and are now doing what Lao Tse probably also would have advised: "Get rid of your stuff and travel light". It also reminds me of that other famous treatise on travelling: "The Hitch hiker's guide to the gallaxy" where it is famously remarked that one only needs a towel for inter gallactic travel:

A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta…wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat…wrap it around your head to ward off noxious fumes…any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it … win through, and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

I once famously remarked that the only things I would want to pack are my hi-fi and coffee machine. After much deliberation it would seem that this is not practical...Being the world's factory China expects one to pay heavy duties on all things brought into the country. So! At present we are getting rid of our stuff and is aiming to travel as light as possible and hope that we can prove Douglas Adams wrong by travelling without towels (because we're moving into a furnished apartment...). The big packing operation starts today. We sold our house and have to be out by the 1st of April (no joke) so evacuation has to start regardless.

Our agents in China advised that we should soon receive our formal invitation from the Chinese government. Therafter we need to locally apply for our visas. This should happen round the middle of March. Our estimated departure date should be the end of March. We have not bought our tickets. This seems to be a very hard to thing to do. It is sort of the proverbial last straw.

Things are starting to gather momentum and we are looking forward to getting there and settling in.

Will talk soon!