Kenya trip: passports and packing
It was hard sending away my old passport to be punched and canceled, with its Egyptian visa that's like a little collage, and the stamps from Israel, Scotland, and Germany. But send it away I did in order to get my new one. The new passport arrived on Friday along with the old one. Happily, the old one came back with holes punched only in the cover, and with a "Canceled" stamp across the first page. It's still a lovely souvenir and none of the stamps inside are damaged.
The new passport shows signs of being subtlely redesigned, with a slightly different organization and type treatment on the inside front cover, the inclusion of Spanish headers (previously the headers were only in English and French), and with a very slightly different design inside. My picture is pretty good; at least, I won't be embarrassed to show it to anyone. (I planned for this because I'll be damned if I'm going to travel around the world showing my worst face.) Now I have to look into whether or not I need to send away for a Kenyan visa or if I can get one upon arrival.
In the meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out the luggage issue. I'm going to need more of a pack than a suitcase for this trip. I still have the pack I used when I traveled to the Middle East ten years ago. It was a pack with a zip-off day pack, the latter of which was stolen several years ago. I still need a day pack, in part so I have the extra packing space that I can check, and in part because I'll need it in Kenya. I just checked the manufacturer's Web site and will be calling them tomorrow to see if I can get a replacement. If not, I may be investing in a new bag. That simply means that I'll have to justify the expense with more adventure travel sooner than, oh, in another ten years.
I keep looking at this small, sturdy old thing and wondering how I packed a month's worth of clothes inside it. I know I was pretty economical and wore the same things a lot, which I'll have to do again. I'll have to re-research all the packing tricks I used back then.
T minus 2 months and 27 days. Yikes.
The new passport shows signs of being subtlely redesigned, with a slightly different organization and type treatment on the inside front cover, the inclusion of Spanish headers (previously the headers were only in English and French), and with a very slightly different design inside. My picture is pretty good; at least, I won't be embarrassed to show it to anyone. (I planned for this because I'll be damned if I'm going to travel around the world showing my worst face.) Now I have to look into whether or not I need to send away for a Kenyan visa or if I can get one upon arrival.
In the meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out the luggage issue. I'm going to need more of a pack than a suitcase for this trip. I still have the pack I used when I traveled to the Middle East ten years ago. It was a pack with a zip-off day pack, the latter of which was stolen several years ago. I still need a day pack, in part so I have the extra packing space that I can check, and in part because I'll need it in Kenya. I just checked the manufacturer's Web site and will be calling them tomorrow to see if I can get a replacement. If not, I may be investing in a new bag. That simply means that I'll have to justify the expense with more adventure travel sooner than, oh, in another ten years.
I keep looking at this small, sturdy old thing and wondering how I packed a month's worth of clothes inside it. I know I was pretty economical and wore the same things a lot, which I'll have to do again. I'll have to re-research all the packing tricks I used back then.
T minus 2 months and 27 days. Yikes.