Tons of things have happened in past a few days. I should have updated this blog more often, my bad.

First: Oz visa.

We have prepared all the materials the official tourism visa website requires, but yesterday afternoon, a lady in Oz’s Shanghai office called us up and asked for a detailed itinerary, company’s approval of leave request, Zephyr’s experiences as a freelancer and flight reservation information. We finished up all the paperwork yesterday afternoon but their fax machine seems to have some weird problems of accepting more than three pages. When I get back to home, it’s already 9pm. This morning, we managed to get the papers fax out via two different numbers, but another phone call from Oz embassy said they only got the first two pages. Z finally found out that it’s possible to scan the paper and send those supplementary as images via email to the visa office.

To me, this is simply ridiculous. Technically speaking, fax is less trustworthy yet much more expensive than email, uneasy to process and archive. But the official procedures seems to have hard coded the fax concept deep into their brain. I know it’s just impractical to issue a private/public key pair for all citizens, but for those who have the knowledge/skill to use them, why not? Oh, forgot to mention this: there is an electronic material submission gateway on the official website, but Chinese citizens have to go through the old process. Wondering why.

Second: Cut down scope.

If you’re following our tour planning process, you’ll notice that at the very beginning, we were thinking of covering all 6 continents including Africa and South America. But a careful budget planning shows that we’ll have only $40/day, which should cover food, accommodation, commute, basically everything except flight ticket. In our last post, I wrote about sponsorship. It turned out that the financial crisis is making most companies nervous enough to freeze their marketing budget for 2009. So given current situation, it’s essentially impossible to get significant sponsorship within one month or two. A traditional business problem: how to increase net profit if the revenue is fixed.

As most experienced managers have been reminded often: if the budget and time is fixed, cutting down the scope is the only reasonable thing to do. By giving up Africa and South America, we’d cut the flight cost from CNY 40k to CNY 27k per person. Even better, we could spend slightly more time in each continent since we now have 3 extra months. Even better, cutting down Africa means let go the visa headache for 6 countries. Another pile of visa application fee saved. More time in one country, more likely we could run into local life like this:

The two changes above has successfully lifted our daily budget from $40 to $72 per day.
Less is more, isn’t it?

Third: start thinking of cycling.

One purpose of this world tour is to get to know each country. Fly around is definitely the best way. Neither car rental. The car offers a psychological protection shield that will bounce off lots of ‘accidental events’, which is actually the most interesting thing in travel. We have thought about hitchhiking since it’ll give a perfect chance for us to spend long enough hours to talk to local people. It will also make the trip full of randomness. But a couple of friends have raised safety concerns which really worries Z. On last Sunday afternoon, I suddenly realized that we could cycling around with our camping equipments loaded. This way, we could move slow enough to really see a country, open enough to meet local people and cost efficient enough for us to feel comfortable enough to depart without worrying of capital shortage.

More on tour planning tomorrow.

The more I read about Australia, the clearer I realized that one month is far from enough to understand this country. In dinner time,  Z and I had a serious evaluation on our budget:  we have CNY 250,000, USD 36,587, allocated for this trip. Put the flight tickets and visa cost aside, for one year trip, we have USD 40 per day for food, lodging and commute.  This is not very bad but if we want to stay a bit longer, especially to cover more distances, this is not even enough for renting a campervan. ( I did some research on hitchhiking but it turned out to be very time-consuming. It took someone 5 months to go from Adelaide to Darwin and back.  )

Are there any way to get more funding?

Right after dinner, a friend called me up just for a chat. I told her about the plan and our very tight budget.  She, being a successful business woman, immediately suggested that we should look for sponsorships.  Z and I have had some discussion on this but we gave the thought up, afraid that accepting sponsorship will force us to do things we don’t like. (I get this impression from the great marathon book 50/50. )

But after our phone call, Z and I decided to give it a try? If we could raise another CNY 300,000, ie USD 43,950, we’ll have $160 per day for one year or $80 for two years. That is whole lot better.

Then I gave Nancy a call to listen to her suggestions. After understanding what I’m having in mind, she, being an experienced marketing person, suggested a plan like this: 

0) Brainstorm a core theme for this trip. It should be something that’s relevant to my software and entrepreneur background that could make the whole plan credible. It should be deep and serious enough that could evoke thinking and discussion.  It should also be interesting enough to the people the sponsors is willing to spend their marketing dollar on. 

1) Write down the plan. Be it a powerpoint or a sheet of paper. Just something that we could send to others as a way to get leads.  ”Treat it as an elevator pitch. An executive summary.” 

2) Find a couple of media as a platform to get the messages out. The bigger, the better. The goal of working with media is not to get the money, but to have a channel into the target audiences.  The wider the coverage, the more lucrative it is to the potential sponsors.  

3) Contact potential sponsors. The situation has to be a win-win for all three players: us, the media and the sponsor company.  

4) Once the major deal is closed, we could talk to Camera manufactures, Outdoor gadget or equipment companies to figure out other relatively small items.

This sounds quite interesting. The worst case is that we might end up with no sponsorship at all. But through this process, we should have a clear and concrete idea of what we really want to see in this trip. Plus I could gain some first-hand experience in fund-raising. Doesn’t sound like a bad choice, right?

Tomorrow: call some media and marketing friends and figure out a time to get people together for a brainstorm session.

PS. A checklist Z and I worked out to address the money shortage issue:

• Increase incomes
  • Find sponsorships.
  • Take some freelance work from friends or websites like Rent-A-Coder
  • Find local labor works like fruit picking.
  • Work for the hostels we’ll stay at in exchange of free beds and food.
  • Sell photograph or travel writings online. 
• Cut costs
  • Stay at people’s apartment or houses to save on lodging.
  • Buy fish, vegetables in wet market outside urban area and cook our own meals.
  • Stay in tents in rural areas. 
  • Hitchhike or share cars with others. 

Now that we’re settled down in this temporary apartment, it’s time to speed up the process to apply for the Australia Visa.  Besides the official government immigration site, I’ve found this page to be quite helpful.  Since both of us are older than 30, there is no chance for us to apply the great Working Holiday visa, which allows one year travel and work in Oz. 

The only choice is to apply the visitor visa, which allows up to three months stay, no work allowed.  What makes it not so great is China citizen is one of the few that couldn’t apply the visa from online. I’m also suspecting that instead of up to 3 months, we might be able to stay only 30 days.  One possibility to stay a bit longer is to get to Oz first, then try to get a temporary working permit there. Once we have that in hand, we could work for a few of weeks to get enough money for a grand tour over Oz by campervans for one or two months. (Now that I start to understand how big Australia is.

Besides the discussion over travel plan, here are a couple of others things we’ve get done today:

• Get the bank to print out our bank account activities in the last 12 months. 17 copies with their stamps on each page. 
• Pay for CNY20 each for 6 copies of saving certification, which is required by some countries as a way to prove the financial status of applicant. 
• Call up ctrip.com to find out the cheapest flight ticket to Sydney is Qantas QF130 on Feb. 5th. It costs 5368, tax included, for one person.  Set a reservation for both of us. Payment due at Jan. 15th. We’ll have to know for sure whether we’ll get the visa or not by that time. 
• Zephyr spent tonight updating our content extraction engine code for a potential buyer. Hopefully that could instill some cash into our bank account. 
• Called up our families to get our Hu Kou photo copied and sent to us.  Once we receive these, we should be able to kick off the application process.  For those of you who don’t know what Hu Kou is, here is a great article fyi. 

Spent past 6 days moving from previous apartment to a friend’s. Six whole damn days!  Just to pack things up, move it to a new apartment and unpack them!  I was literally shocked to see how many ‘stuff’ we’ve collected all these years. Stuffs that we used only once.  Or stuffs we never touched in past four years.  We ended up throwing away tons of stuff we bought using real money.  What if we donate the money to poor kids?  Or, just use the money to travel around? Even some nice tea?

Paul Graham‘s essay stuff struck the cord: 

I first realized the worthlessness of stuff when I lived in Italy for a year. All I took with me was one large backpack of stuff. The rest of my stuff I left in my landlady’s attic back in the US. And you know what? All I missed were some of the books. By the end of the year I couldn’t even remember what else I had stored in that attic.

And yet when I got back I didn’t discard so much as a box of it. Throw away a perfectly good rotary telephone? I might need that one day.

The really painful thing to recall is not just that I accumulated all this useless stuff, but that I often spent money I desperately needed on stuff that I didn’t.

Now that I’m faced with the similar “one large backpack” challenge, it’ll be interesting to see what I’ll do after coming back from the world tour.  

Next step: get Australia and New Zealand’s visa.

As I mentioned in our very first “Why travel” post, I’m hoping to find some fields that could provide ceaseless technical challenges.  At least for now, Astronomy is a very promising one.

So I posted this question on Astronomy.com‘s forum: 

Hi group,

I’m planning an one year world tour with my wife. We’re planning to start from China, go to Austrilia, New Zealand, fly to Chile, Brazil, onto Mexico, US, Canada. From US, fly to Europe and go from north to south from UK to South Africa. What’ll be your recommendation for places to visit or people to meet? I’m definitely trying to visit the Las Campanas Magellan Telescope in Chile. But what else?

Thanks a lot,

Alex

Jeff Barton replied pretty quickly with tons of useful information:

For starters, take a look at the book Space Places, which is a photographic tour of observatories and space-science facilities that will give you some ideas.

Not all professional observatories welcome visitors and those who do usually have a set schedule for them. The Keck Visitor’s Center in Hawaii is worth a stop but they keep a strict schedule for tours and outreach nights, so contact them in advance.

In the US, I’m heavily biased in favor of McDonald Observatory in Texas, but I also like to visit Mt. Palomar near San Diego, Griffith Park and Mt. Wilson near Los Angeles and Pasadena — and you certainly should look at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory‘s tour schedule. Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona, and nearby Meteor Crater are nice tours. Sunspot and Apache Point, New Mexico, near Cloudcroft are beautiful places to visit, and the Very Large Array near Socorro is very impressive.

Kitt Peak National Observatory SW of Tucson, Arizona, certainly is not to be missed. The tours there are first rate and observing nights are well worth the cost.

I’ve been to all of the above except the Keck, and can assure you they’re worth the trip — especially if you can arrange your schedule to coincide with their visitor nights. The Smithsonian and National Air & Space Museum I’ve also visited and could have spent a full week there easily. If I were to pick additional US facilities to visit, they’d be Yerkes Observatory and the Marshal Spaceflight Center. Other NASA facilities I’ve visited include the Ames Research Center near Mountain View, CA, and the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston and Apollo museums and research facilities in Clear Lake, TX.

I’ve only visited one site in Europe and that’s Pic du Midi, which is closed when the cloud deck socks in the tramway towers, so make reservations to visit and watch the weather. But the nearby Chamonix ski resort and Mer d’Glas glacier are certainly worth the trip even if you get there and the observatory tours are closed. This is just about the most beautiful place in the world, in my opinion, and well worth the trip.

Use Google and the facility names to find their Web pages and visitor’s schedules.

Boy, this is tons of homework.  But I love it.  Inspired by Jeff’s answers, here are a list of observatories in Australia and New Zealand

• Stardome  in Auckland’s One Tree Hill Domain
• Milford Deep Underwater Observatory, Milford Sound, Fiordland, New Zealand. Enter this unique structure to view a rich marine ecosystem unparalleled anywhere else in the world. One of the most exciting attractions and activities in Milford Sound.
• Mt. John University Observatory near Christchurch.

One hour ago, we finished up all the apartment rental paperwork with the owner. Telephone and internet access will be turned off within 24 hours. Then we will start moving all the books, furniture and electronics to a friend’s apartment, visit parents and apply visa.  

Time to say goodbye to the ‘ubiquitous’ ‘always-on’ internet.  Unplugging has already become a great relief to us software geeks. 

But there is one thing I hope I could always take with us: the wikipedia.  I’m getting most of my knowledges from this website now.  Google for ‘offline wikipedia’ shows that there is a 7.8GB database dump from the live site. There are also all kinds of open source toolkits for this. One I especially love is the python parser called WikiXRay. At last, I ran into this hassle free, no software knowledge required! 2008/9 Wikipedia Selection DVD. Even better, there is a torrent file available with a 72.8KB/s download speed.

I’ll keep posting once I finish the download.

By visa,  I do not mean the plastic cards that will suck your money out before you realize it.  But the single sheet of paper that will cost you both money,  $50-$200, and tons of paperwork headache just to enter a country.   I know I’m ranting now but I couldn’t help condemning all the artificial barriers that’ll dwarf Mountain Everest.   

For example, we’d like to follow this route as a beginning: Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Brazil. 

• To enter Singapore, you’d enjoy 96-hour “pass through visa” if you hold an airline ticket to Australia or New Zealand. Wow, awesome. So let me apply for Australia first. 
• To enter Australia, you’ll have to provide your employer’s written permission.  What about an artist or author or a software engineer works on GPL projects who don’t need an employer?  If I am allowed to push one step further, why the hell should everyone on this planet have an employer?  Oh, there is a small line of text saying that a New Zealand visa will be very helpful.  Well, ok, I’m flexible. So let’s try NZ first. 
• To enter New Zealand, you have to provide the departure date and paid flight ticket as a proof of “intention of leaving“.   This means that we’ll have to buy a flight ticket to Chile before we could even apply for NZ’s visa.  Great, let’s see what Mr. Chile has to say. 
• To enter Chile, you MUST provide the original “physical” copy of ‘invitation letter’ from Chile.  Physical! Even better, the invitation letter has to be approved by Chile government first.  What if we don’t know someone in Chile?  What if we just want to see the famous Magellan Telescope in Las Serena?   Fine, let’s fly from NZ direct to Brazil then.
• To enter Brazil, baby, you’ll have to pay a travel agency to do it for you.  Individuals can not apply directly.  Period.  

Great! Perfect!! What a carefully designed chain of visa application.   If Julius Caesar  lives today, he’ll have to say “visa veni vidi”.  

“Before you come and see, Mr. Caesar, may I take a look at your visa first?”

You know you’ve got real great friends when you received responses like this:

From Adrian:

Alex,

… …

I really identify with your feeling of wanting to find that burning passion.
It’s what has driven me in the past 3 years to work on Idapted. At times
it’s at boiling point from the moment I wake to when I collapse in bed (and
then when I’m dreaming) at other times I may even wonder if it has left me
momentarily. No matter how I feel however, deep inside I know that this is
what I want to do and that I’ll have regrets in life if I didn’t give it my
best shot and 300% at trying to make it happen.

Having to make choices is difficult and deciding to put a start up at the
center of my life definitely played a part in us eventually breaking up.
However I believe that was the right choice at that time and it still is
for the stage of life I am in. The important thing was that when it
came to that decision while we were both
upset we didn’t hurt each other in a way that we couldn’t be friends again.

… …

But back on the road to discovering yourself; seeing what the world has to
offer could be one of the most life turning things you can do. I’ve been
fortunate in my life to have had two chances to do this. First when I came
to China in 97 – quite possibly without that experience I would never have
the opportunity to have China be such a great part of my life. Secondly when
I went to do my MBA – meeting so many incredible people, listening to their
stories, getting inspired and helping me decide what to do next.

You have a great deal of drive, tenacity and intellect – which will make you
successful no matter what you put your mind to. However I really look
forward to that time when you find that thing which you are passionate about
because I’ve no doubt then you’ll change an industry be it spaceflight or
software.

While it’s only been recently that I have got to know you better; I hope we
have more opportunities. I’ll be here for a while and so perhaps when you
feel like doing the Beijing marathon we can chat more over long weekend
training runs =p.

Good luck and cheers to that next chapter of life which starts in the 30’s!

From Walter:

Your decision to turn down all job offers and “see the world” with Z is good news for me since that maximizes my chances of seeing you again in the near future. It is praiseworthy that you amassed enough money to be able to fund your “one year luxury journey”. Only a miniscule portion of the world’s people can make that claim. Nothing is 100% predictable but I believe that you and Z will never regret this momentous decision.
… …
How can I help you?

From Marco, I really love this keep-pushing-it-until-it’s-done type of dude:

As always we will continue to look for good artist and strategy
thinkers to join us. And u r certainty welcome whenever u change your
mind.
… …
I have decided to keep you updated with this project, in case you change your mind.
… …
you are making us to want u even more now. So, this will be an open offer until you finish your vacation.

From Phil:

Sounds like a great idea! Which countries are you travelling to? And when do you start?

I think we will be able to make this work remotely. As long as you avoid traveling to countries on our side of the Digital Divide for the first few months so you’ll have access to Internet and can communicate daily about the project until we complete it. Who knows, maybe we can finance your entire trip around the world by sending you more work like this if things go well with the insurance project.

To turn down all the great job offers is unthinkable. To spend all 10 years saving in traveling around the world is, well, simply crazy.  So why travel?

Here is a letter I sent to one of the friends explaining this:

Thanks for the offer but I don’t think I should take it.

Besides the salary, I really appreciate the trust you have put into.  I’ve spent lots of time in the past 30 days, talking to people, getting introduced to potential opportunities.  The more I see, the more confused I found myself.  It’s not because there are no super smart people to work with. Just that I am not sure I want to continue with the life as it is.

The work as I see it, starts by understanding the techniques, then spending years and years refining the skills until getting to the master level. This could take a very long time. Until now, my deepest urge for work comes from the interests in the business of software.  I’ve done pretty well in software development, and I have confidence that I could do equally well in product design and marketing side. But deep in my heart, these things no longer excites me anymore.  It could no longer provide the burning passion like it does in the past 10 years.  For now, I can’t accept your job offer since I’m afraid that somewhere in the middle of the venture, I’ll have to choose between upsetting the best friends of mine and pressing myself till implosion.  A tough situation I don’t want to get exposed to.

My wife and I have decided to spend one year to travel around the world.  To begin a luxury long journey for discovery.  To know more about ourselves, To meet people and see what they’re working on.  To start finding something that is challenging enough to provide continuous stream of passion for the rest of my life.

Zephyr and I have had this thought for a long time, but we’re always waiting for a ‘better’ chance to do so, “when we have more money or more time” as we always told ourselves. This job finding process made me realize that now is the best time to start.  Both of us have passed the age of 30.  I could sense a long list of mundane burdens lurking on the landscape: to have a baby or two, to get mortgage for a apartment, to buy a car, to support our beloved parents.  Having a baby just like a little myself will be a lot of fun, bu if it’s at the cost of spending many years treat work only as a work, that’ll be awful.

So our plan is to take one year off to do so. After that, we’ll have to decide what to do and take whatever responsibility we have to shoulder.  This won’t be a retreat from modern society, but a journey to look for a better life, to become a better man and woman.  One year is how long our saving can carry us over. We may take some temporary jobs to get some financial support, but more importantly as a window to get to know other people, or a device to hide the traveler identity in order to stay closer to the local life.  And I’m not expecting this to be an easy trip, budget for food and lodge will be quite limited, but the difficulty of finding that magic stream of passion in one single year is simply much harder.

Right now, Astrology, spaceflight, the Universe, especially the Mars Rovers related projects seems to be quite enchanting.  If our budget allows, I’ll definitely check out more on these areas.  Just in case of whatever place or people you think I should see or meet, please let me know.

We haven’t decided when to start yet, but it shouldn’t take too long. If things go well, that’ll be before the Chinese New Year.