So the Brazilian government now knows more about me than my mum, my doctor and my best friend put together. Even the scary old Chinese government did not ask me so many questions and demand so much paper work as did the Brazilians on applying for a visa. However that might have been because I forgot to apply for a chinese visa from home and therefore ended up in a dodgy back alley office in Hong Kong hoping that they might put the magic little sticker in my passport - they did and the Chinese let us in - such friendly folk...(www.bartandthebomb.blogspot.com)
funnily enough brazil is also the only south american country i'm travelling to which actually demands a visa in an Australian passport. Apparently the others are more trusting of me.
It also happens to be the only country i'm visiting where it is recommended that I have a vaccination for Yellow Fever - a particularly nasty disease that I think i'd prefer to avoid. problem is it's not just a matter of popping down to my GP for this one - unlike other vaccs that I need (only a few cause i'm still pretty dosed up from visiting SE Asia) this one requires me to go to a special travel clinic...
so far I'm not loving Brazil! i'm trying not to let these little medical and governmental hiccups affect my judgement of the country itself....think of samba and beaches...and mojitos....ahhh there we go - i love brazil again.
so with my passport somewhere between here and the Brazilian embassy and my vaccs all up to date I'm well on the way to being on that plane in a month.
My panic is over and now the excitement is setting in...soon I'll be counting the days...
Till next time
We forgot to apply for our Chinese visa too. Remembered 5 days before leaving for the trip - yeouch! Luckily those Chinese are speedy little stampers - picked up our passports the day before leaving (1/2 an hour before the embassy closed, phew - tight!)
ReplyDeleteSincerely hope you don't catch Yellow Fever on anything else nasty. My friend has a particularly gross video (I think it's on You Tube, I'd find out, but you probably wouldn't want to watch it anyway.) of a backstreet doctor digging a bug out of his head. The little critter buries in with barbs that make it difficult to pull out. They literally had to smoke it out with cigarettes and scalpels! Moral of the story: Wear a hat if you are on the Amazon.
Two comments in one day. Aren't I the devoted follower?