Hot off the Press: Nothing Happening

Pakistani Visa

So much for a snappy turnaround. My previous Pakistani visa experience was, in the end, pretty straight-forward and was five working days all in. I submitted my application this time on the 20th April and followed up with the supplementary documents on the 21st. Since then the UK has had two bank holidays for Easter (religious, Christian), a one-off bank holiday (wedding, Royal) and a bank holiday for May day (socialist/unionist/communist-hijacked Christianity-hijacked Pagan knees-up).

Arguably, then, this is only working day #4 but it does seem like an awful long time ago. And there's not much time left -- actually, there's quite a lot of time left in all probability but getting down to consulates in London is comparatively easy from North Oxfordshire (3 hrs door to door) and not so convenient from The Wirral where I'm relocating base camp. It'd be nice to get all my consulate visiting out of the way before I head up but that is very unlikely to happen.

Not aided by the prosaic matters of (snail) mail redirection and obtaining another International Driving Licence (IDP). My existing IDP will run out in the middle of this trip so it would be wise to get another for which I need my passport as they don't seem to accept anything else as proof of identity including a driving licence which has your name, address, photo and signature. Interestingly, I bought some US dollars online and they would not accept a driving licence as proof of address. To redirect your mail a passport and driving licence are sufficient. The upshot of which is that I have a narrow window of opportunity when I have my passport in my hands to apply for an IDP and get my mail redirected.

It's all frightfully inconvenient!

Anyway, I phoned the Pakistani consulate up this morning to see what was happening to which they replied that my application was being processed and they would be getting back to me in the next couple of days. Perhaps, then, as I should have expected.

Interesting Locals

Of course, Pakistan has been in the news in the last couple of days as one man has been killed (so much has been written that today, a whole day later, I had to search back through seven pages of articles in the Grauniad OBL special). You'll have seen how he was killed in the quiet military academy town of Abbottabad a few miles north of the capital Islamabad.

A couple of things to report. Firstly, you may have seen that the name looks like an odd combination of English and foreign. Which it is. Abbott after some British Major and abad meaning town/city. You see quite a few 'abad's when you nosing around on maps and a surprisingly large number of foreigner + abad. Perhaps one more subtle entry is Shahjahanabad which, if you pull it all apart, is Shah Jahan City. Also known these days as Old Delhi. Shah Jahan, for those not on the ball, being the guy who built the Taj Mahal amongst too many other magnificent palaces and buildings to mention.

Abbottabad, then, other than a late resident not really famous for much. What catches my eye, though, is that the main road through town is the M35, aka the KKH (Karakorum Highway). I'll be driving up that in early July! Should be interesting.

China

Until I started typing this I was in the position to report that absolutely nothing had happened whatsoever including any communication as to progress since I set my man about his business on the 6th April.

I had noticed that a Chinese visa application for those of us engaged in "self-driving" tours requires something from someone:

6. Applicants applying for special tour to China should provide a visa notification form issued by China National Tourism Administration or the tourism administration of related province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government. Special tour includes self-driving, hiking, cycling, horse-riding, hot air balloon, or other expeditions.

From here

I duly emailed my man asking about this thing that is required and making a general enquiry as to how things were going. As noted, an email has literally just arrived back which helpfully notes that: a) he's going away until the 12th of May and b) he'll send me the required document (for an additional US$50). No information about the status of my "tour."

So, things are on hold there for a couple of weeks too. And so much for my $3000 covering all paperwork. I suspect I might take this up with him.

Travel Insurance

I phoned up Navigator Insurance to buy some identical travel insurance to part one of the trip. Except they don't do that particular policy anymore (since March, I believe) and that the remaining policy has two age groups, 18-40 and 41-64 (or so) and the the oldies, which does include me, are not cheaper. About 66% not cheaper.

Tyres

Having emailed, Web-form'ed, SMS'd and finally phoned them twice, Kaulson finally delivered a quotation for some tyres in India. There was a 75% markup over the cost of buying the tyres here which seemed a little steep but there's a great deal of convenience to be had in having them manhandled by someone else.

Only it turned out that the rear tyre that was available was the wrong size. OK, I'll buy a front tyre off you. Sorry, can't order one tyre at a time. What?

Given they've not come back to me since, I'm guessing that no-one else wanted a tyre in the window of opportunity before their package was shipped (by DHL). I've subsequently bought the two tyres myself and will have to figure out how to package them up suitable for an aircraft cargo hold and whether or not to try to run the gauntlet of the Indian Customs people (who'll want a 35% Customs fee of everything if I get caught).

Why not send them via DHL yourself? OK, here's the DHL price quoter in which you want to use for the front tyre alone: 70x70x11cm and 3.75kg. The weight is actually ignored and a volumetric weight is calculated. Which is 11kg and therefore £166 to you, chief. When fiddling with the volume, remember to blank out the weight field each time as it rather stupidly reuses it even if you reduce the height, say, down to 1cm. The rear tyre is a little bit smaller in diameter, twice as fat and weighs 6kg. The rear rests inside the front when you squidge them together and I think the total height comes to around 27cm or £311 in DHL-speak.

Car Tyres

In the meanwhile, the motor is being MOT'd, brake fluid replaced and someone looking at the awful screeching that occurs when you turn the wheel.

I'm sure they said the rear tyres were on the limit at the last MOT so it's not a huge surprise they've failed the MOT this time. Replacements? Pirelli P7s £160 fitted (each, obviously). Which actually doesn't look too bad after a quick rummage in the Internet expecting the worst. That said it was £152 for two Continental TKC80s for the bike...

They had tracked down the screeching to the steering linkage oil having a leaked. He then proposed that whilst it wasn't an MOT fail (merely an advisory) they could simply replace the oil though that was no real solution as the oil would simply leak away again. I think I was too staggered by the stupidity of this suggestion to blurt out the obvious "Why don't you find and fix the leak, then?" I have no idea what's going to happen.

The only positive to emerge is that the loan car, an unlabeled 1-series with a few M Sport trimmings, is the first 1-series that I've driven that is actually nice to drive (noting that I did stall it after 20 yards -- who knew there was a clutch?). I can't quite put my finger on it though I'm leaning towards the idea that this might be the first 1-series diesel I've had and so its relatively lower revs feel more natural. I've felt in previous petrol variants that I've been obliged to red-line the poor thing just to get going. I always thought that was a 116/120 sized engine versus the 3l in mine but this suggests not.