You never know how things come out (8th of July 2009 Nuremberg)

Hi There

Actually we wanted to post everything about our wonderful farewells from our families and friends... BUT....

Good things first...

The summer party of Sandras company was gorgeous (we got the price for the longest stance) and Stefans farewell party in his company was gorgeous too... Many thanks for the really wonderful presents... wow...

And our really wonderful day in the zoo with Sven and Dixie....  realy great...

BUT... Reality caught us....

In the shape of the NZ Immigration Office in London.... Yess

After 7 weeks (they told us 1 week) and a couple of requests from us and our lawyer the office came to a conclusion.......   Juuuuuhuuuuu......

We have "just" a "Work to Residence Visa" not a "Full Residence Visa". Sh.....

Peter, our lawyer, was very disappointed too and he had no idea why we failed. But he told us, that the NZ Immigration Office could make some limitations because of the worldwide banking disaster.....

OK!!!

The visa itself is no problem for us. It allows us to work in NZ for 9 months. In this 9 months we need a permanent and not a contract based job. If we get a permanent job, we get the residence visa... If we don't get a permanent job in 9 months, we will go on our one because we want and need it.... That's a piece of cake...

OK!!!

But we have some problems that are results of this visas

The biggest problem is the fact that we have "just" 3 months time to file an application for that visas (another application...!!!!) and after that application we have another 3 months to enter NZ...

And we wanted to travel for more than 3 months

What will we do now????

Fine - we shorten our South East Asia travel....  we will see

Next thing was, we asked via mail in the Immigration Office wether we get the visa in Berlin or Frankfurt? We thought, that we drive to Berlin, give them our passports and get them a couple of hours later.......

Nooooo Way!!!  Just in London.

OK, we can fly to London, no problem.

Noooo, they need 2 WEEKS

??????????????????

2 WEEKS???

We will fly in 3 weeks and therefore we need our passports.....

Next question... What happens if this will not work????

SH......

 

The whole Monday was destroyed.... 

A phone call with Peter on Monday night.

He told us, that the 2 weeks are fix, no problem. They make no jokes with that and we can trust them....

Yeah.. no problem. We trust Peter. Next day (Tuesday) Stefan to the main post in Nuernberg, passports via express to London (with the signed request and further documents (!!!))

Thus - hope and pray that the passports will be back latest 27th of July (with visa) cause our flights go on the 28th of July....

Than we planned our whole South East Asia travels new......

We shortened a lot of Vietnam and some beaches cause we had time till mid of October...

But we have more consequences.....:

We are no residents... and we have just a 9 months working visa... so we can't bring a container with us. Ok... we can but we have to pay 12,5 % GST on all of our goods in the container (used goods as you know).... And we will get no money back when we get our residence visa......

This means that we have to store our things at Schenker (hopefully not so expensive) or we store our things wherever.....  Nooo, Schenker is good  ;-))

PUHHHH!!!!

So we have to change a lot of things cause we need some stuff in NZ in the beginning. We have to pack some boxes, suitcases, whatever (a' max. 30 kilos), that our parents can send us the things that we need during the first time (clothes, shoes, notebook and and and).

OK, we have to shift gears (just 2,5 weeks to go).

We changed a lot. Not more 2 heaps in our appartment (take with us or leave it in Germany) but 3 heaps (leave in Germany, send via mail, container).

That's our stuff for ebay (things that we left in Germany)

And this will be our accomodation in the elephant camp. Ok, it changed, but more of it in one of the next postings. The translation is a little bit hard for me (Stefan) and need a lot of time. You will find the descriptions for it by bei Travelworks unter http://www.travelworks.de/freiwilligenarbeit-thailand/arbeiten-als-volontaer.html

And here is the description from our trip from Chiang Mai to Hanoi:

http://www.geckosadventures.com/South-East-Asia/Trip/Overview.html?trip=Beyond%20the%20Mekong&tripid=2804&bhcp=1

OK !!!!!  Thats it

More translations during the next days....  I promise  ;-))))

Have a lot of fun

Sandra and Stefan

Here it is.... the english blog as we promised since months ;-))) In the next weeks we will translate all of our German postings to English postings and than we post in 2 languages... hopefully always on time ;-))

Why do we write this blog?

Hmmm... good question

After our decision to leave Germany we would like to offer a communication media to our families, friends, ex colleagues and everybody who knows us and everybody who is interested in what we do….

What happened?

A short step back into 2006…..

The year we became 80, each of us 40… We sat in our favourite beach bar on Lanzarote (Canary Islands) musing…”was this it?”, “anything ahead of us?”, “what shall we do the next 40 or 50 years?” “muddling on untill our retirement?” What a vision……
Or shall we change something in our lives – we decided pro change!!!!

But first - the way had to be cleared.
So, getting back home, selling the flat – what we managed quite easily. A sign?? Stefan changing his job, maybe we get abroad with the company… First went well. Second just partially.
Next question: Where to go? The most obvious idea to us was Spain?? Ok, language barriers?? But this has really been a crazy idea. Regarding afterwards Spain was the country in Europe which was mostly affected of the banking crisis. Really lucky – or?

During our removal from one flat to the other we found an eMail from our former immigration lawyer from NZ (we asked him a few years ago, just for fun). It soon became clear… call him and ask him again…
We excluded already other countries and continents: language, weather, poisonous animals, cultural background….

Well – and here we are… More than 2 years after our first EOI (Expression of Interest), a few little detours, tests, paperwork and less than 2 months before our big break-up. With bag and baggage to Enzed to the kiwis.

Ok, before that we will have 3 months of drifting through Indochina and a short trip to Australia. The exact route to Auckland will be announced as soon as we know it by ourselves. Here is the rough route:

Working until the 30th of June
Paaaaaartyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Container around the 21st of July
Departure 28th of July from Munich via London to Bangkok, heading straight to

Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand)
Sandra will teach English in a Buddhist abbey and Stefan will pamper elephants in a camp for 2 weeks.

Than we will join an English tour group for 2 weeks heading to Hanoi (Vietnam) via Laos (Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane).

From then onwards….. who knows… drifting…Halong Bay, down the coast to South Vietnam (Vinh, Hue, Da Nang to Saigon = Ho Chi Minh City).

Mekong Delta and from Saigon up the Mekong going North to Cambodia. Than into the Tonle Sap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonle_Sap (the biggest lake in South East Asia) to Siemréap. Siemréap is the gate to Angkor Wat (world cultural heritage) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor
And then???? No idea… we will see… perhaps we will have a really good time on an island in South Thailand or straight to

Sydney …. Visiting some friends and then to

Auckland at the 12th of November

But until then we have really looooooooooots of work, organizing and managing …
And to sell (the bookshop is open, most of the plants are reserved ;-))) )

But more later….

See ya, have fun

Sandra and Stefan
XXX