2 steps forward and one step back.

30/4/2015 Thursday

Yesterday we heard that our ship is to arrive in Antwerpen 3 days earlier than expected! Great! Luckily we haven't booked hotels for the end of the trip in case something like this happened! 

And with amazing technology we have today we can see exactly where the ship is and what she looks like! 

The MOL Brillance.

Current position....

So that's two steps forward. 

This morning we headed to the airport for our flight to Dhubai. We sat in the airport all day until finally the flight was cancelled. We are thus still in Singapore for one more night. We will still have an overnight stop in Dhubai avoiding the dreaded long haul to Paris. 

But we planned on a day and a half there -all that beautiful gold jewellery in the souk. I missed out on it  last time we were there and I was resolved to get my hands on some this time! So one step backwards. 

Yesterday we spent the day at the Jurong bird park. What a fabulous place for someone with a camera! It gave me the chance to practice my bird photography skills, so I'll show you a couple of shots (Sony Cybershot Bridge camera).

I hope you will agree my shots are improving -but I must admit that I have been assisted by a Chinese man in a camera shop! We went in to get a plain, $20 filter to act as a lens cap, to save taking it on and off all of the time etc. but I hadn't realised that I needed a much better filter than that! 

$150 later we left with a high quality, multi coated, adjustable, UV filter, and a battery with 5 times the capacity of the basic one I had. (There is now no need to carry the charger with me since I will NEVER run out of battery power) and a complimentary UV film over the viewing screen. So you see there is help in every camera shop in Singapore and we'd have been fools not to take it! And my shots have benefited (I suppose). 

Singapore

Tuesday 28th April

Today has been the day of the Bayside gardens, and the domes. I haven't been to Singapore since 1975, and I am surprised at the changes. This is a modern sophicated City. But the feature which took our attention all day today was the Gardens by the bay. 

These are artificial trees. They are vertical gardens, with vines climbing right up the top of the trees. The growth isn't complete yet but it will be spectacular when it is. The birds have moved in already though. We counted 17 of these "trees".

Nearby there are two "domes", which are indoor gardens in controlled environments. My favourite was the "cloud Forrest" dome. This is another vertical garden with a 35m waterfall, simulating the cloud forests found at high elevations around the world. 

The second dome is a series of ornamental gardens from Mediterranean climates around the world. It has a lot of flowers. 

And all of this is in an extensive garden area, with wonderful tropical gardens. 

But we ate too much today! There is vegan food everywhere. At least as best we can tell. We had wild mushrooms with a mild wasabi dressing, crispy fried tofu with spicy Thai dressing, vegetable dumplings for lunch. For dinner we cruised around a food mall. We came across a number of strange looking dishes made from radishes, taro, sautéed lettuce, and a desert with mango purée and ice cream served in a green coconut - until I couldn't eat another thing. 

We dragged ourselves back to the hotel to the sound of the loudest thunder I have ever heard, heavy rain, and very weary legs. 

Preparing for Europe.

Sat  18th April 2015

Matilda is on the high seas heading for Antwerpe (Belgium). We will be leaving in just over a week to meet her, with stopovers in Singapore, Dubai and Paris on the way. That is my solution to the horrendously long flights in cattle class....

According to everything I can find on the web (which is very little) we will not need a carnet in Europe and will be spared paying duty or taxes on entry to EU countries. We just need to sign a stat dec that we will not sell the vehicle in Europe. 

But I had a phone call yesterday from the shipping agent (Jim at Colless-Young). The Belgium agent says we would be better to have a carnet, or we will have to pay 30% of the value of the vehicle as a deposit refundable when we leave the country (a week later!) Depending on the vehicle valuation that could be as low as $50,000! Grrrrrr! So I will try to get our carnet extended next week. 

The other issue which is very difficult to work out is how long we can have the vehicle in either individual countries, or in the EU. We have established that the Shengen Zone does not relate to objects (vehicles) but only to people. So we can stay a total of 90 days in any 180 day period in the Shengen zone countries. But in the EU countries we can have the vehicle a total of 6 months. Some countries the vehicle can stay for a year. I haven't been able to find out anything about multiple entries for the vehicle. It seems we are going to have to juggle our visa and the car's time allowances to be able to have the multiple trips we want. 

We are starting in Belgium, and going through Netherlands and Denmark (EU and Shengen countries) to  Sweden and Norway (Shengen but not EU). We will then return to Czech Republic (EU and Shengen). This trip is to take us three months. That will be our Shengen quota until end October. 

Monday 20th October

I have spoken with RACQ re the carnet. Since our carnet expired before we could get it back to Australia it cannot now be extended. So we need a new one, with a new $400 fee plus a $100 "rush" fee to have it completed before we leave. 

AAA (Australian Automobile Association) says that EU countries don't require a carnet, but some of them (such as Italy, Greece and Turkey, and now apparently Belgium) do ask for one. They advised us to have one.....

This increases the cost of touring the world considerably. It seems we will have to have a large amount of money (100% of the value of the vehicle) tied up in bank term deposits for the whole time that we need a carnet - we have other uses for that money! Oh well.... Others have sold their houses to finance similar trips to ours so I guess I shouldn't complain! 

Wednesday 22/4/15

We have got our Carnet! That was indeed quick! 

I have also heard from the EU consulate that the EU doesn't regulate temporary import of vehicles from outside the EU, only movement of vehicles within the EU. So that means that member countries make their own rules about vehicles such as ours. It will be up to Czech Republic whether or not they will allow us to leave the vehicle there for 6 months while we come home. 

So I am feeling excited about the upcoming trip now! The major hurdles have been jumped and I think we can cope with the rest.

Sat 25th April
A copy of the Carnet has been sent ahead to Antwerpe so they can prepare for offloading the vehicle.  I also sent a copy of the Australian and Japanese customs stamps in case that is needed. Flights and hotels have been booked, including return flights, in case EU requires onwards tickets before we can board our flights here. I think by the time we've seen most of the world we will have experienced all of the problems once and will know how to do this with no hitches!

We have been reading about Norway and seeing stunning photographs. I'm practicing my photography skills in readiness, so watch this space!