Read all about it! Read all about it!

I got an email from my dad this morning with an attachment of the front page from one of the local St Helens newspapers called the Reporter, the front page is all about my trek home.

Unfortunately they didn't wait for me to email them back with information about the trip, instead they have used what I wrote on the just giving page and a picture that they dug up from archives when I did the Liverpool triathlon last year. The only thing they had to do was come up with a headline that reflects what an adventure this trip will be. Homeward Bound. Really? REALLY?!?

The main thing is that this time they have put the web address in the article so people can get online and donate which they managed to forget last time. This is only one of the local papers, I'm hoping that the other paper does a better job!

It's a date!

After deciding that this could be even better with some more planning I've decided to stay in Dhaka and leave just before my visa runs out. That means that I now have a launch date of SATURDAY 22ND JANUARY 2011!!


So while that does give me 6 weeks in which to try and get more planned to do on route it really isn't a while lot of time and I can see myself being glued to my netbook for the majority of the time, but it's worth it just to make the trip that much better.

Start date? Erm...

I met with Manik today who handles the PR side of things here, Zula and me wanted to see if he could help us with the launch event for ‘Rolling back home’ which is going to start at the national monument here in Savar. Zula is using her PR experience really well and knows exactly what to do to organise an event like this, unfortunately she is leaving this week but the help she has given me so far has been great.

I’m thinking about putting the start date back for my trip back home. Because of visa rules getting back in India can’t be done for 2 months after you leave the country, this means my earliest return will be 7^th January. Another reason I’m considering moving the start date back is because I’m starting to realise how big this thing could be and if I do some more networking and tell more people about it then I’m sure it will grow. Getting more time to do work at the CRP is a bonus as I feel I’ve been neglecting certain responsibilities while working on RBH.

Getting some air time

I was surprised again today when a camera crew from Deshi TV turned up to film a documentary about the CRP for next week’s national disabled day and they wanted me to tell them a little about my fundraising for CRP and I happily obliged, I got to briefly explain the outline of what’s going to happen and also plug the website (www.justgiving.com/rollingbackhome) which was unexpected but enjoyable. So I’m hoping that my bit of time on TV will spark some interest and some donations!

Useful contacts visit the CRP

Today we had a visit from the people at DFID (Department for International Development) which is the UK government’s fight against world poverty (according to the business card). I told them about my journey back home and my attempt to raise £5000 for the CRP and they were impressed and offered to help me promote it and even hold a fundraising event in Dhaka at the ex-patriot club. This should be useful as they have offices in some of the countries I’ll be going through so if I come across any difficulties with visas then I’ll have some help on hand.

Fundraising for the CRP

I’ve decided that instead of just doing this trip for me it would be more worthwhile to do it for charity, while I’m already at the CRP it seemed like quite an obvious option. The just giving page is at http://www.justgiving.com/rollingbackhome, so please take a look, post the link wherever you can just to raise awareness of what I’m doing and please give whatever you can!

More travel plans

So after a trip up to New Delhi last week I’m feeling a lot more confident about getting home, I did fly for parts of the trip but I got on a lot of public transport as well with no problem which makes me think that going home in January is definitely possible.

I’ve decided to add Nepal to my places to go on the way home, I met someone from a spinal unit over there and I thought while it’s on the way home I might as well stop by. Visiting Mount Everest would be a cool sightseeing experience while I’m in the area; one of the people at the spinal conference in India told me that they do a flight around the peak. That’s the only way I’ll get up to the top these days and I’m okay with that.

I’ve decided the best plan for picking up visas will be to do it on route. I can get an Indian visa from Dhaka and the Nepalese visa on the border, once I get to Kathmandu I’ll collect the Chinese and Kazakh visa leaving the Russian visa until I get into Kazakhstan as I need to have my train ticket before I can get a transit visa. Very exciting plans!