Planning the trip started months prior to departure. There was much to do, book airfares and hotels, get passports and visas, check train timetables and tickets and sort out warm clothing. Steve has spent many hours pouring over maps, train timetables, hotel websites and airline websites.
Getting visas for Mongolia was straight forward. It took a letter explaining our travel dates and plans for Mongolia, an application form, and a fee. These arrived stress free in the mail within 2 weeks.
Visas for Russia on the other hand are proving to be more difficult to obtain. It is necessary to get a letter of invitation to Russia before a visa cen be applied for. It appears these are available from travel agents and hotels, if you book with them. We are having difficulty knowing who to trust in this process. There are many russian agencies online but there are many scmmers also, so how do you know who to trust. Already we had chosen one agency only to later find it listed on a scammers site. Fortunately for us we had not given them any personal information. So with only 4 weeks to departure we still have no letter of invite and no Russain visas!!!
