Our rough itinerary is as follows:

By September 10: Leave Oakland, and drive to my folks' place in Southern California. Depending on when we leave, we may either just jet down the 5, or take a few days going along the coast.

September through the first week of October: Hit LA, San Diego, the craps tables somewhere in Nevada, the Grand Canyon, Phoenix (to visit my brother), Mesa Verde, Texas, New Orleans, Florida, New York City, and end up at Cathy's parents in upstate NY by the first week of October.

October 15: Leave for London!

October 15-21: London and a couple days in Bath

October 21 through Nov 27: Egypt. We'll focus on the Nile valley sights in Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan. Spending time in Sinai is our other high-priority item. Depending on time, we may go further into Upper Egypt to see the sights around Lake Nasser, and go to one or more of the oases in the Western Desert.

Nov 27 - Jan 27: India! We'll fly into Mumbai (on the west coast), and out of Kolkata (on the east coast). Our ticket is easily extendable, so we may end up staying longer.

Jan 27 - Feb 10: Burma. We'll have two weeks to hit the standard tourist trail.

Feb 5 - arrive in Bangkok.

Here's a map of this first leg of the trip.

In Bangkok, we'll get our Chinese visa and finalize the rest of our itinerary. It'll look something like follows:

2 or 3 months in Southeast Asia:
- Thailand
- Laos
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- depending on the political situation in Indonesia, we'd like to go there. If not, we'll may go to the Philippines instead.
- We're not planning to go to Cambodia or Vietnam, but depending on our time, money, and inclination, we may visit both countries.

As long as we can stand in China. At the very least we'll go to Hong Kong, and see the big sights in Northern China in Beijing and Xian. Depending on how we're handling China, we'll probably go along the Yangtze to Shanghai, and from there to SW China.

We'll wrap things up with a week or 2 each in S. Korean and Japan. If we're able to stay with C's aunts, and/or her folks come to Japan with us, and/or we're under budget, we may stay longer.

If you want a postcard from any of these places, send me an email. You know how to reach me!