Welcome to my blog! Like my South America trip, emails are so four years ago. Bookmark this page and check back at your convenience to follow me on my adventures. The big trip begins on Thursday, January 13th with an 18 hour flight to Bangkok with my friend Tina who will be traveling with me for the first three weeks. Then I've got 13 weeks of solo travel.

Everyone said they enjoyed my SA dispatches, but when I went back and read them, I thought they were kind of boring. This time around I'm going to try to give more observation, reflection and description and less "I did this".

I could've hosted my blog in a number of locations, but I chose BootsnAll because it is a network of travelers just like me. I've already been contacted by an SF woman who will be traveling solo in SE Asia at the same time I am!

Let me take a moment to introduce you to the layout of the blog. On the upper left is a heading called "Categories". I can categorize my entries and you can choose to read entries of a specific type. I'm not sure yet what my categories will be but I'm thinking along the lines of "Stories", "Itinerary", "Mishaps", "Food" and "Photos" if I can figure out how to upload them while traveling.

Now scroll down past the google ads to the bottom left. Here you will see recent entries. The most recent entries appear at the top, so you may want to check here and start where you left off in order to go chronologically. Then we have archives for those of you who forget I'm even gone until I'm on my way home.

On the right we have bootsnall resources. I'll talk about these later. Under them, you will see a heading called recent comments. This is where you get to participate on my blog. If you look at the bottom of this entry, you will see a place where it says, "Add Comment". This is very quick and easy. I encourage you to comment on my entries or on other people's comments. Comments are a great way to have a conversation without clogging peoples' inboxes.

When an entry is long, like this one, you will have the opportunity to click to an expanded page.

Here is the expanded page. You can see the comments on this entry here.

So let's talk about BootsnAll. On the right are some resources for RTW (round the world) tickets, travel insurance etc. You can also click on the link that takes you to the travelblog index page and read other people's blogs. Once you are on this page you will see a menu at the top where you can go and read full blown travel stories. If you are a member, you can participate in the forum (a great way to get questions answered) or contact an insider. An insider is someone who lives in a location you are interested in and has volunteered to answer your questions. I plan on contacting an insider for recommendations on places to eat.

Well, I think that is it. The rest you can figure out for yourself or send me an email and ask. I always welcome your personal emails.

Thanks for reading!