THE PLAN
So I’ve been asked many times recently “How do you decide where to go for a year?” It’s not easy to decide and our plan has evolved over the past 10 months. But here are some of our goals:
1. Travel to places that we would never go in a “normal” two week vacation
2. Visit places and cultures that are changing
3. Meet and interact with locals as much as possible
4. Relax and reflect on our lives
5. Visit as many friends as possible
6. Live like Anthony Bourdain (Be travelers, not tourists and try just about anything once)
So this is what we’ve come up with base on these criteria:
EASTERN EUROPE (~2 MONTHS)
It’s changing quickly (some areas faster than others) and has some stunning scenery and amazing history. We fly into Sarajeveo, Bosnia and then plan on heading to the cost of Croatia and Montenegro (the world’s newest country!). Sarajevo is a dynamic city where cultures interact and sometime collide (as we all know). The Croatian coast is often described as “Italy in the 60’s” Laid back, beautiful, and very friendly. We then plan on heading North through Slovenia, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland and back to the Czech republic, ending in Vienna, where we fly out of to India>
INDIA (~1+ MONTH)
Are you kidding? India is vast and intriguing and the place I dream of the most. Travel there is not easy (outside the luxury 5-star scene) and the infrastructure is bulging at the seams; but the more I’ve read about it, the more I want to go. We fly into Delhi and out of Mumbai 5 weeks later and plan on heading up to the mountains, and then experiencing some of the magnificent cultural and religious sites across Northern India.
SOUTHEAST ASIA (2 1/2 MONTHS)
Assuming we’ll need a bit of a break after India (See Goal 5), we’re scheduled next to fly to Surat Thani, gateway to the islands of the Western Gulf of Thailland. The islands of Koh Samui, Koh Pha Ngan, and Koh Tau supposedly offer the beaches, bungalows, and crystal water that come closest to the header image of my web site. We then plan on heading by land up to Bankok and then on to the more mountainous areas of Northern Thailand, across into Laos, and down into Cambodia.
Laos is particularly intriguing these days as it has only been open to tourism for a decade or so, and similar is often described as “Thailand in the 60’s”; with people still embracing more traditional lifestyles and a developing interest in tourism. We’ll do our best not to ruin it. We may spend the maximum 30 days a visa will allow in Laos as somehow have to get from laos into Cambodia which should be a big adventure as the border crossing is a bit questionable, with bribes still in favor with the Khmers of Northern Cambodia.
Cambodia has Angkor Wat and other temples that we’ve just got to see. Period. The people of Cambodia have been through hell and back with Pol Pot, and it will be interesting to explore a country with such a tumultuous history…which leads on to the favorite of the moment…Vietnam: we fly from Phnom Penh to Hanoi and plan on exploring Vietnam from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The people of vietnam seem to be the highlight of many travelers experience. Warm, curious, and full of optimism; despite wars with China, France, and the US in the past 100 years.
HONG KONG (1 Week)
Next onto Hong Kong for a more westernized taste of China; where, in addtion to seeing the little town of 10 million, we plan on exploring some of the natural beauty just outside the edges of the city. There are still isolated fishing villages and vast areas to hike, kayak, and even bike.
NEW ZEALAND (~ 1 Month)
I traveled once on business to Wellington on the North Island and remember seeing the mountains to the South and saying, ” I gotta come back here some day” The Kiwis are my people; as they consider a 12-hour day hike up 4000-feet into sleet, fog, and wind a nice day out. So we fly into Christchurch, where we are going to have touring bikes arranged for 4-5 weeks of exploration. It may be a bit slow as we will way out of bike shape compared to our normal 5 days/week on the bike in SF! On the South Island; we’ll fill up on the English language, sauvignon blanc, clean air, and open space that we may be craving after months in more developing countries. Our good friends hope to meet us there and join us for weeks of bike touring.
AUSTRALIA (1 Month?)
Although we’re scheduled to fly into Melbourne and out of Sydney; I think Australia may be the place we spend a bit shorter time if we want to spend more time in SE Asia, NZ, or wherever. Not that we don’t want to see it, but it is a place we feel we could more easily return to someday, and it is not changing very fast. But who knows, we may spend up to a month exploring a few corners of the vast continent or visiting friends in Melbourne and just hanging in Sydney for a few weeks.
CHINA (5 weeks)
Talk abouit places that are changing fast and China tops every list, hands-down. Again, China would not make our list of two-week trips, but in a year, it cannot be passed up. I want to see both the history and the changing nature of China; ride a bike at rush hour in Beijing and breathe the horrible air from the factories making the crap we all buy at Target. After a brief stop in Singapore, we fly into Kunming, in SW China (Yunnan Province). From there we will head into the mountains on the edge of Tibet adn make our way up to Chengdu (Sichuan), Xi’an, and onto Beijing. There is so much to say about China, that I’ll have to defer to the future. We fly out Shanghai purely so I try the high-speed maglev train to the Airport (I am an engineer after all) And who knows, we may not be able to travel to China in the future, as political winds blow in unpredictable directions with 1.3 billion people still under pretty tight state control.
JAPAN (1 Month)
So if we haven’t lost our minds in China, we’re finally onto Japan, where we’ll explore via a 3 week rail pass and plan to head to the far North of Hokkaido and many places in-between. We have a number of contacts in Japan, so we should get some of the local experience. Of course Japan is not changing as fast these days, but it is still an important force in the world and certainly has a unique culture beyond Hello Kitty and Karaoke.
SERVAS
To meet the goal of meeting more locals and experiencing “rela life”, we have signed up as travelers with US Servas which is an international porgram of hosts that promotes cultural understanding and peace though the direct contact between people from dozens of participating countries. (www.usservas.org ) It is an amazing program that will allow us to stay for 3 days/2 nights with hosts in almost every country we are visiting. You live their lives, help them out as good house guests, and exchange perspectives on the world. I will have more on Servas in another post.
TBD
So that’s “The Plan”, but like all good plans, it is subject to change at any time as our RTW ticket is flexible and we definitely plan on going where our feelings take us and will be influenced by the people we meet along the way. I like to plan (as you have probably figured out), but reading and planning a trip is one thing, while living life is another. The point of this year off is to take a break from planning, so the only plan I guarantee is to try not to allows follow the plan.
SCHEDULE
So we fly back east to visit many friends and family in the middle of July, and will be swapping apartments with friends in NYC, attending a big wedding in Connecticut, and basically catching up with the first half of my life back east. (See Goal #5)
We then return for a week pack most of our stuff up and into storage and then get on a train for Colorado, where we will bike across the rockies to Boulder to visit family and throw Cheryl’s parents a 50th Wedding Party. It will be great gathering prior to our big trip.
After three days back in SF to take care of final business including, closing out our apartment, cancelling the PG&E, SBC, Comcast, cell phone……you name it. Then on 9/1, we fly to Geneva to see our good friends Hannah and Erik for 10-days prior to heading into Sarajevo…then we return at the end of June 2007…maybe.
I’ll be posting here throughout the summer and of course, as we travel RTW, so keep in touch, and stay tuned for more photos, maps, and other intrigue at MLATO.
-R
Tags: RTW Planning, Travel, Tag Index
rich.coffin