Time is ticking along, and it seems that my plans for the big trip are evolving weekly. Ideas and experience keep flooding in as I talk to random people. Turns out everybody loves to talk about their experiences travelling!
I was planning on having Bangkok as my initial destination but then my cousin Peter informed me that his brother is now living on Ko Samui, an island off the southern peninsula of Thailand. Once I looked on a map I figured it make more sense to start in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and head north rather then travel the peninsula twice.
Then I had a long Skype chat with a friend who spent 16 months travelling the world a couple years ago. Chris strongly recommended that I start in Indonesia, so after some more thinking decided that I'd start in Bali. Island hoping across Indonesia and Malaysia seemed like an amazing way to get to Thailand.
While talking to Craig, who is going to join me for the beginning of the trip, we hatched the plan to add exploring some of Australia to the beginning of the trip. So many people have talked about the amazing diving through Asia that it seemed like getting PADI certified would be a sensible thing to do. So with that in mind thought we'd start in Cairns, spend a week or so getting certified and doing a live aboard dive trip of the Great Barrier Reef. Then spend a couple of weeks driving to Darwin and from there hop a plane to Bali.
In the middle of all of this it looks like I've got a job offer to do a week or so consulting in the States. I'll be hitting San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City in a whirlwind few days and then possibly to Las Vegas for NAB. While this will provide a welcome influx of cash, it means that leaving is postponed until mid-April.
I thought that was probably about as much as plans could change, but now James has just told me about an epic adventure that friends of his are cooking up. Apparently a mate moved to Nepal and has been doing charity work there. They are now in the process of organising a charity tuk tuk trip from Nepal to Amsterdam! Sounds ridiculous(ly fun), the only gotcha is that they are hoping to leave in June and I'll have barely made it to Thailand by then.
I'm loath to pass up a oncer, but it would mean shuffling plans around considerably and probably doubling back later. Still I said I was going to travel with as little of an agenda as possible to be open to whatever opportunity arises!
Decisions, decisions ...