Thursday, September 6, 2012

Planning for our Trip--Countries to Visit

I've been asked by so many people, "Where exactly are you going on this big adventure?"

The answer is--we're not 'exactly' sure.
We have a list of places where we'd like to spend time and things we'd like to see, but we don't have the year planned out, nor do we want to.
There will be times we arrive in a place and find ourselves thinking "When can
we leave?" (Answer:  Give it 3 days, if you still hate it, listen to your gut and get out.)
And then again there will be places we adore and we'll never want to leave (we know this from experience when we got 'lost' on Utila, Honduras for far longer than we'd anticipated).
There will be fabulous Air Asia tickets that go on sale and direct us to another far flung destination because for that price, why not?
We'll be guided by weather patterns and monsoons and heat and rain.
Oh the places we'll go!
We'll meet other families who will share their stories and our travel plans will change all over again.

But since I'm a planner, of course I need to map it out.
Here are the countries we hope to visit--not necessarily in this order, although we will be flying into Bangkok and we do hope to finish and fly out of South India.

Thailand - 3 months
Cambodia - 1 month
Vietnam - 1 month
Laos - 1 month
Burma - 1 month
Indonesia - 1 month
Malaysia - 3 months
South India - 2 months

Yes, I know that is 13 months.  Obviously things will change here and there, but this is the overall main plan.
We would love, love, love to visit South Africa but I just don't know if that will happen as it will increase our budget greatly.

If we decide to extend our trip to what we refer to as "The 2 Year Plan" (and yes, this has definitely been discussed) then we'll be heading back to the Americas.....South America.



8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now - as you know, I travelled, and so I know all too well how it feels when you are planning your travels to have people jump on you and say "You simply must go to....". By the time you are actually on your way, you have purposefully deleted the lists upon lists of places that other people loved, from your memory.

However ;) that doesn't stop me from sticking my oar in to your trip! There was one lovely little village that I could have stayed in forever, I can totally see you guys (especially the boys, since there are so many kids their age there) loving it for a few days or a few weeks, whichever you decide ... Muang Ngoi Neua in northern Laos. I won't harp on about it, just look it up and bear it in mind :)

Kirsten said...

Take us with you!

Anonymous said...

It was a long time ago, but my family did a travel year in Europe when I was 3 and my brother was 5. My parents' main rule was: no cities (with the exception of London where we had family). We stuck to rural areas and lived in about 5 counties with no firm itinerary before we left. My brother and I learned some Italian and French and went to school in different little school houses. Because of the favorable exchange rate in the early 80s our family actually made a profit while traveling even though no one worked...sounds too good to be true these days.

I think your trip sounds amazing! You'll have so much fun!

Gayby Rabies said...

Sounds absolutely, positively amazing. Unfortunately, our family is on more of a "lets get Malaysian takeout" than a "lets plan a 3 month Malaysian adventure" kind of budget. At least we'll all get to live vicariously through the photos you post. You promise to post lots of pictures, right?

The one in the blue wig said...

I suggest increasing your time in Indonesia if you can :) Absolutely loved it there! Vietnam, not so much, but I've heard mixed reports from different people so you may well like it more than what I did.

shroomie said...

I love your plans! You have inspired me and we are testing our travel capabilities with a trip to Mexico this winter with our three kids. Granted - it's no year long excursions, but for now these two weeks have got me giddy!

Travel with Bender (Erin) said...

I love a good plan! How exciting.. hope we bump into you somwehere! :)

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