Day 92
Marahau
As some of you may know, we have been revising our travel plans over the last few weeks. We knew in the beginning that a 2+ year trip was going to be hard to plan. However, you have to start somewhere and then work through the details. In the beginning, we set a date, chose a method of transport, drew a line on a map and went from there. After 92 days we finally have a pretty good idea of where we’re headed. I like to think of it in terms of having a new job and getting through the 90 day review. First impressions can be meaningful, but you have to give something new a little time.
Ok – enough of the philosophical. Here’s the new plan…
Instead of 2+ years on the road, we’ll probably end up with 15 months under our belt. Given our budget and what we’ve spent so far, we’ll be coming home at the end of 2008. No worries – it suits us fine. We looked at the goals for our original plan very carefully and decided what was most important in this grand adventure. We still want to travel around the world and we still like riding our bikes. So we’re moving forward with that in mind.
We fly to Melbourne, Australia on January 10th. We’ll tour the Great Ocean Rd and then take the ferry to Tasmania (“Tassie”) towards the end of the month. We’ll visit with some friends and then tour until mid to late February.
The next stop will be Southeast Asia and we hope to spend 3-4 months traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and maybe Laos. Some of where we go depends on the monsoon season and the amount of time we can get on our Chinese visa. Less time in China means more time in SE Asia.
That brings us to China. It’s exciting and overwhelming at the same time. The Far East has always been a part of the plan, but we just didn’t have a particular route in mind. One day in Wanaka we were having a discussion about it - where should we start, how much of the country could we really see, etc. Coincidently, that same day we got an email from a friend with the title “Tibet 2008?” At first I thought it was a joke and then I blinked a few times. I quickly read the email and said to Chris “you won’t believe the email we got from Anne…” OK – now I can get to the point. We’ll be riding from Lhasa to Kathmandu in September. We’ll be part of a tour and are actually looking forward to someone else carrying our gear for a month. We thought it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up – how often does a friend invite you to go on a bike trip in a region of the world that you happen to be traveling through? Enough said. Now we just have to figure out where to ride from June to the first part of September.
From Kathmandu we hope to fly to Europe. Our finances are likely to be very depleted at this point, but we should be able to enjoy a few more weeks on the road. There has been a lot of talk about France and Spain.
Then we’ll be home for a short break at Thanksgiving before heading to Hawaii to spend Christmas with Chris’ family.
Of course, all of this is subject to change. If it doesn’t, we’ll all be disappointed.
Keeping it real,
LK
Marahau
As some of you may know, we have been revising our travel plans over the last few weeks. We knew in the beginning that a 2+ year trip was going to be hard to plan. However, you have to start somewhere and then work through the details. In the beginning, we set a date, chose a method of transport, drew a line on a map and went from there. After 92 days we finally have a pretty good idea of where we’re headed. I like to think of it in terms of having a new job and getting through the 90 day review. First impressions can be meaningful, but you have to give something new a little time.
Ok – enough of the philosophical. Here’s the new plan…
Instead of 2+ years on the road, we’ll probably end up with 15 months under our belt. Given our budget and what we’ve spent so far, we’ll be coming home at the end of 2008. No worries – it suits us fine. We looked at the goals for our original plan very carefully and decided what was most important in this grand adventure. We still want to travel around the world and we still like riding our bikes. So we’re moving forward with that in mind.
We fly to Melbourne, Australia on January 10th. We’ll tour the Great Ocean Rd and then take the ferry to Tasmania (“Tassie”) towards the end of the month. We’ll visit with some friends and then tour until mid to late February.
The next stop will be Southeast Asia and we hope to spend 3-4 months traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and maybe Laos. Some of where we go depends on the monsoon season and the amount of time we can get on our Chinese visa. Less time in China means more time in SE Asia.
That brings us to China. It’s exciting and overwhelming at the same time. The Far East has always been a part of the plan, but we just didn’t have a particular route in mind. One day in Wanaka we were having a discussion about it - where should we start, how much of the country could we really see, etc. Coincidently, that same day we got an email from a friend with the title “Tibet 2008?” At first I thought it was a joke and then I blinked a few times. I quickly read the email and said to Chris “you won’t believe the email we got from Anne…” OK – now I can get to the point. We’ll be riding from Lhasa to Kathmandu in September. We’ll be part of a tour and are actually looking forward to someone else carrying our gear for a month. We thought it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up – how often does a friend invite you to go on a bike trip in a region of the world that you happen to be traveling through? Enough said. Now we just have to figure out where to ride from June to the first part of September.
From Kathmandu we hope to fly to Europe. Our finances are likely to be very depleted at this point, but we should be able to enjoy a few more weeks on the road. There has been a lot of talk about France and Spain.
Then we’ll be home for a short break at Thanksgiving before heading to Hawaii to spend Christmas with Chris’ family.
Of course, all of this is subject to change. If it doesn’t, we’ll all be disappointed.
Keeping it real,
LK
1 comment:
Sounds like a good plan!!
-JH&SK
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