Ladies, Gentleman, fellow travelers and the people of the world who haven’t encountered me yet,
Here I sit at my computer.. 1:30 in the morning, 12 hours until I leave for my big “summer of George” trip to Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore.
At this point on my “to do” list before I leave includes,
* move crap out of my driveway so I can park my car in the garage while I’m gone. * Buy a new digital camera * get passport photos for Vietnam visa * pack.. no I haven’t started * Return an unused cellphone * buy a few guidebooks * finish drying some clothes
The way I see it if I stay up all night then I’ll be preparing myself for the 12-14 hour time difference I will be experiencing VERY soon.
Right now the trip plan is AGRESSIVE. However, those of you who know me, know I’m not one to sit around and snooze my life away so I want to see as much as possible. I know I’ll have to come back to many places (such as Australia and New Zealand) in order to truly experience them, but while I’m in the neighborhood I have to see what I can.
Trip plan looks like this:
- TU 7/10/07 DTW->NRT
- WE 7/11/07 NRT->BKK
- TH 7/12/07 BKK->SIN->Darwin
- FR 7/13/07 Darwin->Sydney
- SA 7/14/07 Sydney
- SU 7/15/07 Sydney
- MO 7/16/07 Sydney->Christchurch
- TU 7/17/07 Franz Joseph
- WE 7/18/07 Car FJ -> Fiord (Te Anau)
- TH 7/19/07 Fiord
- FR 7/20/07 Queenstown -> Auckland
- SA 7/21/07 Auckland
- SU 7/22/07 Auckland-Brisbane-Cairns
- MO 7/23/07 Cairns
- TU 7/24/07 Cairns
- WE 7/25/07 Cairns->Bangkok
- TH 7/26/07 Bangkok
- FR 7/27/07 Bangkok -> Hanoi
- SA 7/28/07 Hanoi
- SU 7/29/07 Hanoi -> Halong Bay
- MO 7/30/07 Halong Bay -> Hanoi
- TU 7/31/07 Hanoi -> Siem Reap
- WE 8/1/07 Siem Reap
- TH 8/2/07 Siem Reap
- FR 8/3/07 Siem Reap -> BKK-> Ko Samui
- SA 8/4/07 Ko Samui
- SU 8/5/07 Ko Samui
- MO 8/6/07 Ko Samui
- TU 8/7/07 Ko Tao
- WE 8/8/07 Ko Tao
- TH 8/9/07 Ko Tao -> Ko Saumi -> SIN
- FR 8/10/07 SIN -> NRT -> DTW
Already, as the genius and excellent planner that I am, this schedule is blown as I forgot to account for time to get my Visa for Vietnam. So we may flop the Vietnam and Cambodia tour with the Thialand tour so that we have time to see everything we want.
So, thanks to Linda, Gino’s beautiful, intelligent and oh so charming wife for letting him escape with me this summer. Thanks to all of my friends who are watching the house and the cat while I’m gone. And finally, thanks to everyone who has put up with my chaos while I’ve been scrambilng to put thsi trip together on a weeks notice.
I’ll try to blog as often as possible and upload pictures as I go but as I said, I’m on the move and I don’t know how much time in front of a computer I’ll have.
Bill