More trip details

The rough time scale is this - we'll be leaving mid March, will be in India and Nepal until the end of April before spending the next 2 months in China and Japan. We have to make it back to Bangkok by the end of July, and then we'll spend August traveling through Malysia and Singapore to Australia (and maybe learning to scuba dive). We should stay in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands until the end of November. Then its approximately 1 month each in Chile, Peru and Mexico. What do you think?!

My only regret is that we couldn't fit Africa into the trip. Its a real shame, but we were already pushing the upper limit of mileage allowed on this trip (and had to tinker with out route until we were just under the 39,000 maximum) - and to be honest, I don't think we'd have had the time to do everything. To compensate we've decided to go on holiday to Egypt this December/January so at least we can see the Pyramids!

The tickets are booked!

Well, its done. The tickets were booked, and (hopefully) paid for yesterday! The route is finalised - at least the places we're flying to and from - all dates for flights can be changed as we wish. Which is just as well as we'll probably get stuck somewhere remote at some point... I'm so excited about this! We leave on the 17th of march 2008.

The rough route should be shown on the map (click to enlarge, blue = flight, red = overland route): London --- Delhi (see the Golden triangle, travel to Nepal and then fly back to Delhi). Delhi --- Hong Kong (short stay to sort out Chinese visas). Hong Kong --- Tokyo (catch the shinkansen north to Sapporo and back). Tokyo --- Beijing (travel overland by train: first north to the wall, and then south via Xi'an and the Yellow river gorges to Shanghai). Shanghai --- Hong Kong (hmm, couldn't get to Hanoi on this ticket, so we'll have to make it there some how from here... will probably fly direct or via Bangkok. Then travel overland from Hanoi through Laos to north Thailand - Chang Mai - and then down to Bangkok. Then onwards overland through south Thailand to Malaysia, seeing Kuala Lumpa and Singapore). Singapore --- Perth (I don't know whats in Perth! Must be something to do there though). Perth --- Brisbane (then travel overland to Sidney). Sidney --- Auckland (travel round New Zealand's islands probably by road). Auckland --- Tahiti (laze about on South Pacific beaches). Tahiti --- Easter Island (more paradise in the middle of the ocean). Easter Island --- Santiago (then travel overland - don't ask me how - to Lima in Peru, seeing the Inca trail of course). Lima --- Mexico City (have fun in Mexico for a few weeks - including my 30th birthday party). Mexico City --- London (damn).

As you might have guessed, I can't wait. Hope you can join me for bits of the trip. Look forward to hearing from you - let me know if you have any ideas about the places.