Where and When

(Note: Our current schedule is posted here. The following lists our ideas at the beginning and we didn't quite follow all of the plan.)

After starting as a 3-month jaunt through Europe and ballooning into a 14-month, 6-continent marathon, our itinerary has been reformed into something both ambitious and reasonably focused. Hitting every city between here and Kathmandu started sounding a bit repetitive, so we narrowed the scope of the trip to focus on a few main interests.


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On Labor Day, 6 September, we catch our first flight from Seattle to Seoul. Just over a week in Korea gives us enough time to get a brief impression of the place and eat our weight in kimchi. Sounds like we'll have the chance to meet up with extended family and play some ultimate, so maybe it'll seem like too short a stay.

15 September finds us crossing the Yellow Sea to Beijing, where we have two days on our own before starting a month-long tour of China. With China posed to be the next superpower, and one based on a very different culture than western civilization, we wanted to get as much exposure as our 1-month visas would allow. A tour, while perhaps more structured than we would like, should let us see a lot more than we would on our own.

By 12 October, we're flying from Hong Kong into Kolkata (previously Calcutta), where we begin a leisurely 3-month journey through India. With a religious climate and economic class structure unlike anything in the west, India promises to be one of the highlights of our trip. Our path will likely cut to the north into Darjeeling and Sikkim before moving westward into Delhi and carving south down the western coast.

The new year finds us exploring Southeast Asia, where Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos should provide us time to trek across mountain jungles and island beaches until March. This part of our trip is still very open, and I'm sure that we'll fill in the details as we speak with other travelers on the road.

By the end of March, we'll leave Asia for Europe, where we'll wander from Spain to Sweden over four months in spring and early summer. I imagine that we'll spend more time in urban areas during this time than others, trading our trail clothing for more polished threads and catching up with many of our friends overseas.

After Europe, well... we'll have to see what the future brings. There's a lot happening between then and now, so while the Pacific Northwest sounds like a fine place to be next summer, Vienna doesn't sound all to shabby either. As always, if you have any hot tips on places to visit, let us know. How else are we going to find the hole-in-the-wall eatery that serves perfect weiner schnitzel?