Warning: Itinerary Derailment!

WE JUST BOOKED TWO TICKETS TO MONGOLIA!!!!

Yes, it’s happened again. Itinerant itineraries…gone REALLY wild, now! We were supposed to head back to Southeast Asia to finish off Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos still. Then Malaysia and Indonesia and a return to Singapore, which we’d enjoyed for a quick four days.

But like I said back in January/February, with a trip like this the way we want to do it, if one thing changes, it kind of changes everything down the line. No problem! You just deal with it when you get “down the line” and so here we’ve arrived!

I realized if we picked up again with with SE Asia after the Philippines as we’d planned to when we came out here, while it was not ideal due to having to cram all three countries (plus we were entertaining thoughts of Burma) into less than two months, it was also going to be hot and/or the rainy season, neither of which = the funnest of times.

But the main thing – it meant that Mongolia would get pushed pretty much out of the picture, never to be seen again? (I have no desire to see a Mongolian winter, thanks.) And the same thing with Tibet? Unacceptable!

So with some clever (and somewhat crazy, since we were very much in “SE Asia mode”) re-arranging, we have revised things once again. Incidentally, this basically puts us right back “on track” with my original, climatically-optimized itinerary. We get more time in SE Asia when we do make it there, and at the BEST time of the year instead of the worst. Everybody wins.

This is by no means set in stone or necessarily how long we’ll decide to stay in each place. If things change, either for reasons within or out of our control, we’ll happily adjust.

But for those who were interested, this is our working plan for an itinerary for now:

June 1-July 21 (51 days) Mongolia

July 22-Aug 8 (3 weeks) Sjoerd Thailand

Aug 8-Aug 28 (3 weeks) Tibet

Aug 28-Nov 28 (3 months) China (and Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan)

Nov 28-Dec 15 (2 weeks) S Korea

Dec 15-March 15 (3 months) Japan Ski season
March 15-April 15 (1 month) Japan travel
April 15-May 15 (1 month) RT JPN-KTM-JPN Nepal Bhote Kosi River, Mount Everest Base Camp
May 15-July 15 (2 mos) Japan travel

July 15-Aug 15 (1 month) Malaysia dive and travel
Aug 15-Sept 15 (1 month) Indonesia dive and travel

~Sept 15-Oct 10 (1 month) Vietnam
~Oct 10-Oct 20 (10 days) Cambodia
~Oct 20-Nov 20 (1 month) Laos
~Nov 20-Dec 10 (3 weeks) Burma

Dec 10 – Mar 10 (3 mos Summer) NZ live/work
Mar 10-June 10 (3 mos Fall) NZ Travel
June 10-Sept 10 (3 mos Winter) NZ Ski

Sep 1-Mar 1 (6 mos Spring/Summer) Work Aust
Mar 1 – Sep 1 (6 mos Fall/Winter) Travel Aus

Which brings me to my second point, if you notice that little snippet there right after Mongolia…that’s right, our first friend from Home!! (Well, kinda from home. From our Past life, anyway).

Sjoerd, for those of you who might not know, is my ex-boyfriend (yes yes “ooga booga”, ex-boyfriend!), still and always best friend. He’s from the Netherlands, and I met him back in college in 2002 when he studied abroad at my school for a semester. Our relationship traversed some 3 continents and 4 countries together in the 4 years we were together, and no mere breakup could threaten our bond. Ray knew Sjoerd came as part of the territory when we got together 3 1/2 years ago, but anyway it wasn’t too hard for them to strike up an easy and genuine friendship when I introduced them, first through email and then months later when Sjoerd came to stay with us in Tucson for three weeks. Fantastic, open-minded guys, the two of them are! I am a truly fortunate individual to have both of them in my life.

I last saw Sjoerd when he visited Tucson in Dec 08; it had been two years at that point since I’d last seen him when we left New Zealand. We decided despite the trip coming up and the inherent uncertainties involved in that, not to mention his own life which had involved a lot of travel and being nomadic, two years had been too long to not see each other again, and to not at least have a working plan to see each other again was too much to ask. So we peered as far as we could into that black tunnel of the unknown future, and saw an opportunity. Sjoerd’s 30th birthday. Done.

Things always come up it seems, plans don’t work out, yadda yadda yadda. I knew it would be a possibility, if not a likelihood.

But against all monetary and time-constrained odds, my wonderful friend has kept his promise and is headed our way soon for three weeks or so, to allow me to be with him and us to be the ones to help him ring in that milestone birthday. Kevin was close, as far as being a friend from “home”, but not quite. This’ll be our first dedicated Visit from someone since we’ve been on the road (nearly 10 months now!). Very awesome.

I can’t wait to see him – we had so much fun when he visited us before!