Chad Things

Well, i’m done with Australia. Whew. It was a nonstop month-long adventure. I saw many beautiful cities, beaches, mountains, deserts, kangaroos, koalas, birds, beers, and backpackers. A great trip, i spent more and stayed longer than originally planned, really enjoyed kickin’ it with my peeps from Cali, and met more people not from Australia than from Australia (backpacker way). I will not go into detail every day like I did for New Zealand, just give the broad strokes. I have over 1500 pictures that i’m still sorting through, i expect to post several hundred of them onto flickr within a week.

As mentioned earlier, I started off in sydney, meeting a few friends from the bay area – Damian, Juan, and Ramon. Next we flew to Brisbane, where we had a few pints before meeting Sarah and Steph. Not just any pints – a few pints of Kilkenny, a smooth, creamy, Guiness-like beer only not as dark. You can’t find it in the US, but you can in Europe, Hong Kong, and apparently Australia. Mmmm… After meeting the girls, we hopped on the greyhound bus to Hervey Bay for our Fraser Island experience.

We rented a 4WD Land Rover for Fraser Island – all 6 of us and our stuff squeezed in very comfortably (yeah, right). I did the most of the driving – it was fun driving on the wrong side of the road, especially on the sand once we got on the island. The beach on the east coast of the island had a 100kph speed limit (60mph). Cruisin’ down the beach was saweeeet. I did have to share my road with planes – yes, airplanes land on the beach. Why wouldn’t they? The Shipwreck Maheno was cool, the view from Indian Head was stunning (you must see all my pics), but my favorite on Fraser Island was Lake McKenzie. It was unbelievably beautiful. Fresh blue water, blinding white sand, green trees and plenty of relaxing vibes.

After Fraser we took the greyhound back to Brisbane for one night before heading to Melbourne. Our last night in Brisbane was fun – we had a few drinks at the bar/hostel we were staying in – tinbilly. We even made up a cool game – guess what the next song will be. you pay a buck for a guess, you get as many guesses as you want, and if you win you take the pot. And if you’re the first to identify 2 songs in a row, you get to add a guess. Fun, eh?

We arrived in Melbourne on Sunday, Feb 25, checked into our hotel, Rendezvous, and started walking around. Melbourne is almost as big as Sydney, but seems a bit less busy. They have lots of random art, cool people watching, but one of our more interesting moments included an ice bar – that’s right, a bar where the inside is made out of ice. It was sooo cool. heh. The black cat in Fitzroy was another cool bar. I also give props to the bars and restaurants in St. Kilda – so now you know where to drink. But St. Kilda also had penguins – we saw one on the pier. We saw more penguins on Philip Island, a few hours from Melbourne. Our trip down there also passed through a kangaroo farm and a nice beach.

Wednesday we left Melbourne for Hobart. Hobart? yes, Hobart, in the bustling state of Tasmania. This was the smallest city on our tour, about 120,000 peeps, and the second oldest city in Australia. Its famous for Port Arthur, where prisoners from the UK were sent from 1830 to 1856. Before 1856, Tasmania was called Van Dieman’s Land, and it received more prisoners from UK than anywhere else. We spent one of our 2 cloudy days at Port Arthur. The other day was at the Cascade Brewery – Australia’s oldest Brewery (1824). They had tours of the brewery, but it was booked up, so we just enjoyed fresh beer and lunch there. My favorite was the Blond beer.

Friday we flew back to Sydney to have a bit o’ fun before the boys head back to California. We squeezed into this hotel/apartment place called the Macleay. I loved that they had internet in the room, plus a nice view from our room. Friday night we got our drink on – first at the Fountain cafe – where its 2 for 1 beers from like 4 to 6pm. Then on to more bars and dance clubs around oxford street. We slept in pretty late saturday, but made it out before sunset for snacks before the mardi gras parade. The parade was huge, several hundred thousand people were out watching it, and it lasted a couple hours before took over the streets. Only juan and i made it to the end (it did get boring), but then juan and i had fun bar hopping before heading to this cool bar in kings cross called Melt. A/C, Good DJs, and a nice dancefloor. Brilliant. Kebabs and bed. Sunday the four of us had a big brekky before they had to fly home. I love me a big brekky – eggs, bacon, sasausage, beans, tomato, mushrooms, and toast. Altho their bacon sux – they need to learn american bacon.

Later sunday i met up with Sarah and we headed out of Sydney to the blue mountains. We stayed in the Katoomba YHA sunday night – it was super nice – and did a bit of hiking monday. Our hiking included ridge walking, rainforest walking, and leeches. Yes, i had 2 leeches on my foot and Sarah had one. Looking back on it, it was funny how we both freaked out .. i got them off of us using a stick – it wasn’t too hard. Sarah’s leech was huge compared to mine, and i eventually squished it, but it didn’t die. It just squirted out all its blood but then crawled away. Ooooewww!

Monday night we stayed in Sydney, had a couple pints of Kilkenny (mmmm…), then got up early tuesday for our flight to Alice Springs.  We booked a 6 day outback adventure tour from the middle of australia down to Adelaide on the coast.  You can read more about that in the my Australia Outback entry.

cheebra.

“Good on ya, mate!” That means “Nice one, brutha!” Well, i’m here in the land down under. Where the women roar and the men thunder. I arrived in Sydney a couple days ago, and we’re for Brisbane today. Sydney is a really beautiful city – clean, lots of parks and trees, water from the harbor goes most everywhere. It feels more like a european city than most anything – they say you have to get out to feel the real australia.

I arrived and met the boys by our hotel – my friends Juan, Damian, and Ramon, all from California. The first day was mardi gras thing in the park – Juan and I and several thousand others had fun dancing to DJs, drinking beers, kickin’ it on the grass, and enjoying the warm sun. Damian and Ramon had their luggage temporarily relocated by the airline – so they had no clothes. Damn Qantas. The next day we walked around the city, hitting the botanical gardens, sydney opera house, downtown, and taking a ferry to the Zoo to see our Koala bears, wallabees, and kagaroos. Yesterday we did more walking, checked out the view from the sky tower (like seattle’s space needle), and hit Bondi beach – a really gorgeous beach.

Today we leave Sydney and head to Brisbane, where we’ll meet up with Sarah and Stephanie, our California girls. But we quickly hop on the bus and goto Frasier Island. After that, we fly to Melbourne for a few days, then Hobart to see the real Tasmanian Devil, then back to sydney for a few more days. I’ll stay in the land down under for another week while most everyone else leaves. I was thinking of doing Uluru (ayer’s rock), but that it is expensive to get there. We’ll see.

Cheebra! (short for “cheers, brother”)

I’ve been in New Zealand almost 2 weeks but it seems like months. Already had tons of outdoor adventures, met loads of people, had a cold, had some beers, had a great time. Still having a great time, not much timme for internet (sorry blog fans). Highlights include hiking and swimming on a glacier (yes, i swam in a pool of water on a glacier), many nature walks in very beautiful, pristine outdoors,, a few late nights, many early mornings, and lots of cool, laid back people.

My first day was in Auckland, but early the next morning I started my kiwi adventure on the Stray Bus. We headed to Hahei – the hot sand beaches and cathedral cove. Those beaches were sooo cool – basically theres a hot spring under the beach, and you can dig a hole in the sand and make a mini hot tub. You can only do it at low tide, and the hot spring is too hot by itself, requires a little ocean water to get it just right. We got lucky enough to get a bit of the hot tub action before the rain started pouring down. Add some wind and you get a nice recipe for a cold. Since i was still a bit worn out from my last night in SF and traveling, that cold caught me the next day. But before that cold the 30 of us on the bus had a tastee bbq and some beers and a bit of getting to know you time.

Wednesday we left the hot tub beach and headed for Raglan, a surfing town on the west coast of the North Island. My cold prevented me from joining the other kids surfin’, instead i had the pleasure of chillin’ in the hostel on the hill (which was actually quite cool). I got to take a nap, do a bit of internet, and watch mission impossible with some other lazy bums. I called it an early night.

Thusday, Day 4, we hit the Glo-worm caves in Waitomo. That was really interesting – these little worms live in the ceilings of these caves, hang threads down like spider webs, and just glow .. making other insects think its light and they come buzzing up to be dinner. They had tons of other caves around there, carved partially by streams, surrounded by trees and ferns, all pretty cool – it really felt like magical elf land lord of the rings style. That lasted a few hours, we had some lunch, and hit the road to Rotorua, home of the hot springs and bubbling mud pools. We stayed in a nice hostel with wireless internet (only wireless in NZ so far), a pool and hot tub, and the Lava Bar snug up beside it.

Friday we had some time to kill in Rotorua before heading to Taupo. I checked out the bubbly mud pools and did a bit of shopping. They are plenty of Jade shops around, since Jade is found everywhere in new zealand. In fact, i got a nice little wood carving bowl thingee for pretty cheap in one of them jade shops. I also enjoyed some awesome (world-class) indian food for lunch. Once we arrived in Taupo, we checked into our hostel, rented some bikes, and went down to the river. It was unbelievably kick ass. First we swam near this hot spring that dumps into the river, creating a variable temperature hot tub in the river. Then we went to this other section called cherry island where all the locals were swimming. You could jump into the river via a bridge, a tree, or a rope swing. Sweet as.

Yes, i said “sweet as”. Down here in NZ (and Australia, too), they like to say an adjective followed by “as” for emphasis. Instead of “hard as a rock”, it would just be “hard as”. Instead of “easy as pie” its “easy as”. You get it.

Saturday we were supposed to do the crossing, but the weather was not so good, so i chose to wait for it. Wait for it … After all, most say its the best thing to do on the north island. In the meantime I handled some travel stuff, rode a bike, and hit that river again with some more peeps. Went to bed early, but didn’t sleep well. I think it was because my cold was finally leaving me and my energy was returning. Or maybe i was just giddy with excitement for the crossing.

Sunday we got up early and headed out for the Tongariro crossing, home of Mt. Doom (Lord of the Rings). It was a 17km trek with about 1km vertical. We started from the Mangatepopo trailhead, went up for about 2.5 hours, then saw plenty of evil (red and black rocks with steam pouring out), and some crystal clear emerald pools. But the sky was a bit cloudy so the view was not so great. It was still cool, hiking down the mountain and thru a rain forest. The whole thing took about 5 1/2 hours. After the hike we checked into a lodge in Tongariro National Park and proceded to drink. It was my first time drinking beers in a while, so i was thirsty. About 15 of us headed out to the pub, the only ones there, and had a grand ol’ time. I especially liked the parrot that could drink from a red bull can.

Monday we got up and headed to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. The trip was not very exciting, but got to Wellington in time to see the city a bit before dark. Summer in New Zealand gives you really long days – It’s basically light out from 6ish to almost 9. Anyhoo, after checking into the Base hostel, we went down to the Te Papa Museum – free, open till 6. Then a shower and some tasty chinese food before nap time.

Tuesday, Day 9, I left north island for the south island. They say the north island is beautiful but the south island is more dramatic – less people, more nature, bigger mountains, glaciers, etc. My kind of place. To get across, we took a 3 hour ferry from Wellington to Picton. Then we hopped on another Stray bus and drove through Nelson (artsy hippy town) to Abel Tasman National park. The park is known for its beautiful beaches and islands. Nelson and most of the north part of the south island gets tons of sun, good for grapes. In fact, the marlborough region is world renowned for their sauvignon blanc’s, among others. We stayed at old macdonald’s farm by abel tasman. I had time to do a nice run along the beach path and see some of the beautiful tiny beaches and rolling hills with almost a tropical rain-forest feel. Most stayed there for 2 or more nights, sadly my tight schedule made me leave the next day.

Wednesday, Feb 14 (Valentines day) we had our longest driving day down to barrytown (near greymouth) on the west coast. We stopped at a couple cool national parks – Cape Foulwind and the Pancake rocks at Punakaiki. We also stopped to get clothes for the dress-up night for valentines day – the rule was that you had to spend $5 or less at the thrift stores to dress up. The girls loved it, lucky they helped me pick out some stuff, too. Once we got to the hostel, we found bins full of stuff from previous groups – i ended up wearing a red dress from there. Lots of fun ensued that night till the wee hours – we weren’t leaving till after noon the next day. Normally our bus leaves at 8 or 9 every morning. Good times, good times.

Thursday and Friday nights were spent at Franz Josef Glacier. Thursday was uneventful, left Barrytown at noon, a bit hungover, but we did make a stop in a townwhere i got to see a real kiwi bird. They’re quite rare, and only come out at night. We arrived at the Urban Retreat hostel by the glacier. It was pretty sweet – had a nice bar/restaraunt and a big 16-person hot tub in addition to the usual internet, laundry, kitchen and tv room. I finally did some laundry thusday night and caught up on my journal and pictures. Friday morning we got up early and did the glacier full-day walk. It was “sweet as” – weather was great, our guide Sam was fun, and the the 11 people in my group were adventurous. The glacier is about 4km from the ocean, we walked about 40 mins in a rainforest like trail before we got to the mouth of the glacier. We put ice talons over the rubber hiking boots they gave us, and while doing so a chunk of ice fell off the front of the glacier, right where the river flows out, crackling like thunder as it fell. Sadly i learned that it happened again later in the day, this time breaking a man’s leg, a man who did not heed the warnings to stay away from the mouth of the glacier. You best be listening to your guides! Once our boots were on, we started on the glacier. The hike was slow moving, we’d walk for 5 mins then wait 5 mins for the guide to chop out some stairs. The glacier melts quickly, every day a group arrives at 6am to chop out ice stairs for that day’s tours. Even with that, Anthe guide for each group spends time with his ice pick hacking as he goes. Towards the end even I got to create a stair. Thank you, thank you. The glacier itself is increadibly dirty – and due to the hilly granite underneath, it had many cracks and peaks. We did hike up far enough to get to some really blue ice – and it was soo incredibly blue. But my favorite part was the swimming. On our way back down, there was a pool of water the size of mini hot tub in the middle of glacier. Our guide jumped in first, followed quickly by a bunch of college girls in our group. Of course I and the other stray kids had to jump in as well – man was it cold! But extremely exhilerating. I put my dry shirts back on, my wet shorts took about 30min to dry. My rubber boots and wool socks never did.
Once we got off the glacier, we hiked back to the bus, but i did one more dip under a waterfall, which was also quite refreshing. We got back to the hostel and hopped in the hot tub. I began to celebrate my last night with stray as more stray friends showed up from the bus one day behind us. It was a lovely night.

Saturday i woke up, made it to the bus stop to go north to catch the trans alpine train from Greymouth to Christchurch. The train was lovely, but a bit too shaky for me to write, read, or type on my laptop. I was still tired from the night before, so i mostly slept and took in the scenery. Upon arriving in Christchurch, i found a backpacker hotel, happened upon karin, a fellow american i met on mt. doom, and she joined me for some indian food. I tried to upload some stuff onto the internet, but like most internet stations in NZ, i could not. You can only launch the web browser. Sigh. I went too bed early to catch my 4:15am shuttle to the airport.

Sunday, Day 14, i leave New Zealand. I’m sitting in the Christchurch airport right now, so by the time you read this i’ll be in Australia. I’m sad to leave NZ – you really need 6 weeks to see it all without being rushed. But i’m soo glad i had time to visit the land of the kiwi’s. It’s a bit more expensive than the USA (except for NY and other big cities), but definitely worth it. And the stray bus was a great way to go – gave me more time to enjoy NZ and fellow travelers instead of spending all my time planning. Although i must admit i was tired of being herded around to certain hostels and spots by the end of the trip – sometimes you just want to sleep in.

Sweet as, New Zealand. Read more…

Booyakasha!!!  I made it to the land of the Kiwi.  Those crazy flightless birds.  I’m a couple days into a north island tour, hanging out in Raglan.  I only have 2 weeks in NZ, so i chose an action packed adventure tour that hits the best of north and south island, backpacker style. 

Apparently i’m not the only one who comes to New Zealand and wants adventure. There are tons of backpacker tour packages – hitting all the cool sites with a very casual vibe to it.  My first day in Auckland i arranged to go on Stray, one of the organizations that does more off-the-beaten-path types of things (but thats kinda what they all say).  But they have a good model – they have a predefined route where you’re allowed to hop on and off depending on how much you like a spot, and just want to kick it.  Sadly, i got no time to spare so i’m not doing much kickin’ it, but we got about 30 or so peeps with a few hopping on and off each night.  You can check my route in that nice purty picture – i paid $550 NZD, or about $385USD for 12 nights.

Internet is a bit more expensive here in NZ, plus my time is tight, so i don’t expect to update this too much while i’m here.  I’ll definitely give a shout out when i hit Sydney in the land of OZ.  Peace out, yo.
 

Yes, i’m finally really getting excited. Or anxious and stressed. I kinda switch back and forth. But today i actually packed my bag and got really excited. Yes, i’m bringing just one carry-on bag – never checking a bag – taking Rick Steve’s advice and traveling light. Here’s me wearing it as well as the only things i’ll have for the next 5 months (thanks to monica for a sample packlist).

My Packing List
• Shirts – 5 t-shirts, 1 capilene, 1 longsleeve
• 1 Jeans, swimsuit, 2 shorts (green one and brown)
• belt for shorts/pants
• 6 sets underwear, 4 pairs socks
• tevas, boots and/or shoes
• waterproof jacket (??)
• Sweater/Hoodie
• warm hat (?)
• scarf (?)
• pillowcase
• quick drying towel
• baggies for wet stuff or food
• kits: first-aid, sewing
• bathroom: toothbrush, paste in bag, soap, razor, deodorant, shampoo
• sunscreen insect emergen-c plastic-spoon
• balance bars, power bars
• clothesline
• earplugs?
• money belt
• $100 USD, 2 credit cards, atm
• passport and copies of it
• immunizations card
• tickets, itinerary, copies of it
• daypack
• camera – SD600, memory, battery, mini-tripod
• 400D camera, bag, cable, battery, monopod, etc
• power plug adapters (?)
• lock
• headlight
• water filter ? nalgene?
• books and maps?
• journal, pen, addresses for postcards
• sunglasses and case
• iPod, usb cable for iPod,
• watch? alarm clock? use ipod?
• headphones, 1/8 inch Y adapter
• 1/8 inch to RCA video cable
• Laptop, bag, power cable,
• USB drive
• packing bags

NOTE: See end of blog for recent updates.

If you haven’t heard, i’m traveling for 5 months around the world (Actually 6 months now). This blog entry will serve as my master itinerary – that is, it will change as i travel, containing the most up-to-date and accurate information on where i’ve been and my next move. If you want to track my travels, bookmark this dude.

Overview of flights/countries (2007):

Sat, Feb 03 - San Francisco to New Zealand - SFO-LAX, LAX-AKL
Sun, Feb 18 - New Zealand to Australia - CHC-SYD
Wed, Mar 14 - Australia to Thailand - SYD-BKK
Sat, Mar 24 - Thailand to Cambodia - Bus from Bangkok to Siam Reap
Sun, Apr 08 - Cambodia to Vietnam - Bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon
Sat, May 05 - Vietnam to Laos - HAN-VTE
Sun, Jun 03 - Laos to Thailand - Boat from Huay Xai to Chiang Khong
Wed, June 27 (orig Sun, Apr 30) - Thailand to India - BKK-DEL
Fri, July 20 (orig Fri, Jun 01) - India to London - DEL-LHR
Sat, July 21 - London to Switzerland - LGW-ZRH
Wed, July 25 - Switzerland to London - ZRH-LGW
Thu, July 26 (orig Thu, Jun 21) - London to New York City - LHR-JFK
Mon, July 30 (orig Mon, Jun 25) - New York - San Francisco - JFK-SFO


Details:

• Sat 3-Feb – leaving San Francisco, 3:50pm
• Mon 5-Feb – arriving in Auckland, New Zealand, 11:15am
• Sat 17-Feb – Good Vibrations Concert in Sydney – tickets (Beastie boys, Jurassic 5, timo maas, cassius)
• Sun 18-Feb – Fly from Christchurch, NZ to Sydney, AU (CHC-SYD NZ 781 7:00a-8:30a)
• Wed 21-Feb – Fly from Sydney to Brisbane (SYD-BNE QF520 11:05a)
• Sat 25-Feb – Fly from Brisbane to Melbourne (BNE-MEL QF617 10:50a)
• Wed 28-Feb – Fly from Melbourne to Hobart Tasmania (MEL-HBA QF1011 8:35a)
• Fri 2-Mar – Fly from Hobart to Sydney (HBA-SYD QF1020 10:30a)
• Tue 6-Mar – Fly from Sydney to Alice Springs, 6 day Uluru tour to Adelaide
• Wed 14-Mar – Fly from Adelaide to Sydney (ADE
• Wed 14-Mar – Fly from Sydney, AU to Bangkok, Thailand (SYD-BKK TG 996 5pm-10:20pm)
• Tue 20-Mar – Shayna joins me in Thailand SFO-TPE, TPE-BKK
• Sat 24-Mar – $7 Bus from Bangkok to Siam Reap, Cambodia
• Thu 29-Mar – $13 Boat from Siam Reap to Battambang, Cambodia
• Sat 31-Mar – $4 Bus from Battambang to Sihanoukville, Cambodia
• Wed 4-Apr – $3 Bus from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• Sun 8-Apr – $5 Bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam
• Thu 12-Apr – Bus from Saigon to Mui Ne, Vietnam (part of $17 open ticket to Hanoi)
• Mon 16-Apr – Bus from Mui Ne to Nha Trang then to Hoi An, Vietnam (overnight)
• Fri 20-Apr – Bus from Hoi An to Hue, then overnight bus to Hanoi, Vietnam
• Sat 21-Apr – Overnight train from Hanoi to Lao Cai (Sapa), Vietnam
• Tue 1-May – Overnight train from Lao Cai (Sapa) to Hanoi, Vietnam
• Thu 3-May – 4hr Bus from Hanoi to Halong Bay, Vietnam
• Fri 4-May – 4hr Bus from Halong Bay to Hanoi, Vietnam
• Sat 5-May – Flight from Vietnam to Laos (HAN-VTE)
• Tue 8-May – 4hr Bus from Vientianne to Vang Vieng, Laos
• Sun 13-May – 8hr Bus from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang (LPB), Laos
• Thu 17-May – 8hr Bus from LPB to Luang Nam Tha, Laos
• Sat 19-May – first of 3-day trek in Nam Ha
• Tue 22-May – 2hr Bus from Nam Tha to Muang Sing, Laos
• Thu 24-May – 6hr Bus from Muang Sing to Oudom Xay, Laos
• Fri 25-May – 4hr Bus from Oudom Xay to LPB, Laos
• Sun 27-May – Shayna flies to Bangkok
• Mon 28-May – Shayna flies home BKK-TPE, TPE-SFO
• Fri 1-Jun – 9hr Slow Boat from LPB to Pakbeng, Laos
• Sat 2-Jun – 8hr Slow Boat Pakbeng to Huay Xai, Laos
• Sun 3-Jun – Crossed border to Chiang Khong, Thailand, bus to Chiang Mai
• Tue 5-Jun – 4hr Bus from Chiang Mai to Pai, Thailand
• Wed 03-Jun – 4hr Bus from Pai to Chiang Mai, then 11hr overnight Bus to Bangkok
• Wed 27-Jun – fly from Bangkok to Dehli (BKK-DEL)
• Thu 28-Jun – Delhi to Leh (himalayas) ( DEL-IXL)
• Wed 4-July – 3hr mini-van from Leh to Lamayuru .. 10 day trek to Padum
• Sat 14-July – 11hr jeep from Padum to Kargil (6:30a-6pm)
• Sun 15-July – 6hr minibus from Kargil to Srinagar (12:30-6:30am Monday)
• Tue 17-July – 1hr flight from Srinagar to Delhi SRI-DEL
• Thu 19-July – 2hr Train from Delhi to Agra (Taj Mahal) back to Delhi
• Fri 20-July – 7hr flight from Delhi to London DEL-LHR
• Sat 21-July – 2hr flight London to Switzertland LGW-ZRH
• Sun 22-July – Train from Zurich to Luzern and back
• Mon 23-July – 1hr Train + 1hr bus from Zurich to Amden (Mt. Speer) and back
• Wed 25-July – 2hr flight from Switzerland to London ZRH-LGW
• Thu 26-July – 7hr flight from London to New York LHR-JFK
• Mon 30-July – 6hr flight from NYC to San Francisco JFK-SFO

Cheers,
Chad.

Wed, Mar 14 Update: Changed my flights to leave Australia today (14th), and plan on leaving BKK in June

Wed, Mar 28 Update: Extended my trip to arrive back in USA at the end of July (instead of end of June). 6 months.

Sat, Apr 21 Update: Updated more details of countries and cities

Mon, Jun 4 Update: Changed India dates again, added Switzerland and Atlanta, Georgia

Sat, Jun 16 Update: Last change for India – Delhi and Leh, updated SF arrival, removed Atlanta

Update: Original itinerary below, or see Actual Itineray that I’ll update as I go.

It’s ON. Today i dropped $3,000 for my round-the-world trip. The last couple weeks i’ve been trying to figure out what i wanted, and its definitely not easy. Well, i finally did it. My decision was based on one hard date – doing australia with my california friends in February. Also, I knew i wanted to hit New Zealand and Thailand, and additionally i had a long list of countries i might want to hit, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, India, Turkey, and Spain. I decided to let cheap air fare and fate help me decide, and it did – my itinerary is listed below. After Australia, all my dates are flexible except my last one, arriving in SFO. But even that can be changed for $100.


Sat, Feb 03 - San Francisco to New Zealand - SFO-LAX, LAX-AKL
Sun, Feb 18 - New Zealand to Australia - CHC-SYD
Mon, Mar 05 - Australia to Thailand - SYD-BKK
Sun, Apr 29 - Thailand to India - BKK-DEL
Fri, Jun 01 - India to London - DEL-LHR
Thu, Jun 21 - London to New York City - LHR-JFK
Mon, Jun 25 - New York - San Francisco - JFK-SFO


In the business, my route would be listed by airports like this:
SFO-LAX-NAN-AKL, CHC-SYD-BKK-DEL-LHR-JFK-SFO
Note that i’ll work my own way from Auckland (AKL) to Christchurch (CHC) in New Zealand.
This trip is 25,236 miles total – according to Great Circle Mapper. Wow.

How did i pick this you say? Well, first i looked into Round-The-World (RTW) on wikipedia, but also found this RTW Guide helpful as well. RTW tickets are great – you get 10 days to a year, you have to pick your route but you can change the dates without any fees. However, the cost when originating in California (or anywhere USA) starts around $4,000. Originating in London is about $1,000 cheaper, and originating in Thailand, Turkey, and a few others can go as low as $2600. Using kayak.com, I figured I could fly to Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand for about $2200, so that made RTW tickets not such a great deal for me. I looked into other options, and dealt with several travel agencies, eventually getting my tickets from World Traveller’s Club. You can find more RTW sites on myweb.

Right now i have about 2 months in Thailand/Vietnam/etc, and a month in India. I’m not sure what i want to do, 2 months in Thailand includes all of SE Asia. Since India is really hot in May, i might reduce my time there and spend more time in SE Asia. I don’t have to decide till march. Hurray for procrastination.

Next thing to do is prepare for the journey – get my travel gear in order, get everything situated in SF for extended leave of absence, and get siked.