Ok, Im heading off next Friday, so I thought it was probably a good start to lay out in a very fuzzy sense where we’re going.
The first three weeks are wonderfully organised because Connie was in charge, not me or Dim. The trip starts in Russia, sampling the wonders of Moscow: going to the Kremlin, visiting Lenin’s body, marvelling at Communist architecture, but probably mostly playing on swings in playgrounds. Then we head south to Volgograd, I think via Samara, for about a week, and swing north again to St Petersburg. Connie has all the details sorted so, as I say, I’m a little fuzzy on this leg.
Anyway, then myself and Dim leave Connie and Laura behind after three weeks and head off on our own. From St Petersburg we train across Russia, probably stopping at Lake Baikal in Siberia and eventually hit Mongolia. This will be the first month over.
Were booking tickets on the way, so were not sure how long we’re staying there, but at least a few days. Then off to China. In China we’ve committed ourselves to Beijing (to see Mao, the second corpse of the trip), Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Possibly also Xian to visit Terracotta warriors, but we’ll have to see. This is the second month over, which brings us in to South East Asia. From here myself and Dim need to decide what specifically were doing but we know the general direction were taking and I’m gonna mention a few of the more interesting sites I’ve read about.
In Vietnam we start in Hanoi in the north, visiting the city itself and also Halong Bay, which is apparently spectacular. We then head south to Ho Chi Ming City, possibly stopping at one or two places along the way. There are apparently some very cool cities and also beach towns, which might be a nice change of pace after two and a half months. After HCMC, we enter Cambodia, head to Phnom Penh, and then north to Angkor Wat, the portion of the trip I’m really looking forward to most at the moment. Cambodia is also pretty much guaranteed to be the heaviest part of the trip, I don’t think Id feel right going without visiting the killing fields or one of the other major museums.
Then we head north through Laos. Possibly stopping at Si Phan Don, which is just over the border and apparently a beautiful area of islands with rare dolphins. Then north further to Vientiane, the capitol. Lunag Prabang, which is further north is apparently amazing, but may be a bit out of our way. All of this will probably take the bones of six weeks, leading us back into a much tighter schedule.
We head to Bangkok and on December 14th fly to Kuala Lumpur. The next six days are spent debating at Wupid (the World University Peace Invitational Debate). On the 20th of December we fly to Phuket and probably just spend the next three days lounging on a beach. On the 23rd its back to Bangkok for Christmas. On the 27th it’s Worlds. On the 3rd Worlds ends and we spend 5 days looking around some of Thailand. Then on the 9th of January 2008 we fly home.
