the background

the story isn't new to everyone, but it's new to me (which is all that matters, right?). i love to travel and have always wanted to go on a worldwide adventure or live abroad or something of the sort. i've had a few opportunities, but at the time there were reasons not to go, and i've since been waiting for the perfect moment, for someone to go with or something to go for. couple that with procrastination and, honestly, a little bit of fear, and you can see why it hasn't happened. i'm realizing, though, that the reasons not to go are only going to increase as time goes by and the perfect moment isn't as important as the actual moment, which is now. and, as they say, whoever 'they' are, there is no time like the present. so off i go.

here's the general itinerary, which is quite rough, yet.
early september 2008- fly to lima, peru. hang out there for a few days, before continuing on to buenos aires, argentina.
i'm thinking that i'll stay in buenos aires and live there for a few months. i've never lived abroad, only gone on short tourist vacations, and want to take some time to get to know a new city. i do intend to travel some - to macchu picchu with my mom in october (yay!), then short trips throughout argentina and uruguay and maybe a week in brazil, depending on time. of course, if i get there and hatch up a better plan, i'll adjust accordingly. as it stands, i'll be there until mid-november, at which point i'll come back to san francisco for a few days, and then head up to seattle for the holidays.

the second portion begins in early january with a cathay pacific business class flight (i love my frequent flyer miles - they allow me to be a huge airplane snob and avoid flying economy on long haul flights) to hong kong, where i'll be for two weeks, with a likely trip to shanghai as part of it. then in late january i'm off to bangkok, thailand.

now here's where the confirmed plans stop and the wandering really kicks in. i have a general thought about where i'll go, illustrated in this fabulous itinerary i created on the oneworld website.


this is a hazy idea of what i'm thinking - start in hong kong/bangkok and make my way down through southeast asia, indonesia and on to oceania. i may go to india if my friend meets me there, and will add in nepal to visit another friend, if i go to india.

actually, as i'm looking at it, i see this is an incredibly ambitious itinerary, because i'm only going from january to june, which i'm now thinking isn't enough time. but i have to be back in june for my ten year high school reunion, otherwise i'd stay over longer. hmm...

at any rate, i am not traveling with hard rules or deadlines, so i will figure it all out along the way. whatever it turns in to will be what is right at that time, and i hope to have the discipline to write about it all here along the way. aren't you excited! (of course you are.) so am i!