The Plan

Hey everyone. Thanks for the great initial positive feedback everyone! That should keep me blogging for a little bit.

Thought I'd talk a little bit about my travel plan, and if people have advice, opinions, contacts, 2nd houses in Bali, etc that they would like to share with me, that'd be great!

My main plan is to limit my planning. G. K. Chesterton said, "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see." I hope to be a traveler, not a tourist. I think I will end up with a loose plan for my first 2 weeks or so, and then really go (or stay...) wherever seems right. Obviously I've never had anywhere close to this amount of time to travel before, so I'm hoping this will help me stay put and relax more and fight my natural tenancy to see and do everything because when am I ever going to be here again. And if I get to a place that I decide is nice enough to stay for a while, I should be able to really "see it" if I'm there for a while.

In figuring out that first 2 weeks, one of the most important things is to pick a direction. Do I head North (towards Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos) or South (Thai islands, Malaysia, Indonesia)? I'm leaning towards South in part because the monsoons will be hitting the North during my trip but not yet the South, and in part because some random dude I met in Thailand told me that Sumatra was the coolest place he'd been in his 15 months of traveling. Might still end up in the North if that "seems right" at some point during my travels.

So for now, my first 2 weeks are looking something like this:

Day 1: Katie drops me off at SFO. We are sad. But I'm also excited about my trip and she's excited about not washing my biking clothes for 3 months. I fly to Tokyo and enjoy my economy seat.
Day 2-3: 1 day, 2 nights in Tokyo. Was going to be 2 days, 3 nights but I forgot about the international dateline when booking the flight. Not sure exactly what I'll do in Tokyo but I assume raw fish, consumer electronics and well manicured gardens will all be involved.
Day 4: Fly Tokyo to Bangkok. Skip Bangkok altogether, catch first flight to Ko Samui. (island).
Day 5-6: Find cheap but descent hotel/bungalow away from party central. Eat spring rolls, thai noodles, fried rice. Drink Singha's. Get several massages.
Day 7: Ferry to Ko Tao, the "scuba island". Find cheap but decent hotel/bungalow.
Day 8-12: Take PADI scuba certification class. Find time to eat spring rolls, Thai noodles, fried rice, drink Singha's and get massages during breaks.
Day 13+: Hit more and more remote Thai islands as I head South towards Malaysia/Indonesia/Sumatra.

Doesn't sound too bad, huh?