While I was expecting to be flying out of Australia on Monday 28 February and arriving in Bangkok early Tuesday 1 March, it now looks like I'll be jetting on Wednesday 2 March instead. Maybe the airline gods knew I hadn't packed everything yet...
Anyway, it gives me a chance to set up this blog and give you all an idea of what I'll be doing over the next four months.
I'm not doing a lot of travelling for the first three months - I have to earn my trip first. I'll be working from our Bangkok office for three months, and also making a few trips down to Phuket in that time.
I imagine I may get some time on weekends to see a bit of the local area when I'm not seeing how much Thai street food I can eat for less than $5.
One trip I do have planned in this time is to head up to Chiang Mai for the Songkran Festival in April. This is the Thai New Year's Festival, and is actually the world's biggest water fight. Kristian, water balloons and the hose in the backyard at Patrick Street were fun, but I suspect this will be a bit more epic than those days!
April 13-15 are public holidays in Thailand, so that's when I'll be heading up there with a few friends from work.
Then it's back to Bangkok for a about another six weeks before I fly to Hanoi in Vietnam for the first part of my Mekong exploration.
I don't plan to stay long in Hanoi - just a day down in Ha Long Bay, and then another day up to Sapa to visit the Hill Tribes (no relation) who live up there.
Then I plan to head down the coast (maybe by train) to Hoi An and spend about a week there. That means I'll be there for my birthday, so I can finally get that birthday suit made that everyone reckons I've already got. The food and architecture in Hoi An are also apparently pretty amazing, so I'll be on the look-out for these too.
Next I'll head over to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and will catch up with my friend Nic who has just moved over there for a year for work. At least a few days there to see Saigon, maybe the Cu Chi tunnels, and then on to Phnom Penh across the border in Cambodia.
I'm not sure what to look for here, but I do want to visit the Killing Fields and museums there that document what was done to these amazing people, and their tenacity to survive.
I then plan to head up the Mekong (hopefully by boat) to Siem Reap. One of the charity partners we work with - The Oaktree Foundation - have an education project there that we are supporting, and I hope to be able to meet up with the local NGO doing the work on the ground while I'm there.
Of course, there's also Angkor Wat to see while I'm there, and I may get a surprise visit from a friend who's on his way to Europe at the time and is keen to see this UNESCO World Heritage site himself.
The last stop I have "planned" is Battambang, a little South-West of Siem Reap, where I have supported a local employment project called Kinyei, and am keen to buy a coffee in the business I made a minor contribution to.
After that, it's just a matter of making it back to Bangkok before my flight home to Brisbane leaves on 30 June! Simple.
I've set up a page with the route I'm taking in my travels, and another page with Google maps showing the specific cities and towns I'm planning to stop at.
Now I just need that flight to Bangkok ...
