Initial Plans

For the last month or two, our plans for this trip have been changing rapidly. As much as I appreciate the lesson in flexibility, I'm definitely looking forward to figuring out dates and a general route. My plans don't necessarily have to pan out, but I do enjoy making them!

Here is an outlining of what we're thinking at this stage:

Dates: Middle of February - middle/end of May, 2013

Countries: Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam

•  Phase 1: Australia (3-4 weeks)
•  Phase 2: SE Asia (6-8 weeks)
•  Phase 3: ??? (Up to 2 weeks)

And that's about as far as we've gotten.

Our "Phase 3" is the opportunity we're giving ourselves to discover something new while we're there. What else is on that side of the world that we won't even think about working into our itinerary before we leave? What do we need to make time to see before we head back to our normal lives? The difficulty here is, of course, that we still need a plan for getting home. A one-way plane ticket to Sydney will buy us some time, but we'll need an idea of what city we'll be flying home from before too long. We've considered a lot of options so far: China, Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand... But I suppose the whole point is to keep it open ended for now.

So, plans are underway. Savings are moving along steadily. Excitement is building. We're within the 6-month countdown!