Changes already

One of the things that we knew when we decided to do this is that we would have to keeping changing our travel around to suit a variety of constraints. Well, one big constraint is cost. Another one is climate. So although we were going to do a full spin as Gyan wrote in his original entry, our travel plans have since changed.

Our idea of going around one-way became difficult to pull-off due to the cost of flying from Sydney (or somewhere near there) to Santiago (or somewhere near there). So we basically gave up on getting to Chile this time around. We've been to South America and flights from LA are reasonable when you go off-season so we decided this wasn't a bad choice to have to make. Another idea, which seemed good when we came up with it was that of traveling from London to Morocco through Spain in January. But after talking to some friends/family and reading up on the weather, seemed to suggest that it was not the best of ideas. So, instead, we'll do Spain/Morocco/Turkey/Greece/etc. when we have finished Southeast Asia/Australia. See here's our new plan.

We're now flying into London (12/31/08) and bring the new year with a hopefully teetotalling pilot and arrive in London on 1/1/09. After a brief pause (5 days) and a plenty of cold London weather, we fly on to Singapore (warm, balmy, tropical). We plan to use Singapore as a base for further travels within Southeast Asia... After a month and half, (before Jeev's birthday - 17/2/09) we fly to Sydney. We have given ourselves around 1 month before heading back to London (March 18th). We hope to do most of the south-eastern part of Australia, see New Zealand and maybe take a train or too going up the coast.

But hang tight as this plan may change yet. With the changes coming such rapid fire, all bets are off, eh?

Here's some interesting travel planning trivia: Direct round-trip flight between London and Sydney (without a stopover) was almost twice as expensive as doing the stopover for a month in Singapore and still going to Sydney. Go figure!?

Where we're going

You probably know that my parents (Rena and Ram), my brother (Jeev), and I are going on a trip for half a year all around the world. What you might not know is what countries we're visiting on the way. Here is our basic itinerary.  

We begin our journey by taking a direct flight from Los Angeles to London. After spending some time in London (not more than a few hours), we take the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) through the English Channel to France. We will make our way through the French countryside until we find ourselves in Portugal. Most likely we will spend a few days in Lisbon. Then we will fly to Morocco and spend 25 days there. From Morocco we fly to Egypt, spend about 25 days there, and then fly to Turkey. We might spend a week or two in Turkey before flying to Greece. In Greece we probably will visit one or two of the islands like Corfu or Crete as well as the mainland. We will stay in Greece for about 25 days. From Greece we fly to Prague, stay there a few days, and fly to Frankfurt (which we’ll use as a "bucket shop" or a good place to find cheap tickets). From Frankfurt we fly to Malaysia, stay there a week, and continue to Bali, Indonesia, where we stay for 2 or 3 weeks. We then fly to Australia, where we stay for a month. 

Once we leave Australia we fly to Easter Island (off the coast of Chile), and then Chile’s mainland, where we stay for 25 days. From Chile we fly to Ecuador (we don’t know how long we’re staying there) and then some of the East Coast cities in the United States- Boston, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and New York City. And from there we fly home to Los Angeles, California, USA.

Our whole trip is about 180 days. With our current itinerary our trip will not be more than 160 days (not including Ecuador and the US cities), so we have 20 days to spare. I am very excited about our trip, and I am sure that my parents and brother are too!!