Ever since we set foot on Korean soil, we've been planning the next step. In the nearly seven months that have passed, many ideas have been born, researched, turned into plans and then scrapped. The volunteer gig at a Malaysian orangutan-rehab center turned out to be too expensive. The four-month teaching job in Japan was run by rules-crazy corpodroids. A change in Korean employment was not justifiable vis-a-vis new and ridiculous visa requirements. The ethical question of whether to travel through Tibet became moot in the middle of March. Long-considered ideas for Chinese travels have had to be bumped because of new and ridiculous visa requirements. The 3-day music festival outside of Tokyo featuring Gogol Bordello is forbiddingly expensive in every way.
Some of you have hurtled accusations of elusiveness at the windows of the Doombus as if they were eggs and the bus were an evil president-elect's inauguration limousine. Nay! Not elusive, merely uncertain. To prove as much, and also because Dina and I both want to be joined on our upcoming travels by fellow world-participants, here is the tentative bus route:
- July: finish work on the 25th, fly to Thailand.
- August: Thailand with occasional Malaysia/Singapore, then trains through Cambodia to Vietnam.
- September: Train, bus, river-ferry travel through China. Roughly, begin at Nanning (Vietnamese border), train to Shanghai then Wuhan, Yangtze ferry to Chongqing, short trek in the Bamboo Sea, train to Xi'an; then make our way West to Muslim China, the Gobi, and Kashgar.
- October: India by train via Pakistan. Spend October travelling and volunteering in India; fly to Nepal.
- November: 7 - 10 days in Nepal, Kathmandu valley chilling. Return by air to North America: NY, Calgary, and ultimately Vancouver.
These are, of course, only rough outlines of the post-Korea plans. But they are solid enough that we want them available, in the hopes that you and yours will join us for any or all of it. Get in touch if you've got the time, the opportunity and the desire!
