Preparing for Asia 2019

6 min readFeb 26, 2018

In January of 2019, Mackenzie and I plan to back up a few of our belongings from here in the US and fly to Asia to spend the next 6 months traveling.

As the days until takeoff (whenever that will be exactly, we don’t yet know) grow closer and closer, I thought it good to have a central spot to collect our thoughts and plans. This is mostly for logistical reasons (i.e. a spot to keep out “must go” places, our estimated route, etc.), so it likely won’t be a very exciting read. That said, however, I love the style of Medium and it’s safer to keep it somewhere online than elsewhere, so Medium it is.

As I update the routes and other information, I’ll add annotations when changes are small or add new paragraphs above the old ones when changes are larger (because it’s interesting to me to see the development of the planning process).

The Route

We intend to have a very rough route as we go through our trip. All I need to know is where I’m starting, where I’m ending, and how much time I have in the middle. With intending to start work in early August 2019* and starting this trip in January 2019, we’ll have about 6 months.

At the moment, I really want to see India, Myanmar, Vietnam, and South & Southwest China**. I would like to meet with both my parents and Mackenzie’s parents along the way, which will necessitate a little more structure to accommodate them. We’re thinking we’ll meet with Mack’s parents in Bali, and my mom mentioned an interest in Vietnam.

With that all in mind, here’s the current proposed route and, if I maintain this space, potentially previous routes as well.

*Mackenzie and I have set a wedding date of August 3, so arriving home 2–3 weeks prior to August 3 (so in mid-July) is now the new end-date!).

**My interest has shifted more to central China.

Travel Overview as of 5/3/18:

Sri Lanka (1–2 weeks)
India (4–6 weeks)
Myanmar (2–4 weeks)
North Thailand (2 weeks)
Indonesia (3–4 weeks)
Singapore (1/2 week)
Malaysia (1–2 weeks)
South Thailand (2 weeks)
Cambodia (1–2 weeks)
Vietnam (2–4 weeks)
Laos (1–2 weeks)
China (3–6 weeks)

If we were to leave in early January and return in mid-July, we would have approximately 30 weeks to allocate.

According to this schedule, our trip will last 22.5–38 weeks. 30 is almost exactly in the middle of this, so it seems like a good estimation for the time being. If cutting a section is necessary (as I’d rather do this than rush through everything), the most likely section seems to be the Indonesia-Singapore-Malaysia bit, as that’s a little out of the way. However, Indonesia is one of the places I’m most excited for and Bali is the tentative meeting place with Mackenzie’s family — so we’ll see. I know everything will come together when we’re on the road, but planning and numbers are in my DNA, so I can’t help but prematurely speculate.

Travel In-Depth as of 5/3/18:

As it stands, following the above without cutting anything out, we intend to start in Sri Lanka and explore the northern Cultural Triangle (Anuradhapura, Sigiriya & Dambulla) before heading to the Highlands and the Tea Plantations of the south (Kandy & Ella). If time allows, we might head to the beaches of Mirissa and Galle, as well as check out the capital of Colombo.

From there, we’ll grab a short flight to southern India and work our way north through Kerala (backwaters of Allapuzha, hill stations of Munnar), Karnataka (temples of Hampi), Goa (beaches), Maharashtra (Mumbai metropolis, cave temples of Ellora, Ajanta, Karla), and Rajasthan (culture of Udaipur & Jaipur, deserts of Jaisalmer), ending in New Delhi. There are two choices from here:

We stay in India, and now head east through temple cities (Gwalior, Khajuraho) towards Varanasi and finally to Kolkata on the eastern shore before overlanding to Bangladesh. We would spend ~1 week in Bangladesh (Sundarbans & Bagerhat) and fly from Dhaka to Yangon, as overlanding into Myanmar is impossible.
We fly direct from New Delhi to Yangon in Myanmar, ignoring Bangladesh and the cut of India from New Delhi to Kolkata.

While I currently am ignoring Bangladesh and east India in my itinerary above, both are possible and we’ll have to see how it works when we’re on the ground.

We would do a loop of sorts in Myanmar, heading north from the main city of Yangon to see magical Bagan, Mandalay, Inle Lake, and potentially do some trekking in the northern highlands (Hsipaw). Logistically difficult and potentially dangerous, but heading to Rakhine in the west to see Mrauk U and Mahamuni Temple would be epic. We would return to Yangon and exit overland to the east into northern Thailand.

From there, we would work through the tropical rainforests of northern Thailand (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai) down to Bangkok, from where we would fly to Bali in the south of Indonesia. Ideally, we would spend some time here with Mackenzie’s family before working back north through the island of Java (volcanoes, temples around Yogyakarta) towards Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta at the northern tip of Java. From here, we could continue overlanding over the island of Sumatra towards Singapore, or fly direct to save time, as Sumatra is not dense with attractions.

We would stay a few days in Singapore before continuing north through Malaysia (Malaca, Batu Caves, Langkawi island) and into Southern Thailand (amazing beaches & islands for R&R) for a couple weeks, before returning to Bangkok and heading east into Cambodia.

One to two weeks in Cambodia (Angkor, tragic & fascinating Khmer Rouge history) would lead to three or four weeks working north through skinny Vietnam (history and beaches in the south and middle, dense jungles & Halong Bay in the north) before cutting west for relaxation in Laos (Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng). With energy revitalized, we intend to head north into our final country of the trip: China.

Taking an unconventional route through China, we intend to cut through the country’s center, heading through Yunnan (Tibetan culture), Sichuan (food!), Shaanxi (Xi’an and ancient Chinese culture), Shanxi, and ending in the capital of Beijing (countless things to do and nearby Great Wall), from where we would fly back to our familiar United States.

Travel route as of 2/26/18:

Northwest & West India (2–4 weeks)
Sri Lanka (1–2 weeks)
East and Northeast India (1–2 weeks)
Bangladesh (1–2 weeks)
Myanmar (2–4 weeks)
North Thailand (2 weeks)
Indonesia (2–4 weeks)
Singapore (1 week)
Malaysia (1–2 weeks)
South Thailand (2 weeks)
Cambodia (1–2 weeks)
Vietnam (2–4 weeks)
Laos (1–2 weeks)
China (3–5 weeks)

So there you have it! As it stands now, the trip will be somewhere from 22 to 38 weeks. Our minimum of 22 weeks is quite a bit closer to our 6-month time limit, so those minimum week guestimates above probably give a better idea of what our trip will look like.

We’re planning on getting to Bangkok about halfway through the trip and then flying down to Bali to meet with her parents. From there, we’ll work upwards back towards Bangkok through Indonesia/Malaysia/Southern Thailand. If we end up getting to Bangkok early (1–2 weeks before her parents are arriving in Bali), we might grab some tickets to Philippines during the wait.

Most Excited For…

Tibetan Buddhist temples & culture (Dharamsala, Darjeeling, Leh in India, Yunnan Province in China)
Classically Indian culture in Delhi & Rajasthan (New Delhi, Agra, Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Pushkar)
Fascinating Hindu temples of deep South Asia(Hampi, cave temples, Sirigaya)
Vast mangrove forest and biodiversity of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh
Magnificent temple complexes of Bagan in Myanmar and Angkor in Cambodia
Massive Buddhist temples of central Java (Borobudur & Prambanan)
Tropical beach paradises throughout (Goa in India, Bali in Indonesia, Krabi in Thailand, Sihanoukville in Cambodia)
Sprawling rice terraces (Banaue in Philippines, Honge Hani & Longsheng in China, Tegallang in Indonesia, Sapa in Vietnam, Pai in Thailand)
Lush green tea plantations (Munnar in India and Cameron Highlands in Malaysia)
Great Wall of China in Northern China