One of the most exhilarating aspects of travel is deciding where to go, what to see, and which experiences to pursue. During our final year of university, Wes and I considered several areas of the world where we could travel after graduation, and eventually decided that Southeast Asia would be the ideal destination for us to visit between May and June 2011. This region is generally considered to encompass Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, East Timor, and the Philippines. With just over five weeks to spare, going through all of these countries would be completely infeasible, so we’ve chosen to concentrate on three places: Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand (with a few days in Malaysia). This route will give us the opportunity to experience a mix of history, natural beauty, and beach nightlife at a relatively relaxed pace of travel (i.e. not the Amazing Race).
Preparations for this trip have been more extensive than heading to an all-inclusive or Europe, so we’ve been getting ready and planning for the past several months. We’ve stocked up on anti-malarial medication, antibiotics, and received immunizations (luckily, I had all of my shots before travelling to Kenya last year). We also had to pre-arrange our Visas for Vietnam, since they aren’t available upon arrival at the airport (seemingly for no better reason than to make travel arrangements unnecessarily convoluted). We’ve made a rough outline of where we want to go and what we want to do, but still have a pretty flexible itinerary. Our plan is to travel north to south through Vietnam, West through Cambodia, around Thailand to end up on the southern beaches, before flying home from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
I’m hoping that by writing about our travels, we’ll allow our family and friends to stay updated on where we are and what we’re up to, and also allow us to (hopefully) keep a detailed account of our trip. So, in exactly one week we’ll be flying on a Cathay Pacific flight from Toronto to Hong Kong, and then catching a short connection to Hanoi, Vietnam to kick off our travels!
