My Upcoming Trip to Asia

As many of you have already heard, I'm going to be getting out of the Navy at the end of the month. By now, if you've gotten the link to this site, you've also probably heard that I'm going to be leaving San Diego on September 11th for a 3.5 month trip to China, Nepal and India. This blog will serve as my journal to share some of my experiences (everything from the incredible views I hope to get of Everest to the "Delhi Belly" that I hope to avoid) with all of you. As I make my way through Asia, I plan to update this every few days with some of my latest stories and a few of my favorite pictures. So I hope that you come back frequently to check out what's new and where in the world I happen to be.

By now, you're probably asking why I'm already writing when I'm 3 weeks away from leaving. You're right, I'm not going to be writing about the trip. Instead over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing some of my thoughts with regards to planning for a trip like this.

I've had this trip in the back of my mind for the last 2 years. Ever since I went to China in 2005, I knew that I wanted to see more of it as well as India. The part I loved most about that trip was that everything was so new...everything from the food (hmmm....dumplings), the language (had to learn at least a little bit of Chinese to get by), the way people interacted with each other and the history. I love to learn and every day on that trip was a learning experience. Up until a stop in Chengdu (Sichuan province), I never even thought of traveling to India. But while I was there, I met a Brazilian couple who amazed me with their stories of the 6 months they spent traveling around India. As one of the great cultures as well as being an up and coming country today, it sounded like a great place to visit in the future. Originally, my plan was to follow the Old Silk Road through the less touristed western part of China before crossing over the Himalayas to make my way India. Unfortunately, due to a past conflicts between India and China, crossing the border there wasn't an option. That soon changed into my present plan: 2 weeks in China (between Beijing and Shanghai), 3 weeks in Nepal (Everest Region) and 2 months in India.

So now that I figured out where to go, what went into actually planning the trip? Below is a list of the main tasks (organized by lead time) I needed to accomplish to get ready for this trip:
1. Research (everything else starts after this)
2. Vaccinations (lots of diseases out there that you need to be aware of)
3. Visas (surprisingly easy)
4. Travel Tickets
5. Insurance (confusing)
6. Gear (So many toys, yet limited funds to spend on them)
7. Blog/Photo Sharing Websites (much better than the last time I traveled)

Over the next 3 weeks, I'll be talking about my how I took care of each of these areas in planning for my upcoming trip.