So, slightly unexpected but... I set the date I'm leaving the US (for an extended temporary period) in stone yesterday! So now, the first two months of my world travel is all set! Paid for?...well, I'm getting there.
I learned that Global Nomadic partners with Student Travel Association. So I thought why not go visit them and see what I can find out. I went to their storefront downtown. I visited a couple times; first time was either last week or beginning of this week. He gave me a couple books (Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand) to look at and said I should try to nail down some dates for when I'll be where.... pretty hard to do if you're trying to keep an open schedule.
So I printed out a 2018 calender and started strategizing. I thought I was ready to go back to STA travel to put something on hold or put a deposit down. So yesterday, after work, I headed down to STA again. There was a promotion going on with G Adventures. The fine print was that it had to be for a trip departing in 2017, not 2018. My initial conceptual plans were falling slightly apart in front of my eyes! How to work around this??
Here's how it turned out. Instead of jumping straight into the deep end of adventure travel by trekking in Nepal, I adjusted my trip so that I start with a 30-day guided small group tour of up to 18 people. This tour, called IndoChina Discovery, starts and ends in Bangkok, Thailand but tours through Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Cambodia wasn't on my list of places to visit, but that's fine. I'm good with adding a country to my list of places visited.
This tour goes from October 15 through November 13. This works out perfectly; the price of the 30-day tour was less at this date than in January 2018, and the airfare for JFK -> Bangkok -> Bali was $1,500 less than JFK to Kathmandu to Bali. It also works out with my Global Nomadic volunteer internship start date of November 17th in Ubud, Bali. The next thing I need to do is buy airfare from Bali to Taiwan so that I can apply for the Indonesian visa which you need a departing ticket to get.
I'm not sure when I'll do trekking in Nepal; it is still on the list for sure. Possibly in February between hopping from New Zealand to Europe. I really don't know where it will fit in now, but it's ok. I have months to figure that out.
So, I'm set! I fly out of JFK on October 12th in the evening and probably won't come back to March! Wohooo!! Oh yea! I'm so stinking excited now.
I learned that Global Nomadic partners with Student Travel Association. So I thought why not go visit them and see what I can find out. I went to their storefront downtown. I visited a couple times; first time was either last week or beginning of this week. He gave me a couple books (Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand) to look at and said I should try to nail down some dates for when I'll be where.... pretty hard to do if you're trying to keep an open schedule.
So I printed out a 2018 calender and started strategizing. I thought I was ready to go back to STA travel to put something on hold or put a deposit down. So yesterday, after work, I headed down to STA again. There was a promotion going on with G Adventures. The fine print was that it had to be for a trip departing in 2017, not 2018. My initial conceptual plans were falling slightly apart in front of my eyes! How to work around this??
Here's how it turned out. Instead of jumping straight into the deep end of adventure travel by trekking in Nepal, I adjusted my trip so that I start with a 30-day guided small group tour of up to 18 people. This tour, called IndoChina Discovery, starts and ends in Bangkok, Thailand but tours through Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Cambodia wasn't on my list of places to visit, but that's fine. I'm good with adding a country to my list of places visited.
This tour goes from October 15 through November 13. This works out perfectly; the price of the 30-day tour was less at this date than in January 2018, and the airfare for JFK -> Bangkok -> Bali was $1,500 less than JFK to Kathmandu to Bali. It also works out with my Global Nomadic volunteer internship start date of November 17th in Ubud, Bali. The next thing I need to do is buy airfare from Bali to Taiwan so that I can apply for the Indonesian visa which you need a departing ticket to get.
I'm not sure when I'll do trekking in Nepal; it is still on the list for sure. Possibly in February between hopping from New Zealand to Europe. I really don't know where it will fit in now, but it's ok. I have months to figure that out.
So, I'm set! I fly out of JFK on October 12th in the evening and probably won't come back to March! Wohooo!! Oh yea! I'm so stinking excited now.
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