Itinerary – Goodbye Europe, Hello Asia

Our days of waking up after 9AM, boiling water for coffee in a pot that doubles as our rice cooker at night and slowly getting ourselves ready for a day of chillin’ in the apartment, walks on the beach, visits to the market, school work, and Netflix are sadly drawing to an end. Ok, Bruce actually works a lot every day but we’ve all managed to thoroughly embrace the relaxed lifestyle that emanates from every corner of this beautiful Portuguese fishing village on the Atlantic ocean.

We will surely miss this place but we’re also looking forward to the next chapter of this adventure. Europe has been easy. We’ve been lucky enough to visit 12 countries and experience various cultures but let’s face it, it’s no different than the lifestyle we are used to in North America. I feel as though the “real” travelling will begin in about ten days when we board the plane to India.

So here’s our plan for the next couple of months.

India

Oh India! I’m a little terrified, yet excited. I hear it’s Love or Hate when it comes to this exotic land. I do hope it will be Love. We had a shaky start to our planning. While applying for visas, I accidentally ended up on a website identical to the official government site and paid close to three times the usual amount. Thankfully it was a legit travel agent and I did get my visa but I made sure the boys’ visas were done on the correct website. So beware if you are applying for an Indian tourist visa. It shouldn’t cost more than $60.

I was quite annoyed at my mistake. After all, I spend a lot of time online. I’ve been taking care of all our travel preparations, I worked in IT for over 20 years; a lot of ‘connected experience’. It’s in the past and time to move on – I started the actual planning but first I had to get my account setup for booking trains in India. So you’d think, no big deal, right? Just create your online account and book tickets. Well, not exactly – I did create an online account but then you have to send an email along with a copy of your passport and ask them to activate your account. It only took fours days and three emails 😉  Be sure you read everything on this page as it’s a great resource for booking trains in India.

Luckily I have a friend who’s travelled to India a few times and loves it. She has been an absolute saint helping me out and preparing me for what to expect. Thanks, Linda!

And I’m proud to say my bargaining skills are coming along very well and I’m putting the skill to use negotiating hotel prices 🙂

So where are we going in India…

New Delhi – 2 Days

We’re only spending two days here just to recover from our long flight and get some shopping done for appropriate clothing. It’s been a while since I’ve done any shopping so this should be fun, I hope 🙂

Udaipur – 7 Days

We’ll be taking an overnight train and spending one week here. I think Udaipur will be a great first-time destination in India. At least that’s the impression from the many blogs I’ve read over the last few weeks. We’re staying at a guesthouse where our host runs a non-profit organisation helping the youth in the rural areas and we’ve booked a tour with him. It’ll be a great experience for Kasm.

Jodhpur – 9 Days

I haven’t booked anything here. We’ll be taking a taxi from Udaipur to Jodhpur which takes about five hours or so. There are no trains available and I’m not sure if I’ll be ready to experience the bus but who knows, we might change our mind.

Jaisalmer – 7 Days

Our hotel for this place is already booked. Thanks again to Linda. We plan on doing a camel trek into the desert while staying in Jaisalmer.

New Delhi – 2 Days

Another overnight Train will bring us back to Delhi – 17 hours to be exact!

Thailand

After India, we head over to Thailand for a month. We arrive in Bangkok but only spending a night near the airport as we’ll be flying to Chiang Mai the next morning.

Chiang Mai – 19 Days

No planning has been done for Chiang Mai and I don’t think we’ll be doing any ahead of time. We’ll most likely arrive and look for accommodation in person. Our “loose” plan is to rent a place here and get a few day trips in. Since we’ll be coming off a month in India, it’ll be a more relaxing stay and we hope to connect with other digital nomads.

Pattaya – 4 Days

We are meeting my parents in Pattaya as they will be coming in for a conference. I’m really excited for some family time and Kasm is just thrilled to hang out with his grandparents. We’ll be here only four days. Pattaya doesn’t have the best reputation as a family destination but I hear it’s been cleaning up its image over the last few years.

Ko Chang – 7 Days

After Pattaya, we’ll be heading to Ko Chang along with my parents for some island time. Finding an island that’s not “touristy” yet has an infrastructure in place for a digital nomad isn’t easy. Ko Chang isn’t as overrun by tourists as Phuket or Ko Samui, and it offers places with wifi which is always a must for us. I also didn’t want just a “beach” destination. Ko Change will give us an opportunity to get some hiking done and visit waterfalls.

And that brings us to the end of December. We’ll be leaving Thailand on Dec 30th and the current plan is to head over to Cambodia since we’re not far from the border. Getting across to Cambodia sounds rather tricky and involves a lot of “bribing”. We need to do our homework before making any plans.

After Cambodia, we’ll be going to Indonesia for more beach time and perhaps swimming with turtles 🙂

We haven’t made a final decision if both Australia and New Zealand will make the list. We may sacrifice Australia as we really would like to rent a camper van in New Zealand and the prices would make your jaw hit the floor.

So that’s it for the next round of planning. Hope you’ll continue following us on our world adventure.

Cheers!