Go Big Mike!

After a final group farewell dinner at Enterprise Fish (thanks everybody!), last night became a blur of last-minute packing/cleaning activity, which I finally wrapped up at about 1am. In my last night in my own bed for several months, I ended up getting about 45 minutes of sleep before waking up at 4:30. Ouch. Leaving my apartment at 5:10 this morning was surreal. I savored a last few minutes on my balcony in the morning quiet before the taxi arrived to take me to LAX.

The American Airlines terminal at LAX was shockingly busy when I arrived at 5:30. Even the business class and eticket lines were long, and moving slowly. I was sure to miss my 6:30 flight, so I jumped into the empty Exec Plat line and slipped to the check-in desk quickly without any drama. And then I had the pleasant surprise of finding that my upgrade request came through, so I managed 4 hours of quality sleep on the uneventful flight in business class.

The hour-long train journey though the hot, muggy New York afternoon from to my friend Ivan’s pad in Lower East Side was simple enough. I picked up a key from his doorman, and caught a nap while waiting for him to finish work. New York is a good bridge to the wider world from LA; it’s more dense, intense, loud, and “pungently perfumed” here. We had a mellow dinner at a French place a few blocks away, and we’re calling it an early night. I’m enjoying the views over the city from his guest room as I’m typing this. It’s a little different than my final views out to the Pacific from my balcony just over 12 hours ago…

I’ll spend the bulk of my next 2 days here in NYC doing administrative stuff I couldn’t get to before leaving Santa Monica; shutting down or reducing fees on services, and other stuff that’s harder to do from abroad. I’ll mix in a little sight seeing here as well. I fly on to Stockholm, Sweden, on Thursday night.

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Our world is big and full of great things to see and do, and I know I’m not going to be able to partake in all (or even most) of them on this trip. I’m saving some real gems for future trips. But I’m excited about all the great places I’m planning for this trip.

Flexibility is important to me, so almost all dates and locations are subject to change. I haven’t booked any flights beyond the initial starting flights. Rather than buying a RTW ticket, I plan to buy one-way flights as I go. The only dates/locations that aren’t flexible are those where I know I’m meeting people, ie my Dad in Nepal.

The first “leg” (Asia), through the end of 2007, I consider “firm”; I’m planning on travelling that for sure. Future “legs” in 2008 are more tentative. I’ve never travelled for more than 3 weeks at a time, so committing to “12 months around the world” in one whack seems overly aggressive. But assuming I’m still happy and healthy, I’ll keep rolling on.

2007
LEG 1
Aug–Russia (Trans-Mongolian Railroad)
Sep–Mongolia, China
Oct–China, Nepal (trek w/ Dad)
Nov–Vietnam, Laos
Dec–Cambodia, Thailand

2008
LEG 2
Jan–Indonesia/Malaysia(?), New Zealand
Feb–Brazil (just Carnivale?), Argentina
Mar–Argentina/Chile
Apr–Bolivia, Peru
LEG 3 (getting more nebulous here)
May–South Africa, Zimbabwe
Jun–Tanzania, Kenya
Jul–Egypt, Jordan, Turkey
Aug–Italy, ?

Sound fun? Come out and join me!

And if anyone has friends or family in any of these places, please let me know. I’m sure I’ll meet lots of cool travellers along the way, but it would be great to have some local contacts along the way (shockingly, I’ve already got 2 solid contacts for Mongolia! Go figure…).

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