Where are we adventuring?
The Great Adventure of 2008! Officially we are flying out of Australia on August 12, 2008.
Heading to these locations (in order): Thailand, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Mongolia, China, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Hawaii.
All that in 4 months.We arrive back on December 10, at 7:20pm.We will be home just in time for Greg’s Birthday!Or if one prefers slightly more detail:
We leave Sydney for Bangkok on the 12th of August at 10am, arrive at 4pm (Thailand time). We stay there for two nights of getting into the holiday groove, kicking around, sleeping a lot, and looking for totally legit cheap copies of movies that haven’t been released yet (no we can’t bring you back a copy of Harry Potter 7).
Then we leave Bangkok at Midnight on the 14th of August for Rome, arriving at 6am, well-rested and with the whole day of gelato-eating, espresso-drinking and ferrari-ogling ahead of us.
Followed by:4 nights in Rome (15th – 18th August)4 nights in Florence (19th – 22nd August)2 nights in Venice ( 23rd & 24th August)Then an overnight train to Paris, where we stay for 3 nights (26th – 28th August).Then we go to The Netherlands for a couple of days, Germany for several days to visit people, and wind up by plain or train in St Petersburg on the 9th of September. Which means we’ll be going to the Venice of East, the Venice of the North, and actual Venice all in the same trip.We have two days to look around St. Petersburg, then we get on the train to Moscow.And then…
September 11 – Catch Train to Moscow at 10pm
September 12 – Moscow
September 13 – Get on train
September 14 – On train
September 15 – On train
September 16 – On train
September 17 – Arrive in Irkutsk
September 18 – travel to Khuzhir, the main settlement in Lake Baikal’s Olkhon Island
September 19 – Khuzhir
September 20 – make the trip back to Irkutsk in time to catch our overnight train to Ulan Ude
September 21 – Ulan Ude
September 22 – get on the train to Mongolia
September 23 – Arrive in Ulaan Baatar – head out to National Park
September 24 – travel back to Ulaan Baatar
September 25 – get on the train to Beijing
September 26 – Arrive in Beijing * new tour begins
September 27 – Beijing
September 28 – Beijing
September 29 – Take a bus to Gubeikou, a lesser-known section of the Great Wall
September 30 – travel back to Beijing and get on train to Xi’an
October 1 – X’ian
October 2 – X’ian
October 3 – X’ian – early evening get on train to Shanghai
October 4 – Shanghai
October 5 – Shanghai
October 6 – In the morning of day 11 we board an overnight train bound for Guilin in Guangxi Province (approx. 22 hours).
October 7 – We arrive in Guilin in the evening where we transfer by public bus to Yangshuo
October 8 – Yangshuo
October 9 – We head out to Chaolong
October 10 – Chaolong
October 11 – In the morning we travel to the Longji Valley
October 12 – Longii Valley
October 13 – travel – sleep on an overnight train
October 14 – Hong Kong
October 15 – Fly from Hong Kong to Hanoi
October 16 – Hanoi (5 days of nothing planned)
October 17 – Hanoi
October 18 – Hanoi
October 19 – Hanoi
October 20 – Hanoi – Vietnam Basix starts
October 21 – travel to Bai Chay
October 22 – Cat Ba Island
October 23 – overnight train to Sapa
October 24 – Sapa
October 25 – trek to Ta Van Village
October 26 – trek back to Sapa
October 27 – in the evening get on an overnight train to Hanoi
October 28 – Hanoi
Ocotober 29 – late in the afternoon catch the overnight train to Hue
Cotober 30 – Hue
October 31 – Hue
November 1 – travel to Hoi An
November 2 – Hoi An
November 3 – Hoi An
November 4 – Catch the train to Nha Trang
November 5 – Nha Trang
November 6 – In the evening catch the overnight train to Ho Chi Minh City
November 7 – Ho Chi Minh (7 days of no plans)
November 8 – Ho Chi Minh
November 8 – Ho Chi Minh
November 9 – Ho Chi Minh
November 10 – Ho Chi Minh
November 11 – Ho Chi Minh
November 12 – Ho Chi Minh
November 13 – Travel to Phnom Penh
November 14 – Phnom Penh
November 15 – Phnom Penh * Heart Of Cambodia Starts
November 16 – Phnom Penh
November 17 – travel to Battambang
November 18 – Battambang
November 19 – Travel to Siem Reap
November 20 – Siem Reap
November 21 – Siem Reap
November 22 – Kampong Cham
November 23 – travel to Phnom Penh Kampot
November 24 – Kampot
November 25 – Sihanoukville, which is the sunny beach part of Cambodia
November 26 – Sihanoukville
November 27 – Sihanoukville
November 28 – travel back to Phnom Penh
November 29 – Phnom Penh
November 30 – Phnom Penh
December 1 – Phnom Penh
December 2 – Fly to Bangkok, arriving at 11am, wait around ’til 5pm, get on another plane and arrive in Sydney at 6am on December 3rd.
December 3 – Wait around (most likely at the airport) until 7pm, then get on another plane to Hawaii.
December 3 – Arrive in Hawaii (we cross the date line and get a free day in Hawaii back)
December 4 – Honolulu
December 5 – Honolulu
December 6 – Honolulu; then we get on yet another aeroplane (cabin fever here we come) to Kona on Big Island
December 7 – Kona; somewhere in three days at Kona we get to do a walk around the rim of a volcano, not sure which day yet
December 8 – Kona
December 9 – Kona; pack up and fly back to Honolulu; and on another plane back to Sydney; during the flight we lose a day to the date line and arrive on December 10th.
And hopefully we’ll have two pennies to rub together while we wait to clear immigration and get back into Australia.Greg