The countdown has begun in more ways than one: my weight; the clock until my wife and I depart for our epic expedition to reach Singapore without flying...
I guess one countdown has spurred on the other really...I want to be comfortable travelling around Asia and not be melting in the heat as well as not be restricted in any way by our fitness when it comes to activity opportunities.
We are desperately saving for the trip and have an achievable budget that we feel we can reach by January 2015 that allows us to have an amazing time and still have a little to come back to allowing funds for while finding a new job again and rent etc. I'm pretty lucky in my current job that I have made a lot of contacts who I know I could call on when I get back and providing there is budget would be happy to take me on.
The route is pretty unbelievable and I flit between how long we think we can realistically last on our funds vs. if I can swindle getting a sabbatical at work (unfortunately unpaid but oh well) so it varies from day-to-day ranging from 6 months to 1 year.
Rules:
No flying with the exception of enclosed loops...if we fly out of a city we must return to that city by plane before continuing with our journey. This is to get around things like Thailand and Myanmar land border regulations and to allow us to stay in Thailand for longer than two weeks (the limit when entering via a land border)
What we do know is the basic route:
Leg 1:
London to Beijing via the Trans Mongolian Railway
----> London ----> Paris ----> Lithuania (pit stop visiting friends) ----> St Petersburg ----> Moscow ----> Mongolia ----> Beijing
Leg 2:
Massive tour of China!!!
Leg 3:
Vietnam ----> Cambodia ----> Loas ----> Thailand ----> Malaysia ----> Singapore
Leg 4:
Some extras pending time and funds like Indonesia and Fiji. My wife would love to go to Korea and Japan...
I guess one countdown has spurred on the other really...I want to be comfortable travelling around Asia and not be melting in the heat as well as not be restricted in any way by our fitness when it comes to activity opportunities.
We are desperately saving for the trip and have an achievable budget that we feel we can reach by January 2015 that allows us to have an amazing time and still have a little to come back to allowing funds for while finding a new job again and rent etc. I'm pretty lucky in my current job that I have made a lot of contacts who I know I could call on when I get back and providing there is budget would be happy to take me on.
The route is pretty unbelievable and I flit between how long we think we can realistically last on our funds vs. if I can swindle getting a sabbatical at work (unfortunately unpaid but oh well) so it varies from day-to-day ranging from 6 months to 1 year.
Rules:
No flying with the exception of enclosed loops...if we fly out of a city we must return to that city by plane before continuing with our journey. This is to get around things like Thailand and Myanmar land border regulations and to allow us to stay in Thailand for longer than two weeks (the limit when entering via a land border)
What we do know is the basic route:
Leg 1:
London to Beijing via the Trans Mongolian Railway
----> London ----> Paris ----> Lithuania (pit stop visiting friends) ----> St Petersburg ----> Moscow ----> Mongolia ----> Beijing
Leg 2:
Massive tour of China!!!
Leg 3:
Vietnam ----> Cambodia ----> Loas ----> Thailand ----> Malaysia ----> Singapore
Leg 4:
Some extras pending time and funds like Indonesia and Fiji. My wife would love to go to Korea and Japan...