The Route

After deciding that we were going to travel for a few months, the first question was where to go. We tossed around South America for about two minutes, but we ultimately decided that we really wanted to go back to Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Originally we thought we would go to new countries in Asia, but since we were only traveling for a few months, we decided to go back to the places we loved. We’ll do all of our favorite things in each place, but we also plan on seeing and doing things that we didn’t on our last trip. At least that’s what we tell ourselves… All we know is that Hanna will nap, and Mike will bemoan the fact that milk tastes different everywhere else in the world.

Our first stop is Hong Kong. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted to last time, so it will be nice to see a bit more of the city. (Mickey is awaiting our return too.) From there we will head to Bangkok for another week of massages, street food, and ‘Merican ice cream. We will then head to Krabi (no, we didn’t go there last trip), Phuket, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. After being in Asia for a month, we will round out the next six weeks with stops in Australia (Sydney and the Sunshine Coast), New Zealand (route on the South Island is to be determined), and Hawaii.

We are super excited to return to all of these places. (Did you happen to notice that China is missing from our route?) Hopefully we will love these cities as much this time around. That’s the fun of it: who knows what we will like and dislike as we have become older and wiser? The more detailed itinerary will unfold as we travel. Have to keep you guessing, right?

Are We Still in Asia?

Upon departure from Asia, there was one friend that Hanna was quite ready to leave behind: the dreaded mosquito. Hanna seems prone to multiple mosquito bites and was constantly dousing herself in DEET. Mike, on the other hand, rarely got bit. He must not be as sweet.

Nothing is more fun than waking up in the middle of the night and furiously scratching mozzie bites. We thought these days were over. How wrong we were. Hanna seems to attract mosquitoes wherever she goes, and somehow we have random buggers in our New York apartment. Before going to bed every night, she sprays up and prays that they don’t land on the one spot she missed.

Hanna forgot how bad the mosquitoes can be here and cannot wait for fall to arrive. You should see how scarred her feet are. Mike has MAYBE two bites. One on his leg itches sporadically, and the other on the top of his hand doesn’t bug him. He’s sick of hearing Hanna complain. He had enough of that last fall…and winter…and spring.

At least in Asia, Hanna could forget her troubles by getting hourlong massages for six bucks.

Hanna Staring Down Her Enemy. Note That She Is Wearing a Jacket to Keep Them from Biting. Koh Phi Phi, Thailand. November 2010.

Walking to Asia

So we walked to Asia yesterday…

Istanbul is split by the Bosphorus Strait into different parts: the European side and the Asian side. We have spent most of our time on the European side, so we figured we should spend our last day in Istanbul by walking over the bridge to the Asian continent:

Loads of Fishermen Line Each Side of the Bridge.

View of Asian Istanbul.

We really had no destination in mind, so we just wandered around Istiklal Avenue which is Istanbul’s equivalent of Fifth Avenue or the Champs-Élysées. Every chain store (Sephora, Diesel, Nike, etc.) lined the street. We never really get excited about shopping in cities around the world as we have all this stuff at home…

A Crowded Sunday.

Most Pairs of Chucks Were Over US $70. Absolutely Nuts.

After a ridiculously long walk in chilly weather, we rested in the hostel for a bit, and then the ladies decided they wanted to go the Turkish bathhouse for round two. (Mike chose not to go again. All he has heard is that it’s not so fun for guys.)

We went out for our last dinner of kebabs. This is pretty much all we ate in Turkey…and we loved every minute of it. The hardest choice each day was figuring out which stand we wanted them from and exactly what kind we wanted: wraps, pita, on bread, etc. The night was capped at a cheap bar where Bonnie kindly bought Mike a beer (he is her fake husband after all) and we smoked a shisha:

Team Turkey.

We like visiting with friends on this trip, but the absolute hardest part is leaving them.

The Last Third

We always saw our trip in thirds. The first third was Asia, then came Australia/New Zealand, and Europe would be last. Our math obviously isn’t very good because we spent five months in Asia and only two and a half months in Australia and New Zealand…but we saw the change in continents as a good way to mentally break up the trip.

Our last third of the trip will start later this week when we arrive in London. We are first making a four-day pit stop in Kuala Lumpur because that was the cheapest way to fly. We have such mixed feelings about leaving Australia and working our way up to Europe. We’ve truly enjoyed staying with Kiwi Mike and Kylie and will miss them greatly. (Can you tell?)

We are excited to be in London for a bit though. Aside from New York, London is our favorite place to be as it is where we met and got engaged. Europe is always a fun place to go, and we are excited to see new cities and revisit old favorites. We will be spending an extended period of time with friends and family while in Europe, so we can’t complain. Hopefully they are willing to bring us some Easter candy. Peanut butter cups please!

The worst part about heading up to Europe (as if there is ever anything bad about an impending trip to Europe) is the realization that our trip is one step closer to the end. We plan on being in Europe for about four months and feel extremely grateful for the ability to do so. Our budget has been carefully eyed these last seven months, so we should be good for expensive Europe.

We are sad to say goodbye to the Southern Hemisphere (well, maybe besides Bali), but we are really looking forward to gelato, family, pastries, and free museums.

Wet Bathrooms

We have seen our fair share of hostel bathrooms in Asia. 19 to be exact. A lot of the bathrooms are the same, and it is starting to get old.

Picture this: sink, toilet, drain on the floor, and shower head on the wall. That’s it. No shower stall, no curtain….just you, a shower head, and a completely wet bathroom. Every time you take a shower, you have to remember to take out the toilet paper, towels, clothes, and anything else you don’t want getting wet. Want to go to the bathroom after your significant other has just showered? Expect a soaking wet toilet, floor, and sink. Nothing says comfort like a wet toilet seat.

We have seen bathrooms like this on previous trips to Europe but only had to endure them for a few days. It has now been two months. We are still trying to experiment how to not completely drench every surface.

We present to you a bathroom we had in Hong Kong:

The Culprit.

That’s it. Toilet, sink, and, in the upper left-hand corner, the “shower.” Right over the toilet. Please tell us how Hanna is supposed to properly wash her hair while leaning over a toilet. Suggestions? (Mike doesn’t wash his hair.)

The (Unofficial) Route Map

So we finally decided we were gonna do this trip…now what?

We knew that if we were going to be away from the States for about a year, we wanted to stop to see our families first.  (Our domestic stops will be discussed in a later post.)  Since we would be moving east to west across the U.S., we figured it would make the most sense to fly to Asia first and travel west from there.  Our goal is to follow the warm weather so that we never really hit true winter at any point during the trip.  Whether this actually happens or not is to be determined…

Here’s our basic route:  USA to Japan to South Korea to China to Cambodia to Thailand to Malaysia to Singapore to Indonesia to New Zealand to Australia to (hopefully somewhere in Africa…either South Africa or perhaps Egypt depending on flight prices) to Europe.  The basic European plan is to fly into Turkey or Greece and then make our way west by train from there.  Both of us have independently seen a significant amount of Europe already, so our route is very flexible.  We’ll ultimately end in London and then fly back to New York and hopefully avoid the real world for a bit longer.

This map is not set in stone by any means, and we hope to post an map of our actual route as we go.