impending trip

Turns out we leave Friday night, 12:30am! So soon!

Whenever I am planning for a large trip, packing, and saying goodbyes, a horrible resistance begins to arise. I feel sick, anxious, and I'm always sure I'm forgetting something. My friends say they go through the same thing. I suppose it's just pre-trip stress accumulating, and for this trip it's particularly bad. Throughout the holidays I've been going over the to-do's, to-buy's that I must finish. I have work to complete, job applications to submit, and a website to get online before I leave. And with 5 months to prepare for, there is a lot to think about. I'm crossing my fingers I don't get sick, I really don't want to feel ill on the 14 hour plane ride to Taipei. And worst of all of course is having to say goodbye to friends and Atish. For now I'm trying to take things one thing at a time. Once I'm in Vietnam I know I'll feel great and happy to be abroad.

Everyone is asking me about my travel plans, and it's actually good for me to go over them again and again out-loud, though sometimes it feels as though they are becoming more and more impossible. Just for clarity (my clarity), here they are again:

Round-trip ticket from Seattle to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. January 9 - May 26.
Spend January in Vietnam with Dad, mostly kite-boarding in Mui Ne, and some travel. Dad leaves for Seattle and I will head north in Vietnam, cross over into Northern Laos, travel through Laos to Cambodia, tour Cambodia, enter Thailand. Travel Thailand.

The timing is the tricky part. I need to fly from Bangkok to Kolkata because I cannot travel across Myanmar. I want to purchase that ticket asap, but the date will restrict how much time I have to travel through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.

I plan to arrive in Kolkata, apply for a visa to Bangladesh and spend a week in Bangladesh. Then head back to Kolkata and take a train all the way to Delhi (24+ hours), with stops in Varanasi and Lucknow. I need to be in Delhi by April 1st, in time for Arman's birthday and Atish's arrival!

And so, with all of this calculated it looks like I will have only 6-7 weeks to tour Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, which is less than I would like but I know I can make it work. Most likely I will not get to head into Southern Thailand to explore the beaches. I'll just have to make another trip for that! :)

Finally, I will spend my last 1.5 months in India. Atish arrives the 5th of April. We will explore Delhi for a couple days and then head south to Gujarat, touring the state than traveling north through Rajasthan, back to Delhi to take the train to Uttarakhand where I lived during my study abroad. After we head back to Delhi, Atish flys home and I will spend my remaining time working with the NGO in Delhi: Swechha with my friend Niharika, and perhaps making a trip up to Kashmir.

My last obstacle: I must fly from Delhi to Ho Chi Minh City in time to catch my return flight. I would prefer to spend a night in the city before my long flight back to Seattle, however, my 3 month Vietnamese visa will have expired. Will they let me through customs? I'm going to have to speak with the Vietnamese consulate when we arrive there...

So in short:
Vietnam (w/ Dad) - 1 month
Laos - 2'ish weeks?
Cambodia -2'ish weeks?
Thailand -2'ish weeks?
Kolkata -> Bangladesh- 1 week
Kolkata -> Delhi - several days
Delhi - 1 week
Gujarat-Rajasthan-Sonopani (w/ Atish) - 1 month
Delhi / Kashmir - 3 weeks
Fly back to Vietnam for return flight to Seattle - 40+hours flying and in airports.
= More than my total time traveling... I'll make it work...