smoked dog

This blog will serve to document my two-month trip to Asia between May and July 2008. I'll try to update it as best I can with pictures and text as I travel through East and South-East Asia. For now my itinerary is not settled and I'm just starting to plan everything. You kind of forget about the crappy parts about planning these trips after they're done, but visas, health insurance, immunization shots and frequent flyer miles are all un-fun things to deal with.

The purpose of this trip is obviously going to be to experience lots of great food, meet some random people and see some pretty cool stuff. My guess is I'll be able to do all of that within three days of arriving - but I'll be there for 63 days, so there should be plenty to write about. For now, the plan is to spend about ten days in Japan with Steve and meet Dipti in Hong Kong at some point. Other possibilities include meeting up with Haskell in Viet Nam and spending some time with Ravi's (coworker) family in Malaysia. Other potential destinations include Mongolia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

I've already booked a flight to Tokyo and back, so the next step is to take care of Steve's flight to Japan and possibly the next leg of my journey which may bring me to Shanghai, Beijing or Mongolia?? I'll post another update in a week or so, but in the meantime, if anyone has opinions about Shanghai or Beijing, feel free to let me know...