Well, it’s January 2nd, 2007 and I’m all set to embark on another month-long round the world trip!
For those of you who followed my trip last year, thanks again for all the e-mails and comments – I am glad you all enjoyed reading the blog as much I as enjoyed writing it. I will try my best to live up to last year’s story-telling standards.
In the past few months, as I have planned this trip, I have gotten a lot of the same questions from friends & family so I would like to take this opportunity to address some of the most common:
Q. Are you going to all new places this time or back to some of the same ones from last January?
A. All new places with the exception of Cape Town, South Africa. As you may recall, that was my favorite city on the last trip and I didn’t feel like I had enough time there. I am also going back to Thailand and China but to different cities within. Other than that, all the stops are places I’ve never been before.
Q. Are you really going by yourself AGAIN??
A. Until one of you reading this can figure out how to take a month off and join me, the answer will continue to be YES. Though, thanks to alert reader, Lynn, I do now have one small travel companion, a “Roaming Gnome” she bought me for Christmas. This was an idea she had last year – very cute, he even has a little passport. I hope he doesn’t eat much.
Q. Is anybody meeting up with you along the way?
A. Maybe. My friend Kay is going to be in Australia about the same time I’m in New Zealand so we’re going to try to meet up there and bum around together for a few days. And Des (in Ireland) may join me in Croatia if he can free up his business schedule – we’ll see. Other than that, I’m flying solo.
Q. Are you going to stay longer in each place this time?
A. Most definitely. This trip will be different from the last in that it should not draw any parallels to “The Amazing Race.” I have planned at least 3 days in each place and in some cases as many as 5 or 6 days. (No 18-hour bull/chicken/camel-dodging trips through India this time.)
Q. Did you use your Frequent Flier miles again for this trip?
A. You betcha! It’s hard to believe but I fly enough each year to buy a business class RTW ticket every year if I wanted to. I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or a bad thing but at the moment, it seems pretty good. And I’ve said it before – for those of you with airline miles out there; the RTW ticket is the best value going. One difference from last year, I booked a business class ticket instead of a first-class ticket so the in-flight stories probably won’t live up to last year’s glamorous standards.
Q. Have you got the trip all planned out? Are you ready to go??
A. I would like to say yes, but I’m a terrible liar. Technically, I have MOST of the trip planned out. There is still some gray area in the Australia-New Zealand-Fiji leg but I’m hoping to get that worked out in the next week. Still trying to figure out how long I want to stay in each place.
So, there you have it. My (carry-on) bags are packed and I’m ready to go. First stop, Peru!
See you all in February!