Ian and I have been waiting 5 (long) years for our Southeast Asia adventure to begin and now, suddenly, our Aug. 8th departure date feels like it's approaching too quickly. Don't get me wrong, we can't wait to get started on our journey - it's just that there are still many things to look after, especially when you own a house; but like any production, I am confident it'll all come together eventually.
Our ten month journey will focus on six countries: Malaysai, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. I do not have every second planned except that I have a rough idea when we will visit each country in an attempt to avoid monsoon season. I do have our first three weeks in Pennisular Malaysia mapped out because it's peak season and hotels are already booking up. After Malaysia, we fly to Sumatra to meet up with my friend Tim who lives in Indonesia. I booked all Southeast Asia flights through airasia.com and was astonished at how cheap they were.
We're planning on spending two months in Indonesia so we will have to get a visa extension when we arrive in Sumatra. To get a visa, you need an exit ticket so I've got us scheduled to fly out of Bali Oct. 19th for Bangkok. We're only spending a week in Sumatra, the rest of the time will be in Java. Indonesia is a huge country of over 17,000 islands so on Tim's suggestion, we'll focus on seeing the sites of Java. We may end up back in Indonesia at the end of our 10 months so who knows, we might see more than Java.
