It was never really possible for us to have an itinerary until now since we made it up as we went along.  Now that we're home though, we have the completed list, now with fancy hyperlinks. The info below was copied from the Itinerary page.  Enjoy.

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All told, we were away from home for just over one year and in that time visited 29 countries and 4 continents.  The list below represents our basic intinerary.  The links go to page that are organized by location.

December 4-8th:  Workshop in Banff, Canada

December 11th: Leave Home for Long Term

December 11th-15th: New York City

December 16th-22nd: Carolinas with friends

December 23rd-30th: Christmas with Lee's family in North Carolina

December 30th:  New Years with Sachi's family in Hawaii

January 6th: Leave Hawaii for New Zealand.

January 8th:  New Zealand

February 9th:  Brisbane, Australia

February 25th:  Singapore

March 4th:  Sri Lanka

March 15th: Malaysia

March 18th:  Mumbai, India

March 22nd: Delhi, India

March 27th: Darjeeling, India

April 2nd:   Bangkok, Thailand

April 8th: Phuket, Thailand

April 15th: Ko Lanta, Thailand 

May 2nd:  Tokyo, Japan

May 30th: Back to Bangkok, Thailand 

June 2nd:  Phuket (and Ko Phi Phi), Thailand

June 13th: Chiang Mai, Thailand

June 23rd:  Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Laos

July 3rd: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

July 13th:  Siem Reap, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

July 31st: Hanoi, Vietnam to Macau

August 3rd: Macau to Hong Kong

August 8th: Guang Zhou, China

August 15th: Chongqing, Yangtze River, Shanghai

September 9^th:  Beijing, China on Trans-Siberian Railway

September 10^th:  Ulanbaatar, Mongolia

September 14^th:  Irkutsk, Russia (Lake Baikal and Siberia)

September 18^th: Yakaterinburg, Russia

September 21st:  Moscow, Russia

September 24th:  St. Petersburg

September 27th:  Helsinki, Finland

September 29th: Lofoten Islands, Northen Norway

October 4th: Oslo, Norway

October 7th: Copenhagen, Denmark

October 9th: Amsterdam, Holland

October 13th: Enschede, Holland

October 15th: Berlin, Germany

October 18th: Prague, Czech Republic

October 22nd: Milan, Italy 

October 23-31: Venice, Florence, Rome, Siena, Lucca, Cinque Terre, Italy

November 1st: Paris, France

November 6th: Lisbon Portugal

November 9th: Cadaques, Spain

November 12th: Barcelona, Spain 

November 23rd: New York City, USA

November 24th: Kernersville, NC, USA

December 1st: Atlanta, GA, USA

December 6th: Route 66, USA

December 8th: Los Angeles, CA, USA

December 11th: Home in Seattle, Wa, USA (YAY!)

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We highly recommend renting an apartment in Barcelona if you are here for more than just a few days. It feels so nice to stroll back to our flat (right in the heart of the Gothic quarter) with a few bags of cheese, veggies, fresh seafood and pasta from the local market after climbing a few hills in the area. Lee will have more pictures coming of course - Gaudi buildings are not to be missed - but for now we are saying a heartfelt goodbye to our washer/dryer, kitchen, separate bedroom, and terrace looking over the city. A perfect place for a short break from moving every three days.

Tomorrow we are catching a train to Zaragoza and Pamplona for just a night or two each on our way to San Sebastian on Spain's northern coast. The guidebook reads, San Sebatian is..."the undisputed queen of Basque resorts". And it is supposed to have the best restaurants in the country.  We can't wait.

Yesterday at 4pm we had a plan for the next morning - we were going to catch a 7 hour train to Tavira in Southern Portugal. Then, we would use busses and trains to make our way to Barcelona via Granada and Valencia over a couple of weeks (quite slowly as it takes forever by train).

Long story short, tonight we are near the French border in the coastal village of Cadaqués, Spain, northeast of Barcelona - very far from Portugal (in fact a flight, train and bus ride from Portugal).

In a few short hours our plans changed completely when we realized that the prospect of more day-to-day travel sounded a bit too much. We've been rolling through cities every few days for months and we need a vacation from the constant travel if we're going to make it to Christmas. So we bagged our plans, got flights to Barcelona and rented an apartment for a couple of weeks. We "move in" to our Gothic barrio apartment on Sunday which gives us a weekend in Costa Brava and Cadaqués - the home of Salvador Dali.

We're both excited about Barcelona and some time to take in a city for more than a few days. We'll have a kitchen, washer and dryer and the closest thing to home we've seen in a very long time. Aahhhhhhh.

(The photo above is a Spanish guitarist we just saw perform tonight in Cadaqués).

I'm not sure whether to say I'm amazed, bewildered, upset or fascinated by the way things work in India.

The difference between home and here is so great and there so many examples that it's hard to describe it except in huge generalities, but here's one example...

After planning a 4 day trip with a driver, we backed out after 1 day. Despite multiple email and phone confirmations, we found out at 5pm that we had no room reserved for tonight. I asked the driver this morning about the hotel and found it was impossible to communicate with him (again, despite confirming an English speaking driver). So, being fed up, we cancelled the whole trip and started over from square one.

We found a hotel and booked a new driver through a gov't tourist office within an hour. The guy above was a huge and honest help and we are now set for the next few days.

Oh and despite everything, we changed our flight to have an extra week in India (now leaving April 2nd). We're gluttons for punishment I guess.

Today reminded us of two things: how luxurious it was to stay with Dina in Mumbai and yes Sandra, where the hell is Mervyn when you need him?

For the first time in a long time, we have updated the itinerary through March 28.  Lots to look forward to and a full helping of foreign people' languages, food and cities.

 

 

 

 

 

We figure that less hair means less things we have to keep clean. You might enjoy this set of pictures of my haircut.

We’re keeping a very long to-do list (actually, a ta-da list) and something that became clear to me this morning.  Throughout a year, you have to do a lot of things.  Taxes, yard work, car care, healthcare, dog care, etc. etc. etc.  Over the course of a year, these things get sprinkled over weekends and bursts of productivity. It's manageable.

What we’re finding now, is that all of these things are being compressed into the weeks and months before we leave. The to-do list is full of things that don’t need to be done today, but will need to be done in the next year. 

An example is yard work.  We love our garden and spend a significant amount of time keeping it up.  While Mark (Sachi’s bro who is living in our house) will do a LOT, we don’t expect him to tend the plants. So, this weekend is all about pruning, seeding, fertilizing and mulching for the next year.  While the garden would survive over the year, we want the peace of mind knowing that we did what we could to save the plants for our return.

More than ever before, the trip seems to be staring us in the face.  Sachi stepped through our plans all the way up to the departure and it seems sooo damn close.  It's like we'll have Halloween, go to a wedding, participate in a conference and then we leave. Yikes!

Just this morning I was emailing with a friend about getting together and it seemed so real to me that there are a finite number of opportunities to see our friends before we leave- and the calendar is filling up. 

And it's even harder with new friends.  At the recent meeting I went to in Sonoma, I met a couple of local Seattle folks and thought "I'd really like to hang out with them in Seattle."  Then, I remember the trip and had to repeat what has become a common saying for us... "Maybe in 2007".