Time is ticking...

I leave for Asia in 2 weeks and I'm really excited but also strangely scared about this adventure I'm about to embark on. Plans are going well. There are many last minute things to tie up and then I'm off. I'm trying to plan this trip to ensure that I don't arrive in Asia completely lost, confused and not speaking the language. I don't mind flying by the seat of my pants for a few days but not for 3 months. Life without structure is just confusion. Come on! Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a planner. :)

I've spent days looking over my list of stuff that I've packed to make sure everything I need is there. Packing light is the key to this trip as I'm only taking a backpack with me. I'm sure it'll fill up rather quickly too. It's time to be a complete minimalist and pack only the essentials including enough pharmaceuticals to medicate an entire village!

I'm not taking chances with not being able to find medical care when I need it. I've packed basically everything you can think of: band aids of all sizes, alcohol wipes, purell, advil, immodium, gravol, reactine, benadryl (for either allergies or a sleep aid), bug spray, tums, hydrocortisone cream, after bite, antibiotics in the case of food poisoning and of course malarone (antimalarials)the most important of them all.

The legs of my trip are already booked and ready to go. I will be backpacking through Japan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

I've found the easiest way to plan this trip is one country at a time. My trek through Japan and China are pretty much all worked out. It's south east Asia that is really hard to plan because I'm not quite sure how much time I will be spending in each place. So far I've decided that I'll probably spend about 1 week in Thailand, 5 days in Laos, 10 in Vietnam, 5 in Cambodia and back to Thailand for another week or so. From Thailand I'll probably take a flight to Malaysia and Singapore for about 5 days and spend about 10 days in Indonesia before flying home. That doesn't account for all the days I'll be in SE Asia, I'll have plenty extra to spread around. 94 days is a lot of time.