The Ever Evolving Itinerary.

There are 195 countries in the world. We first sat down 2 years ago and came up with a list of 32 countries that we could potentially visit over the course of 1 year of travel. Of course 32 is probably too many to squeeze into a 12 month trip so we needed to trim it down. We read a lot of travel blogs, online articles and listened to podcasts about different countries and why people visit them. I also read a lot of retirement/expat articles about how far your dollar goes in different countries. We read up about things like cost of living, cost of traveling, visas and safety issues for each of those countries. There are a lot of opinions out there but we managed to come up with a list of 32 back in December 2016.

The original 32 as of 12/14/2016 – India, Sri Lanka,  Nepal, China, Bhutan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mongolia, Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi, Egypt, Suriname, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Columbia, Venezuela, Greenland, Iceland.

We agreed that we needed to cull the list to about 10 countries. 10 countries in 12 months seemed like a reasonable endeavor. Below is what we came up with almost a year later. The first 7 are in close proximity to one another. Laurie has always wanted to visit Africa. I have an interest in South and Central America.

The chosen 10 as of 11/1/2017 – India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, South Africa, Uruguay, Ecuador.

We decided to start in India, a place we’d visited 2 times already, in 2007 and 2010. India is a big country and there are a lot of options. We made a tentative plan which seemed to change by the week once we arrived. We made a plan to visit the southern part of India which led to more southern parts of India which led to Sri Lanka (one of the original 32) because it’s so close to southern India, only about an hour by plane. Nepal was supposed to be next but was put on hold.

The list grows to 11 as of 1/1/2018 – India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, South Africa, Uruguay, Ecuador.

From India we headed to Thailand, unsure of how we were going to fit Nepal back into the schedule. We also decided that Laos was too expensive to fly in and out of, and that Cambodia potentially could be risky due to the political maneuverings for an upcoming election. We are always listening to new travel podcasts, still reading articles about the best places for retirees and expats, and considering other budget travel destinations. So Columbia and Nicaragua were added to the list and Laos and Cambodia were scratched.

The list changes again as of 3/17/2018 – India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, South Africa, Ecuador, Uruguay, Columbia, Nicaragua.

From Thailand we headed to Vietnam on a 30 day visa. Travelling from Hanoi in the north all the way to Saigon in the south. When our visa expired we took a short, inexpensive flight from Vietnam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and rested for 2 days, finally heading to Nepal for 2 weeks. We’ll be back in Malaysia for about 6 weeks starting June 1. But of course there are other changes to the itinerary. Malaysia is right next to Singapore. We met a few people in the last 6 months who recommended we at least check it out. Singapore was added to the list. Mid July we’ll be flying out of Singapore and headed to South Africa. Flying from South Africa to South America can prove to be a challenge. Peru was also added to the list as a destination that we could reach flying from  South Africa. Nicaragua was scratched from the list as there have been dozens of people killed in anti-government street protests recently.

The list grows again to 12 as of 5/17/2018 – India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Africa, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia.

So the chosen 10 has crept up to the current 12. We’re not sure about all 4 of these South American countries but stay tuned.