Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Our time in Korea is very quickly drawing to a close and next week Jacob and I set out on what will definitely be one of the highlights of our lives. We are going to be spending the next 4 months traveling through China, South-East Asia, India and Australia.

We’ve spent the better part of the last year and a half talking about and planning this trip. This is more or less the reason we came to Korea. Ever since we came up with the idea to do this we’ve been adding and subtracting cities or countries, trying to decide where to go, what to see and do, and how much of it we can afford. We still don’t have a definite plan, but we never really wanted one. We do however have a rough outline of where we’ll be going, what we’ll be doing and how long we’ll be staying. Here it is:

• China: We’ll fly to Beijing on August 17th from Seoul. We’re planning to spend about three and a half weeks in China and Hong Kong. We’re hoping to go to Beijing, Datong, Pingyao, Xi’an, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai and finish up in Hong Kong. Some highlights include the Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, Panda Bears, Expo 2010 and maybe some horse races in Hong Kong. We’ll be traveling by train throughout the whole country.
• Vietnam: Hopefully somewhere around the 13th of September we’ll be crossing the border into Vietnam where we’ll be spending the next 2-3 weeks. We plan on working our way down the east coast of Vietnam through cities like Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang and HCMC. We also plan on taking some side trips to HaLong Bay and the Mekong Delta. Vietnam will also see our first break when we plan to stay put for a few days on a what looks to be a little piece of heaven at Jungle Beach Resort
• Cambodia: We’ll be spending just under a week in Cambodia split between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Angkor Wat will definitely be a highlight.
• Thailand: For 2 weeks during the  middle October we should be in Thailand although, we still haven’t completely decided on this part of the trip. We’ll definitely be spending sometime in Bangkok, and then possibly a trip to the northern part of the country to Chiang Mai for some jungle trekking or spending more time in the south on the beaches. It will depend on how we feel and how the political situation in Bangkok and surrounding areas is looking while we’re there.
• Malaysia: Also a little up in the air as we’ve heard some mixed things on Malaysia. Right now we’re planning on spending about a week and half visiting some islands on the east coast and the Taman Negara National Park. We’ll be visiting Kuala Lumpur for at least a couple of days before we fly out.
• India: We fly to Kolkata on October 30th (that’s provided we can get our visas somewhere along the way). We’ll make our way west across the country through Darjeeling, Varanasi, Agra, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and ending in Delhi. The Taj Mahal and Bengal Tigers at the Sunderban Tiger Reserve are definitely on the list. A camel trip through the desert might not be so bad either.
• Bali (Indonesia): We fly from Delhi to Bali on the 19th of November. We’ll be spending 5 days relaxing on a beach somewhere on the island trying to catch our breath from the last 3 weeks in India.
• Australia: On November 25th we fly from Bali to Perth then onto Melbourne. We’re renting a camper van in the land down under and slowly making our way up the East coast through Sydney, Brisbane and ending off in the Great Barrier Reef. Next we’ll be heading inland to Ayers Rock in Uluru before heading South and back West to Perth.
• Singapore: December 19th we fly to Singapore where we’ll spend a few days before heading back to Korea on December 23rd.

For a visual here is a google map of the potential route: