Time for the big news, and I’ll get right to it: we’re going to Vietnam! Jaime and I share the same goal to see as much of the world as possible, so we wanted our first big trip to be somewhere completely new to both of us. It was a toss up between South America and Southeast Asia, and we had a few sample itineraries planned out: Brazil and Argentina, Peru and Chile, Thailand, and the winning Vietnam.
We’ll be flying into Hanoi on March 20th and departing from Ho Chi Minh City on March 30th. Somewhere in between we’ll be making a stop in Cambodia primarily to visit Angkor Wat, and we’ll have a 12 hour layover in Seoul, South Korea on the way back. This will bring us both up to 27 countries, assuming we don’t sneak out of the country sometime in the next 5 months!
Planning this trip was one of the reasons for initially creating this web site. We wanted a place to put our ideas and what we needed to do before we departed. Here’s the first of many rough drafts, to be updated as we get closer to the big day.
Vietnam
- Visa information (we’ll need dual-entry visas)
- Country information
- Health information
- Research some package deals for interesting must-sees
- Inter-country flights, or fly into Cambodia on the way?
- Find hostels/lodging in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
- Learn some basic Vietnamese
Cambodia
- Visa information
- Country information
- Health information
- Which city to fly into?
- Costs of flights and any tours
- Day-trip or overnight stay?
South Korea
- Visa – none needed
- Country information
- Health information
- Find an independent tour from the airport
- See if there is luggage storage in the airport
General Tasks
- Passport photos for visas
- Get any required vaccinations
- List of all places from 1,000 Places to See book, and map them
- Review Mahalo and Thorn Tree recommendations
That seems like a long list, but I’m sure it will grow as we begin to plan the specifics. It won’t get too in-depth though as we both think it’s much more fun to wing the details! Only 137 days until we leave, but who’s counting??