Not too long ago I wrote a post about how my travel plans had shifted a bit in an attempt to skip Chinese New Year. Why would I want to skip this seemingly exciting holiday? Quite simply, it’s because of a lengthy period surrounding the big day called Chunyun, which Wikipedia refers to as “the largest human migration in the world.” They note that in 2008, more train trips were taken in this 40 days period than were taken in the UK during the 2005-2006 year! The solution to avoiding this involved some pricy international flights within Asia, with costs nearing $600!
It was suggested to me last week that it would be wiser to change the dates on my ticket and skip the flights entirely, which was quite brilliant! I will now be leaving JFK for Hong Kong (via Seoul) on February 21st (precisely TWO MONTHS from today!), one week past Chinese New Year. This gives me 5 weeks before I need to meet my family in Bangkok and in this time I plan to take the long way overland to Laos (as well as proceed north into China’s Yunnan province). After our trip to Bhutan, I’ll stick around in Southeast Asia for 3 weeks, which will allow me to hit Southern Laos, which I’ll almost certainly not have time to do in my initial 5 weeks.
I’m definitely not one to make a strict itinerary for myself. I had a wonderful opportunity in Vietnam that I had to turn down for this exact purpose, when a hill tribe family I had befriended in Sapa invited me to spend a night in their village. Alas, I could not accept that offer as I needed to be back in Hanoi the following morning.
I do not want to have to turn down another opportunity like this and I’d like to be flexible. The only thing I want to plan in advance is my accommodation in Hong Kong (as the last thing I want to do after traveling for 22.5 hours is find a place to stay!). If I don’t accomplish everything I’d like to do, I can do it another time, as I know there will be another time.
Incidentally, I failed to mention how much this cost! The change fee was $130 and the fare difference was a mere $62. Quite an improvement over $600, plus the stress of being pushed for time!
So, again I am at 9 weeks to go (less than the 10 weeks that my trip now is)! Now that this aspect is settled, I can get back to focusing on my fundraising efforts, especially now that I need to have another month of rent ready to go for my return! It’s gonna be close!
