"Dad may meet me in Ghana"

"You get a rail pass and follow the backpack in front of you."

Any clues yet why things have changed?

By the Beach September 30, 2003 Nkhata Bay, Northern Province, Malawi

AFRICA
My idea is perhaps to fly Buenos Aires to Johannesburg, do South Africa, and then take an overland tour for like a month and a half up to Nairobi. I'd rather do it on my own, but apparently it's prohibitively expensive and inconvenient to go solo. The good news is the weather works out well. If I leave South America in early to mid Spring, it's a pretty good time to see most of southern and eastern Africa.

The overland trip Matt did left from Johannesburg and went through Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and up to Kenya. That sounds good to me, but it'll be interesting to see what routes and trip lengths are available.

Once in Kenya, I suppose I'd be on my own again. I hear the coast can be very interesting there, and Ethiopia's right next door with all its ancient sites. That's pretty much the end of the line, though since you're surrounded by unstable countries like Somalia and Sudan that you should probably stay away from.

It'd be cool to the fly to like Benin in west Africa and go overland to Europe. Apart from Benin there's Mali, home of Timbuktu, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. My Dad may even meet me in Ghana. For 20 years he's sponsored a child there through a charity. He exchanged mail with her from time to time and says he might want to go meet her.

I'm not as familiar with Africa, but here are some highlights:

• The Saharan crossing from Morocco into Mauritania
• Timbuktu
• The fetish markets, West Africa. Not what it sounds like, but still really bizarre
• Lariam-induced psychosis (malaria prevention pills with a kick)
• Hanging on the beach in Benin

EUROPE
The first part of this is easy... and somewhat mundane. You get a rail pass and follow the backpack in front of you. I want to spend some time there and I know I'll enjoy it immensely, but it's so easy to get around that I'm not putting that much effort into planning this part.

I've already been to a good chunk of western Europe. It's cool and I want to go back, but a quick trip through will be enough. That'll give me more time for the stuff I haven't seen, and save me a ton of cash.

Some highlights I look forward to in Europe:

• Hiking in Spain
• Glacier skiing in Switzerland
• "Chilling" in Amsterdam
• Unashamedly digging trashy techno in Berlin
• Moderately dangerous places like Albania and Macedonia
• Bicycling around Lake Constance

Central Asia
OK. Major, major change of plans. I'd originally hoped to leave Europe for eastern Turkey, crossing through Iran into Pakistan. Any clues yet why things have changed? It's interesting to me to read my original plan from before September 11th.

Right now from my perspective, it looks like a really bad idea to mess with any of central Asia. That's a shame. It's the part I was most looking forward to. Perhaps by the time I'm there, places like Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan will be OK to visit again. Or maybe India and Pakistan will have blown the region off the planet. Who knows.

Right now, my thought is to leave Europe at the Bosphorus, see Istanbul and whatever other parts of Turkey interest me, the fly to Delhi. From there spend some time in India and Nepal. The trekking in Nepal is a part of the trip I'm most looking forward to. Then maybe catch a flight Kathmandu to somewhere in Southeast Asia.

Considering the prolonged uncertainty there, however, my Asian crossing may have to be through Russia. I have no idea how easy or expensive this is. Maybe I could even enter Russia from Europe and cross to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and on into southeast Asia.

China and Southeast Asia

Depending on what route I take from Europe, I may not make it to much of China at all. If I fly from India, I may make a stop in Myanmar before continuing on to Thailand.

I hope, though, to enter China somewhere and, if I'm lucky, get to Tibet for long enough to be depressed by what the Chinese have wrought. Then somehow get to Beijing for the Wall and whatever else. South into Vietnam and Southeast Asia. I haven't read up much on this part of the world, so I'd be totally talking out of my ass (even more than the rest of this section) to say I have a plan for this part.

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