What are your travel plans for 2008?

Shiver me Timbers

Happy New Year all!

Despite all the conflict and chaos in various corners of the earth, the vast majority of this planet remains safe and fascinating for travellers of all shapes, sizes, colours, etc...

So what are your travel plans for this year?

I'm considering 2 options for how to spend the 3 months I have free this summer:

1. Get to Xinjiang (either overland east through Europe, Russia and Kazakhstan, or west from Beijing), travel down to Pakistan, and then on to India.

2. Fly to Bangkok, take the train down to Penang or Singapore, and jump on a ferry to Indonesia for the 3 months (with a visa run to East Timor).

Right now, I'm leaning towards option 2, due to the comparative costs (it's cheaper), and the current situation in Pakistan, which may not be resolved by the summer.

What about the rest of you???

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Europe to India Overland / Andaman's Tips / Pakistan Tips / Flickr Photos / IM Photos

PeakXV

North India, Nepal, Burma, Pakistan(Sindh on hold at the moment ) ......

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We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

steven_ber

Nice easy beach/food holiday, probably Ko Phi Phi with GF and daughter.

Love to try China, but couldn't handle missing GF & Daughter on my last trip, so China may be many years away.

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How to get helpful replies to your transport/Itinerary questions.



Train information.

SteamBuff

Calcutta, Assam (Tipong), Darjeeling for 3 weeks in March. (Leaving the Wife and Kids at home again!!!) - Chasing the trains again.

Then 2 Weeks in Northern Finland/Norway (Lapland) in August.

Then of course there are the business trips - Holland, Belgium, Kuwait, Iceland etc

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Huffing & Puffing along ... The Steamy One!

steven_ber

I've got the e-mail address of the man who arranged accommodation (and meals) for me at Tipong, he used to arrange trips for steam fans, though I don't know if he still does.

When I was in Tipong I had to have an armed guard, though the place never felt unsafe, a Russian had been kidnapped a few years earlier, so they were worried the same thing may happen again.

the opoponax

2 months, starting exactly a week from today (squeeeee!!!!!) in Bombay, Goa, Hampi, Pune, Kolkata, Varanasi, Lucknow, Delhi, Agra, and possibly a little wandering in Punjab or Himachal, if I have time to do it right.

In fact, my big dilemma right now is that I have 8-10 days in and around Delhi and I'm not sure how to spend it best.

SteamBuff

Assam (Tipong)

I am going with "Darjeeling Tours" and Peter (Fuzz) Jordan is the guide. We have been warned about the guards and by all accounts the game is to try and lose them!!!

We Fly in from Calcutta, and take the overnight train out to NJP a few days later (Yep the one they blew up a few weeks ago!!)

Casey

New Orleans in twelve hours (it's work-related so I don't know if this counts but it's warmer than here and I get on a plane) and perhaps India again in the fall.

wichy

Defenitely it's India in November-December again... I hope everything will be OK. Don't know exactly about my plans - if the year is too hard - it'll be Kerala for a month. If it'll be OK - I'm thinking about central/east India.

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Past the point of no return...

Alohaguy

March 11th arrive Delhi. Dharamsala, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Dehradun
May be Bodhgaya. About 2weeks. Excited!!

shahronakm

In Jan last week - Tarkarli
Sometime during summer months - Bandhavgarh
Ladakh - Have been making plans since past two seasons but had to cancel for one or the other season. Hope to do it this season.

Ronak.

Bollywood Barbie

India in 6 weeks time!!! Starting in Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Jaisalmer-Pushkar-Udaipur-Mumbai-Hyderabad-Kerala-Chennai then onto Sri Lanka-Thailand-Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam! Our first ever travelling trip! and now it's official I have a month left of work, so lots of time to kill on IM before we fly off! just reading all the posts on here is doing a great job of getting me v.excited & beating the Jan blues!

Aishah

Looks like a great trip, Bollywood Barbie! Mine is rather tame - back to Australia and NZ for April and May, then up to Landour above Mussoorie for June, back home, then off to Uttarakhand for a tour like Roshe's in 'Uttarakhand - a Trip to Heaven" article here in September with a friend. Well that's 2008 covered..with a few trips to Delhi thrown in now and then.

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Jorge Reverter

Chasing the monsoon from Kaniakumari to Cherrapunjee in Meghalaya during June-July. I want to visit several places in Kerala in Thrissur district as well as Pallikere beach beside Fort Bekal. Later on probably my son will join me and we shall go to Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

Jorge

TracyB

I'm taking a break from India, as i have been there 5 times in the last 3 years and going to Chile and Argentina in March, 2008 (and possibly Easter Island if i can afford it)

In October or November 08, hope to go to Nepal, Tibet and back to India. Maybe just to Goa to visit friends but we shall see what develops by then!!

Happy Travels to all!!