It?s finalized and booked. I?m off to Southeast Asia for a few months from 9/7-12/17. I?m flying out of San Francisco and into Bangkok on EvaAir ($664.50 on expedia) so if anyone can join, they should. We considered backpacking around the Himalayas but apparently that takes (more) pre-planning and at least some degree of aerobic conditioning (at least for what we want to do). Thinking an Indo-China loop (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Southern China) is ideal. Another friend was telling me that Vietnam has the highest percent of natives who speak English in Asia (always a good thing for ethnocentric, dumb, westerns). However if the option to visit Bhutan ever came up, I?d jump on it. Apparently Bhutan only allows like 2,000 tourist visas/year and is still a relatively untouched hunter/gatherer society.
It?s been a while since I?ve blogged but I?m back in Tacoma. It?s still just as boring as I left it, except now I have a car. We actually went up to Seattle a couple times, purchased Mariners tickets, visited Pikes Place, and hung around the Pioneer Square and Ballard bars?basically all the touristy things. Purchased a Northwest Forest Pass on ebay for a hefty 50% discount, hopefully it should come in the mail on Monday. Then maybe I can burn off some of these unwanted pounds on a few backpacking trips. Adios for now.