Our Itinerary

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(Bronia typing) Here is our Itinerary - planned as much as we can to give structure and a general direction, but still giving flexibility for us to change our minds about the length of time we spend in any one place.

This framework of dates is based on pre-booked key flights (bold text) that we have booked and our idea of how long we want to spend in any one place. The rest however could change as we go along. Where we refer to a flight that is not in bold text, it means is not booked yet.

We start our trip in the Year 2006

• 30 Jan --> Train from Birmingham to Heathrow. FLY Heathrow 20:40hrs to Delhi arriving at 10:30am
  
• --> Visit areas surrounding Delhi (ie. Taj Mahal), then go eastwards to Varanasi, Kolkata (Calcutta), Darjeeling
  
• (see note below re: Nepal)
  
• 8 Mar - 12 Mar --> Return to Delhi & travel north to Chandigarh to take in the 2nd Cricket Test Match - England vs India and a ‘must’ for Dave.
  
• --> Fly Delhi to Chennai (Madras) & explore southern India before flying to Sri Lanka
  
• --> Visiting Sri Lanka
  
• --> Back to India to explore the south; Kerala, Goa & Mumbai (Bombay)
  
• 28 Apr -->FLY Mumbai to Bangkok
  
• 1 May - 11 Jun --> 6 wk Volunteer programme in Thailand which includes touring Thailand seeing/working with elephants and monkeys conservation projects.
  
• --> Overland from Bangkok to Vientiane, Laos and work our way south following the Mekong River to border with Cambodia.
  
• --> cross into Cambodia to Siem Reap and see temples at Angkor Wat before travelling either by boat/plane to Phnom Penh to enjoy beaches on the south coast
  
• --> Fly into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and then following coastal railway north to Hanoi
  
• --> Fly Hanoi to Hong Kong and enjoy HK briefly. Hopefully get in a visit to Macau (a ferry ride away)
  
• 25 July --> FLY Hong Kong to Bali, Indonesia to enjoy the 'good life' before crossing onto Java Island heading towards Jakarta.
  
• 14 Aug -->FLY Jakarta to Hong Kong.
  
• --> Overland through China to Shanghai & Beijing to see The Great Wall & Terracotta Army amongst other sites/towns.
  
• 18 Sept --> FLY Beijing to Hong Kong
  
• 18 Sep --> FLY Hong Kong to Vancouver to spend 3 weeks with Bronia’s friends & family
  
• --> Overland by train to Seattle just over the US border
  
• 10 Oct FLY Seattle to Chicago where we spend a couple of days.
  
• 13 --> FLY Chicago to Toronto and travel overland to Montreal
  
• --> FLY Montreal to New York to enjoy a few days before FLYING New York to Miami
  
• --> FLY Miami to St Lucia for a week of beaches and relaxing. Then FLY St Lucia back to Miami
  
• 4 Nov - 15 Dec --> FLY Miami to Quito, Ecuador to undertake 2nd volunteer project. Dave does 2wks of Spanish class & Bronia does 1wk Spanish & 1 wk volunteering in Orphanage for Streetkids. Then FLY Quito to Galapagos Islands for a 4wk volunteer programme working with Giant Tortoise Conservation Project.
  
• 16 Dec -->FLY Galapagos back to Quito and then on to Lima, Peru See Macchu Pichu and whatever else the Inca trail can provide us.
  
• -->Overland to La Paz in Bolivia.
  
• 3 Jan --> FLY La Paz to Santiago, Chile to spend a week seeing the city.
  
• 9 Jan -->FLY Santiago to Punta Arenas, Chile to see glaciers and mountains near Tierra del Fuego before FLYING from Punto Arenas back to Santiago.
  
• 17 Jan --> FLY Santiago to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and spend a few days sightseeing in the city.
  
• 21 Jan -->FLY Rio de Janeiro to Madrid, Spain as we make the long flight homeward bound. Spend a few days in Madrid. Then overland by train to Lisbon, Portugal and spending time with Bronia's father who lives there.
  
• 29 Jan --> FLY Lisbon, Portugal back to London and the British January weather, prospects of job hunting and two cats who may not recognise us!
  

We end our trip in 2007.

Note: We were planning on going to Nepal from Feb 11 - Mar 5 2006 but had to abort that plan last week when we heard from the Canadian and British Foreign Office that they were ‘advising against all but non-essential travel’ to Nepal. This is due to the Maoist uprisings and bandhs (strikes) that have turned violent in recent weeks in the build up to elections and the 1st year anniversary (Feb 1) since the King forcibly took control of the government and running of the country.

It is a disappointment to us as we were planning on trekking the Everest Trail, staying in teahouses and visiting temples on the way towards Everest Base camp to see the beauty that is the Himalayas but with news of violent riots in Katmandhu, shops and temples closed and tourists stranded on buses for hours denied entry into the valley we decided to not play around and reallocate the weeks to India and Sri Lanka.

Do a web search on Nepal or check out the BBC website for more info if you are interested in the reason/history behind the Nepalese unrest.

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