Another year, another Asia trip

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It's Friday morning and I'm proctoring my final exam. I have to finish grading them today because tomorrow I drive to Seattle, from where I will fly to Shanghai on Sunday!

Hard to believe the trip is already upon me. When I returned last August I didn't think I would be traveling again this summer, but by October I knew that wasn't going to be an option. I actually bought my plane ticket in January this year, so I've had 4 whole months of counting down to the exact date and time of my departure. Less than 53 hours to go!

If you're interested, here's my itinerary. It's pretty well decided down to the day, barring any transportation issues (which, if last year is any indication, will be plentiful...but no Expo this year makes me optimistic).

USA
May 7: Leave Bozeman, drive to Seattle
May 8: Seattle to Shanghai with a short layover in Seoul

CHINA
May 9: Land in Shanghai at 9pm (8am central, if you're wondering)
May 10: morning/afternoon in Shanghai, then train to Suzhou (where Mike lives) in the evening
May 10-23: In Suzhou with Mike, possibly with day trips to Shanghai or Hangzhou
May 23-25: Nanjing
May 25-27: Wuhan
May 27-28: Changsha
May 29: all-day train to Kunming
May 30-31: Kunming
June 1: Jinghong

LAOS
June 2: bus across the border to Luang Namtha
June 3: Luang Namtha
June 4: bus to Luang Prabang
June 5-6: Luang Prabang
June 7: bus to Vientiane
June 8-9: Vientiane

THAILAND
June 9: cross the Mekong river to Nong Khai
June 10: Ayutthaya
June 11-13: Bangkok

MALAYSIA
June 14: afternoon/evening in Georgetown between trains
June 15-16: Kuala Lumpur

SINGAPORE
June 17-21: Singapore, visiting my friends Ben and Cindi

CHINA (sort of)
June 22: fly to Macau in the morning, ferry to Hong Kong in the afternoon, fly to Seoul at night

KOREA
June 23: 14-hour layover in Seoul, during which I plan to take the Panmunjom/JSA tour

USA
June 23: Land in Seattle
June 24: Drive back to Bozeman


Hopefully the blog will be more updated this year, but I apologize in advance if I again end up with less time to update it than I'd like. At least this post will tell you where I am.

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