5 months to go

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We're finalizing our itinerary now for our trip to Asia. We're hoping to leave on December 27, 2008 and travel until Feb 15, 2009. After that we'll be settling into our new lives in Brisbane, Australia. We're hoping to book through www.airtreks.com, a company that specializes in around the world multi-stop tickets. This is the flight we are currently thinking about booking:

Calgary - Los Angeles - Beijing - Chiang Mai - Overland to Bangkok - Overland to Pnom Penh - Manila - Bangkok - Philippines

The idea right now is to go to China first, then do some trekking in Chaing Rai, skip up to the golden triangle and go to Myanmar and Laos. Then take a sleeper train down to Bangkok, perhaps go to Phi Phi Island (not sure yet). Take a bus to Pnom Penh, Cambodia and then Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat. After that, we'll bus back to Bangkok and head to the Philippines. We're returning here for our second vacation and to where Alecs grew up. We'll be flying to Palawan island to see some familiar places and some new ones - including the Bacuit Archipelago (A UNESCO world heritage sight). Then we're going to go back to Alecs' home city to visit family for a little while. After that, we'll be flying through Bangkok to Brisbane, where we'll settle into our new home, find our way around and get accustomed to living in Australia.

It's going to be an interesting adventure that I'm sure will have it's ups and downs, but I think we'll find that it's worth it in the end after having seen and done all the amazing things I know we will.

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