The Pre-Party

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This is my initial entry in what will most likely be the main way in which I will let friends and family know that I am still alive (not to mention a great way to make you all jealous!). December 2nd is quicky approaching (yikes, less than a month!) and I am starting to get more and more excited. The coming two weekends will be filled with my scuba diving certification classes, which I am SO excited about! Somehow in the next few weeks I also have to fit in all my final travel preparations and a long weekend in Oregon for Thanksgiving. Oh, and that thing called work that lets me make money. So yes, it should be nice and busy.

So in case you haven't heard already, here is the general plan for the trip. I will be gone for around 6 months, give or take, depending on how long my money lasts. I will be traveling with Becky, a friend from Stanford for (probably the whole time), and my friend and frisbee teammate, Tang, will be joining us for our 3 weeks in New Zealand. Our general itinerary...

• Leave on December 2 for Fiji. Spend several days sunning, exploring, and of course testing out our new knowledge of scuba diving!
  
• Fly to Auckland, New Zealand on December 8, and meet up with Tang. We will rent a car and over the next few weeks make our way down to the bottom of the South Island, with our goal being Christmas in Queenstown. Tang will leave us there to return to SF and the working life, while Becky and I will continue east to Dunedin, where we depart from NZ on the 28th.
  
• We will arrive in Sydney, Australia on December 28th, and will be spending at least a week there (including New Years Eve!!). After that our plans have yet to be made...but will likely involve traveling up the east coast to the Great Barrier Reef. After spending 3 or 4 weeks down under, we'll fly to Southeast Asia, where the hardcore traveling begins!
  
• Once we get to Southeast Asia, we plan to do as little air travel as possible, experiencing the joys of land transport (train, bus, foot, elephant?). Definite destinations include Singapore, Bali in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Okay yes, thats most of Southeast Asia...but they're all just such damn amazing places.
  
• After 2 or 3 months in Southeast Asia, its on up to China for me to test out how much I remember of my last year's Chinese classes. Tibet would also be rather amazing to see...we'll see about where I am with money and time.
  
• If I still have money left and am not sick of traveling, Korea, and maybe even a short stop through Japan will be on the itinerary for the way home.
  

So yes, thats the general plan...we'll see how much of it we end up sticking to!

Thats all for now...maybe I'll put up some pictures from scuba class if I take some!

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