Friday, January 7, 2011

Geography Class



Since I have only been travelling in Asia and Europe, the other side of the world seems to be a big ? to me. First step, study the Geographical map! :-) What's out there?

The world is divided into 7 continents, Asia being the largest, follow with Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia. Interesting thing is New Zealand is not part of any of these continents. It is rather a part of Zealandia - a submerged continent. The continent of Australia, along with Zealandia constitutes a region called Oceania or Australasia.
Here is a table of Number of Countries in each continents.

ContinentsNo. Of Countries
Asia47
Africa53
North America23
South America13
Antarctica0
Europe50
Australia3

I came out with a Excel table listing down each country per continent, then I list down the capital for each country. After deciding which country I wanted to go I checked out the VISA requirement for each. I would say Malaysia Passport is not that bad after all  I only need VISA for Mexico, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Mozambique, US and China. I am trying very hard to avoid US but that seems to be tough if I am landing in Mexico.

So here is the rough plan of where I want to go. I might add Japan as my first stop if the flight has to go thru Japan.

FlightOver LandEstimation
SG/MY-MexicoMexico//Belize//Guatemala//Honduras//El Salvador//Nicaragua//Costa Rica3 months
Costa Rica-EcuadorEcuador//Peru//Bolivia//Chile//Agentina//Brazil5 months
Brazil-South AfricaSouth Africa//Namibia//Botswana//Zimbabwe//Zambia//4 months
Malawi//Mozambique//Tanzania//Kenya//Uganda
Uganda-EgyptEgypt//Jordan//Syria//Turkey2 months
Turkey-NepalNepal//Tibet//China Silk Road3 months
China-MongoliaMongolia1 months
Mongolia-MY


Long list eh... Some of the countries in Africa might be skipped as they are sharing the same safari. Mongolia is kind of difficult to slot in as the timing has to be good, I don't want to get there when it is freezing cold so it is still an option. Timing wise is just an estimation, I know some of it sounds like I am just rushing thru it, so will see. So far here is the plan....

If you have been to any of the country above, I would love to hear from you, your experience, any advice is appreciated.

Anyone wants to join me somewhere? :-)

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Starting my blog

Year 2011, this year is going to be different from any other year. It is going to be the most challenging year of my life as I will be embarking a nomad life, I will quit my job and travel. What! Are you crazy? I get that a lot. :-) No I am not crazy, it's my dream, it's what I want to do. I am glad I have my family and friends support. Going out there on my own needs a lot of courage. And I thank my friend Amy who has help me a lot by sharing her experience with me. She is the reason how this whole thing got started.

So I started this blog to keep everyone updated of what, where, when, why and how am I doing. It will also be there for me to look back in future. It can also serve as a reference for other travellers.

The decision has been made, I will be off by May 2011. By end of April, I will be checking out of Singapore. From now till then, there is a long list of things to be done. I need to get ride of a lot of stuff in the house. I also need to complete my MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional ) exam. Just one more exam to go and I am done. I started to read on RTW books. Listing down things to be done before I go, things to bring, where to go, when to go, how to go? how much? etc... getting more and more exciting!

Blogging is new to me, I write about my previous trip off and on. It takes a lot of energy out of me. It's hard for me to express myself. I hope I can improve as times goes by.  Just bear with me. :-)