Southeast Asia 1997
What's New?
I am currently on spring vacation from my classes at Waseda University.
As you may have guessed, I don't plan to spend the next six weeks sitting
around Tokyo (not that Tokyo is boring). For nearly the entire break, I
plan to travel to a few neighboring countries. I figure I cannot pass up
the opportunity to seem some other places in Asia as long as I am here.
I will be away from the all-powerful internet for over a month, but I
should have more stories and pictures when I get back. Until then...
The Plan
Yes, I am on the move again. Like my other stories, this one is likely
to go unfinished, but in the hope of recording at least a few of the
memories, I am opening a new section here. As you can guess from the
title, this trip is still in the planning stages. However, it is fairly
likely that I will spend most of the month of March traveling to various
places in southeast asia.
Itinerary
I have nearly six weeks of vacation for spring break, so I plan to
start off with a little travel in Japan. If I head south I might find
somewhere warm although most places will be pretty cool in March. From
somewhere down there one can catch a boat to Pusan, Korea. I have a
couple friends in Korea that I would like to see. I just want to get an
idea of the country as far as how developed it is and what sort of
lifestyle people lead. That is a pretty big goal for one week or so, but
anyway, I will cover my intentions later. From Korea, I plan to fly to
Bangkok. Spend about two weeks traveling by train through Thailand,
Malaysia, and Singapore. Then on to Nepal. Nepal is a pretty wacky
place to choose, but I guess I am just attracted by its high mountains
and Buddhist history. Then I have to be back for classes on April 1.
My Traveling Companion
I have done a lot of traveling alone, but I found a good traveling
companion, named Brica
Ulicni. We traveled together for about a week in August and seemed
to get along pretty good. Anyway, if we can work out our current plans
curious about how other people live. It is pretty hard to get an idea
about people's lives by spending a few days in their town, but...
How to go...
Honestly, the biggest problem is getting there. One great thing about
these countries (at least in the foreign tourists' eyes) is that
everything is relatively cheap. If you can get to Thailand, you can live
on about US$10 per day, sometimes less. I plan to take the usual travel
books and stay in hostels. We don't really need to see all of the
tourist spots. We just want to see the landscape and attempt to speak to
some people. The only problem is the airlines. Every time I try to buy
a ticket, I get more and more frustrated by the ticketing system.
20Jan97
I finally bought my plane tickets. Actually, I have no
tickets in
possession, but I have decided on the plans. I ended up going with a
discount
travel agent called STA (Student Travel Agent?). I guess they have offices
all over. I bought my ticket from Tokyo to Seoul to Bangkok and back
again on Korean Air. Seoul is a pain because they don't seem to let many
airlines
in there. For instance, I wanted to fly Thai Airlines all the way, but they
don't go through Seoul at all. In order to buy a round-trip ticket from
Bangkok to Kathmandu, Nepal I had to call Bangkok. For those of you who know
the airline runaround, it cost a fortune to buy a ticket that starts from
another country. I found it rather convenient to fax STA in Bangkok (in
English) and I will pay for my ticket by credit card when I get there.
Honestly, there ought to be a home page somewhere about how to buy a cheap
plane ticket. Anyway, maybe this little info will help someone.
Anticipation
More than the travel itself, I am looking forward to seeing my friend, Brica.
I have only a few weeks of school left and then we will be off. I am a
little
worried about forgetting my Japanese after a long time away from Japan, but
otherwise I am really looking forward to the adventure. It shouldn't be too
long now.
The story continues...
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