After months and months of research, planning and dealing with beaurocratic red tape with visas etc., my around the world itinerary is pretty much set for my trip next week. What a process it was as it always is to plan a big trip; giving yourself a shell of a trip with some room to maneuver if you decide you want extra time in a place or less. Trying to find the best deals; the best routes; new discount airlines; hotels; and everything in between takes a considerable amount of research, time and effort. However, the rewards are great and I can’t wait to go.

I start out flying to Bali, Indonesia via a short stop in Tokyo, Japan, for a few days at the beach with a side trip to Dili, East Timor and then to Borobudur for the temples and Jakarta on Java, Indonesia. From Jakarta, I am heading up to Shanghai, China via a short stop in Singapore. After Shanghai, I head to Xi’an to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and then on to Beijing for a pre-Olympics visit. From Beijing, I head out to Almaty, Kazakhstan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Tashkent-Samarkhand-Bukhara, Uzbekistan; Penjikent, Tajikistan; Merv-Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; and Mashad-Tehran, Iran before heading home via Istanbul, Turkey.

If it sounds like a lot-it is but I am super excited and look forward to seeing a lot of new places and I will certainly be blogging about my trip so please do follow along. If you miss any of this trip or want to relive past trips, just click on Trip Blog and that will have my previous posts from other trips since I started this site last year. I will try to update daily or at least as often as possible.

I don’t travel with a laptop but I do have a blackberry so I will be receiving calls, emails and using Internet Cafes for my posts-however, I cannot get texts on my blackberry for some reason when I am abroad. If I don’t post again before I leave-Americans have a great 4th of July and everyone else a great weekend and hopefully Roger Federer can win his sixth straight Wimbledon on Sunday.

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