So last week Tahu and I bought our flights to Asia. It's so exciting to have it actually happening and to not being going on my own now is even better. Thought I'd tell you (by you I mean you, the one reader I possibly don't even have now!) what the plan is.
On September 10th I fly to Bangkok, Thailand and then on the 11th I go to Phnom Penh in Cambodia to meet up with Dr Annie Chen Green. We then spend the next nearly 3 weeks doing a variety of work in prisons, slums and with other charitys. I will be doing some basic nursing with Annie and also some IT work such as running some beginners classes for Microsoft Office, setting up Skype for people so they can have more contact with people from home and also setting up a database or 2 for charities that require it. The first one we have done is for CTAP which is an organisation that does dentistry work for those who can't afford it and really need it, for example those in prison.
On the 29th of September I fly back to Bangkok and meet Tahu there. We spend the next few days doing things like going to the Bridge over the River Kwai, the floating markets, the tiger sanctuary and of course shopping. On the 4th of October we fly to India where we are met by a tour operator who has created a tour for us. We spend the next 15 days going through India (Taj Mahal of course), Nepal (including flying up to see Mt Everest) and Tibet. On the 17th of October we leave Tibet and get on a train that takes us over a few days to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors and then up to Beijing for 4 nights. There we will see things like the Great Wall, Forbidden Kingdom and (if I have my way) the Beijing Zoo. On the 24th of October we fly over to Tokyo, Japan for another 4 nights and then on to Melbourne for a few days with our families and mates. After that it's back to Christchurch, work and recovering!
There's still so much to plan and organise but that's part of the fun. I bought a beautiful new camera (Canon SX10 if anyone is interested) and have done the fundraiser jump already, also had all my leave confirmed and I have my plan tickets. It feels like it is all suddenly happening even though I've been talking about and planning this for so long. Will be amazing though.
If anyone has any suggestions of things to do in the places we're going we would love to hear about them! Also recommendations for places to stay.
2 comments:
if you get time and manage to get out of Agra and away from the Taj Mahah, i can recommend taking a train to Rajastan and doing a camel trek across the desert (anything from 1 day to 7 days), its awesome - sleeping under the stars, dodging scorpions and froming a lasting and very loving bond with your camel!!
i stayed in a small hotel in Agra that had a roof terrace that looked straight out over the Taj Mahal - if i can find the name of it will let you know.
A camel trek would be awesome! Unfortunately that part of our trip we have organised through a tour (it was originally going to be just me and I wasn't confident enough to navigate India, Nepal and Tibet on my own!) so we can't add that in. But will definitely do that next time! Am hoping to ride a camel at some stage though, maybe at the Taj Mahal
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