Day 390: Project Wanderlust

wanderlust

noun : very strong or irresistible impulse to travel

synonyms: Wanderjahr, afoot and lighthearted, bumming, discursion, divagation, drifting, errantry, flitting, gadding, hoboism, itineracy, itinerancy, nomadism, peregrination, pererration, ramble, rambling, roam, roaming, rove, roving, straying, traipsing, vagabondage, vagabondia, vagabondism, vagrancy, wandering, wayfaring

The word 'wanderlust' actually comes from a German word meaning 'joy of walking', and it is a condition that I am seriously afflicted with. And therefore the perfect code name for the next phase of my life. Ladies and gentlemen, The S2H World Tour is proud to unveil today the next chapter in what may be the most amazing and wondrous and grandiose and illustrious and exquisite and awe-inspiring of all world events - Project Wanderlust.

Exactly four months from today will be the official launch date of Project Wanderlust. The countdown to July 9, 2005 has begun. And you better hold onto your butts, cause it's gonna be a long and wild ride.

Project Wanderlust is my dream trip come to life. It is a full half-year backpacking odyssey around East and Southeast Asia. In six months I will be travelling through nine - yes, count 'em - NINE (9) - countries, almost entirely by surface. My goal is to conduct as much of the travelling by bus, train, foot, ship, bicycle, river raft, pack mule, livestock-filled pickup truck as possible. I will only use planes when lack of surface infrastructure or time-shortages force me to do so.

Beginning in Beijing, Project Wanderlust will take me across Eastern China through Shanghai and Hong Kong, before a brief jump over to Taiwan to visit my friend Laura in Taipei and Ryan in Kaohsiung, before returning to the Asian mainland to traipse through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Northern Thailand. After that I will be drawn further south into the jungles and along the beaches of Southern Thailand and Malaysia, before jumping across to Indonesia. I will then island-hop across Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa and Flores as I explore this massive archipelago, until the time comes to answer the urban calls of big city Singapore. A few more weeks in Malaysia and Thailand exploring other coastlines, islands, lost paradies and oasises will take place before flying out and returning (very briefly) back to The Land Of The Morning Calm (aka: Korea), and then taking the big long flight on the big long mechanical bird back to the home continent. I will have my wonderful family, childhood friends, and frigid sub-Arctic weather to greet me as I return to Canada for the first time in two years to celebrate a very special Christmas. *Phew!*

The Great Wall of China. The skyscraper races-to-the-sky of Shanghai. The chaotic markets of Hong Kong. The casinos of Macau. The reuniting of old friends in Taiwan. The limestone karst terrain of Halong Bay in Vietnam. The war wounds of Ho Chi Minh City and Southern Vietnam. The majestic temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The mysterious Plain of Jars in Laos. The jungle tribes and elephant treks of Northern Thailand. The sights and sounds and smells of Bangkok. The pristine beaches and dense jungles of Malaysia. The volcanoes and orangutans and komodo dragons of Indonesia. The electric nightlife of Singapore. All will be seen and touched and experienced.

It will be the experience of a lifetime, and soon enough it will be mine. There may be only four months left here in Korea, but World Tour really has just begun. Stay tuned and logged in for stories of adventure and peril and exploration and transformations. Follow along as I discover the world, and as the world discovers me.
All right here in Project Wanderlust, brought to you by The S2H World Tour. ;-)