hanoi ahoy!

Its 1.40am and we're finally in bed. D is already deep asleep. It has been a long day. Work, lots of it. Home. Cooking. Cleaning. Packing. Charging camera batteries. Packing.

I planned to click and post pics of the house before leaving. Sorry, not happening. I wrote (wrote, like with a pen in a notebook) in office yesterday about how this feels like (and is, I suppose) the least prepared trip we are going for ; and how I don't really care too much- I just want to be there. Planned to put up that whole bit as a post. Sorry, thats not happening either. The notebook is still at work (I wrote this while the office server, after cruelly separating me from a morning's work, was on the blink).

Tomorrow at this time we will be fast asleep. In the Old Quarter of Hanoi. With a new city, a new country, a new people, new food, new drink, new sights, smells and sounds, awaiting us.
A new trip, and I can't wait.


See you after Vietnam!

Did i mention...planning for Thailand

Its confirmed.
These relatively cheap chaps will fly us to the famously chaotic, often seemingly predictable and nonetheless promising city that is the capital of the old Siam. This is now mere weeks away. Weeks, you hear?!
13 days and nights await us in Thailand, and three destinations within. There’s this desire to cram everything in and yet have an easy going trip. I have a feeling its not going to happen quite like that, but I cant wait anyway.

The Excel file for the trip has burgeoned into a few worksheets- an itinerary, accommodations for all three places, a budget, air fares everywhere (we’re actually planning to take only the one domestic budget flight), and now I am trying to compile the links I have discovered/devoured for future reference. Then there are the 52 emails, and counting, with different labels for them in the gmail account- but of the three not one place to stay is finalized yet! A handful of posts and replies on forums, lots of guidebook reading and web post scanning, very groggy mornings and black circles under the eyes…and its still 3 weeks away.

I love it.

Planning...

The only problem with planning a holiday is planning a holiday. Its not the mechanics of the planning, but their effect. Its not the process of planning, but what it does to you.

Might as well be on leave. Take time off to plan your time off. Every review that I read, map I see, tip I find; every photo that is revealed, itinerary that is suggested, email that is required- each makes me want to do only all of this.

Work is all very well, but planning the journey is, for me, like beginning it; I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss out on enjoying the trip!