Poll

* It has been a while since I last wrote an entry on this weblog, because it has taken me some time to get used to my new routine. I spend more hours at 'school,' but have much less 'homework' than previous years. This is great, of course, it only makes me reluctant to sit behind my computer after a long day of 'work.' This week I am going camping with my 4 HAVO (i.e. 10th grade) students, but as of next week, I will try to write more often.



It is more difficult than one might think to 'plan' (I still use the term loosely) your perfect world trip. Especially when you have to decide together with someone who is completely different from you in almost every aspect, and when you want to see absolutely everything that this world has to offer. It took Jochem and me almost a year to realize that we might want to see too much during our world trip. That's when it got real difficult, because now we feel that we should make choices. Unfortunately for us, making choices means eliminating perfectly good travel spots for nothing but pragmatic reasons, so every time we get excited about one thing, we get sad about having to miss out on another thing.



We thought we had finally figured it all out when we decided to choose the East: China, Tibet, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and India. We were thinking: cheap; less flights (so cheaper and better for the environment); and especially adventurous since we wouldn't otherwise just go to any of these countries. However, a few brief looks in a couple of Lonely Planets and Rough Guides quickly revealed that it's quite a hassle to arrange transportation in this area (at least much more of a hassle than we had anticipated during our time frame). Suddenly South America, Easter Island and Cuba started to look good: even less flights; a language we can both speak reasonably well; and less need to rush through a bunch of countries. But then we also think South America will be more expensive and less adventurous somehow.



After a while this kind of thinking drives you crazy. There are so many places that you would like to explore, and there is simply not one region in particular that you can easily opt for. The whole point of our world trip is to see the world in 9 months, and to have an adventure. So now we're thinking of just booking a standard world ticket. Kilroy Travels offers several interesting options, and these are the ones we like especially:



- = traveling by plane
// = traveling over land



"Explorers Dream"

London - Beijing // Hong Kong - Cairns (near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia) // Sydney - Christchurch // Auckland - Tahiti - Easter Island - Santiago de Chile // Lima - Quito (in Ecuador) - Madrid - London



"Cheeky Monkey"

Brussels - Madrid - Santiago de Chile // Ushuaia (at the bottom of Argentina) - Buenos Aires // Rio de Janeiro - Sydney // Cairns - Auckland - Beijing // Hong Kong - Mumbai // Delhi - Brussels



"Wonders of the World"

London - Rome - Amman (in Jordan) - Delhi - Hong Kong - Beijing - Hong Kong - New York - Cancun - Miami - Lima - Cuzco (in Peru) - Santiago de Chile - Rio de Janeiro - London


"Go West"

Amsterdam - Lima - Mexico City - Los Angeles - Honolulu - Tokyo - Bangkok - Nairobi // Kilimanjaro - Amsterdam


Jochem still has certain destinations he must see, whereas I tend to think that if you are buying a random world ticket because you can't choose, you might just as well go random all the way. Of course we can also try to assemble our own personalized world ticket.


Here is where I ask you guys for advice by means of a poll. What would YOU choose if you had to choose between the following options for your 9-month world trip:


(1) travel to Asia, Australia, New Zealand and India
(2) travel to South America, Easter Island and Cuba
(3) book "Explorers Dream"
(4) book "Cheeky Monkey"
(5) book "Wonder of the World"
(6) book "Go West"
(7) book your own personalized world ticket


Let me know, 'cause I could really use the perspective!