A long delay

Over the last few months work, and life in general, blocked any progress we could make on the trip. But, it has dawned on us that we are coming down to the wire on a lot of deadlines, and our departure for the trip seems right around the corner.

We've spent the last two weeks doing lots of research, as we still are trying to finalize our destinations--always a good thing to do before buying plane tickets!

The broad strokes are still in place--China, Africa, Croatia, Spain, perhaps Turkey and India. We know the beginning of the trip (China) and the end (Spain), it's the stuff in the middle that is still a bit fuzzy.

Originally we thought we would be in China for 3 weeks, but I've had to accept that going to Tibet is really out of the question. Besides the cost (time and money) to get there, additional visas are required and you have to hire a guide to get the visa and entrance to many of the sites--just adding up to be too much. So for the moment, the China itinerary is: Beijing, Xian, Yangshuo.

Since we are cutting the China portion a bit short, we could either have a brief--4 days or so--stop in India, or spend more time in Africa. I think we are both leaning toward skipping India and making that another trip in itself at a later date. For Africa, the plan had been for 7 to 10 days in Uganda--the parks sound reasonable and wildlife abundant. But, because of current political issues in the country I think we are both reluctant to give any of our hard-earned tourism dollars to them.

Kenya seems like a good option--we can hit one of the parks and then head to the coast for a trip to the beaches at Lamu for a breather. But, since we may have a few extra days we can spend, we're thinking about a brief stop in Kenya for the wildlife, and then heading a bit south to Tanzania and going to Zanzibar (I just love saying Zanzibar) which looks terrific.

After Africa we start heading for Europe, Croatia in particular. There may be a few days that we can spare in Istanbul--I've heard great things about that city (and hope to hear more) from our friends Brooks and Beverly. A week in Croatia and then on to 2 weeks in Spain, the last being in the south where we hope to rent a house and just relax a little before heading home and back to work.

As always, I'd love to hear from any other travellers who have been to any of these places. I get tired just thinking about all of this.