Day 0, January 11, 2007, San Francisco.
Well, after a couple of crazy weeks and quite a few sleepless nights, I finally got all packed up and out of my apartment. Or more accurately, Saira, Ivana, Dave, Ally and I got me packed up and out of my appartment. In my usual just in time fashion, we weren’t done moving my stuff to Ivana’s garage till 7pm on Saturday night, at which point I had still had to go shop for the goodbye party that we were throwing an hour later. The party was a lot of fun. Thank you everyone that was able to make it, it was good to see you again on last time before the trip.
To those of you who emailed or called over the last couple of weeks, sorry about not replying. I just had too many loose ends to tie up before my trip. But as those people who did have to spend time with me would tell you, I was really cranky those last few days, so you really didn't miss out on much!
So I'm off on my three months around the world adventure. I have a pretty good idea of where I’m going to go, but I haven’t committed to any specific itinerary yet. The only flights I’ve booked are San Francisco to Tokyo (Jan 11th) to Hong Kong (Jan 15th) to Hanoi (Jan 18th), and a return from Dar es Salaam to Paris (Apr 8th) to Vancouver (April 11th). I should be back in the Bay Area around April 14th or so, just in time for the BASH playoffs and tax day.
In between, I'm planning to spend 2+ weeks in Vietnam, a week in Cambodia, a week in Thailand, two weeks in India, a few days in Dubai/Bahrain, and about a week each in Tanzania, Comoro Islands and Madagascar. The outbound and return flights that I've booked are actually changeable, but since they're business class tickets on frequent flyer miles, I end up having to sit in coach if I change it too close to the departure date (which is what happened for this San Francisco to Tokyo leg).
I'll try to keep this blog updated fairly regularly, depending on how my internet access goes on the trip. I'll be checking my Gmail account and will have a local mobile number in most countries I go to. At the top of the page, you can find my current location, my current mobile number if any, and underneath that to the left, the local time and date at my current location.
Hey there, happy to read your blog, good luck and happy travels. The sushi in your blog looks delicious.
AR
Posted by: Arif Rajan | January 31, 2007 at 11:30 PM
Happy and safe travels
Posted by: Arif Rajan | January 31, 2007 at 11:30 PM
Nice blog Malik! Enjoy the travels. We'll be watching the game tomorrow with our little Zamil. He's truly a bundle of joy (but does he ever create a lot of poohy diapers!). Anyhow, we're thinking of you!
Posted by: Dinar | February 03, 2007 at 12:25 PM
Hey Malik,
Sorry to hear about your mishap. Sounds like the cleaning crew at the Thai airport is doing its job quite well. I wish we had that sort of transparency in our gov. right now.
Happy travels!
Posted by: rizwan | February 10, 2007 at 01:24 AM