The key to independent travel, I long ago learned, is flexibility. For example, one time I woke up in my tent in Moncton, New Brunswick and had to decide whether to go to Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia that day. I stretched and yawned and decided on PEI.
As you may know, gabrielle and I have quit our jobs, sold our cars and moved out of the Woodsy Crypt in preparation for an epic trip around the world. At least, that was the plan two days ago when we went to buy our tickets. Our master plan was to start in Kathmandu, do the Annapurna Circuit Trek (this was HUGE to me, like a lifelong highlight adventure for all time), and then travel all over Asia, before heading to Egypt and over to Europe, and then, finances permitting, over to New Zealand.
As we entered the travel agency to purchase our tickets, gabrielle turned to me and said, "You know, I kind of doubt we'll actually get to New Zealand." And I agreed that it seemed unlikely.
Greeting the travel agent, we told her we wanted two tickets to Kathmandu, please. She said they were burning things down over there and that there was a travel advisory and that the very airline we wanted to fly on had just had their offices burned down by an angry mob that morning, due to the execution of 12 Nepali citizens by Iraqis. So, we (and I have to kind of boast a little about our mutual flexibility here, not many people can handle such an egregious blow to their year-long plans) said, "Well, how about if we just go straight to New Zealand then?" And so we are. We leave in two weeks from today, with a three week stopover in Malaysia just to see what, if anything, is there to do.
New Zealand, wow. It will be fun! And the Annapurna Circuit Trek will still be there for me to hike some other day, don't worry about that. I'm not done with Asia yet!