Safety and planning

Taking the advice of Mikey, my mom, my brother, and others, I registered at the US embassies in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. They have a convenient website where you can do it before you leave https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ . It's a lot easier than contacting them once you arrive.

I also got some good advice on places to go from Maria and Jack, who've both lived in Thailand during their time in the Peace Corps. I'll be posting a tentative itinerary later this week.

Questions

So I've started receiving the questions:

1. Why Asia?
2. How did you get time off from work?
3. What are you going to do over there?
4. Are you nervous?
5. Is it safe?
6. Do you have a third nipple?

Answers:

1. I picked Asia because I've never been there and I enjoy being in complete culture shock. I've already traveled through Western and Eastern Europe a bit, so I thought I would expand my horizons and do something exotic.
2. I work for myself...I gave myself a vacation.
3. I'll be visiting temples, meeting other backpackers, tasting weird food, taking pictures, reading, writing, arithmetic (okay, maybe not that)...and going to the beach!
4. Yes, I'm slightly anxious as I've never been to an Asian country before.
5. I've spoken to a bunch of people who've done the same thing (it's become about as cliche as backpacking through Europe) and they assure me that I have nothing to worry about. I just need to use common sense.
6. No third nipple...yet.

So, please, if you have any more questions please post them in the comments and I'm happy to answer them.

I thought a map would be nice

This map is here in case I get lost...

Bought my tickets!!!

I finally solidified the trip and bought the tickets.

Here's my itinerary:

Korean Air Lines 94
Depart: 12:30pm Washington, DC (IAD)
Arrive: 5:10pm Seoul, Korea (ICN)
14hr 40min | 6947 miles

Change planes. Time between flights: 3hr 10min

Korean Air Lines 653
Depart: 8:20pm Seoul, Korea (ICN)
Arrive: 12:05am Bangkok, Thailand (BKK)
5hr 45min | 2281 miles

The roundtrip ticket cost me $1,122.99. I'm very happy with this deal, but I'm sure I'm going to be very tired when I arrive in Bangkok at midnight. Since it will be my first night in Bangkok, and as I'll be arriving so late, I will arrange a hotel room close to the airport beforehand. Other than that I'll just arrive in my new city and find a place to stay. The guidebooks I'll be using have a lot of suggestions and ratings for different hostels, so I think I'll be alright.

Anyway, tickets bought!!!

Planning my trip to Southeast Asia

So Matt and I were discussing a way of keeping everyone informed of where I was in Asia and we came up with the idea of a blog. I'll be updating it with observations, experiences, people I've met, etc. I'll try to update it as often as possible, but I have no idea how frequently I'll have access to Internet cafes.

The way I see it is that you all can ask questions while I'm travelling. Mom will want to know if I've made any friends. Dad will want to know about the golf courses. My guy friends will want to know how good looking the girls are. My girl friends will tell me to stay away from the girls. Matt will want to know how they go to the bathroom without a toilet (I've heard it's just a hole in the ground). I'll be moderating your comments, so don't worry if it doesn't show up on the site immediately...I'll get to it!