Itinerary

Here is our itinerary:

Date 

Depart 

Arrive 

Duration

September 29, 2002 

Los Angeles, CA, USA 

Auckland, New Zealand 

2 Months

December 1, 2002 

Auckland, New Zealand 

Sydney, Australia 

2 Months

February 1, 2003 

Sydney, Australia 

Bangkok, Thailand 

1 Month

March 1, 2003

Bangkok, Thailand 

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 

3 Weeks

March 21, 2003

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 

Bangkok, Thailand

9 Days

March 30, 2003

Thailand

Laos

4 weeks

April 27, 2003

Laos

Cambodia

3 Days

April 30, 2003

Cambodia

Southern Thailand

2 Weeks

May 14, 2003

Bangkok, Thailand

Delhi, India

5 Weeks

June 6, 2003

India

Nepal

1 Day

June 18, 2003

Delhi, India 

Singapore 

4 Days
June 23, 2003 Singapore Johannesburg, South Africa 4 weeks
July 19, 2003 Johannesburg, South Africa Frankfurt, Germany 5 hours!
July 20, 2003 Frankfurt, Germany Cairo, Egypt 3 Weeks
August 11, 2003 Cairo, Egypt Vienna, Austria 2 Weeks
August 25, 2003 Vienna, Austria Paris, France 1 Week
September 1, 2003 Paris, France London, England 1 Week
September 8, 2003 London, England Los Angeles, CA, USA Who knows?

Note: only the bold dates are completed.  The others are flexible.  We can change the dates without any penalty as long as there is space available.

For the majority of the flights on our trip we will use a Round-The-World ticket from United's Star Alliance. However, we will not begin that portion of our trip until we get to New Zealand.  It turns out the cost of the ticket varies quite a bit depending on the country in which you purchase it.  For example, it costs almost $5,000 US to purchase a 39,000 mile ticket in the US.  However, if you purchase the same ticket in New Zealand or Australia, it costs approximately $2,200 US (after conversion from the local currency).  So, we are flying to New Zealand on airline miles and will pick up our Star Alliance tickets there.

For ground transportation, we will use mostly public mass transit, however we do plan to purchase an inexpensive used car in some regions and then sell it again when we leave.  We are planning to do that in Australia and in Europe.

Note: We are completely skipping the Americas (North, South, Central) on our trip.  We plan to drive to most places in North America with our kids as they are growing up.  We are skipping South & Central America due to time constraints.  We plan to visit there in the future, and that region is easily accessible from the US.