Planning and preparation

Well, here it is the day before I go and there's still heaps to do.

I've pretty much sorted my travel notes and plotted an indicative itinerary. Apart from arriving at Ho Chi Minh airport on Tues 6 Nov, flying up to Hanoi, and leaving Singapore on Sun 13 Jan, there's nothing hard and fast about this Asian trip. The following map will give you a rough idea of where I want to go, but I have no doubt things will change en route.

Blue is air travel, and green is overland. Excuse the shaky mouse hand – you can tell I'm no graphic artist!

To explain, first I'll be travelling on my own through Vietnam, then I'll cross the border to Cambodia and spend some time with my daughter Fiona as she winds up her VSA aid work in Svay Rieng. We'll then travel together through Cambodia, northern Thailand and Laos, returning to Bangkok at which point Fiona will fly home before New Year, and I'll carry on through southern Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore, from where I fly out.

I'll meet up with my partner Pauline in Sydney in mid-January before returning home before Auckland Anniversary weekend.

So that's it! Fairly ambitious, but I've never been to Indochina before, so I may as well do it properly.

My style of travel is adventure-focused, light and low budget. Cheap guesthouses, roadside stalls for food, buses and trains for longer distances, and motorcycling, cycling, kayaking and walking everywhere else. I think you get a much better appreciation for a place if you mix it with the locals rather than staying in a rarefied 5-star atmosphere. A better share of the local tummy bugs too!

Anyway, I don't have 5-star money, certainly not for a trip of this length. In fact my budget's already taken a $1,000 hit with the injections required to keep me safe from the worst diseases.

Must go – got some last minute handovers to do with Pauline, then I've got a plane to catch! Next post from an Internet cafe somewhere in Vietnam (and pictures if I can figure out how to download them from my camera).

Take care everyone, and I'll try and do the same. Don't forget to leave lots of comments!