ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?

It's happened a couple times along the way, but today in Barnes & Noble my jaw dropped from absolute shock as I discovered that a border crossing I planned to make between northern Vietnam and northern Laos was actually closed to foreigners. The closest (and most northerly) border open was actually not close at all and would necessitate an extra couple days of travel.

Both the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides mentioned that there has been talk of opening this border to tourists, but nothing had been done yet. Both guides were also over two years old, so I thought I should double check on some traveler forums, and what do you know? The border opened to foreigners in May of 2007 and has remained open since.

(Orange is desired, green is next closest, image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

My main plans in northern Vietnam center around the Hmong peoples (among other minorities) and the town of Sa Pa near Lao Cai (click on the map for a larger view). To get down to the green border post, coming all the way back to Hanoi would have been necessary. This route goes in another direction towards Dien Bien Phu, saving time and avoiding backtracking. If I have ever learned anything about myself during travels, it is that I despise backtracking.

The even better part of it is that it also has visa services available at the border, so if obtaining my Laos visa is a problem in Hanoi, I can put it off for the border. A couple posts I read mentioned how one foreigner can hold up the entire bus for three hours at the border waiting for the visa guy though, so I will do my best to prepare ahead so as not to have a busload of locals angry at me.

SHORTWAVE RADIO ANYONE?

I'm not sure why I have never invested in a shortwave radio before (called a "world band" radio for anyone that consistently watched Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego), but I figure now is the time. 14 months will afford a bevy of time in which I am bored of whatever book I am reading and also need to hear world news and languages I can understand.

Anyone own one that they recommend? The smaller the better obviously...

BODIES OF WATER

The first time I ever crossed a border on a boat was in 2002 during a North American road trip, taking a car ferry from Victoria, on Vancouver island in Canada to Anacortes in Washington state. Besides the beautiful scenery, the feeling of boarding a boat in one country and alighting from it in another has a certain delight. Before boarding, the over-sensitive US customs officials asked us questions, then took our bananas. They searched us on the other side too, as I drove the car off the ferry and began driving through Washington's coastal islands.

(On route to Morocco at sunset)

Ever since, I've relished any opportunity to do this again, whether it be on the Mediterranean ferry from Spain to Morocco and back, or traversing Lago O'Higgins between Chile and Argentina.

(A ferry waits for passengers and vehicles in Aisén region, Chile)

Naturally, I have tried to think ahead and plan for as many border crossings by water as possible on this upcoming trip, in addition to the cargo ship voyages over the oceans. Here is a list of the crossings that I will be on my itinerary:

Vancouver (Canada) --> Hong Kong

The Pacific Ocean

Budapest (Hungary) --> Bratislava (Slovakia) --> Vienna (Austria)

Danube River

Zadar (Croatia) --> Ancona (Italy)

Aegean Sea

Genova (Italy) --> Tunis (Tunisia)

Mediterranean Sea

Kampala (Uganda) --> Mwanza (Tanzania)

Lake Victoria

Mbamba Bay (Tanzania) --> Nkhata Bay (Malawi)

Lake Malawi/Nyasa

Cape Town (South Africa) --> Santos (Brazil)

Atlantic Ocean

Copacabana (Bolivia) --> Puno (Peru)

Lake Titicaca

Iquitos (Peru) --> Manaus (Brazil)

Amazon River

Cartagena (Colombia) --> Colón (Panama)

Caribbean Sea

CHANGE OF PLANS/HEART!

More on this to come, but a slight overhaul has been done today to the cross-country train journey. Scratch the ticket on the California Zephyr in favor of the more northerly Empire Builder, a train that from Chicago goes northwest to Minnesota and then follows a line west to Seattle, skirting the Canadian border and Glacier National Park in Montana.

This gives me about 30 hours less on a train, and two happy days and nights to spend in Seattle. I figure the faster I get close to Vancouver the better as well, as I don't want to receive a call at the last minute saying they are leaving a day further ahead of schedule or something similarly disheartening. I will be aboard that boat!

The scenery should be just as good in the north, as Glacier NP is probably my favorite in the country, and all the land from Montana to the west should be amazing.

THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER ON THE WAY HOME

After at least 14 months of travel, the majority of which will be on the move, my body will probably be ready to take the Mississippi River all the way back to New York if it could. I'm not sure what my mind will feel, probably a mixture of mental exhaustion and a sour realization that this great journey is about to end, knowing full well that the next part of the challenge lay ahead of me when I get back home and start trying to publish a book.

I probably will not have all that much time on the Mississippi to think about these things, as cruises from New Orleans to the north just are not available. I might only be on a dinner cruise in the end. If there is a substantial amount of money left, maybe I can find a boat to charter to Memphis, a city that will definitely be a stop.

(Memphis. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons/Magnus Manske)

I already have my eyes on the VIP tour at Graceland, the former mansion of Elvis that is now one of the country's most famous tourist attractions. I would love to show up in Memphis on the river that connects it to New Orleans (not to mention a total of 10 states), arriving rested and ready to tackle the city and continue my travels northeast. The river is by far the largest in the United States, and actually the second longest in the world. It does not have any of the mystique that the others profiled this week do, but it remains right at the heart of this country, splitting east and west in our minds. When I say goodbye to it after Memphis, I will be only a few days away from completing what I had started well over a year before.

RIO AMAZONAS

Most likely some six months after my journey down the Nile, I will be leaving Ecuador via the Río Napo and entering Peru, meeting up with the Amazon at the city of Iquitos. The Amazon is the second longest river in the world, but the world's largest in terms of volume. Get this: its river flow is larger than the total flow of the next eight rivers combined!

From Iquitos, Peru it is a 10-hour speedboat ride to the 3-way border post (Peru, Colombia, Brazil) at the frontier.

(Amazon boat. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons/Pontanegra)

After re-entering Brazil, I will take a 4-7 day journey on a riverboat like the one above. I want to enjoy the river and avoid the crowds (HA!) for a few days, so I was thinking of "splurging" a full $80 or so for my own cabin, to rest, read, and write as much as possible. Who knows what I will actually be thinking when it comes time to take this trip though.

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons/Elias Bizannes)

I will alight from the boat in Manuas, Brazil, from where it is a overland journey north to the frontier of Venezuela and onward on my trip, with only the Mississippi left to round out the top four. With countless other rivers to meet, cross, and journey down, my mind will probably be a little further south than that.

DOWN (UP) THE NILE

The Nile River puts an image into the head of even the most geography-ignorant person on Earth. It's amazing length and location put it at the center of human interaction and development since the beginning. Kingdoms and empires have fought for it and its lands as far back as history goes. The pyramids and treasures of Egypt will keep it on the tourist trail for as long as tourists keep touristing.

(Dhows on the Nile. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons/Jerzy Strzelecki)

It will not be hard to travel on the Nile in Egypt, for there are plenty of tourist cruises and hopefully less fancy boats further upriver. The Nile and the Egypt-Sudan border might create the most problematic aspect of this trip, but one that I cannot avoid. Even if I am able to secure a visa to Sudan while in Cairo (a process that could take weeks), the whims of a border guard could also set me back. And according to state department advisories, I should not even be thinking of such a thing to begin with.

(The greeting on WikiTravel.org)

Now, I am never one to listen to state department warnings, I feel like half the countries I have visited have had these blanket warnings on them from a racist and ignorant government bureaucracy just trying to cover its ass. I'm obviously not going to Darfur, but the Ethiopian border is one that I also have to cross, so I am guessing I will just have to do this by bus and not on any boat like I had originally thought to explore the possibilities of, at least up to the border.

Khartoum is a place I look forward to seeing, for sure. But I think I might actually consider getting into it from Egypt and out of it to Ethiopia as quickly as possible. More research is in the offer of course, and situations on the ground will ultimately dictate what happens, but for as much of its length as possible I will be in a boat traveling upriver.

THE DANUBE AND HYDROFOILS

So the plan was to take the hydrofoil from Budapest to Bratislava, and then onto Vienna a few days later. But the interests of reality have reared their ugly heads. The first sailing yearly is in April, and I will pass through these capitals in February most likely. Does the Danube freeze?

(The transportation I crave)

Europe's longest river only ranks 29th in the world in length, a poor showing for the continent. But what it lacks in length it probably makes up for in importance and history. Meh... as if the Nile has none.

The most interesting section of the river to me will probably be its time spent as the main artery of Budapest, one of those European cities I just have not made it to yet.

(Danube in Budapest. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons/Heinz Albers)

To the west of Budapest, the river creates the border between Hungary and Slovakia after beginning its journey in the mountains of southern Germany and flowing through Bavaria and northern Austria.

But back to the hydrofoil... it looks like unfortunately crossing borders by boat, which I will do whenever possible, will in this case be impossible. Trains and buses will have to do their job and save me a bit of money at the same time.

長江 YANGTZE RIVER

As part of this journey I have decided to spend as much time as possible on the world's largest rivers, and will use at least the largest river in every continent as a significant route of transportation. This includes the world's four largest rivers (Nile, Amazon, Yangtze, Mississippi) and also the Danube in Europe.

The first of these great rivers that I will come into contact with is the Yangtze in China. I will cross its path a few times, but the first time will be in Yunnan province at Tiger Leaping Gorge. I hope to use the river as a means of transportation between places here in Yunnan, as well as later in Hubei and near Shanghai.

(Tiger Leaping Gorge. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

Here at the upper reaches the river still runs fast through some amazing scenery. I think I will be able to take a boat from near Lijiang to Panzhihua where I can take the train north to Chengdu and say goodbye to the river until I see it again at the Three Gorges Dam.

Each of these rivers has a special meaning to its country and to the world. Locally, regionally, and globally, their significance is unquestionable.

More to come on the other four later this week!

TINY AND LANDLOCKED

I have always had a thing for geography. I've been looking at maps and memorizing capitals for as long as I can remember. One fascination that has stuck with me throughout all these years are the tiny countries in the world that are trapped inside or between other countries. Many of these are in Europe, but a few exist in other places as well. I liked them so much that I convinced my social studies teachers to let me turn in reports on Andorra, Luxembourg, and Leichtenstein for extra credit. I hit the encyclopedias hard.

(Andorra. Photo by Nathalie Bourque)

To this date, the only small nations of the world I have visited are the Vatican City, which does not even have a welcome sign, and Andorra, in the Pyrenées between Spain and France. Andorra had been on my mind ever since spending a month abroad in southern France on an exchange program when I was 10 years old. It was only in 2004 that I got to enter the tiny country and was severely disappointed by how uneventful it truly was.

That is not stopping me though, from the possibility of three more tiny countries on this trip, San Marino, Lesotho, and Swaziland. It is absolutely true that I will only go to these places for the pure curiosity of it all, since none of the three is very far from my path.

But how can you blame me? The official name of San Marino in Italian is Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, translating roughly to "The Most Serene Republic of San Marino." The Kingdoms of Swaziland and Lesotho both exist at least partly due to the whims and errors of British imperialism. They are both surrounded by South Africa (although Swaziland has a small part touching Mozambique), and have populations the size of medium United States cities.

(Swazi people. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons/Christoph Riedl)

But people make a place what it is, and I want to see the differences between outside and inside these tiny countries. I suspect I will find none in San Marino, but in Africa these nations were "granted" to certain peoples on our Earth's most diverse continent. I am hoping I have ample time to explore all of southern Africa and am not pressed for time to make a reservation for the cargo ship I will be taking from Cape Town to Brazil. Only time will tell...

BORN TO BE AROUND CONTAINERS

As the Staten Island Ferry heads south and passes nearby the Statue of Liberty to the west, I am usually the only person on the east side of the boat, watching the container ports of Brooklyn pass by as the tourists snap their photos of the green lady.

A cargo ship going by always grabs my attention. I can easily picture myself wandering amongst the stacks of containers or watching the cranes pull them off in a port.

(Container port in Valparaiso, Chile)

I've been known to wander around the exterior fences of container yards and snap photos if I am lucky enough to get inside ones without tight security. I've been turned away from three different entrances to the container ports in Elizabeth, New Jersey. These facilities are some of the best in the world, but unfortunately are keeping a tight lock. Go figure, the Department of Homeland Security is doing its job keeping out the riff-raff like myself.

ARRIVAL IN ASIA

Approximately 14 days after boarding the Hanjin Madrid in Vancouver, Canada, I will arrive somewhere (I should figure this out) in Hong Kong. It seems a good stopover point and onward entry point into China. I will be able to get back my land legs with all the modern comforts, make plans to cross the border, and enjoy a bit of an absolutely incredible city.

Does anyone have a recommendation for the most desirable location to be in the center of it all? It seems that getting around won't be a problem with all the convenient rail options. Knowing myself, I will be eager to move on to Shenzhen, but I want to grab all I can from Hong Kong in the two or three days I will be around.

A SIBERIAN JOURNEY

It is certain to happen with every book I pick up, but my recent acquisition of Bryn Thomas's Trans-Siberian Handbook is affecting me a great deal. I have just added a full two weeks to the time I am planning in Russia, and will mostly use this in cities and towns along the route of the train from Vladivostok to Moscow.

I am looking even more forward to learning Russian and practicing with some friends at every opportunity here in New York before departure so that I can get the most from my time in places where English is very rare in Siberia.

The only view I have ever had of Siberia was from a plane from NY that flew over the north pole in route to Tokyo. I was wide-eyed the whole time as we flew over the white and nearly featureless land. It is not any specific beauty, but rather the unknown and mysterious that makes Siberia what it is in our minds.

After the Ice Festival in Harbin, China, I will cross the border to the east to Vladivostok, the Russian city on the Pacific Ocean that is the end of the main rail line. There are shorter routes to Moscow, but this seemed more fitting to start at the end and go the whole way. There are also a few towns to the north of it along the rail line that look great for a stopover.

(Novosibirsk - Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

Breaking a 6-day journey up into many small segments of rides (the longest being 30 hours) serves many purposes besides being a great way to know more of a country and its people. The journeys on smaller segments can be done with more local trains which will obviously have more local people aboard, and will also make buying tickets more simple as I will not have to stick to any pre-determined schedules. Most tourists end up buying the entire journey from an agent, including any stops they want to make, and have to stick with their plans or forfeit their tickets. In winter there will be no issues with availability, and I can stay or go in any city as I please. I like the sound of that.

I think I will make these stops:

Vladivostok --> 13 hrs -->Khabarovsk --> 3 hrs --> Birobidzhan -->10 hrs --> Belogorsk (side trip to Blagoveshchensk) --> 30 hrs --> Chita --> 10 hrs --> Ulan Ude --> 8 hrs --> Irkutsk --> 20 hrs --> Krasnoyarsk --> 12 hrs --> Novosibirsk (side trips to Tomsk and Akademgorodok) --> 9.5 hrs --> Omsk --> 7 hrs --> Tyumen (side trip to Tobolsk) --> 5 hrs --> Yekaterinburg --> 21 hrs --> Nizhny Novgorod

This will be followed by some visits to some outlying cities near Moscow and then to Moscow itself before heading southwest towards Ukraine. The idea of so much Siberian snow and old Soviet architecture already gives me the chills.