Laying Low
I've been out of commission for the past five days with an irritating cold, and when combined with the six hartal days this week it means I haven't experienced much aside from the re-appearance of insects in my room due to a noticeable increase in humidity. Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to think about my post-Dhaka travel plans after my departure on February 26th.
Depending on the status of certain employment-related developments back in Vancouver that may cut short my time on the road, my basic plan at this point is to make a loop around Southeast Asia before heading to Australia for my flight home from Sydney. I've already booked my flight to Bangkok, after which I'll take the train north to Laos for a few days in peaceful Luang Prabang, then east to Hanoi, Vietnam to visit a friend from McGill who decided to drop everything and travel around Asia for thirteen months. If time allows, I'll then follow the South China Sea coast down Vietnam before turning west into Cambodia where I'll drop by Phnom Penh before visiting the Khmer Rouge killing fields and spending three to four days in Siem Reap amongst the ruins of Angkor Wat. If time is short, however, I will likely catch a dirt-cheap flight back to Bangkok from Hanoi after only two weeks in the region.
At that point I'll be about three to four weeks into my Southeast Asia journey, so it will be about time to head back to Bangkok for my flight to either Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne. The amount of traveling I do in Australia - and the amount of time I spend with my cousin at his sustainability education centre, The Permaforest Trust - depends primarily on my responsibilities back in Canada, which have yet to be finalized, but ideally I'll be there for another three weeks. If time allows, I'm thinking it would work out best if I flew into Brisbane (the closest international airport to The Trust in northern New South Wales) before hopping onto a Virgin Air flight to Melbourne 10-14 days later to visit a friend, and finally bussing it up to Sydney for my last few days in Oz. If anyone has any advice, recommendations or other helpful commentary about my six-week whirlwhind trip around Asia Pacific, I'd be glad to hear it.
Depending on the status of certain employment-related developments back in Vancouver that may cut short my time on the road, my basic plan at this point is to make a loop around Southeast Asia before heading to Australia for my flight home from Sydney. I've already booked my flight to Bangkok, after which I'll take the train north to Laos for a few days in peaceful Luang Prabang, then east to Hanoi, Vietnam to visit a friend from McGill who decided to drop everything and travel around Asia for thirteen months. If time allows, I'll then follow the South China Sea coast down Vietnam before turning west into Cambodia where I'll drop by Phnom Penh before visiting the Khmer Rouge killing fields and spending three to four days in Siem Reap amongst the ruins of Angkor Wat. If time is short, however, I will likely catch a dirt-cheap flight back to Bangkok from Hanoi after only two weeks in the region.
At that point I'll be about three to four weeks into my Southeast Asia journey, so it will be about time to head back to Bangkok for my flight to either Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne. The amount of traveling I do in Australia - and the amount of time I spend with my cousin at his sustainability education centre, The Permaforest Trust - depends primarily on my responsibilities back in Canada, which have yet to be finalized, but ideally I'll be there for another three weeks. If time allows, I'm thinking it would work out best if I flew into Brisbane (the closest international airport to The Trust in northern New South Wales) before hopping onto a Virgin Air flight to Melbourne 10-14 days later to visit a friend, and finally bussing it up to Sydney for my last few days in Oz. If anyone has any advice, recommendations or other helpful commentary about my six-week whirlwhind trip around Asia Pacific, I'd be glad to hear it.
***
Though I haven't been out on the streets much this week, I've still been able to keep track of goings-on in Dhaka through my 15th story window (counting how many private cars drive by over a five-minute period during a hartal; listening to the sounds of rickshaw bells and taxi horns; and checking for open or closed security shutters to see whether or not the stores are open) and via my frustratingly unreliable 'broadband' line hooked up to my computer.
This evening's scan of the online editions of a few local and international newspapers yielded this informative article from the IHT, which explains not only the embarrassing second postponement of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit that was to be hosted in Dhaka this week, but also the current state of India-Bangladesh relations (not good).
This evening's scan of the online editions of a few local and international newspapers yielded this informative article from the IHT, which explains not only the embarrassing second postponement of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit that was to be hosted in Dhaka this week, but also the current state of India-Bangladesh relations (not good).
posted by Per at 7:51 a.m.
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