First batch of tickets bought!

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Hello! And welcome to our trip blog. This is the first entry, and a very early one it is. Our trip begins this September and as you might guess from the fact that it is February right now we are a little excited to get under way. Last year around this time I was beginning my personal blog, Concerning Items Encountered or Self-Inflicted at vanbanyan.com/ipw. Hopefully some of my readers have come from that diatribe to try to enjoy another venture in which something might actually happen. I'm just getting used to the set-up in this neighborhood so things might look funny until we figure out where to put the furniture, if you will.

So why begin so early? What exactly will we be doing? Are we even leaving the country? Who do we think we are? Let's take those questions in reverse order. Firstly my wife Magda and I (Ian) are a couple of transplants to New York. I'm from Seattle and she's from Poznan, Poland. I'm 32, soon to be 33 and she's 28, soon to be 29. I'm an illustrator (I literally draw pictures all day) and Magda is a photographer. Around the time we got married Magda told me she wanted to celebrate her 30th birthday during a trip around the world. This was well before I understood how persuasive she could be, so I nodded wisely (read patronizingly) and said, "Ah If Only". Well "If Only" nothing. Today (almost 5 years later) we bought our first batch of tickets that will be taking us from Brooklyn to Bangkok with many many ports in-between. That's just the first half of our year long trip starting September 4th, 2007 and ending sometime in August 2008. Our itinerary as it stands is as follows:

We haven't told work we're quitting yet, but we might.

NY to London, London to Poznan and back (last trip to the Polish fam for a while) London to Dubai (Not able to stop there though, too bad) Dubai to South Africa (and some surrounding countries) then to Kenya, to India, to South East Asia. That's what we have tickets in our hot little hands for right now. After SE Asia, on to Australia, New Zealand, back up to Taiwan (Where my brother, sister-in-law and wee baby niece will be living) over to China, up to Mongolia, back to China, and then home. Wherever home will be. I'll put up a little map we made.

Until the trip begins, I guess I plan on writing about our preparations, both mental and physical for what is sure to be an amazing adventure. It is no small task to get ready for something like this, we already have started our regimen of shots, saved a bunch of loot, told our workplaces we are leaving...um, well we will, maybe not yet. Hopefully they will be supportive and just fire us and tell us never to darken their doorsteps again, instead of calling security and bodily heaving us onto the street.

Please comment along the way, if you have the inclination. Praise, criticism, advice are all welcome. Except for criticism. But definitely add your two bits, we'll need all the help we can get.

And so it begins, As Gandalf said, or someone. Maybe a different bearded guy.