96 hours and counting...

Hey readers! Welcome to my travel blog! In just 4 days, I will be on a Cathay Pacific flight bound for Bangkok, Thailand (connecting in Hong Kong)!

In case you didn't know, I have never traveled outside of the USA, with the exceptions of the BC way to the north of California, and the BC to the south of California. So this will be my first trip abroad, and I feel like I'm really throwing myself out there. I don't have the entire trip planned, which I think is a good thing, but this is what I do know:

November 14th: Arrive Bangkok
November 15-18: Bangkok????
November 19-20: Adult Division of Princess Cup Scrabble tournament (Bangkok)
November 21-29: ?????
November 30-December 4: Johor Bahru, Malaysia for the Causeway Challenge Scrabble Tournament
December 4-5: Singapore
December 6-14ish: Laos (Luang Prabang, Phonsavan/Plain of Jars, Vientiane)
December 15-16: Manila
December 17: 12 hour layover in Hong Kong
December 18: Return home. Maybe. :)

As I have said above, this is my first time traveling, and as such, I made it very clear to myself that this would be a trip with friends. It's pretty intimidating to plan my first five week trip, and I think I will get a lot more out of it being with experienced travelers through the duration of the trip. So who are my companions?

Well let's think of the trip in two halves - the pre-Causeway and post-Causeway halves (see schedule above - 5 day long Scrabble event in Malaysia). I'll have a number of friends at the tournament, but have different travelmates before and after.

The first part of the trip is with the fearless Saldanha sisters. Dielle and I both arrive on the 14th, if all goes as planned, and Dion arrives the 15th. We will proceed to take on mainland Southeast Asia. Dion leaves the 28th; then, Dielle and I will head south to Johor for way too much scrabble.

Before you ask, yes, we have decided to brave the floods in Bangkok. If it should turn out to be too much, then we can always go somewhere else for a few days!

After the tournament, eternal grad student Jesse and I will head to Singapore to meet up with our good friend, The Great Wang. (Don't worry if the sentence means nothing to you) Also known as James Leong, Yak Attack, James Wong, and, ironically, Gabriel Wong, some think he is a former national champion, but others are less sure. From Singapore, I'll be traveling with these two deep into the depths of Laos, throughout the rest of the trip.

My intent is to keep a blog throughout this trip. I will have a laptop, but I have no idea about Internet. I want to be fairly off the grid, but keeping a blog is a fun idea. And yes, the only reason I am bringing a laptop is to study words. The tournaments outside of North America usually use a different lexicon - the Collins dictionary. It is a larger dictionary than the hybrid book we use in the states, including lots of words unique to other English speaking countries, and the slang, borrowed words, and foreign words relevant to those areas.

I'll probably post in the next couple days about my continued worrying and fretting as the last few days before I depart come to an end. I have some pre-trip thoughts, and I'm sure people want to read about my freaking out about packing :)

Great time to have a birthday - right? I'm turning 22 on Thursday!

You'll hear more from me soon. Please leave comments, travel suggestions, questions, anything at all you have to say, but if you don't have an account, do leave your name, so I know who I'm talking to you.

Thanks for being a part of what I hope will be a truly amazing experience!

So nervous! So excited!