Gallivanting the globe 2019 - RTW and then some

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JohnM

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Come Wednesday, it’s on the bird PER-SYD for sector 1 of this year’s DONE4, for 17 weeks of varied travel, returning mid-October. On top of the core DONE4, I have a slew of side flights for a total of 30 sectors and 60,591 miles.

This is my 15th successive annual DONEx (that does include an AONEx in the last year of the old 20-sector paper-tickets xONExs. Aaahhh - they were the days!)

Here’s the plan (side trips in brackets; land sectors at semi colons):

PER-SYD-DFW-MIA(-MEX; OAX-TGZ; CUN-HAV-CUN-MIA)-DFW-ANC(-OME-DYR-OME-ANC)-LAX-DOH-HEL-SIN-NRT-DEL(-ASB; ALA-DEL-BOM-IXU-BOM-ATQ-DEL-GOI-DEL)-CMB-HKG-PER.

Full RTW2019.JPG

The observant would have noticed that the DONE4 is 14, rather than the maximum 16 sectors. My original routing of MIA-DFW-LAX-ANC had to be changed to MIA-DFW-ANC because AA cancelled LAX-ANC not long after I made my booking last year.

Subsequently, my original routing SYD-JFK-CLT-MIA changed to SYD-DFW-MIA as a result of changing my departure from Australia by two days owing to a nerve-wracking delay in obtaining my Russian visa. I then got caught up in the series of cascading QF A380 issues this week whereby they cancelled QF11 SYD-JFK on the revised day of travel (Thursday 20 June). I was starting to feel jinxed!

As it turned out, my passport with the all-important Russian visa was delivered with two days to spare, but with a weekend intervening, the risk had been too great not to take the precaution of delaying departure. I had two flexible days leeway in the US to visit friends in South Carolina that I sacrificed. I’ll do that next year.

(A word of warning to anyone applying for a Russian visa: they have implemented a new system that in some ways seems clunkier than the old system and could be still a work-in-progress. The worst aspect is that they do not - EVER - answer either (CBR or SYD) of the phone numbers listed on the new website. Indicative of how bad that is: the Canberra number diverts to a voicemail box that is full and can’t accept messages! Nor do they reply to emails sent to the address given. If there is a delay in processing or you need to arrange expediting, there is absolutely no way of communicating with them to check on progress.)

The upshot of this sequence of events was to chop two sectors off my DONE4. Gaaahhh! I deplore wasting a DONEx sector! I think I have only once before missed using every sector – and then only dropping one.

I need a holiday after all that!

The core of the plan was to do a 3-week tour of the 5 Stans and I built other things either side of that. After mentioning to @RooFlyer that I was doing the Stans, he was smartly on board.

5Stans.JPG

A bit of rummaging around and mailing-list alerts threw up a Russian Far East voyage to Wrangel Island (major polar bear habitat) that fitted with a nice gap before the Stans, so that was added. Getting to Anadyr in far E Russia for the voyage is a bit tricky by scheduled flights, so I opted to join the optional voyage charter flight from Nome. It was also a good excuse to see a bit more of Alaska with a few days in Nome.

Wrangel.JPG

A tour of Mexico and Cuba fitted in neatly before that, so I locked that as first activity prior to heading up to Nome.

Mexico & Cuba.JPG

After the voyage and back to Nome, I needed to start moving towards central Asia for the 5 Stans, but with a couple of weeks to kill. What better way than QR Qsuites LAX-DOH on the nice long flight that leaves LAX at a perfect time late afternoon? I did it last year and loved it.

Then it’s up to HEL on a QR A350 for a few days in Finland. Why fly direct from HEL to DEL when I can connect? A ride S to SIN on an AY A350 and a couple of JL flights SIN-NRT-DEL fits that bill.

Opting to get to the start and back from the end of the Stans via DEL, I figured a bit more poking around India would be rather nice. So, a tour of the Himalayan foothills and independently spending some time in Mumbai, then Aurangabad to visit the Ellora and Ajanta cave temples, followed by a few days in Goa ticked some boxes.

India.JPG

Then a tour of Sri Lanka to round out the gallivanting before a HKG transit and a few weeks at home precedes a voyage to Macquarie Island in early December and allows requisite time for tying up 2020 travels - already sketched out, natch.

Sri Lanka.JPG

As usual, most of the detail of this trip will follow after I get home and download and sort through camera photos. Bits and pieces with pics from my phone will occur en-route.
 
It passed - briefly - through my mind. Nah!

If things had gone to the original plan, I'd be slurping a red on the PER-SYD bird right now!
 
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The core of the plan was to do a 3-week tour of the 5 Stans and I built other things either side of that. After mentioning to @RooFlyer that I was doing the Stans, he was smartly on board.

'Smartly' is an understatement. I've been looking to do a Stans trip for about 7 years. Just about all the tours I'd looked at before involved a flight on local airline between the west and east, as the infrastructure in the middle is or was poor; I refuse to fly Dodgy Air. The Exodus tour has a couple of 'basic' accommodation days in the middle (think a shared yurt and a 'homestay' :eek: ) so avoids the flight mid trip.
 
Good memories of travelling by coach/bus from San Diego to Mexico City then Oaxaca, Sumidero Canyon and Pelanque when a student. Will be interesting to see how much they've changed in the past quarter of a century .
 
Very much looking forward to this. I keep telling myself I will get to Iran and the Stans but in the meantime I'll slip into 1K and follow along yet another of your TR - have a wonderful time :cool:
 
I hope you have an exercise regime in hand for this trip. Enjoy :)
 
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