We had a Costa Rica family tripped planned with my parents and best friend for the first week of November so it made sense to start the Epic Trip once we got back (Election Day*), but where to go?
Our overarching principles:
- Warm weather – we’d be traveling in Nov and Dec and cold wouldn’t feel so much like a vaca, would it?
- Relatively affordable – we wanted our dollar to stretch as far as possible
- Unspoiled and unique – we wanted experiences that couldn’t be gotten anywhere else
- Leo-friendly – traveling with a preschooler isn’t exactly effortless so this was a factor
- Food – does this really require explanation?
Then we stumbled upon BBC’s Human Planet documenting the intersection of people and nature. The seventh episode on Rivers ended with an amazing segment on the living root bridges in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya in Northeast India. Over generations, the villagers in this rainiest remote part of the world had woven the vines and roots of adjacent riverbank trees into sturdy living bridges to cross valley streams transformed into swollen monsoon torrents. Leo turned to Alex and said, “I want to go there”.
So with that we had anchor destination and would build out our trip from this central nexus. We would apply our above principles and try to stay in the same general vicinity. The plan was to go to India, Thailand, Myanmar and end in Vietnam. We’d get an open jaw ticket, NYC to Delhi, India and back to NYC from Saigon, Vietnam, two months later. Everything in the middle we’d figure out as we go, allowing us maximum flexibility in case we liked one spot more than another.
We ruled out Bhutan (cost, weather, kid) despite the fact that it had an off the charts coolness factor.
- Visa requirements for Americans are stiff as they are actively discouraging tourism – you must book through a government sponsored travel agency, so none of the independent travel we tended to prefer would be possible. And though rates include all lodging, transfers, admissions and food there is a $125 per person, per day, minimum – ouch!
- It’s friggin COLD in Bhutan – like base of the Himalayas/Everest cold.
- And then there’s altitude. We would have to worry about altitude sickness, especially for Leo, which would mean an even longer stay at base camps to get acclimated, which would cost us even more $$
Ultimately we decided this would have to wait until a few years later, sniff sniff.
We’d been to Vietnam before but figured we might want some comfort by trip’s end. India, Myanmar and Thailand would be (exciting) unchartered territory. There was also the pre planned Costa Rica trip to contend with. This had been booked for the first week in November with my parents and bff, Winnie well before the insanity of this epic trip had materialized. This was going to be fun!
*More musings on traveling as an American in a later post, I promise.
Epic Trip 