Commencing countdown, engines on

Holy crap, we leave for Tokyo in 36 hours. We've been planning and talking about this trip for so long, it's surreal to think we're actually about to head out for the great wide yonder. We just got our 100% finalized itinerary from our travel agent today, so I thought I'd post some dates to accompany our rough itinerary outline from a few posts ago. This is the schedule as it stands right now, though we may tweak it from the road as conditions dictate.

Sept. 11: Depart Syracuse for Washington, DC. Undergo insane security screening. A few hours later, depart Washington for Tokyo.

Sept. 12-15: Tokyo

Sept. 15-16: Travel, Tokyo-Bangkok-Calcutta, eventually winding up in Thimpu, Bhutan.

Sept. 16-25: Bhutan.

Sept. 26: Travel, back to Calcutta.

Sept. 26-Nov. 16: India.

Nov. 16: Travel, New Delhi-Beijing.

Nov. 22: Travel (train!), Beijing-Ulaan Baatar.

Nov. 23-26: Ulaan Baatar, Mongolian wilderness.

Nov. 27: Travel (train!), onwards to Russia.

Nov. 28-29: Irkutsk and Lake Baikal.

Nov. 30-Dec. 3: Travel (train!), Irkutsk-Moscow.

Dec. 4-6: Moscow.

Dec. 7: Travel (last leg of the train!), Moscow-St. Petersburg.

Dec. 8-9: St. Petersburg.

Dec. 9: Travel (bus), St. Petersburg to Tallinn, Estonia.

Dec. 10-12: Tallinn.

Dec. 12: Travel, Tallinn-Warsaw-Vienna.

Dec. 13-22: Austria, Switzerland, meandering by rail.

Dec. 22-26: Gryon, Switzerland.

Dec. 27-29: More Switzerland.

Dec. 29: Travel, Zurich to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Dec. 30-31: Tanzania, travel to Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Jan. 1-7: Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Jan. 8-19: Tanzania.

Jan. 20: Travel, Dar es Salaam-Johannesburg-Sao Paolo-Buenos Aires (ugh).

Jan. 21-Mar. 6: South America (generally, Argentina-Chile-Bolivia-Peru, via train and bus).

Mar. 6: Travel, Lima-Toronto.

And that's about it!