NOTE: This is an older entry that I didn't post right away. It was written on the flight over.

The current weather report for the immediate area outside our aircraft is -46 degrees. I’d ask to crack a window open to get a little fresh air, but I’m afraid I would wake up a few of my fellow travelers.

We’re crossing over Alaska at the moment and it still amazes me at how much I didn’t pay attention in geography class. Alaska is one huge mass of land. And despite what all maps of the United States may suggest, Alaska and Hawaii are not in tiny boxes southwest of California. Fortunately for Chris and me, we’re sitting in bulkhead seats immediately in front of the digital map display that reminds us of exactly how far we have to go. It’s like the airplane is taunting us.

At this point, the flight has become second nature to me. I’ve learned how to deal with the constant droning of engines, crying babies and horrible airplane food. What I can’t figure out is how to deal with the guy a row over from us that is snoring so loud you can probably hear him on the ground.

In the past 2 years I’ve taken a variation this trip 4 times. Some of you are probably wondering why I continue to subject myself to the tortures of these flights – others simply want to know how I do it. I’m not sure what the answer is to either of those questions.

What I do know is in a few short hours (23 hours total), we’ll land in Bangkok, the first city on a rather quick whistle-stop tour of SE Asia. We will land at the airport a bit before midnight, and once we clear customs and immigration, we’ll set out to find a place to stay for the night. We won’t have much time to recover from our flight before we have to get up in the morning, in our quest for a visa to Myanmar (Burma). We should be able to secure one in 24 hours. That leaves us a full day and night to explore the city, see some of her sights, get a hair cut and tip back a few cold bottles of Thai beer.

We have a loose travel schedule. Our ideal plan will take us from Bangkok to Rangoon (Yangon) the day we are able to secure our visa. We will spend a day in Rangoon exploring a few important temples before we head north to Bagan (Pagan). We will spend the most of our time exploring nearly 2000 temples in the surrounding area. After temple-burnout sets in, we’ll take the Ayeyarady River north to Mandalay. Being that travel in Burma can be…. How should I say this? Unpredictable. With that in mind, we have a few days built in that will allow us to reach Mandalay on next Sunday – giving us the opportunity to fly into Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

From Chiang Mai we’ll take a mini-bus a few hours north to the Thai/Laos border where we’ll pick up our visa on arrival. Why more countries don’t have this service is beyond me. After that we’re finally ready to relax and enjoy our holiday. We’ll take a slow boat down the Mekong River, stopping off in a few small villages along the way. We will make our exit from Laos via Vientiane, the capital of Laos. From that point, it becomes a relaxing beach holiday on the most beautiful sun covered beaches in the world.

That’s the plan, at least.

There are a lot of things that can go wrong and a lot of things that could cause delays. But what fun would this trip be if we just boarded a coach bus and had someone else manage the logistics for us? As I’ve said many times, “The journey is sometimes greater than the destination.”