Normally, my Omnifocus program is full of boring tasks I need to do but now there’s a fun new one: research our next Asia trip! So, I’ve already ordered a bunch of books from the public library about Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and a big fat one on SE Asia. Now we just need to go through all of them, pick our favorite destinations and plan an itinerary for our next journey. This would be real easy if there were 35 hours in the day or if we weren’t trying to see all of SE Asia in one trip.

One idea that I am excited about is renting a motorcycle and traveling through north of Thailand. From reading online, it sounds like the roads are in good condition both in the east and west, and lead you through stunning views. The challenge will be, of course, avoiding the masses of young travelers who flock into Chiang Mai area.

I really wanted to finally make it to China. I have been trying to go to China for 4 years now and every time, something else comes up. People seem to think that backpacking through China in winter is a bad idea (a Chinese friend of mine has confirmed it) and since I think NY Fall is cold enough, we decided to  skip that plan. We have been known to change our minds (and route) many times but, for now, it is looking like:

Hong Kong>Thailand (north and islands)>Singapore>Vietnam

To be continued…

As you’ve probably noticed, there hasn’t been a lot of writing going on here at AsiaSteps over the past several months. That’s not to say that nothing has been going on in our exploration of Asia or Asian culture. On the contrary, Tamar and I have experienced many blog-worthy events, tastings, art and the like but we’ve just been so busy with other things that it’s been hard to jump back into the blogging. It’s tough to find the perfect subject to write about when you’ve been away from the blog for so long.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the perfect subject to blog about will never be found so here is something that at least caught my attention and something that appealed to my love for animals…the hairy-nosed otter! A couple of these folks were just sighted in Vietnam after many years. Here’s a link with another hairy-nosed otter photo from the Phnom Tamau Wildlife Sanctuary where we visited last January

I’ve never written about otters before so it’s not a subject I’m prepared to expand on here. But the fact that these guys have particularly hairy noses definitely makes me question my previous views regarding the amount of hair normal otters have on their noses.

Tamar and I also like hearing about nature sanctuaries like U Minh Ha National Park and we’re curious about these places. Perhaps we’ll swing by on our next trip.

So, when is our next trip and where will we go? We’re working on that right now!