preflight: 16 days till departure

I am setting off in just over 2 weeks for a trip across Asia.  After many months of planning, several 'value engineering' sessions, and a lot of calls to Chase Visa (who keep rejecting my plane ticket purchases) I am just about set to take off for 13 weeks through Germany, the UK, China, Tibet, HongKong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India.  Traveling with me is my long lost friend and fellow Ball State CAP archie Chelsea Wait.  

5 years ago i went on a trip of about the same duration through Europe, North Africa, and Asia which planted the travel bug in me.  That combined with an inspiring book (honeymoon with my brother) about a guy who decided to sell all of his things and use the money to travel the world for 3 years, I knew I wanted to do something big (just not as big as the guy in the book).  

After 4 years of real-world learning, designing, supervising and problem solving for a new law school building in Lower Manhattan as well as finishing my tests to become a registered architect, I decided to take a break from it all, take advantage of recession-deals and enact my own global economic stimulus package.

Several thank yous are in order for the motivation and inspiration provided to set out on this journey:  Troy Thompson and Tom Butcavage, who are kind enough to encourage this type of erratic behavior from an employee, Andrea Swartz who i've learned as much from in the last 4 years as I had when she was my thesis professor in college, my brother for being my financier and letting me store all of my stuff at his house and my parents who have remained very positive about this whole experience despite the fact that i'm certain my mother is terrified. 

Hopefully I will be able to update often (we should have wireless internet in quite a few of the hotels we've booked) but i'm unsure.

I'm still looking for things to focus on while gone, thematic ideas to compare and contrast between cultures, so any insights would be welcome.  I plan on making a travel video (previous trip videos here) and am still considering several ideas for what to do.  

This song has been my unofficial preflight theme for the last couple of weeks by the Shout Out Louds called "Go Sadness".  The words are really on par with how i've been feeling as I spend every free moment I have planning, budgeting and reading about where we're going and what we're going to see on this trip.  Enjoy.

Go Sadness by the Shout Out Louds:

I'm in a golden age
A great calendar page
I spotted the right time
The future is mine
I've got the greatest dog the best of them all
And I love my brother he's on my wall
Bye bye car keys
Hello sparkles and flies
I keep them they're mine
I saw the brightest light the most wonderful sight
And I spotted the right time the future is mine