Making Plans Is Not My Style / Our Asia Travels

After the holiday break and then our trip to Italy, we had planned on going to SE Asia but there was a problem with my passport. See I only had 1 blank page in my passport. That’s it. And to fly into Bali you need 2. Heck, to fly into a lot of places you need 2.

So Dr. Google told me that I could fly into the rest of Indonesia with 1 page, and that I could add pages in Jakarta before heading to Bali. Plus, KL and BKK are interesting cities, maybe Jakarta would be as well.

Just as most of our trips start, I got on AA.com and booked two tickets to Jakarta for 35,000 miles and something like $22 in taxes… for the next day. We had already spent about two weeks visiting friends in Cville and they’re probably used to seeing us leave on a whim.

For whatever reason, the flights weren’t that bad. Charlottesville to Chicago, Chicago to Hong Kong. Spend the night at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, and then continue to Jakarta.

Being AA Ex Plats, we had access to the Cathay First Class Lounge, “The Wing”. It’s the first time we’ve been there since the renovation 2 years ago… and dang. That is a great lounge. The food is spectacular. And they gave us a premium economy upgrade for the next flight.

Jakarta… Yea. It’s not as cool as Bangkok, KL, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Saigon… or any other city. Maybe the business district is the lame area.

Inspired by the uninspiring capital, we rushed to the US Embasay, added 52 pages to my passport, taxied to the hotel, and booked a flight on AirAsia to Bali later that evening.

Bali, is paradise as usual. See my post on Where To Go In Bali. Basically, if you stay in the south of Bali, you see a bunch of partying Australians, and resorts. In the north you see culture, mountains, incredible rice terraces, and snorkeling.

Somehow our Visa was running out, which means we needed an exit ticket…

“Oh, but you do need an exit ticket to get into Indonesia?” I learned this two years ago when we were almost denied boarding by Cathay. I quick booked a ticket out, but don’t like having plans – it’s not my style. So this time I booked an exit ticket on expedia because they were advertising free cancelation within 24 hours of booking.

Therefore, when we left the Hyatt in Hong Kong I booked an exit ticket on expedia that was cancelable within 24 hours. And as soon as we got to our hotel in Jakarta, I cancelled that ticket.

This is the only way for me to get into the country without having plans of leaving.

And it’s a good thing, because after Bali, I felt like going to India. I had only one mistake fare booked in SE Asia and that was for Jakarta… which I don’t want to spend more time in. And there were basically no PointBreak options in Asia. So why not go to India?

We’ve been to Sri Lanka and loved it, but haven’t done an India trip. Which is crazy because it’s been on my bucket list ever since I read Gandhi’s biography in 2007. And around the same time I took a world religions class, and an eastern religion class. It’s crazy fascinating to me.

Bali, to Mumbai via Jogjakarta and Singapore.

Our estimated itenerary is this:

• So far we’ve done Mumbai, Udaipur, Jodhpur, and Jaipur.
• Next we’ll likely see Agra, Delhi, Haridwar, Amritsar, Varanasi and more.

So far Udaipur and Jodhpur have been a dream come true. Jodhpur is a blue city around a giant fort, with hardly a tourist in sight. The clothing is farflung, the fort is enormous, and the sunsets are wonderful. The streets are filled with textile merchants, cows, ands more cows. Often your rickshaw ride meets traffic, not caused by cars, but instead by cows that roam without restraints.

The other night we sat on the fort wall overlooking the blue city at sunset. These are the moments I travel for. Few times does the culture feel so different. It’s another world.

Then the monkeys came. Maybe 30 of them went across the roof tops, attracting locals to defend their drying rooftop foods.

Being in India is travel for me.

Although, I quickly learned that their train system requires advanced booking for long hauls. The day before wanting to leave Mumbai I was informed that I could be waitlist #78 for the most available train the next day. This kept delaying us until I just bought a flight to Udaipur.

To prevent this concept of “booking ahead”, I’ve decided to break up the trip into shortish train rides. 5 hours from Jodhpur to Jaipur; 4 hours from Jaipur to Agra; 3 hours from Agra to Delhi; etc… These trains are easy to snag, and thus, are more my style.

Conclusion

I’m in love with India.

Of course, sometimes a little heart breaking. But I don’t try to avoid the heart break, I sincerely want to see how people live from all walks of life and economic levels. Although, sometimes I want to hide in my 5 star bathtub and then feel guilty for wanting to get away.

And the train system is absolutely mind numbing to me. I guess I only care because it’s not easy to book last minute, and it’s not easy to book online as a foreigner.

That being said, it’s absolutely incredible. Most importantly, it’s different. Very different. Which is why we already love traveling in Asia. It’s sometimes less comfortable than Thailand, for example, but more rewarding.

Oh yea… and I forgot to mention. This weekend ALL the points hotels were sold out. Turns out it’s traditional to have certain weekends for weddings and this is one of them. So come check out time today (Friday), I had no hotel. Then upon checking all my websites one last time (a minute past checkout), the Marriott opened up.

Thankfully I have a free night cert and it’s an awesome hotel. But for whatever reason, I’ve been nearly sucking at booking travel last minute in the country. If they spread out their weddings and fix the train system, I should be alright though.

Does anyone else book last minute?

Have you ever been stuck because of booking last minute? Like no train tickets, no award flights, or no hotels? The time I was supposed to meet a friend in Santiago, Chile but didn’t book my ticket until the day before I was supposed to be there was a little rough. I booked a ticket, but routing through Toronto, Panama, Asuncion, and Buenos Aires!

Anyways, if you can relate or have any experience with last minute bookings, comment and share.