TL;DR summary: Japan for 2 months, then flying to Singapore, heading north (gradually) to Beijing via Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China, doing a bike trip in the Himalayas, then Trans-Siberian/etc trains to Amsterdam.  Flying home from there in August, hoping to make it to Burning Man.

Stuff in bold is booked & confirmed (in other words it would be expensive / inconvenient to change it.)  Other dates are guesses or whims & subject to change.  I just want to have a rough idea of where we’re going to be and when… if we’re significantly behind this plan, we need to either skip stuff now or skip stuff later in the trip, so that’s good to know.

Japan

• Arrive Jan 17 Dec 31, 2009
• New years in Kyoto?
• Working from Tokyo until Jan 15
• Exploring Japan starting around Jan 20 – probably 5 days in Kyoto then head south.
• Back to Tokyo ~February 8
• Clare visiting Jan 15 -> Feb 1
• Ride the Kishigawa Line with Clare
• Robin arrives Feb 10

Singapore -> Beijing

• Feb 26: Robin and I fly NRT-SIN, visit Singapore until Feb 28.
• 7h train to Kuala Lumpur, spend Feb 27
• 7h train to Butterworth, ferry to Penang, stay until March 1
• 8h Train to Hat Yai, 2h bus to Krabi / Railay, Thailand, climb there March 2-5
• OR: Tiger Airways to Krabi.
• OR: Jungle (east) route through Malaysia
• Train to Bangkok, spend March 7-10
• Train to Kanchanburi, spend March 12-13
• Train to Chiang Mai, spend March 14-17
• 3 days bus + boat to Luang Prabang, Laos, arrive March 20
• OR: 1 hour on a sketchy airline
• Bus to Vang Vieng, spend Mar 22-24
• Bus to Vientiane, stay March 25-Apr 1 (nice long break from moving every few days.)
• Overnight train to Ayutthaya, spend Apr 2 there (TODO: check if the train actually stops there.)
• Train to Cambodia via Bangkok, bus to Siem Reap, visit Angkor Wat (10h total travel on Apr 3, spend Apr 4 there)
• Bus to Phnom Penh (6h), spend Apr 5-6
• Bus to Saigon.  Spend 3 weeks in Vietnam heading north up the coast, mostly by train.
• stuff to definitely see in Vietnam:
• Hanoi
• Hoi Anh: 1 hour flight from Hanoi (ground transportation TBD)
• Halong Bay: 2-3 day boat cruise
• Sapa.  Hills in the north of Vietnam.
• Arrive in China Apr 28
• North to Beijing, see other parts of China (and probably HK) along the way.  Be in Beijing by May 23.

Lhasa -> Kathmandu

• Train from Beijing to Lhasa – arrive May 27
• Bike Lhasa -> Kathmandu (3 weeks): May 29 – June 17
  
• Visit Kathmandu
• Fly Kathmandu -> Guilin June 20
• Train Guilin -> Beijing, arrive June 22

Trans-Mongolian / Trans-Siberian

• Clare and Dad arrive in Beijing late June
• Train from Beijing to Moscow via Mongolia, arrive late July
• Side trip to St-Petersburg
• Train Moscow -> Amsterdam (3 days)

Montréal onwards

• Fly AMS-YUL early August
• Buy car, road trip to Burning Man, travel around USA