Uncharted Thoughts.

Me and my partner are looking to do one big trip in 2026 to say goodbye to our twenties and hello to the future of careers and whatever true adulthood brings.

However this is not a get away and relax, get drunk trip. There is a lot of work to be done on a travel writing project I have, one that I hope will take off and then I will be able to travel and write for the rest of my life. But, I am not exposing this until I have the green light that it is a go ahead… ideas are valuable, you never know who might be listening.

So, we want to save £10,000 each between now any May 2016. We want to fly out to Asia with unlimited time and resources to conduct our little business venture. Upon our return, not only do I want 80% of the work done, I want other businesses on board and for this to be in motion of a late 2027 release of the product.

It is a big task, but if I don’t try we will never know if it was possible.

So, let me take you along our planned trip.

Why we chose Asia.

We sat down together (over the phone as we were long distance) and ranked every country in Asia, Africa, and the Americas over the period of two weeks. We ranked them on a five star rating with five categories. Cost, History, Geography, Adventure activates and Culture.

We allowed ourselves a Gold country. Meaning it was on one of our bucket lists and we had to go there if we went to that continent. These were non negotiable and therefore stood unrated.

We also had a list of black listed counties. Places we would not visit due to ethical reasons or due to ongoing safety reasons. However, a gold was allowed to trump the black list if voted for.

We decided on Asia due to four factors. Firstly it seems to be far cheaper and more obtainable to Africa, South or Central America. The verity is culture is more extreme. Meaning boarders between nations have more unique architecture, life styles, religions, social norms and much much more. Thirdly, after concluding our research into each country, we decided it had some more desirable locations to visit. Finally, although it was a tough decision, the decision to avoid Africa was made pretty early on into our exploration of the continent. This is for safety reasons and the inability to travel across the country in its entity without coming into contact with dangerous places.

Having been to Africa and South America, this was a hard choice. However we will be exploring these together in the future.

Turkey.

Our first destination is Turkey. This is more of a long stop over than it is a travel destination as I plan to stay within the ancient walls of Istanbul. Flying from Europe into Asia usually stops in either Turkey, or in Dubai. So we thought why not make the most of it at stop off at both for a short while. However, we would both very much like to spend more time here and therefore this is subject to change if we manage to save more that 10k each.

UAE.

I have been to Dubai before, I have a friend that lives there and as stated before, it is a stop over on the way to Asia and it would be a shame to bypass such a incredible feat of engineering and human effort. I’d like to get out of the city a little more and spend time in the sand Dunes.

India.

India is my girlfriends Gold country of Asia. Meaning that this is the place she want to visit the most out of all on the list. We are planning to do two months here, starting in the south, in Goa and making our way to the Kashmir region, then onto New Delhi. Out of all the countries on this list of 2026 I am by far the most nervous for this one.

Nepal.

Ever since visiting in 2018, I have promised myself to return to this magical land of mountains and mysticism. I long to hike there once again and to show my girlfriend the wonders of this great, great nation. We are planning on spending 4/5 weeks here. Hiking for the majority of it.

China.

China was my Gold country. A gigantic land of history and culture. A place that to some extend I am conflicted on visiting. However, there is a pull here that I have not felt in a while. We are planning to spend 2 months here, travelling from the South, into the West and then finishing at the Mongolian boarder in the North. Unfortunately, due to the rules put in place by this authoritarian government we will not be able to visit Tibet.

Mongolia.

Again, at the top of my list and has been for a very long time, Mongolia is a place I have wanted to visit for five or so years now. We will be there for roughly 4 weeks, spending out time exploring this nations flat lands and with the indigenous cultures there. We will horse ride and visit the great statue of Genghis Khan. We have been struggling to find anything to do here, specially around the time we are visiting, but we both hope to have a adventure filled time.

Japan.

By our very rough calculations, we will only be able to spend 2 weeks in Japan, perhaps 15 days. We want to visit Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Spending 5 days in each. Temple’s, castles, markets, gardens, karaoke and plenty of food food. We would like to spend longer here in Japan, however it is clear that by this time our money maybe running low.

Indonesia.

Indonesia is somewhere that has always been avoided by my travelling urges. However, my girlfriends suggested it as part of the trip and as we researched it was clear this had to be a part of our travels. I met a girl in Vietnam, she was from Switzerland. She sent me photos of great volcanos and lush green forestry. I hope we manage to explore this place as fully and as immersive as possible.

Thailand.

The placement of Thailand in this trip is somewhat unclear. We had planned to go to Thailand after Nepal. Then follow up into China after. But, this destination could be following Indonesia, making it potentially the final destination of our voyage. If this is at the end of our trip, and we have no more money to really do much with after. We hope to splash out here and spend as much time enjoying the great pleasures of Thailand.

If we still have cash…

If we get too Thailand/Indonesia and we still have a considerable amount of cash (Which is unlikely after almost 8 months of travel) we will look to do the following countries. This is in no particular order…

Laos.

I’d like to see what Laos has to offer. I have done Vietnam and loved it, but Laos is supposed to be the least travelled out of the South East Asian countries. More of the wild west of this tropical land block.

Cambodia.

When I talk to people who have done, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Almost all of them prefer Cambodia over the rest. Therefore this beautiful country has to be on the list.

Pakistan.

Pakistan is a country I have been wanting to visit for years. I love the Himalayan mountains and I very much want to explore more of the middle easy, specially somewhere with the history of Pakistan.

Vietnam.

I have been, I would go again. A great country, cheap and full of happy, amazing people.

I will be posting a more detailed plan of our trip on here over the next 6 weeks.