south-east asia 6/18/10: here we go!

Hey friends and familia!

The travel addiction continues, and this year I'll be spending summer in south-east Asia. Woohoo! Asia 2010 has been in the works for just over two years now, and it's evolved a lot-- Asia seemed a lot smaller before I started looking at maps, for instance. It was also originally conceived as a Le Quad trip, but in the end it turned out we'd be having different adventures this particular summer, Sisterhood-of-the-Traveling-Pants style (though thankfully, we will not be attempting to ship pants back and forth between California, New York, the Middle East and the South-East Asia mainland.)

Instead, SE Asia will be a three-part trip:
~June 21-July 22: Thailand (1-2 days after landing on June 23-- our flight takes a couple days), Cambodia (4ish days), Vietnam (10ish days), Laos (8ish days) and back to Thailand with camp friends "Fonze" aka Katie and "Jeff" aka Rachel. ...for the record, I go by "Sonata" in this crowd.
~July 23-August 2: Thailand (at least, mostly, probably) with camp friend "Punky" (Kim), who is living in Bangkok.
~August 3-August 18: Myanmar (and a day in Thailand on each end) with my fabulous sistahloo, Amy.

This update is going up a little earlier than usual and a little later than planned because I am in the midst of a roughly 5-day period of absolute craziness that has been planned in detail since about October: I'm a bridesmaid in my friend-since-second-grade Kimberly's wedding (bachelorette party! rehearsal! wedding on Sunday!), my littlest sister Melanie graduated from Rosemont Junior High today (yay Mel!), and late Monday night I fly out. phew! Luckily, my flight leaves so late on Monday that it's technically Tuesday, so I'll have the day to pack and (hopefully) recuperate.

So, despite my great love for all of you folks, I am heading to bed for a couple precious hours of REM cycles and stuff. So, until sometime around June 21-23...

much love,
Sara