Unapathising

I've finally got down to it and spent a full day route-researching. On balance, I feel better. The feeling that there's an AWFUL lot to organise just grows.

One of the headaches in my planning has always been crossing Myanmar, and it remains a problem. Originally I drew a fantasy line looping around the north or the country, then read that some land borders were open, so drew a line through the middle.

There is a long running thread about this on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Travel Forum, with one poster recently observing:
"What has 2200 views and 236 replies produced? You cant cross between India and Burma."

Although there are reports that it is possible to drive across most of Myanmar before handing your keys over to the military and flying on separately, I haven't see a post from someone who has done this.

In fact, roadblocks and extortion on the India side of the border seem as big a problem as Burma itself.

The two alternatives seem to be:
(A) Northabouts via Nepal and China, but trying this resulted in misery for one group whose paperwork went missing and then learned about a huge deposit needed instead of a carnet.
(B) South by sea, but shipping from Kolkata/Calcutta turned into a nightmare for Dreamtrip (see bottom). For others it was bearable (see "India"). Yet others recommend shipping from Bangladesh (Dhaka or Chittagong). The far end might be Port Klang, Malaysia or Bangkok, Thailand. This seems to cost up to 700GBP and now seems like the preferred solution.

Add to this the impassable Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia that Ed told me about, and I now have 4 sea legs to organise.

Good news today (via NessiesAdventures) is that Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal all issue visas months before your planned entry into the country, which should make planning for Asia a bit easier.

News about China is both good and bad. They do offer a 6- or 12-month multiple entry visa :-) but other reports say you have to specify your exact route and every overnight stop in advance, thereafter cast in tablets of stone :-((

I've also observed that most visa forms want a departing flight specified, and ticket shown, so they can be sure you'll leave. Having a major credit card may help with this in some cases. Hopefully.

I'm coming to the view that there's not enough time before Christmas for me to properly "get my ducks in a row" and travel any distance. Hence I'm looking at a departure in the New Year, probably March. I have to threaten myself, though, that if I'm not gone by April 1st (give or take) then I'm never going, and I don't want that.