I booked my second RTW ticket. I’ve been on and off the phone and Skype with the Lufthansa Round-the-world desk in Frankfurt in the past couple of days. It took a bit longer this time, but they’ve been super helpful as ever.

It took more time, especially deciding where I wanted to go in Asia, when I had in fact no idea, no research, no time to read and no interest to think that far (yet).

So again parts of the trip developed rather out of a gut feeling and coincidences, itinerary restrictions and free seats on various flight connections…

Here’s the plan:

After coming back from Tel Aviv at the end of June, I’ll hop right on the plane to Montréal, to stay there a month, and explore Québec. My friend Lisa from SF might come over too, so we can practice her new French vocabulaire, and then we might visit Detroit to see our friend Dominic.

On to Seattle for the next three weeks, where I’ll finally have the time to explore this exciting city that I’ve only visited shortly since.

Mid-August I’ll go to San Francisco, to prepare for the Burning Man adventure, buy supplies, get ready for Black Rock city. I’ll meet my friend Thilo from Berlin there, too. After that, I’ll spend two weeks in the city, to get rid of the dust and relax a bit, before heading out to Mexico.

I want to see and explore Mexico City, but might do some side trips into the country. And I haven’t given up on a short trip to Cuba…. To be confirmed.

From there, by then it’ll be mid-october, I’ll head to Chicago for a day (the only free mileage seats on any connection) and then on to Hong Kong.

I was already more or less decided to drop China from this trip. Then, we met Will in Melbourne, our generous host who let us stay in his pace in those first 10 days in St. Kilda.

He and his partner have a business in China, they manufacture home pizza ovens, for your terrace, and made quite a business out of it. As it was easier to handle it all over there, they moved to China some time ago, in some multi-million city that I have never heard of, somewhere not too far from Hong Kong.

So, China is back on the list. And I hope I can make it over there and see them on this trip.

Same thing with Thailand… I wanted to go there from Japan, to see Lisa in April, when she’s sunbathing on some tropical beach. However, flights were too expensive, and connection times awful, so I had to drop the idea.

But, as many Star Alliance connections from China to India are going through Bangkok, I decided to have a little break there, I’ll see what exactly I’ll do. Explore Bangkok, hang on a beach, go to Cambodia…?

Mid-November then on to Mumbai, to explore India. I have a friend in London whose family is in Calcutta, and Rajiv will also be able to give me advice what to do and where to go, when the time comes… I have no idea.

Start of December then I’ll head down to South Africa, the last missing continent (Antarctica will have to wait…). I hope Sven and Kevin will come over again for another fabulous NYE, before I head back to Zurich and this trip comes to a close… (If I don’t have any crazy ideas or the money to go on…)

Long story short, this trip would have cost me 4690 €, if paid in full. I used my miles though and only had to pay the taxes, 707 €. It’s a deal!

I’ll fly 31500 Miles in total on nine flights. I’ll still need to map out the North American part of the trip, plan these flights, and, when the time comes, decide on China, Thailand and India. I’ll make it up as I go.

Does this sound crazy? Too much? I’m a bit overwhelmed myself as I re-read it before pushing the publish button.