I bought a plane ticket, so I must be going. Three months in southeast Asia. I'm flying into Bangkok in late October, and flying back from Bangkok at the end of January, all of the time with my bicycle. I hope to pedal around Southeast Asia, through Thailand, into Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and back to Thailand.

I'll miss the hullabaloo of American elections at home (although I'll vote early with a mail-in ballot). I'll keep my mouth shut about politics, other than to say that it will be interesting to see what happens from the perspective of another country. I'll miss the open enrollment period for the ACA (also known as Obamacare, health insurance for Americans like me who don't get insurance through work). I need to figure out how to deal with that. I'll miss some of the nice fall weather at home, but hopefully some of the worst of winter, too.

I expect to spend a few days in Bangkok, then head north to Chiang Mai and then Chiang Rai, and then head over the border to Laos. I'd like to take a boat down the Mekong for a bit, and may pick it up at the border. We'll see. I know I have a proclivity for changing things as I go, so that's about the extent of my plan so far. I'd like to go into Vietnam, through the rural areas and perhaps some beaches, but I'm not too anxious to see the cities. Siem Reap in Cambodia is on my "must see" list. Then eventually I'll head back to Bangkok, perhaps visiting the southern coast of Thailand, to catch my flight home.

I had a hard time deciding which date to use for the start of this trip. Is it the day I leave home? Or the day I arrive in Bangkok? Or the day I start riding my bike? In the end, I chose my departure date, October 23, since that makes the trip show up as 100 days, and I like round numbers.