Our world rove trip plan is that we’ll take about a year and a half, flying all the international sectors and finding our way around inside the countries we visit by train, bus or ferry.

As we travel we will establish a reasonable cost for a middle of the road lifestyle in the various places we visit and what it’s like living there as a foreigner.

For the bulk of the time we'd  stay in AirBnB’s, cheap hotels and hostels (with private room and bathroom) and we’ll keep a detailed account of our day to day expenses.

After leaving South Africa our first stop will be in Kuala Lumpur. A relative of our travel buddy, Roger, has offered us accommodation so we will use this as a base for Asia.

We will spend about 4 months in Asia. After a week in Kuala Lumpur, during which time we must obtain a US visa for my wife, Carol. Visas are one of the major travel hassles of travelling exclusively on a South African passport. We will thengo to China and Japan.

For the China visit we plan to fly to Beijing and then work our way south to Hong Kong. Visiting places like Pingyao, Xian, Shanghai and Guilin and Yangshuo. We'll use trains, buses and if necessary flights. We have about 26 days and like all our trip we'll be flexible. 

From Hong Kong we fly to Japan and starting in Tokyo we’ll put together an itinerary using a 21 day Japan rail pass. We’ll use the JR travel guide as well as suggestions from relatives and friends to visit places like Nikko, Nagano, Mt Fuji, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.

We'll then head out of Japan from Osaka and fly back to Kuala Lumpur.

From there we’ll make plans to visit Myanmar followed by Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Then back to Kuala Lumpur for a few days. 

From there it is off to the United States for a few weeks where we will visit our children. Christmas in San Francisco and to Portland Oregon for New Year and finally down the California coast to Los Angeles.

The next stops will be Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica and Panama followed by Colombia, Ecuador and Peru - where we will do the 4-day hike to Machu Picchu.  From there through Bolivia to  Chile. From Chile we'll head to Argentina and pop over to have a look around Uruguay.

The final leg will be to Europe and the UK where we also have children.

In Europe we intend to look around Portugal, Spain and possibly Croatia.

And finally in August the following year we will return to South Africa.

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