RTW advice needed

Hi guys!

I am planning another solo RTW trip. ... On this next trip, I plan to include Western and Eastern Europe, East ad Southern Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and finally, China.

My tentative plan is to start Western Europe and Scandinavia right away and burn a huge hole in my wallet... (Portugal > Spain > France > Italy > Switzerland > Germany> Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) and then continue into Eastern Europe (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, not sure where else I want to go.... suggestions?... finishing up this section in Greece and then Turkey). From Turkey, I would really love to continue into Syria and Lebanon (but who knows how the political situation will be at that time) and wind up in Egypt. For the Africa portion of the trip, I plan to go from Africa to CapeTown overland. From here, I would need a nice break before heading off to South Asia. I'm not sure what a good itinerary would be, given flights from South Africa. I'm thinking maybe it would be wise to start in Nepal, Bangladesh, and then travel through India north to south, ending in Sri Lanka, and then continuing on to Thailand. Somehow, I'd like to fit in the Maldives islands...... although it would probably completely blow my budget. After South Asia, I'd move to Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia, I'd like to go to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. After all of this, China.

Whew! Now that I've thoroughly exhausted you (I wonder if you're still reading), I come to my questions.

1.) How much TIME do you think I should schedule to do all of this in? I tend to get lost in places, wanting to stay back and go at a slow pace. My first guess is two years, but I'm not sure.

2.) I'd like to STOP for one year somewhere along the way and TEACH. Where would be the best place to do this? I speak English and Spanish well enough to teach and have a masters degree in elementary education, but no TESOL experience.

1. I think you'll need at least 2 years for all of this (and, if it were me, I'd probably do 3 years). Western Europe and Eastern Europe alone could take a year and Africa is HUGE. An overland expedition from Cairo to South Africa will take about 3 months, I believe, and I think you'd want to take some time off to see South Africa and Egypt, as well. What I would recommend, actually, is to fly from Western Europe directly down to South Africa, especially because Lufthansa has pretty good flights down there, spend a month roaming around South Africa, and then take the overland truck up to Cairo. Once in Cairo, you can overland your way up through Jordan, Turkey, Greece, and into Eastern Europe. Depending on the time of year, you could do any of the south Asian countries and then head into Southeast Asia. Given that you want to see so many countries in SE Asia, I would definitely budget at least 4-5 months for that area alone. You'll need ever minute of the 30-day tourist visa they give you in China because there is so much to see and distances are huge.

2. I would consider teaching in South Korea or China. For China, you'll need TESOL certificate but not for S. Korea. Both are popular countries for English teachers and are ecstatic to bring in native English speakers. It's quite easy to get jobs in those countries unlike many of the others.

I agree, this sounds like a 2 year trip to me. Obviously it can be shorter by cutting down on countries etc.

A few suggestions from me-

1) Any chance of not doing Europe first? Because my experience with longer trips has been I get traveler's fatigue after a few months in 3rd world countries so it's nice to finish in Europe or use it as a "break" in the middle. South Africa is another great place for this, but it'll work well after working your way down Africa...

2) One potential Asia itinerary if you're into overland travel is fly into India then go Nepal, Tibet, China, and down to SE Asia. I just did Hong Kong to Kathmandu all overland and it took about a month including Tibet- easily could've been longer as there's a lot to see/do in China but visa issues didn't allow it.

3) Honestly for such a long itinerary your biggest concern should be looking at seasons and making sure you don't wander into a place in the middle of a monsoon or some such. So probably no East Africa in late March-early June, India/Nepal in May-August, it varies over SE Asia... and I probably wouldn't head to Europe in the dead of winter either, as even if you're ok with snow it will be dark a lot of the time!

4) Regarding the teaching thing, yep, South Korea and China sound like good bets. With your qualifications you'd be in high demand for one of the international schools in China from what I heard on the road, and South Korea is usually a good bet as well.

Happy planning!