Trying to decide where to travel next is not a science for me. I don’t have a process or a list of criteria. A place will just start to become interesting to me through something I read or saw, and usually it will be a place that is far away geographically and culturally from the last place I went. So I can’t say why exactly, but I decided I wanted to visit Dhaka, Bangladesh. It had been on my radar for a while. It looked crowded and exciting and intense. I decided to go.
Bangladesh is very far from Vancouver. Multiple stops would be required and when I was doing my flight research, I saw that a number of the flights went through Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, somewhere else I had never been. I also found that several of the flights back to Vancouver took me through east Asia, and many through Singapore, another new-to-me destination.
This is how my ‘round the world’ flight itinerary was built. I decided to spend two full days in Jeddah, four full days in Dhaka, and two full days in Singapore: starting in and returning to Vancouver. (Plus making connections in London, Cairo, and Tokyo.) It seemed like a great opportunity to see three places in one go and circle the globe in one trip. Saying ‘yes’ was an easy decision.
Of course, a trip like that requires a bit of planning. I worked out the flights (all separate; not a ‘round the world’ ticket) and then needed to sort the visas. The visa for Saudi Arabia was easy to get: an expensive and instantaneous e-visa. The visa for Bangladesh was a different story, being one that required an application to be made by mail or in person with loads of supporting documents and a fee. It also required several follow ups by email and several recitations by email of things already provided in the application. It always amazes me when countries that have very low levels of interest from tourists make it exceedingly difficult to visit. Singapore welcomed me without hassle.
I booked my accommodations. A proper hotel in Jeddah, a cute guest house in Dhaka, and a capsule hostel in Singapore.
I devoured guidebooks and blog posts, studied my maps, and tried to memorize some basic phrases (many of which I quickly forgot).
I packed my backpack with two outfits suitable for all three destinations, plus an abaya for Saudi Arabia, and cigars to last the trip.
It came together quickly. I was so excited. All around the world to visit three very different destinations.
I don’t often write planning posts, but this was an ambitious itinerary and I have gotten a lot of questions about how I picked the countries and why I chose them, about the visas and the packing. So there you have it.
Onward to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
