This year will be a special travel year for me – as I will have the opportunity to be on the road for a slight bit longer, filling a few gaps on my world map (yes, they exist) and ticking off some items from my bucket list.

Key item on that bucket list is a full trip around the world – with a proper round-the-world ticket (I went for the Star Alliance one) – doing a full circle round the globe with a number of stops on the way. Stops obviously are at those gaps on my world map … and while there is only one new country (Panama), lots of new ground will be covered:

• Washington, DC – National Mall and museums (Mar-07 until -10)
• Panama – partial transit through the canal on a ship (Mar-10 until -15)
• San Francisco – friendly stop-over (Mar-15 until -26)
• Japan – Northern Honshu and Hokkaido (arriving in Tokyo Mar-27, leaving Sapporo Apr-30)
• Korea – Seoul, Andong, Gyeongju, Busan and Daegu (Apr-30 until May-15)
• Taiwan – the North (May-15 until -19)
• Malaysia – the peninsula (so far I have mainly covered Borneo), Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh (May-19 until -30)
• Bavaria – family stop-over (May-31 until Jun-9)

As time is no concern at this point, I have added organized trips before and after that trip around the world:

• kicking it off with two weeks hiking on the Cape Verde islands (Feb-10 until -25), find the itinerary here
• and heading back to India in June (now heading for the far North of the country, Jun-19 until Jul-11), find the itinerary here