It’s official; we have made our first major change to our preliminary route.  It was bound to happen at some point and the very meticulous among you may have noticed that we have updated the map on our route page here.  This post is to briefly explain the rational behind the decision to skip the Maldives.   The Maldives is a small island nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  While it is a beautiful country with some unique environmental challenges, namely that it is sinking under rising ocean levels, it was going to be a very expensive week to essentially sit on a beach and maybe let me do some diving.  After we did a flight comparison and researched lodging options, including live aboard dive boats which were the most affordable, the total incremental cost for the week would have been in excess of $3,000 vs. going straight to Bangkok.  So we will now be going right from Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E. to Bangkok.

While cost was a major driver of the decision it was not the only one.  We are willing to pay for unique and meaningful experiences.  Examples of this so far include the hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, or the great dinner in the Beyaglu in Istanbul.   However, after looking at the available options for the Maldives they all seemed to be focused on escape and luxury.  There was little chance to interact with anyone other than other tourists, or to see much of the country other than the beaches.  In retrospect it should not have been surprising, escape and beaches is what people go to the Maldives for.  And while that sounded great in our initial planning, after 2+ weeks in Dahab on the Egyptian Sinai swimming and diving the Red Sea, I think we will be good on beaches for awhile, at least until we get to southern Thailand.  While this is the first change I am sure it will not be the last.  There is already talk of Mongolia or maybe shooting over to Israel while we are in Jordan.  This is the beauty of being flexible.

Where else should we consider including or excluding from the trip?  The route map here shows our latest thinking.

Related posts:

1. Finding balance between Scuba & Snorkeling
2. Dealing With Tragedy Back Home

Sampling of guidebooks from the public library

Once you settle on a location to start your trip the mainstream guidebooks can be a great initial resource for basic information as you begin your planning.  Not that we recommend having every detail planned out before you go.  We certainly don’t.  In fact leaving some things to figure out once you are on the ground allows you to keep flexibility in your plans which will enable you to take advantage of interesting new options that will inevitably present themselves.

On my wife’s insistence, she tends to be right about these types of things, we went the 2 blocks to the Central Philadelphia Public library, and after walking upstairs we found an absolute gold mine of the latest travel books.  There were hundreds of them, all free for 2 weeks at a time, not to mention the three renewal periods, which you can even do online.   That beats the heck out of the $15-$20 each the books cost on Amazon.  The stack above is well over $150, not to mention a couple of pounds of weight we would not want to carry with us.  Even if you were willing to spend the money, I was not able to find any of these guides available on the kindle (thus also the kindle app for the iPhone).

So until the guidebook publishers get the full content of their books into digital format we will stick with pre-reading from the library.  One notable exception is the Lonely Planet City Guide Apps for the iPhone.  At $15.99 each they are a little pricey, but once we try one out we will be sure to provide a review here.  The first city we will likely have the chance to test them out will be Dubai, probably in late November.

If anyone else has a good digital travel resource they have used let us know in the comments below, especially if you have purchased and used one of the Lonely Planet City Guide Phone apps.  I am really interested to hear how they work. There are limited consumer reviews on iTunes, and the ones there are mixed to unfavorable.

Related posts:

1. Busting a Backpacker Budget in Bangkok (but it’s worth it)
2. Denial Day