It’s now less than 75 days to my first international since I was in Colombia in August and September 2019 and I’m getting excited.

This trip will see me visit seven countries, six of them for the first time; Türkiye, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and short stopover in Singapore.

This will be a bit more off the beaten track especially the five ‘Stan countries of Central Asia which will provide some insights (hopefully) into the old soviet era when the USSR dominated the area and the even more histroic Silk Road path.

Leaving Australia on Saturday 29 April 2023 I’ll be undertaking two G Aventure Tours:

And following the Central Asia / ‘Stans tour I’ll be returning to Istanbul for 5 free days to explore this historic city on the edge of Asia and Europe.

I’ve now booked and paid for all flights and both tours. I managed to booked award flights in business class Melbourne to Istanbul via Singapore (on Singapore Airlines) and Istanbul to Singapore (on Singapore Airlines) and Singapore to Melbourne via Kuala Lumpa (on Malaysia Airlines).

Unfortunately my other flights are economy paid tickets (on Turkish Airlines) but the longest flight is 5.5 hours so hopefully I’ll survive despite catching that flight at 3 am 🙂

With the recent earthquakes in Türkiye and having Presidential elections in May 2023 (while I’m in Central Asia) this is not the ideal time to travel there but without COVID I could have done this trip in either 2021 or 2022 so unless things get really bad I’ll keep to the trip. I’m not travelling to earthquake zone and money I bring plus the tour company’s donations should hopefully help and not hurt locals and their businesses.