The SURPRISE trip!

 

I’m off on a surprise adventure. 

A little background. I started following Derek online a few years ago. Mostly as he was a nomad and even in his 30s had never had a home base. His blog was called ‘Wandering Earl’ and apparently Earl is his middle name. Just around the end of my hotel career, he advertised that he was looking for a tour guide. So I applied and we interviewed. At the time, I didn’t even realize he ran tours. Well I didn’t get the job but now I started following his tour offerings as well and the next thing I knew I was headed to Iraq. 

Pre-Covid he had planned to offer a surprise trip but then had to shutter all his trips  almost everyone on the Utah trip expressed an interest in the ‘surprise’  and when the time came, half of that group signed up  however it was more than a year away!

There were some crazy clues and working with a travel agent to secretly book airfares  (I even had friends blackout the flight details on my credit card statement)

About half the Iraq group signed up but after some discussion in our group chat, we opted for ‘no more guessing’

I wanted to add on a side trip  and by dumb luck I deduced that our connecting airport was Doha in Qatar  so know I had a region. And I booked my extension to Zanzibar. One of the recommendations was to arrive a few days early to ‘acclimate to the destination’. So my thought was Himalayas. (well after Madagascar, Bolivia and Mongolia) 

This past Friday was reveal day. Afterall, we needed to know something before we got to the airport. 

So my final itinerary to accommodate Zanzibar went via Dubai . So I would traveling Boston to Dubai to Dhaka! I’ll save you the time to look it up - Bangladesh! Not on the radar at all - however there might be a twist! The info we received included details for a visa on arrival in Bangladesh. But, we also submitted  passport photos earlier this summer for another entry visa assumingly elsewhere! So what does that mean? No idea! We are now a bit closer to Nepal and Bhutan. And also Burma.   

It’s a long trip  12 hours to Dubai  6 hour layover. And then 5 hours to Dhaka. (today is Monday and I arrive on Wednesday. The tour doesn’t begin until Friday) The hotel has a rooftop pool and it is 90F there. So I think relaxing at the pool will be in order. I believe we will be a group of 12 - 5 plus me from the Iraq tour, 6 others and Derek and his girlfriend.

So the adventure begins!