Where to go?

2009 06 - pre-departure

I first knew I wanted to go for a year of travel soon after graduating from uni, years ago, but I didn't have any idea of when to go. Work opportunities proved too good to pass up, including being part of setting up the animation company ink.digital.
Later I bought a flat and so had no money.
All that time I hadn't really done anything tangible towards my so-called travel, but I had done plenty of thinking..... Sometimes I think too much, but this time has definitely been useful. I've talked to friends and relatives about their travels and this has helped me focus, prioritise and get some realism to my approach to this year.
In particular there was one conversation with Diana Gornall (thank you!) which directly and indirectly led to me cutting a lot of possible destinations out - a good thing!
Originally my very vague (and perhaps naive) plan had included bits of all (or most) of the continents, but as Diana wisely pointed out : Australia is very 'Western' and modern and therefore very similar to what I'm used to.... the things that are truely different are OLD and will still be there whenever I might choose to visit in the future. It's also a relatively expensive destination and so my money wouldn't last as long. That initial location cutting exercise over time led to the following priority destinations list:

1. China & India
2. Japan & Korea
3. Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand