The itineray thus far

9 April: Fly from JFK to India

11 April: Layover in Chennai (Madras)

11-18 April: Cochin/Ernakulam, India.

18-23 April: Leh, India via Delhi

23-27 April: Pune, India via Mumbai

28 April - 4 May: Cochin/Ernakulam, India

5 May: Fly to Istanbul - Plan is for this to be the last flight until at least China, perhaps even Singapore or Indonesia.

9-13 May: Perhaps an excursion out of Istanbul to either the western (Aegean) coast, or down to Capadocia.

14-16 May: Take a 37-hour ferry from Istanbul to Odessa, Ukraine

17 May: Take an overnight train to Kiev, Ukraine

20 May: Take an overnight train to Lvov, Ukraine

23 May: Take an overnight train to Budapest, Hungary

29 May: Arrive in Brno, and then Trebic, Czech Republic

31 May: Take the 3-hour train from Brno to Prague, Czech Republic

1-22 June: From Prague, take trains up to Krakow, Warsaw (Poland), Vilnius (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), and eventually the fast boat to Helsinki, Finland, spending 1-4 nights in each.

22 June: Take the 6-hour train from Helsinki into St. Petersburg, Russia

25 June: Take the overnight train to Moscow

30 June: Begin the Trans-siberian railway with an overnight train to Kazan.

1-21 July: From Kazan, take mostly overnight trains to Ekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, maybe Irkutsk, and definitely Ulan-Ude, spending 1-2 nights in each. From Irkutsk or Ulan-Ude we would need to plan any excursions to lake Baikal and get the Mongolian visa.

Late July: pass through Mongolia, most likely with a few days in Ulaanbaatar or a nearby Ger

Early August - Late September: Travel through China for about two months or as long as our visas allow. Most likely we would start in Datong, then go to Beijing and perhaps Shanyang, and from there down into the Shandong province, perhaps into Shanghai, and then down to Guilin.

October - November: Hopefully cross from China into Laos (otherwise cut straight to Vietnam). After the hopeful few days in Laos, cross into Vietnam and see Dien Bien Phu, then head to Hanoi. From Hanoi, take the reunification express down to Hue and then Saigon. From Saigon, cross Cambodia somehow, and once in Thailand, start again by train from Bangkok down the peninsula, through peninsular Malaysia, to hopefully arrive in Singapore by November.