Eurasian Summer Bump 2019

Our school year has ended three days ago which prompted the start of our two-month summer vacation. Once again, my teaching life will be put on hold and my explorer self will kick off. This year, it will all be different as compared to our past trips. We’re traveling to two new countries as a one-year old married couple plus, we’re in the family way! This will surely be really exciting, eh? 

Married life has been treating us great. Me and my buddy have adjusted to it effortlessly and just as we planned to conquer new territories on our annual summer backpacking trip, we got prego! This sweetheart will have his/her first backpacking trip ever. 

Our annual “tradition” allowed us to discover amazing places as we experienced the local life. It started in 2013 when we traveled to Babuyan Islands and Sulu in the Philippines. In 2014 we explored Nepal and Southeast Asia. It was in 2015 when we did our ASEAN Summer Loop 2015 where we went around Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. Beach Hop Asia was our theme in 2016 when we covered the beautiful beaches of Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Singapore. In Same Same Summer Trip 2017, we went back to Southeast Asia where my buddy popped those three little words as we journeyed on Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Last year our SEA 2 Africa 2018 trip brought us to Bali, East Timor, Singapore and Morocco—my ultimate dream destination. 

This year, me and my buddy (together with some of our friends on some parts) will be traveling to China, Mongolia, and Russia (European side). It will all be different though because of baby peanut; our trip will be trimmed to six weeks from eight weeks, our 40-liter budget travel backpacks will be replaced with 30-kg trolleys, and our slow-and-steady kinda trip will surely be much slower and more chill. 

As usual, my buddy took care of the itinerary and for the first time ever, we will be flying on full-service airlines all throughout the trip plus, I’ll get to set foot in Europe! Well, European Russia that is. And just like our last year’s trip, we do not have a fixed itinerary (and haven’t even booked our hotels yet) and would rely basically on our gut feel on what to do and where to go next. 

So here’s our rough itinerary; 

Manila > Beijing (China) > Pingyao (China) > Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) > Moscow (Russia) > Saint Petersburg (Russia) > Novgorod (Russia) > Xi’an (China) > Changsa (China) > Guangzhou (China) > Manila 

Packing will be tough though as it will be the first time that we’ll be having our summer backpacking trip on spring season for the countries that we’ll be visiting. But judging from previous trips to China, spring will definitely be much colder than we think it will be. So my “summer” pack will include coats, warmers and boots (me thinking on how to go about our DIY laundry during this trip). 

Thirty eight days. Three countries. Eurasia. Nine key destinations. Slower and steadier. #EurasianSummerBump2019 

Join us as we jump into the family life while backpacking. Check out our real-time updates on our social media accounts @blissfulguro | @lakadpilinas.