Dreaming of Thailand. #JanuaryJoy

Today's #JanuaryJoy is to plan a trip. I love to travel and planning trips, or having them ahead of me in the calendar, helps to keep me motivated. We have been dreaming of taking a trip from Thailand to Singapore for ages and I'm hoping that this is the year we can save enough money to do it. I'm going to use today to do a little more planning (read: daydreaming) about our adventure. 

When we first graduated university, me and M did the InterRail backpacking thing. We started in Chinon, France, where M's nana lives, and ended our journey in Riga, Latvia, where we stayed with M's uncle and his family. In between, we visited some brilliant places in Western and Eastern Europe, met some fun people and generally had a blast. 

A more energetic me at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, 2006

We've not been able to take such a long period of time to travel since, but we have always tried to take holidays where we can explore and get a feel for a different lifestyle or culture. Asia really appeals to me. The colours, the tastes, the culture. We plan to fly into Bangkok, and use overland trains and boats to travel through Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. 

Train-ing in Thailand

We also fancy doing some diving while we are in Thailand. We started our PADI qualification on honeymoon and it was an amazing experience. I felt privileged to be able to explore a new underwater environment, and it definitely got the adrenalin pumping! This is about all we've planned. There's lots more to think about, I'm sure.

First, how long do we 'need'? I think the longest time we'll be able to take from work is three weeks. I hope this gives us enough time to 'taster tour' the area, staying off the post-uni/ gap year trails as much as we can. 

Second, when do we go? I'm limited to travelling between July and mid-September. This might mean we'd be in some areas during the monsoon.  

Third, where do we make our stops and where to stay?

Image via Lonley Planet

I started a Pinterest board a while ago and used it to keep track of travel inspiration. I've not added to the board for months, but I'm going to get my adventurer hat back on today and start searching the web for travel tips. 

Has anyone been to Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore? Anyone had experience of the overland train journey we're planning to take, or of any diving schools? 

Any recommendations from anyone who stumbles upon this page would be brilliant!