Hey Again Steemitizens!
I'm here today to announce a secret plan I've been hatching to take over the world, one country at a time! It's evil, nefarious and soon the entire planet will be MINE!
or you know, maybe not so much take over the world, but I am going to get to meet some of you and come home really tired after 16 days of circumnavigating the entire planet and landing in five countries to visit and explore and meet Steemitizens!
It all started when one of my employees and good friends invited me to his wedding in Kolkata last fall. I thought it would be impossible for me to save the money and take the time to go to India for that event and yet, I didn't completely rule it out.
I set to planning and saving some STEEM income and personal job income and then I got a small inheritance that sort of made everything click into place and become possible back in late December. My mother passed away just over a year ago and when the very modest small estate was settled, there was just enough for me to take care of some personal debt and make this trip happen!
The delay in a year of getting the estate settled was super frustrating to wait for all year, caused by laws and nonsense about dispensing such things. In the end, though, it turned out to be an amazing timing miracle really, because if I had received the inheritance much earlier before the trip invitation, it would surely have been spent on total crap, and fun toys like drones and junk like that.
Having the small inheritance be delayed for nearly a year to be finalized and delivered was a boon in the end, as it left me ready to plan this trip JUST in time to get it done affordably to fly out in February with the couple thousand dollars I need to make this trip happen. It's a very tightly budgeted trip and not nearly as expensive as it might sound which really surprised me and makes me wish I had done it long ago. No time like now, though right, for a once in a lifetime trip?
So, where am I going to meet YOU?
I will be leaving the United States on Feb 24th at night.
First stop will be Amsterdam on the morning of the 25th, where I am already confirmed to be picked up by none other than @PoeticSnake who will be my lovely and gracious hostess for the first 24 hours of my trip! She lives about an hour from the city, so I will get to go out into the real Netherlands and stay in her town/village/city to experience local life away from the tourism of the Dam's coffee shops and red light, to truly experience the real Netherlands. Yay!
So if you are in Amsterdam, Rotterdam or nearby and want to be part of the meetup, I am thinking we could arrange a coffee/brunch/lunch thing near the airport that we can stop by when I land, before we make the hour drive out to the SnekkyFarm.
Leaving Amsterdam in the evening of the 26th will have me landing in Abu Dhabi U.A.E for just 8 hours, but even THEN I will be meeting a fellow steemitizen Witness, @nnnavarez in what turns out to be a CRAZY twist. Nathan is a Venezuelan, who lives in France, and we have become good buddies here over the past months. As it happens he has business in Abu Dhabi coinciding with my dates of passing through and we've arranged for him to come get me at the airport where we will hustle into the city, share a meal and some laughs in person then get me back to the airport to continue on to India later that evening!
Leaving Abu Dhabi U.A.E. at 8pm will land me in India yet again the next day, and as such I will land in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) for my longest stop, on Feb 27th and will stay there through the evening of March 9th, for nearly 12 days on the ground in India.
In India, I will have lots of freedom to move around to reasonable distances around Kolkata for day trips. I am staying in the region of Kolkata called "Salt Lake Sector" of the city, so if you are anywhere near there, and want to plan a steemitizen meetup with me, SirCork, please do let me know ASAP so I can plan my "tourism" around it!
Then from Kolkata on the 9th, I fly to Hong Kong, where I will touch down and enter into Hong Kong on foot, bound for the train to the Jet Ferry piers in central east HK to go on over to Macau where I've reserved a beautiful room on the beach in the very southern-eastern corner of Macau on the sands of the North Pacific ocean. From there, I pretty much plan to be playing poker in the Rio (the alleged "seedy" local's low budget poker room on the island, which is my favorite kind of poker room) but will obviously be stopping by the Cathedral ruins and some of the other 38 casinos of "The Las Vegas of the East" as well.
Let's play a few hands of cards, or have a drink in Macau! Who's with me, fellow Steemitizens? I know at least ONE of you lives on that lovely island!
At least one pirate radio broadcast will happen on the SteemStar Network while I am out on the "road" with various steemitizens along the way, so keep that dial tuned into the 24/7 stream to make sure you don't miss the fun as I meet people around the world and hop on the air to introduce them in person! @Poeticsnake and I might just do a whole show from her place in the Netherlands too but you know how rapid travel can change your plans rapidly so this will all be totally random, I am totally randomly sure of it!!!
The basic itinerary:
Feb 25: Leave Richmond Va, 90 min in Philadelphia with no time to meet here.
Feb 25/26: Amsterdam, Netherlands - 24 hours meeting @poeticsnake
Feb 27: Abu Dhabi UAE - 8 hours, meeting @nnnavarez
Feb 28-Mar 9: Kolkata, India - meeting you?
Mar 10/11: Hong Kong & Macau - meeting you?
March 11: Chicago - Have plans here for my 4 hour stop already to have lunch with an old High School buddy.
So.. come and catch up with me somewhere on the way! The timings will be tight sometimes, but let's grab this chance to make beautiful selfies together!
See you... somewhere, and if not there, I'll see you all back here on the SteemStar Network on YOUR show, every Sunday!
Yours in Service,
@SirCork
Founder: @YouAreHOPE Foundation
Founder: @SteemStar Network
Steem Witness #75
