I Swear, The Next Post Will Be About Thailand

I fully intend to start updating about my Southeast Asia trip this weekend. Because I am nothing if not impatient, though, I am already thinking about the next trip, even though it will certainly not happen for over a year.

I know I want to go somewhere in Africa. I have, for a while, been working under the assumption that I will be going to Namibia. Of course, now that it's the next big trip to be planned, I'm having all sorts of second thoughts about other places I could go. The most appealing options, as I see them at this point, would include:

• Namibia -- Actually, I have long had my eye on a camping safari that would take me around to most of what I'd like to see in Namibia (Swakopmund, the dunes, Etosha National Park), plus a bit of Botswana (Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta), winding up at Victoria Falls.

• Tanzania -- I'd spend the first week on safari up north (Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater, hopefully Lake Manyara), then head down to Zanzibar and end up on the beach there. Alternatively, I could take a week and trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro, but I don't know if that trumps the beach and other cool things on Zanzibar for me. It might be nice to take a long trip that doesn't involve vast amounts of climbing. Maybe I could just, you know, drive by and look at Mt. Kilimanjaro.

• Ethiopia -- The historical circuit, some wildlife. Except, while Ethiopia has wildlife, I don't think it has WILDLIFE quite like Tanzania and Namibia/Botswana.

Or somewhere else entirely. I hear Malawi is nice, though it's hard to adopt as a foreigner unless you are Madonna.

Maybe I should take a poll or something. If I could arrange to win several million dollars, enabling me to take a year away from work and travel around the whole continent, that would also be an acceptable solution.