Backpacking: planning the main route

So I have decided to go backpacking. It has always been a dream of me to travel the world and now I finally get the opportunity to do it. Next year (July 2014) I will start my trip and I thought it would be fun if I would update you about all the preparations. Of course it depends on the duration and destination of the trip whether you need to follow all the steps I am going take, but it might give you an idea of what planning a backpacking trip like this actually entails.

Picture via here

Well, the first item on the agenda is: where the heck am I going? Planning a backpacking route sounds more simple than it actually is. There are many places to travel and there is only limited time to do so, in my case probably 5,5 months. I already decided that I really would like to visit South-East Asia. How to create a route? Like so:


1) First decide which countries you MUST see. This is your guideline on which your route will be based.
2) Then decide if there are any countries which you would like to see, but which are no absolute necessity.
3) Create a connection between the must-see countries and try to incorporate the no. 2 countries. This would be your main route.

When you've created your itinerary, it's time to decide upon a route within the countries itself. We will get to that later.

I am still in dubio about my own backpacking itinerary. Luckily the last two months are already set because my best friend will visit me and we already decided on a route together: Thailand - Malaysia - Singapore - Indonesia.
But what to do in the three and a half months before that?

I'm still considering getting a job for one month. It's not only a great opportunity to work abroad, but it also is a good thing in terms of budget. Of course you won't get rich from working on a fruit farm (or any other backpacker employer), but you will earn some money or your employer will at least give you a place to stay.

The questions I have to ask myself right now:
1) Do I want to get a job? Then I should probably incorporate Australia in my planning because there are a lot of job opportunities there. In that case I would also take a plane to New Zealand because I'm already in the neigbourhood :)
2) If I would do the job thing, how much time is left to visit the other countries on my list? (India - Nepal - Myanmar - Laos - Vietnam - Cambodia)

What to do, oh what to do...

The no-job-no-Australia route would look somewhat like this.

backpacking route, backpacking route Asia, backpacking Asia, backpacking countries, backpacking itinerary, backpacking southeast asia, backpack southeast asia