THE travel experience of 2009, I humbly propose, is the Total Solar Eclipse on 22 July. What makes it so irresistible? Totality is, at its maximum, six minutes 39 seconds. That's just phenomenally long. There won't be another totality this long during the lifetime of anyone who reads this.
The eclipse path, according to NASA, "begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan's Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean."
NASA has a fabulous resource. And Fred Espenak, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is your guy for all things eclipse, at MrEclipse.com. You can immerse yourself there until you realize you really ought to get back to work.
Some agents, a map and practical advice, after the jump.