Before the trip I needed to get an idea what countries I want to go through as some countries require you to get a visa in your home country (Pakistan and China) and I had to organise crossing through China with a guide in a group - not allowed to cross Xinjiang region on your own with your own vehicle. Apart from that most other visas are possible to get online (evisa) or at the border. I'm trying to just "wing it" as much as I can. So I didn't have any specific route in advance. There were countries/places I really wanted to see (Pamir Highway, northern Pakistan - KKH, Himalayas, Nepal, south east Asia) and before I set off I scribbled some random route on the map that would include these places. Most the time I don't know much about the countries that I enter and only start researching places to visit and routes to take as I enter each country, otherwise I would have to spend years just planning the route if I wanted to do it in advance. When I hear about some place that I think I may want to see I add a marker on Google maps (currently got 263 places marked as "want to see"). That's awesome. Great to see someone living out their dreams. Good luck on the rest of your trip