Christmas...

I had a small argument with JW last night,
he was upset, because for the umpteenth time in a row, we are spending xmas with my family.
At this time of year especially, he finds it difficult living so far away and misses his parents back home in Cape town.
I sometimes take it forgranted that I have my parents just across London (and soon will be in the same house!).
JW's mum has 9 sisters and they all have children and grandchildren, so Christmas can be a massive affair for him,

For me, Christmas this year will just be us and my parents.
My sister and her boyfriend are living in Uruguay at the moment, and after my Grandmother died a few years ago, the extended family has dispersed off.
Though we still traditionally do boxing day lunch at my aunts with my cousins.

The argument cooled off and I promised that the year after next we will go...(next year we will be travelling!)
I'm looking forward to it already, Cape Town is in summer at Christmas and at time of writing is...22c and sunny (bit of a contrast to London's 0c and icy today)

Inspired...

At the weekend I watched some of Michael Palin's 'himalaya'

He reminds me so much of my Dad, actually he was travelling through Sudan at the same time my Dad lived there, shame they didn't bump into each other!


Anyway, I was watching the one where he is travelling through Tibet, and it made me really inspired and excited about going...

Dream, dreamer

Im daydreaming a lot about travelling.
I wish I could just go tomorrow.

This is really the hard bit, the waiting and planning stage. I'm not looking forward to the next few months.

At my Christmas party last Friday (particularly messy by the way) it was announced that our offices are moving across London, this coupled with the fact that I am moving to nowheresville (with my parents) really left me pissed off.

I'm just going to have to brave the 1.5 hour bus/tube journey everyday, and get used to getting up earlier.

(bye, bye 10 minute tube journey I love you and will miss you)

Also, my mother called me in a super stress about us moving in with her, saying that we wont have enough time to do everything. And even suggesting that we should stay where we are and offering to help pay our rent! As amazing as this offer is, it pissed me off even more, because I feel like all the set-in-stone, already-made decisions are crumbling and I'm not sure where we are with our plans.

Besides, our landlord hates us, cos the last ever rent is going to be a few weeks late, as we are so broke, and he is probably not going to be happy if we turn around 3 weeks before we are meant to leave and ask if we can actually stay because we changed our minds!

Also, I think we can save much more money by moving in with my parents than staying where we are, even if they were helping with rent.

And on a non-selfish train of thought, my parents really don't have much money to spend on me (my Dads retired, and my mum is almost there)

New Years Eve

I really wanted to go away for New Years,
London can be a wicked place to be when the clock strikes 12, but I wanted to do something a bit different.

The original plan was to go to Stockholm, and a Swedish girl I work with offered to fill me in on all the nye parties.

But, as always, I had to change my plans because of... money...
You see, in October, we went for a romantic spa weekend in Budapest, which was lovely but left us totally broke for the next month,
so I really don't want to do that again, especially with moving, and Jan already being a month without money (for us all I'm sure?)

Anyway, so now I'm not sure what to do, I cant find any cheap deals
and Hogmanay is all booked up.

I know its a bit early...

But as I get rid of stuff in my flat (sold the dining table- yay!), I start to think about stuff that I need to buy for travelling.

Here a few things that I want to take with...

1. Swiss army knife- Reminds me so much of my Dad whist in some middle of nowhere, and Dad always had his swiss army knife to cut up an apple or tweezer out a splinter. I really want one, you never know when you'll need a corkscrew in the middle of the jungle right?

2. Cushtie- Every time I'm at a service station or airport, I mull over buying one of these, I figure now that I have a good excuse I can justify spending a tenner on a bag of beans (I secretly want the elephant one!)

3. Good boots (not too stylish, but useful)

4. A large sarong

5. Backpack not sure what size yet, depends how much junk (like the stuff listed here) I take!

carbon footprint...

With the whole Copenhagen thing going on at the moment, there has been a lot in the press about what is going to be done to curb climate change.
I have to admit, I cringed rather guiltily at the mention of plane travel.

See, I'm pretty green normally- I reuse and recycle, I don't eat meat, I use the tube, I switch off the lights when I leave the room (and never leave stuff on standby!)I even give around a fiver to two of the biggest environmental charities (god, when I try and justify it how lame do I sound?!)

But when it comes to travel, I just cant afford to go the long way round, and its a LOT easier to get a cheapo flight.
Although, that might be all about to change, because the government could be enforcing heavy taxes on airlines, killing off cheap fares forever!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!
As much as I agree with the reasons, doesn't this just mean the airlines make the same amount as before? or probably more? and the loser is the broke travellers like me?

I feel guilty just saying this, I'm gonna go off now and plant a tree or something.

money makes the world go round

Ah, money.
I wish I had enough money to not worry about it.

It is always the barrier stopping me from doing the things I want, if I had money- I would spend my whole life just travelling and seeing the world (and probably helping and donating along the way- so not completely selfish!)
I really don't care about having lots of possessions, or having a car (Cant drive) or house or any material shit, as long as I have enough to buy stuff to wear, to eat, and to pay for flights and trains and hotels/hostels Id be fine.

Thinking about routes...

I've been thinking a lot about what direction we should travel in, and where to start.
I thought it would be good to start in Tibet and travel east,
But someone suggested to me that I should start in Delhi, then travel through Nepal (adding extra weeks to my trip)instead.
But, im not sure if Im already taking on too much, and adding more places is over-complicating things...?
On the other hand the more places to see the better, and it is easier and cheaper to fly into Delhi...???
Also been doing a lot of thinking about going to OZ.
I've been doing some research about working holiday visas.
JW is 28, and apparently you cannot get a working holiday visa if you are over 30, that only gives us (well, him) a couple of years before we wont be able to do it at all.
Also with him being South African, we have to apply for his British citizenship before we go (figured it would make travel a lot easier if we are both on a British passport) it costs crazy money, and kinda feels like its a chunk out of what we could be spending on travel.
Although, I know I wouldnt want to do this without him (what fun would it be on my own?)

Ok, I'm moving back in with my parents...

I left home when I was 18 to live with a boyfriend, and apart from the odd visit here and there I haven't been back. But, from the middle of Jan I am moving back in with the rents, along with JW!
Basically, the only reason is money- if we want to go travelling and ever get ourselves in a situation where we can afford it, we have to stop paying our crazy London rent.
So after doing lots of maths and thinking, talking and arguing we settled on spending a few months staying with my parents to save money.

I have already been given 'the talk' about keeping the place tidy, and not running up massive phone bills etc.
Otherwise my parents are pretty chilled and liberal about things, they dont mind JW being there (in fact sometimes my mother acts like he is an adopted son)

But I am going to have to get rid of a LOT of stuff, I dont really have all that much stuff really, just a few bits of furniture built up over the years.
I dont want to get of everything though, cos I dont want to come back and have NOTHING, but I think it will be kind of liberating to get rid of stuff and make a new start!

where, when, how?

The plan is to start in Tibet, travel through china for a few months.
Then through
Cambodia
Vietnam
Laos
Thailand
Malaysia
Singapore

Then spend a few months exploring Indonesia

Through the Philippines, Taiwan.
Explore the Islands around Japan, then spend a few months travelling through Japan.

Then, possibly travel to Australia and New Zealand to do a working holiday for a few months

(possible detours through Northern India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and North and South Korea?)

The Plan Stan

So, after years of talking about it and dreaming about it I have (finally) made a plan to go travelling.