New Route and other things coming together

As you can see, I have drawn up a new map of our route, of course its still not set in stone,

This is the basic plan,

Fly into HK late March, spend a week or so there, and do a trip over to JWs family in Macau for 2 or 3 days,

Then fly in mid April to Taipei in Taiwan, and travel around the island (down the East coast and up the West back to Taipei)for around 2 months.

Then fly back to HK, and make our way into China for one month, travel North, Cross the border into Mongolia, spend maybe a week there, staying a few days in a ger hopefully.

Then back into China for 1 month, travelling South to the Vietnam border.

Then travel through SE Asia

1 month in Vietnam, 1 month in Cambodia, 1 month in Laos, then cross into Thailand

Because we are travelling in overland, we will only get 15 days in Thailand, but should be ok, because from all reports Thailand has far too many tourists already!!

Then cross into Malaysia, where we'll spend at least 3 months, travelling South and then through Malaysian borneo,

Making our way back to KL, we will fly to the Philippines for hopefully a month, and then fly back to KL, from there, we will go through Singapore and head to Indonesia for a month (hopefully more if we can) From there, we will probably make our way back to KL, and get a flight from there back to HK to fly home! In total, it should take around 14/ 15 months ( or however long we can get away with it for!!!)

Also JW gave his notice to work today, so very exciting that the ball is really rolling!

coming together

It’s been a while since I last posted…

I’ve been stressing about so many things,

[sometimes I think this blog is just so I can vent and make myself feel better,

Im pretty sure no ones reading, if you are, drop me a hello!]

but also a lot of stuff has come together.

JW finally got his passport in the post!

And we bought our backpacks, I went for the 35L in the end and JW the 65, I wasnt sure about the size (i thought they were too big) but when you look at the bags of travel stuff Ive got so far, it makes sense to go bigger.

Also, Ive been looking at flights, which is another headache, but exciting all the same

New Year, New Plans...

Happy New Year!

Its 2011, and the year that we really get our asses in gear and go travelling!

There have been some early hiccups though,

After a bit of research, it became clear that the China visas are going to be a little harder that we orginally thought.

We were hoping for a 6 month multiple according to advice, the most we are going to get is a double entry visa valid for 60 days at a time.

Giving us only 4 months in China.

Even this visa might not be doable, because apparently China are constantly changing their visa rules...we might only be able to get a double entry 30 days at a time, giving us only 2 months!

So, this is going to make a big difference to our trip...

If we can only get a double entry, it will mean that we will have to do Taiwan first before we enter China, and leave out South Korea, so our 1 exit can be to Mongolia.

Really stressed about it when I found out, because I'd been looking at our planned China trip in minute detail and this might mean cutting out the majority of places we planned to go to.

BUT, the truth is we always said we would be flexible about our route and stuff, so we will have to adapt.

If we cant get the Visa we want, we’ll just have to agree to come back another day and do the bits we missed out on!!

AND, it frees up some money to spend more time elsewhere- like the Philippines or Indonesia! OH YEAH!

All I want for Christmas...

I asked people to not to get me anything that is not travel related this Christmas, because in a few months I'll be giving up most of my wordly possessions anyway!

Here are some of the awesome things I recieved...

1. My Dad very kindy got me a new camera.

this one

Really excited to get using it!

Ive wanted a good camera for a while, and this is about as close as

you can get to a good camera before breaking the bank.

2. My lovely JW got me some travel goodies form MUJI (which I love) He got me a torch, a compass, and seperately got me a little book about Bangkok.

3. My sister got me a travel washbag and some travel size tolietrie goodies

4 And my mum has not yet got, but promises me a pair of binoculars. (I asked for these because when we were in SA I really wished Id had some to see the whale and other wildlife better)

5. Oh and my Dad bought JW this penknife!

I'm so stealing it!!