5 Weeks To Go & My Last Post...

Its been a while since I've posted anything,
mainly because everything has been crazy busy,
booking things, organising and generally getting ready for leaving.

Its now 5 weeks to go till I go travelling! Landing in Hong Kong at the end of March!
Its all a little surreal now its coming together and I finish work in 3 weeks!

I'm so excited to go, and although the route has changed so much since the first post, I'm so excited about all the places we will be visiting

Thanks to anyone who has read this blog,
I suspect it may be no one at all, but if there is someone, Thanks!
I started this blog as an outlet for all my hopes and daydreaming
and now its coming true and everyone knows, I suppose I don't need it anymore!

So this will be my last post.

Maybe see you on my travels! x

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!!

A very frugal Christmas...

With every penny being counted these days (by me...not so much by JW)
I just felt it wouldnt be right to spend loads of money on Christmas like I normally do...

Sooo, this year I am making gifts!!!

Ok, I know, that screams cheapo right?
But wait! It's only for close family members who will find it endearing and not crappy (hopefully)
I dont normally do any friend gifts now we're grown ups,
and I will be buying JW a little something...

so im making posh biscuits for my Dad,
and ive got my needles out and knitted a cover/sock for my mum's new kindle.

and im currently trying to make mittens for my sister...
I say trying, because it is THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD
and im starting to slightly panic now that I wont get them done in time (I have 2 days...eek)

Anyway,
The snow is almost all gone in London :(

Snow

London is covered in snow at the moment,
and as much as I love snowfights and building snowmen
Im really craving warmer climates!


It feels colder than ever today, and Ive had a really horrible cold which lasted a week, and I'm still feeling crappy


Im really ready to go travelling and feel the heat...

1 year on...

Its been 1 year since I started this 'travel' blog.

A year ago today I had made the decision about something I had been daydreaming about for years- to give it all up and go travelling with JW for as long as I could.

Since that first post, we have moved in with my parents, started a savings account and have been researching routes like crazy,

And next week, JW will have his ceremony to become a British citizen!

We are scarily close to acheving our dream of travelling!!

Map of tourism...

I came across this map today...
It is of the most visited places in the world (the lightest areas being the most and dark areas the least)

It's really interesting,
Especially how Europe is almost completely yellow. and most of Africa is dark.

Of course with my thirst for far away undiscovered places (there is of course, no such thing)
it mades me want to go to all the dark areas!!!



This is a zoom in of Asia, excited to see lots of the places we are going are dark or at least purple!
Yay!

All I want for Christmas is...

My sister asked me what me and JW wanted for xmas yesterday,
I told her that I only want travel related things, which Im not sure went down all that well!

Anyway, Ive been kind of self gifting for the last few weeks getting some things for travel
so far Ive got...

Travel pillow
Its a blow up neck pillow for long bus/train journeys, the picture on ebay it looked like a fluffy soft thing, but when it turned up, it was actually a hard plasticy thing covered with a thin fleece cover.

Gifts for kids along the way
I bought a load of packs of little colouring pencils, looking forward to giving them out along the way, but my mum pointed out that it says age 3+ on the box, so have to be careful about that one!

Playing/picture cards
I found these randomly at a little stall while waiting for JW in the train station, they are normal playing cards, but have pictures that can be used to point at and communicate with people along the way.
No need for this anymore!

Travel washing line and universal sink plug
You never know if you might need these (although my Dad told me he always uses a sock to block the sink hole when travelling!)

Ballet pumps
I got these cos I thought that they would come in handy along the way, but when I got them home I realised they said 'made in china' on them, doh!

Jackets
I couldnt resist, I got this jacket in chocolate, and a grey men's one for JW.

Streetview Hong Kong

As Ive said a thousand times before, I love streetview,

And Ive been searching through Hong Kong streetview for some cool images and heres what I found...

brrrrrr update

Almost a year ago (how time flies)

I posted about Tibet and how its going to be really cold for part of our trip, well...

Im looking again at jackets at Uniqlo and this one... ...seems a lot more practical than the one I mentioned in that post,

It is made from special down material and stuff designed to keep you warm, and is also lightweight (250g apparently) and fits into a bag when not in use...

I likey!!!

Only £39.99 (eek!)

Panic (a little)

Things are really progressing here,
JW has booked his ceremony to swear his allegiance to the queen and country! (ugh)

And its looking like we might just go in Feb or Mar (oh.my.god that’s only 3 ish months away!!!)

It feels like there is so much to do and im starting to freak out just a little...

But Im also very excited of course!

A new map post

So, now that the ball is rolling (eek!)

I started making some serious decisions about routes and dates (double eek!)

I did a lot of research on adding Mongolia to our trip,
And also maybe venturing to Papa New Guinea.

Nothing's set in stone, and that the good thing about it.

I also thought about Air Asia, and it makes sense to use the cheap flights to cut time and expense when travelling through places,
so I decided that we should use KL as a jump off point for The Philippines and as a end point to fly back from (or to fly from to HK and fly back from there

A very rough and unfinished idea of dates and routes...

Feb/Mar- Arrive Hong Kong

Mar-Oct- China, Taiwan, China, S.Korea, China, Mongolia, China, Tibet, China

Oct- Vietnam

Nov- Cambodia

Dec- Laos

Jan- Thailand

Feb- Malaysia

Mar/Apr- Philippines

Apr/May- Malaysia

May/June- Indonesia

June- Malaysia/HK

June- leave to London

The ball is rolling...

There has been a whole load of drama over the last few weeks,
which I wont go into...
But lets just say that it meant that I couldn't think much about a letter JW got last week,

but it's all settled down a bit now, so I can really get excited because....

JW'S PAPERWORK CAME BACK!!!

So now there are a few more formalities to go through, and then we really are GO!

I'm so excited, but also pretty nervous, because of all the stuff we have to do before we go

The ball is rolling though!..................

Sayonara Japan?.

I did a lot of thinking this weekend...

About routes and money and dates- all those things Ive been stressing about for a while...

I did some working out, (I hate maths) and tried to think realistically about what we can do with the budget we have, that seems to be getting tighter every time I work it out.

So, basically to cut a long story short, I figured out that to stay and travel in Japan, we would have to more than double our daily budget that we were planning for places like China, Vietnam etc.

This would mean that our trip into Japan would have to be really short, and we'd have to cut out lots of stuff we wanted to see,
not only this, but we would be staying in dives the whole time and wouldn't be able to stop worrying about money.
And considering how much it would cost to get to and from Japan, and the cost of the rail pass to travel around when we are there (around £400 for 21 days EACH!) I realised that we wouldn't be able to afford to do it with the budget we have...

So I'm pretty sure.... that for this trip.... we will have to take Japan off our itinerary :(

I'm gutted, Japan is one of the places Ive always wanted to go, and I was really looking forward to places like Tokyo and Hiroshima...
But I'll keep the guidebook and information I collected, and hopefully we will do a proper trip there, when we can afford to do it properly.

So Sayonara Japan... For now.

I want these...

How cool are these?
They are like flash cards that you can use when travelling, you just point at the pictures!

I love it... really want to get them

I do still want to try languages though, I think its always worth the effort of trying to communicate with people, even if it is as difficult as Chinese.

Photos of Tibet

Came across some photos taken by British invader John Claude White in 1904
This one is of some Tibetan nuns...

Mid- Autumn Festival

I walk through China town everyday on my way to and from work...

This week, I noticed they have put up loads of lanterns that look amazing, and after a bit of googling I found out it is for the mid- autumn festival, which falls on the autumnal equinox- when the moon is at its fullest.

There is a weird story associated with the festival about Houyi and Chang'e...

it goes a little like this...

Once there were 5 suns in the form of 5 three legged birds (so far, so strange) they one day clubbed together and started to burn the earth,

A prince ( Houyi) was commissioned to shoot down the suns with a bow and arrow, and he shot 4 of them leaving only one (our sun)

As a reward the king gave him a pill of immortality, but warned him to break the pill up and only take a small piece at a time, he took it home and hid it in a box.

One day his wife (Chang'e) came across the box containing the pill and decided to take it to see what it was (never a good idea)

Because she took the whole pill, she overdosed and floated high in to the sky until she reached the moon, as the pills effects wore off, she was stuck there.

So, now she is still stuck, and there is this rabbit on the moon (duh?) who is trying and trying to make a new pill so she can get back.

(pic above-The princess with the rabbit on the moon!)

How random eh?

Anyway, so people put up lanterns and eat mooncakes...

prime bournemouth real estate

These beach huts are all along the Bournemouth coast, we saw an advert for one that was £44,000!!!
They are lovely though, on our sunny day, people were sat outside their own hut on deck chairs, and we got a good peek in to them, some had a full on gas cooker, teas area etc, really lovely- if we lived around there we would love to have one!

I was obsessed with these blue to purple ones, but the blend of colours continued up the beach, red, orange yellow green etc....