Intended Itinerary

As promised:

October 4th: Fly to Montreal, Canada to spend a week chilling with my buddy, Ollie. A little sidetrip to Toronto at the end of the week should make for a good leaving party from this side of the International Dateline.

October 11th: Fly (via L.A.) to Seoul, South Korea. A couple of weeks soaking in the autumn splendour of the national parks. Nothing and nobody, but me and my pack...can't wait!

October 25th: Fly to Manila, Phillipines. Another fortnight soaking up the local atmosphere. No firm plans...may learn to scuba dive, trek in the mountains, visit volcanoes...or just sit on my (hopefully, slightly less) fat ass on the beach.

November 8th: Fly to Hanoi, Vietnam. The start of a 3month overland journey around the Indo-Chinese peninsula. The Re-unification Express, Mekong and Yellow River Deltas, Angkor Wat, Koh Phanghan, Bangkok, Chiang Mai etc. will be some of the highlights. Catching up with some friends on the Thai islands will be a nice way to spend Christmas and New Year. My family will of course be appreciating being able to eat Christmas dinner at a leisurely pace without me scoffing all the seconds.

January 31st 2005: Fly from Bangkok to Kathmandu. Two months of teaching at Niketan School, about 5km East of the city centre. I'm really excited about this opportunity to really immerse myself in the local community...unfortunately for you lot, I'll be able to access the internet most days so you'll be getting reams of excitable babble on the place. When I've finished my placement, I'll have about 5 weeks to trek in the Himalayas around the Annapurna Sanctuary. This has been a lifelong ambition, so be prepared for gushtastic reporting.

May 2nd: From India into Nepal (overland): Six weeks isn't nearly long enough to see a country of the size and diversity of India so I'll be limiting myself to Varanasi, Agra and Delhi on the sightseeing front....followed by some soaking up of rays in Goa...life's gonna be hard ;-)

June 13th: Fly from Bombay to Jo'burg - and hopefully from there straight to Blantyre, Malawi. As some of you know, I've been to Malawi before and I'm stoked to be able to go back and put something back into the country. Neville Beavis (a former teacher who led the school trip that I went on in 1993) is now running an orphanage with his wife Rosemarie. So, for a couple of months, I'll be helping out with ongoing projects. Open Arms Infant Home cares for children whose parents have died from AIDS. I'm sure my time there will be very rewarding and I'm looking forward to sharing the stories of some very special people with you.

August 18th: Fly back to Jo'burg and from there back to UK. A good friend is getting married and I'd be shot for missing the ceremony, so I'm taking the opportunity to come back and spend a little time with friends and family before I take off on the next leg of my trip.

As this 'next leg' will depend on finance and making new plans, I won't bore with the potential details until they stop being potential and become definite.

Back after the weekend with photos from leaving do's etc.

The Last Supper

Very strange...just had the last home-cooked meal with my parents for a very long time. The strange thing was that it just didn't feel particularly strange. Don't know if any other travellers have felt like this? It might be a product of the fact I've been living a fair distance from the rest of my family for most of the last nine years anyway. Or maybe I'm just a cold-hearted bastard - sorry, mum;-).

To be honest, I don't really feel like I'm truly going away...the other side of the world isn't as far as it used to be. Staying in touch with people (phone, e-mail, weblog etc.) is getting easier all the time...and, for me, friendships and family ties transcend distances as petty as a few thousand miles. As far as I'm concerned, I'm taking a little piece of you all with me...and I'd like to think that a little piece of me will stay at home with each of my friends and family.

Sorry, to get all philosophical and deep - it will surely happen again, although hopefully not too often. I guess that my perspectives are already starting to shift and I'm sure the coming months will give me plenty of food for thought...I'm looking forward to sharing it with you.

Back tomorrow with a full itinerary and maybe some philosophical musings...

Ten days to go...

Soon enough, someone else is going to be reading this...which means it won't be very long before I'm on the other side of the world.

I've finally started to get excited about my trip...I've been so pre-occupied (booking flights, buying equipment, cajoling said equipment into a deceptively-tardis-like rucksack, spending time with friends and family...and the small matter of a wicked holiday in Ibiza), that it's only just beginning to dawn on me that, in ten days time, I'll be setting off on the trip of a lifetime.

The vast majority of people reading this will have a good idea of what I'm up to and where I'm going. The blog is a kind of diary for me - as well as a substitute for the ubiquitous mass e-mail which all travellers tend to send to friends and family. It won't sit, taking up valuable inbox space, guilt-tripping you into sending a green-eyed reply. Dip in / out at your leisure and if you do want to mail me - asking for or giving news - I'll do my best to reply asap.

There isn't a lot for me to do now...staggering around various hilly bits of Yorkshire, trying to convince myself that I can hump that bag (read 'small terraced house') around the world for the next 18 months...re-counting malaria tablets to try and save some precious weight...a final round of visits and leaving-do's (er, any excuse fora party...)...so I'll no doubt have plenty of time to pop on here most days and fill everyone in on the details of my trip...

 

Before photo...after photo in about 18mths ;-)

Pale and pasty before my trip