Last December when Adam and I were in Czech visiting his family and friends, we were invited to join 2 of his high school friends in Thailand this coming October/ November. We were over at their house in Příbram for some drinks and catch up, we knew they liked to travel but we didn't know they were planning such an adventure. Adam and I looked at each other, smiled and simultaneously said yes, of course! We'd love to come.
That night we discussed plans they had in mind, places they'd like to visit, and although Adam and I hadn't really talked about it, the 4 of us were agreeing on most places to visit. By the end of the night, Cambodia was added to the list.
That was just before Christmas.
In early January, when Adam and I were back in England, we met up with my darling heart Erin and her bf in Manchester for a couple of days. By this time Adam and I were expecting the visa to have already come through, or to be only a few days/ weeks away. After one of our nights out on the town, Adam and I went to get breakfast just around the corner from where we were staying. We sat there, in the booth of the restaurant bleary eyed and an epiphany overcame us both.
Why just 2 weeks? Why don't we go for longer, and explore the whole region?
For years now, we've both been talking about getting the Trans-Siberian across Russia and down to Beijing, or the other way, through Mongolia. We've talked about going to Nepal and Tibet. And I've always wanted to see Vietnam. We sat there and discussed all our options.
Ok, so we want to go for more than 2 weeks, how long do we go for?
How much money can we save in the next 10 months?
Do we head to Australia as soon as we get the visa and work for a few months, quit, then go?
Do we stay in the UK despite the visa, and enter Australia after our Asia trip?
We had a lot to sort out, at the time, thinking the visa was less than a month away, we decided to stay in the UK, that way we could spend a bit more time saving, and a bit more time with Adam's family before immigrating to Aus, or heading home in my case.
We decided to make the commitment and stay in the UK, do our best with saving and head to Australia in a year or so. It's a long way away, and part of me wishes we would be back in Melbourne tomorrow, but we have so many more adventures planned for this year, before Asia, and we're both very excited. Besides - when we settle in Australia it will be for a while, so this is sort of our last horrah to traveling for a while.
The visa is still undecided, and in the far off distance.
We have completely transformed the walls in our bedroom, we live in staff accomodation in a tiny town in the Yorkshire Dales, our walls are host to beautifully hand drawn map of the world, courtesy of the talented Mr Adam Holy, and we have A4 pieces of white paper with lists of what to do in each country when we get there. We have cut photos and inspiration out of various travel magazines and stuck them all over the walls.
Adam had a teacher in high school who told him if you want something or have a dream stick it on your walls so you see it every morning when you open your eyes. It helps you to work towards your dreams.
We haven't managed to save as much as we would like to, 4 months in, but we're getting there.
At the moment, as well as saving, we're slowly building up on the different bits and pieces that we need. We've agreed we don't want to carry a bag more than 30 liters. My rucksack that I have been carrying with me for 4 years is 65 liters. There is no way I am carrying that much through Asia. So, now that we have agreed on the limit, we have to agree on what to take, what is necessary, what we really don't need and what we should post to Australia for our life there.
30 liters is restricting, no hair dryer or straightener (dah), eyeliner and mascara are a definite yes- but I still have convince Adam on this one. Other than that it'll be a few pairs of pants/ tops and toiletries. And our pack of UNO of course! It'll be a very different experience for both of us. I think he will be fine with such limited belongings, he's a boy. But me, I like to wear something different, I like the variety. When I was a kid, and I guess I still do sometimes, get changed 5 times in one day. So 30 liters will be a test. Not the biggest test though, still deciding what the biggest test will be.
At the moment we are looking at where we would like to go, what we'd like to see. We have 3-4 weeks planned for China from the beginning of October. Adam's mum is joining us for the first 3 weeks, and hopefully so will my mum, come on mum, book your ticket already :). Then we're heading to Vietnam by train, across to Cambodia, meeting up with Jana and Peter, shimmying over to Thailand, then down to Singapore. And if we have any money left we'll make it over to the islands. We can't apply for our visa to China until 3 months before we leave, but we can organise insurance now.
I hope we'll be back in Melbourne before Christmas 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment