The countdown begins

It is two months today before we fly out of the UK to begin our six month round the world trip. It still feels like such a long way away, but we know that in reality it is not, and despite having sorted a lot of stuff out we still have lots to do before the big off.

It is undoubtedly a bit square to start the blog so far in advance, but I wanted to record some of our plans for the trip, in terms of where we aim to go and some of the intended highlights. The planning of the trip is part of the whole experience, and when we first decided to go round the world, I don't think we had anticipated what we had to do to make it a reality.

First there was the problem of booking time off work; Catherine and I are both very lucky in that we (hopefully) have jobs to go back to on our return next year, and we have managed to sort out unpaid leave for the duration of our trip. My leave took longer to be authorised than Catherine's, as the bosses had certain reservations about how they could possibly survive without me. I think the biggest hang up was answering the question of what would happen if I was required in court whilst I was away. There was no way I was going to agree to travelling back to Bristol for a likely non-appearance at Bristol Magistrates Court, so I had to put in some measures to minimise the likelihood of being called to give evidence. Catherine's leave was a bit easier to sort out. She just threatened to quit her job, but they didn't like the sound of that and gave her a ticket to walk straight back into it after six months.

Once the leave was booked, we decided on a route and booked tickets through STA Travel in April 2008. It was a fairly easy, pain-free process and the ticket gave us the six main fights on round the world ticket. These six flights set us back £1700 each, but since we had thought it may be closer to £2000, we were pretty pleased. Looking back on that - in light of the credit crunch and all - I think it would have been way more expensive now.

So, our route will take us through the following countries - Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia (Bali), Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Our ticket gets us back to Heathrow (via Madrid) on 21st May 2009.

Once the ticket was booked, I thought that pretty much the rest of the saving I planned to do would go on accommodation, travel and living costs whilst we are away. I was wrong. The hidden costs of this travelling game are pretty substantial and I had been naïve not to predict them. For example - Immunisations (Yellow Fever, Rabies, Japanese B Encephalitis, Typhiod, Diptheria, Tetanus, Polio, Hep A, blah, blah and blah) have cost around £320 each. I considered skipping the Japanese B Encephalitis - which, if contracted makes your brain swell and kills you - but thought £135 was a fair price to pay to put Mum's mind at ease! On top of these costs, we will have to get Malaria tablets which will cost anything between £50 and £350. Even Catherine's Boots discount won't be able to assist us with those!

Visas are another cost. I knew we had to get them, but the one for Vietnam alone was £50, and after we have got them for Thaliand, Cambodia and Australia we will surely be feeling the pinch.

I won't go into all the other costs, as the list is long and no doubt very dull. To be honest though, I don't begrudge any of them. This is what I have been saving for and looking forward to for the last two years, and it's just around the corner!

Catherine thinks the highlights will be Vietnam and Bolivia. She wants to meet their apparently very friendly people and of course she is fluent in both Vietnamese and Spanish so will be able to have deep conversations with them about their faith and the state of the economy.

I am looking forward to New Zealand the most. I have heard amazing things about the place and feel a need to test that theory that 'it feels just like the UK did 20 years ago'! I am also very excited about Vietnam and Cambodia - perhaps that is just because where we are going first and what I have been looking at the most.

Be both can't wait to see, feel, taste and smell the different cultures and I'm looking forward to some long, long train journeys!

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