Blogs from Croydon, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

Dear All Greetings again – it’s that time of the year where I pack my backpack again and set off for adventures and travels around distant lands. It’s been a year since my last trip to Southern India last year, and I think I’ve gotten into a new routine of planning a big trip now every summer. Being a proud homeowner now, I have found that one trip a year is much more feasible than three during my pre-mortgage days. Thus, I plan a big trip now once every summer for the foreseeable future – very exciting! And thus I write today, again on the eve of another big trip – this time, five weeks around Central America. Well, technically speaking, I’ll be in North America and Central America, as I plan to take in the ... read more

Dear All Wow, I’m so excited! I am writing from my mini travel-laptop which after three years I have charged up again, and along with all my travel gear and equipment, have packed into my trusty backpack. Tomorrow, I pick up where I left my travel career behind three years ago, and hit the road once more! To India, the South: Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. Indeed, it has been three years since I last counted countries. The day after arriving back from Burma, country number 71, in August 2012, I suddenly had the inspiration that then was the time to buy a house, something for which I had been saving for a number of years. And amazingly within four days, I found it, my dream-home (no exaggeration…), made an offer, and had it accepted. Two ... read more

Hello blog world! Who would have thought that my first ever blog would be from somewhere so exotic as Croydon. Even though I've set this up as a South America blog, I've been having a little South East UK adventure for the past year - Epsom, Epsom, Hackney, Croydon (back to Epsom for a week) Croydon. I didn't plan this, but opportunities for cheap/free lodgings came along and I am happy to report that all pets, plants and workmen remained in good health under my supervision and my travel fund is more healthy as a result. So thanks homeowners - Matt, Catt, Amy, Al, Jim, Ang, David, Marney and Simon :) I'm flying out of Gatwick on the 14th September and plan to travel for a year. On my country hot list is Peru, Chile, Brazil, ... read more

Croydon 30/9/09 After a couple of days of being home I took out my guide book and looked at the notes that I had jotted down; not of the trip that I had just done but of the one that I wanted to take. These two months away in Africa have totally captured my heart as I have fallen totally for the region. What was in my guidebook was a plan to explore West Africa; well a plan was a overstatement, actually what it was was a line joining cities up with countries split in half. The line started from Yaounde in Cameroon (where I had actually had a job offer) linking up Lagos (Nigeria), Porto Novo (Benin), Accra (Ghana), Abidjan (Cote D'Ivoire), up to Bamako and the legendary Timba (Mali) back down to Freetown (Sierra ... read more

So it's Christmas day and only 9 days left until my departure! I've bought a truck-load of equipment, clothes and gadgets (and some fantastic socks!) My parents have also been brilliant and bought me an amazing camera for my birthday (which I'll be spending on the shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia!) and I'll be uploading my favourite photos onto this blog. So to sum up these last few months of preparation, I've bought an RTW (Round-The-World) ticket which consists of about 12 flights for around £1,800 including all taxes (which seems amazing value). I've had about 15 injections covering everything from rabies to yellow fever to Japanese B encephalitis (whatever that might be). I've booked tours with Intrepid Travel and also with the Vodka Train (sounds promising). I've sent off for and received all the ... read more