Pieces of the jigsaw...

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Well I am now down to 114 days and it feels like all the pieces of the jigsaw are coming together and the excitement is growing day by day.

Last night after alot of waiting, I got an email through from a tour operator in Laos where I can go and help with some tribe horses on an elephant village so I am really excited about that as I get to go and help with some young horses. Giving up the horses when I go away will be one of the hardest things to do so to be able to carry on the passion when I go away in another country is an added bonus and I think this will be a challenge.

After discussing my travel plans with a friend on facebook I have managed to encourage her to come and travel with me in South East Asia so that is really exciting. As much as I'm prepared to travel on my own it is very nice to know that there will be someone with me and wanting the exact same thing. She has also travelled alone so we are both a bit wiser about things and know what to expect. Obviously it does make the folks feel a bit more at ease with everything too. We discussed an itinerar briefly but after much deciding, we have decided that there is no point in doing this. We may fall in love with a place and not want to leave or we may not like somewhere and move on to the next place so we have taken the decision that we are just going to go with the flow.

So now I need to get my travelling head on. Was starting to freak out a bit about money but I have 4 months to really sort myself out, sell what I can and get myself straight and really get myself sorted for the trip. I almost feel bad when I have an evening that I don't think about travel or plan something as it feels like this 4 months is going to slip by so quickly.

I have really enjoyed writing up my blog from my trip in 2009 and it has got me motivated to really get into the travel bubble again and it feels so good. To have it as a featured blog as well was just the tip of the iceberg and gave me encouragement to carry on with it and it has almost made me think that when I go away it will be something that I really will spend time on and maybe develop further along with my passion for photography. This trip really is about finding what makes me happy, I know I have the first ingredient which is the travel so now I just need to find what else to add to the mix.

I had a night out in my local town last night for my best friends birthday which was really good and to be able to see people I knew from a while back was really nice. However it actually felt like it was definitely the end of a chapter for this area, it's all about moving forward and away from my hometown. A lot of my friends are now settling down with partners so I think this is really my time to break away and see what this world has to offer. I think when a traveller comes back and realises that nothing has changed and for me this has happened twice now and the second time I thought I wanted to get back and settle down but really that was the furthest thing from my mind.

I need to break that cycle now and stand on my own two feet! I love being home with the folks which as us travellers know has to be done at times especially when you come back to no job and no money, it's a little safety net. I think I've abused this for too long now and love my parents to pieces but they need to live their life now and enjoy their lives and not have to worry about me. I know I put them through a lot of worry with my last trip and working with racehorses when I had the accident. I like to think I have a bit more wit about me, knowing what to expect and knowing a lot about what makes me tick.

Let the travel plans commence...this is what it's all about

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