The Very Beginning!

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Well this is my first ever blog, hello! I thought I would create it to log my plans of travelling and the travel itself, mainly as a reminder to me and to look back on my thoughts and plans, and for those who are interested to read about while I’m away, and sometimes - especially in the planning stages - to just waffle to myself when everyone is sick of hearing about it or not really interested in the first place!

I have wanted to travel for a long time, and not knowing anyone who feels the same and not having the guts to go alone, I’ve never been. But that is going to change! I am still without a travel buddy but am getting more determined as time passes…I don’t want it to just be a dream and something I will always wish I’d done. After moving back home with my parents at the end of last year, I decided it was something I definately wanted to do and living at home gave the perfect opportunity to be able to seriously save. Sadly only on minimum wage, so in order to watch the money in my ISA go up as much as possible I can’t remember the last night out I had. After paying a little to parents for rent and allowing a little to live off, £500 has gone in on pay day for about the last 5 months, and at the mo there’s £2,700, slowly accumulating until I get the courage to book!

There are many places I would love to visit, but as I am going solo I decided to focus on Australia and New Zealand, as although I wouldn’t feel amazingly confident arriving alone, at least there isn’t a language barrier, and not as much problem with culture shock. I started looking at RTW (round the world) tickets, as they can prove great value, and seeing as you’re travelling such a long way, it would seem a shame not to stop off ‘en route’. A well trodden backpack path and first time route goes something like UK - Bangkok - Sydney - Auckland - Fiji - LA - UK. I was thinking of doing something similar to this, or Japan instead of Fiji and the states. After a holiday in Tokyo a few years ago I would love to see some more of the country. Annoyingly decisiveness is not one of my strongest qualities, and i cant decide what route to go with or whether to just stick with oz and nz. But it would be cool to see some of Thailand on the way, and I’ve been keeping an eye out on gapyear.com on the travel mates section, in case I have any luck coming across someone who is up for flying out or doing the first bit together…help ease the nerves! Failing that I’ve started to look at maybe doing a tour type thing with someone like intrepid travel, or a week with Thai intro. More pricey than making your own way about, but I don’t think I’ve got the nerve to go the first leg totally alone!

Timewise I’m thinking about 3-4 months, partly due to money, partly because of going solo and partly because I dont really want to leave my boyfriend for much longer! Of course I’ll miss him as it is, but I dont want a relationship to stop me travelling and then to regret not giving it a go. I’m lucky as he knows its something I want to do and wants me to go, it would be great if he could come too but its just not something he’s interested in, each to their own! He was saying about having another holiday in Tokyo and would be amazing if he could meet me out there, but its probably unlikely he’ll have the money. See how it goes!

So if going with the RTW option, at the mo I’m thinking probably about a couple of weeks in Thailand, 6 weeks in OZ, 4 weeks in NZ, and maybe about 3 in Japan. I’m hoping to leave around January 09, should have about £5,000 by then. That’ll be for everything and could do with a bit more, so may leave a couple of months later, see what happens! Sounds amazing, now I just need to make some decisions and start booking things!

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