My Round the World Plan!!

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After about 3 years of planning, I've finally booked my flights around the world and I leave in less than a month!!! It's exciting, but I'm a bit nervous too and I still have so much to get organised! I do at least have two weeks off work before I leave to get myself organised. So anyway, this is my plan:

Helsinki: Chris and I leave London Heathrow on Thursday July 30th at 18.20 for Helsinki, Finland, arriving really late! We'll spend a couple of days there having a look around and maybe going to one of the island restaurants....but not the Arctic Ice Bar, which sounded really cool (pun intended!), because you have to be 24 to get in!

Tallinn: We're going to get the hydrofoil over to Tallinn in Estonia at some point on August 2nd and spend a couple of days there. Tallinn looks very pretty with nice cobbled streets in the Old Town

Lahemaa National Park: We're going to hire a car from Tallinn and spend a couple of days in this national park about an hour or so away. Chris wants to go kayaking and I want to go see some erratic boulders!

St. Petersburg: We are taking an overnight bus (with extra legroom!) from Tallinn to St. Petersburg on August 7th and we have 4 days here. I really want to go see a Russian ballet....just have to persuade Chris!

Moscow: We're taking an overnight train from St. Petersburg to Moscow on August 11th. Chris wants to visit Lenin's Mausoleum, which his actual embalmed body...I'm not so keen!! We both leave Moscow in the afternoon of August 16th; Chris is heading back the UK 😞 and I am heading off to Bangkok for the rest of my adventure!!!

Northern Thailand: I'll be in Northern Thailand about 10 days to 2 weeks and I'm planning to spend some time in Bangkok and visit the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Death Railway from there and head up to Chiang Mai before heading to the border with Laos

Laos: From the border I'll take the slowboat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang and have a look at the scenery and waterfalls and then go to Vang Vien for some river tubing and Vientiane from some sight seeing

Vietnam: It's a long bus ride over to Hanoi, but hopefully good fun too! I'm hoping to go on a junk cruise in Halong Bay (day cruise, or overnight, depending on funds!) and then travel by train and bus down the coast of Vietnam stopping at Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang etc. before getting to Ho Chi Minh in the south

Cambodia: I'll got by bus and boat from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Pehn in Cambodia, to visit the Killing Fields and Khmer Rouge sites. I'll then head to Siem Reap where I'll visit the temples of Angkor Wat.....hopefully I'll be able to get myself out of bed early enough for a sunrise visit!

Southern Thailand: I'm then planning to go to Krabi, via Bangkok, for a couple of days on the beach and from here do a Khao Sok National Park tour where I can stay in Tree-Top huts and On-The-Water raft houses and go elephant trekking and kayaking

Malaysia: I will be meeting my Mum, Dad and sis Emily in Langkawi around October 10th and we're going to spend a few days there on the beach and fly for a day trip to Penang, which will be nice because we'll get to see the islands from the air! We'll then got to Kuala Lumpur and visit the Cameron Highlands from there, and make our way south stopping in Melaka and Port Dickson to see where Dad grew up!

Singapore: We'll have a couple of days here. Mum, Dad and Em leave on the 22nd, I think, and I leave on October 24th. I want to get a nice Singapore Sling in the Raffles......and I'm hoping Mum and Dad will treat me to it, cos I think it'll be expensive!

India: I'm flying from Singapore to Mumbai and then a few hours later to Kolkata for Brij and Louise's wedding and where I get to see Chris again 😊 We're there for a week and it sounds very exciting! We're then all flying down to Trivandrum for a week to relax and spend some time on the beach. It'll be nice to have a break from hostels for a change too!

Australia: I fly out of Trivandrum on November 7th and go via Mumbai (where I stay overnight, so might get a chance for a little sight-seeing!) and Singapore to Melbourne. Melbourne I'm looking forward to, cos I get to see the Neighbours set!!!! And also penguins on the beach at Phillip Island! I'm then going to travel up the coast, stopping at places like Hunter Valley, Port Macquarie, Brisbane, Fraser Island, the Whitsundays etc. (but bypassing Sydney) up to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. I'm thinking of doing a skydive and trying surfing somewhere here too - which my sisters find hilarious! I leave Cairns on December 19th and fly to Uluru for a couple of days to visit there and Kings Canyon. I'm then flying back to Sydney to spend Christmas and New Year there!

New Zealand: On January 3rd I fly from Sydney to Auckland. I haven't completely decided how I want to get about here. My sister Becky is recommending hiring a car, which is what she did, but I like the look of the Stray Bus too. I'm really looking forward to New Zealand; can't wait to see the White Island volcano, do a glacier walk, maybe some white water rafting and go cage diving with sharks! I'm also looking forward to some good chocolate at the Cadbury factory in Dunedin!

Hawaii: After 6 weeks in New Zealand, I fly out of Auckland on February 14th and go via Sydney to Honolulu for 10 days in Hawaii. I want to spend a couple of days in Honolulu and Waikiki and visit Pearl Harbour, then I'll fly over to Hilo on the Big Island. The place I want to stay at, Arnott's Lodge, looks really good, because they organise lots of volcano and star watching tours. Depending on how much money I have left, they also do scenic flights to take you to look at the lava flows from the air, which would be really fun!

USA: After Hawaii, I fly over to San Francisco. I've got 10 days here, but I might see about getting an internal flight to Cincinnati to visit my cousins Sharon and Dean and their children for a couple of days too. I can't wait to see the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset! My last day here is March 6th 2010 and I leave at 1950, flying back into Heathrow on March 7th at 2pm.

So that's the plan!!! I'm hoping to keep this travelblog up to date while I'm away, so that anyone who wants to can see what I'm up to and so I can post all my photos...well, not all of them, just the good ones, because apparently I tend to take a lot! That's it for now....xxx

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