Good bye Melbourne, hello world!

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And we're off!

Welcome to our blog....not officially named yet, but we have had a few suggestions. Mine, the most sensible, is “The Traveling Trio”, Nick's was “Nick, Alex and Phoebe's Magical Trip of Doom” or NAPMTOD (pass!), and Phoebe's was “The Trip Casino”, which does have a ring to it but makes no sense at all, especially seeing as we are traveling with a seven year old and casino's are going to be the last place we'll be for the next year!

It has taken many months of preparation for this trip, particularly the last two months which we've spent packing up our house, trying to sell most of our stuff, getting the remaining stuff moved to a rural property 12 hours from our house (long story, but really, it makes more sense than it seems), saying goodbyes, and of course doing so so many countless boring, annoying, tedious JOBS. All administria that mean that we can relax and enjoy our time away. We spent the last three weeks of our time in Melbourne after living in Adelaide for two years, and were lucky enough to get to say in “The Studio” at my Dad and Step-mothers house, which is not to be referred to as a Granny Flat as that is ageist, according to my Grandmother. That didn't stop Phoebe occasionally taking delight in calling it the Granny Flat, although she was never quite so bold as to say it in front of her Great-grandmother.

So, the itinerary....first KL and spending 2.5 weeks in Malaysia, then fly to Cambodia and hang out at the beaches there. Then Vietnam for four weeks, then South China and Hong Kong. From HK we fly to India and travel around for 6 weeks. From there we're still undecided, but the general idea was that we'd either go to Turkey and travel from there through Eastern Europe up to the UK, or we'd fly from India to the UK and do that trip in reverse. As you can probably tell, we're not hugely into planning things, and are intentionally trying to keep things a bit free. As we'll be traveling with a child, I think it will be important to avoid getting caught up in the going places/seeing things, and concentrate more on enjoying ourselves, especially seeing as time is on our side (we've given ourselves 10 months).

Our flight to KL is with Air Asia, which Nick has traveled before, and I have to say, so far so good (I'm writing this on the flight to upload later). We ordered Phoebe a kids meal and a comforter kit which arrived not so long ago....very soggy chips and some chicken nuggets, to which she said “I wish I could always fly Air Asia because then I could eat this meal all the time!”, oh dear. Hopefully some delicious Asian food will cure her of her dreadful palate.

As we will be back-packing throughout our trip, we invested in some rather awesome Mountain Designs backpacks. Perhaps the only downside is that they are *cringe* matching. I have the grey and Nick has the blue. What a dorky travel couple.

“Free wifi” has been a bit of an obsession ever since we got our nifty netbook computer, and McDonalds has been frequented more often than I'd like! I'm finding myself sorely disappointed when we find unrestricted wifi but you have to PAY for it, how rude! Like in Melbourne airport...lame.

We have been brushing up on a bit of Malaysian and have learnt the standard hello, goodbye, yes, no, please, thank-you. We've also been taught some expressions by our Chinese Malaysian friend Alex (who we will meet up with in KL) such as “No worries” (in Cantonese). Nick also taught us to say “Drink Milo and become healthy and strong” which I won't attempt to write in Malay here for fear of mangling the wording/ spelling too badly. We thought we could teach that to Phoebe for extra cute kids points (and maybe even free stuff?). Proudly, Phoebe has already whipped out a “thank-you” to one of the flight attendants.

I hope you all enjoy our travel blogs, and I will try to get another update going in the next few days.

Selamat tinggal!

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Photos

Air Asia Flight
Phoebe with the Air Asia comforter kit, chomping on an Oreo

Comments

[Dad and Rae]

Selamat jalan
Hi Alex, Nick and Phoebe, Hope you have a wonderful time in Malaysia - have a curry laksa for us! Selamet jalan dalam Malaysia dan dunia besar! Kasih banyak, (Lots of love) Dad and Rae xxx

[shelley wickham]

Hello
Hi guys, so glad to hear you have arrived safely have been thinking of you all (and very jealous) Thanks for the update am looking forward to hearing more of your travels as you go along. Love you, miss you, shell, dan, mads, lach xxxxxxxxxxxx

[grangi]

blog name
P,A,N, Is it too late to say that my vote goes to P for a great name.? Names dont have to reflect the purpose etc of that which they name, indeed names often obtain their character or their " memorableness" from useage. I like " THE TRIP CASINO" { origin= Italian for house or cottage Re " ageism" and the studio, what I actually said was that it is " sexist ' to speak of granny flats. If they are built specifically for elderly people they become " elderly persons units, a matter I have fruitlessly raised with housing authorities over the years. Travel well and have fun, Love from Grangi and Grandpa Tom '

[AlexBK]

Sorry Grangi, you're quite right, it IS sexist! I hadn't thought of that. If it helps, I do keep pulling Phoebe into line, but sometimes she just gets cheeky :)

[malique]

i believe the milo jingle/phrase is "minum milo anda jadi sihat dan kuat!"