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Published: November 30th 2005
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The Gear
Just like a Turtle with my home on my back! 7 months, 5 continents, 3 credit cards, 2 backpacks, 1 goal. Do as the locals do and bring it all home with me. Ok so I'm not planning on eating melon glazed larvae or wiping my arse with my hand but for all intents and purposes, this trip will focus primarily on the foreign cultures we visit. It has become apparent to me that after graduating college and entering the so called "real world," I need to step out of the bubble I call my daily life and and a big giant leap into the literal REAL WORLD.
Initially I made a simple list of goals, things I wanted to accomplish in order to make this trip a success. As it turns out, the extreme adventure list of Bungy Jumping, Sky Diving and Whitewater Rafting will all have check marks next to them before I leave New Zealand. Then there's the Cricket and Rugby Matches I've been dying to see, the amazing surf and snorkeling that's on the list but I won't even get out of Australia before that's all accomplished... This is by no means a complaint but rather an indication of the grandeur of the trip we have been planning these last few months. So to not get to far ahead of myself, as this trip has had a tendency to already become overwhelming in my own mind and I haven't gone anywhere yet, I've decided not to make too many long term goals for the trip and to focus on the here and now of the country we will be enjoying. Australia and NZ have been the easiest to research and plan due to the nature of the Beast, 2 popular English speaking tourist destinations that many of you, the American readers of this blog, have already visited.
True, the Australia and New Zealand "itineraries" that we've concocted do have a bit of a meandering travel path to them, but it isn't until after we depart Sydney for Bombay (where my only goal is to ride an elephant) that the zig-zagging and cris-crossing really gets fun. I won't even bother to speculate what our final path across the globe will look like, but it will be the path of least resistance that will allow us to continue on our journey without ever really returning anywhere. We've both mocked the term itinerary because it infers that there is a set plan. The only plan we had with this "itinerary" was that we would deviate from it as often as possible. We haven't a single hostel reservation, bus ticket, park pass or anything else that one would commonly associate with an itinerary so instead we have a broad path that we'll follow so that we can make the flights that we've already purchased.
Fortunately for me, Royal, my traveling partner and friend since age 5, has been living in South East Asia for the past few months and has gotten to know the lay of the land as much as any Easterner can. After we finish our tour of the war torn gift of a land known as SE Asia, we are treated to another one of our full day flights, this time from Hong Kong to South Africa. If my beard isn't grizzly by then, it will surely start to shine as we will attempt to navigate our way along the coast of southern and eastern africa to Mt Kilimanjaro and the safaris that surround. Of all I've read and researched, this is by far the most dangerous area of destinations we will visit along the way. Consequently, the British are the only willing members of the avation community willing to fly us out of Eastern Africa, so London will become our hub in Europe. Our last leg of this venture can only be described as a whirlwind 2 week, grand firework finale! Whatever money is leftover at this point in the trip will be spent shamelessly at any and every pub we see in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Dublin.
Barring any mishaps or life altering epiphanies, I hope to see you all at some point and share more stories after our triumphant return to the Eastern Seaboard in central July 2006.
The Ametuer Documentary chronicling this trip entitled "Fishbowl Escape" will appear in limited release at select theatres in New York and Los Angeles, Fall 2006.
The soundtrack will be pirated from the internet and be available on Royal's or my iPod.
I hope to keep these blogs churning as often as possible or whenever we reach an internt connection so keep an eye peeled. As I have subscribed 99%!o(MISSING)f you reading this first blog, if you know of anyone else who would enjoy reading this blog that is not already receiving it, they may subscribe to the list below.
Click here for Royal's Blog See you on the other side!
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Jim
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Good intro lynch, I'm pretty fucking jealous of what your doing so you better keep up the blogs so that I can live vicariously through you and royal's travels, hahahha....have a blast and try not to get malaria, hepatitus, ect.