Flying the nest

 As I'm sure some of you may have read that I have been travelling in my about me page.  I do think about my time away most days and take myself back to those lovely places I visited in my mind.  Contemplating most pay cheques how much would it take to just pack up my stuff and hop over to the otherside of the world again! So with this in mind I want to blog for the next few days about my travelling highlights and things that I got up to beginning to end....this could take some time, strap in promise I'll try not to make it too painful!


 Looking back now I should have read more blogs before going away as they are so helpful and full of tips but you live and learn hey! Hopefully I can give some advice to those other adventures out there!

So I had a few places in mind that I knew I wanted to go.  My original list of places that I wanted to visit were Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Australia.  A vast majority of it was SE Asia.

Firstly I popped down to my local STA and had a chat with the most helpful and lovely lady called Liza.  So if you live in Bournemouth and you are thinking about getting some information, I can't speak highly enough of her.  She made the whole planning procedure so straightforward and easy, and was helpful in planning my route that I wanted to take.  I know that is her job to do all of those things, but she really didn't make it feel like that and carried on helping even when I was away! So Liza if your out there props to you, you're a delight.  This way of booking my ticket also saved me quite a lot of money as I added the multiflex pass so that I could change or push back any of my flights three times.  Really useful and so worth the money.  Can't recommend enough.

I also just happened to meet my now fiancee (very exciting news, but that's for another post) a few months before I went travelling, this threw a massive spanner in the works in relation to how long I really wanted to go away for.  I had been working a whole year to save for this trip praying that I wouldn't meet someone, (Debbie downer I know but long distance isn't the best thing) but in the end it was one of the best things to have ever happened to me.  I had a few friends that had been in the same position, and ended up coming back early and I really didn't want that for myself, if I was going to do it, I wanted to really go for it.

I swear the hardest part, and I am really surprised that I did it was actually to leave.  Bearing in mind at 23 the furthest I had moved was to a student house around the corner from my parents house, and even then after a year I ended up coming back.   It was emotionally draining to say goodbye to all my little home comforts, sell belongings and pack my life into boxes.  There were a few points where I had to really question if what I was doing was the right thing.  I don't know if there are many others that have the same feeling?  Did you get homesick before you even left?

 But along came the 29th of December and with a little push and shove (and a LOT of downsizing, thank you Sam and Maya couldn't have squeezed and so neatly rolled my bits and bobs if it wasn't for you) I set off!

My first port of call was Thailand but I'll talk more about that next time. Until then!

Cheerio!

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