Planning the dream
This is the first post of my travel blog. The intension of this blog is to hold a record of my travels and associated photos. So here I am, April fools day 2006. Newcastle Utd have had an uncharacteristic win against Spurs (3-1) while I have been thinking of what to write here.
First a little bit of background: I am 32 and I have been scrimping and saving for years to fund a global travel adventure that has been a dream of mine for sometime now. I love travelling and I have already visited around 30 countries. I love meeting fellow travellers from around the globe, like-minded people with an adventurous spirit. I am the type of guy that can observe maps for hours on end and wonder what these places on the map I am viewing are actually like. I mean, is Mount Fuji really that conical? Do you really get short of breath trekking high in the Andes? What is the Gobi desert really like? Are the Thai beaches really that beautiful? Is the squalor in India that bad? I yearn for answers to many similar questions due to my inquisitive inclination and I want to find out the answers for myself.
There are other reasons for my itchy feet. I joined the Royal Navy from school in 1991 and left the submarine service in 2001. On balance I enjoyed my time in the RN - plenty of variety. In conrtast, since leaving the RN I’ve had countless jobs and not held any of them for more than one year. Unfortunatley I have a very low boredom threshold and a mind that craves constant stimulation and fresh experiences. Working in some sh*tty office environment fixing PCs for simpletons does not provide this. Furthermore, I find the whole work concept absolutely f*cking soul destroying. People arse-licking their way up a slimey corporate pole. People in senior positions that can’t f*cking read and write properly. People thinking they are vital when they clearly aren’t. Office politics etc. You heard it here first: Nepetism rules. You never see the friends of a ‘Recruitment Consultant’ unemployed do you? F*ck that. I’ll face that sh*t when I grow up and have kids, only then will I relinquish my present freedom and become a wage slave! Top tip: Make sure you get on with your gaffer and never show any potential employer this paragraph.
Sorry about the language there! No more - I promise.
So, a few years ago, I decided to concentrate all my efforts on realising this dream. This effectively meant I had subscribed to living like a tramp for two years saving every penny I feasibly could. I have spent many (albeit enjoyable) hours planning and researching the trip. This has involved trawling through travel websites and forums for tips, ideas and advice. My endeavours ‘finally’ appear to be coming to fruition as my departure looms - I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is getting brighter everyday. I plan to leave on the 12th June 2006 - only two more months to go and I am very excited - in fact I can’t seem to think of anything else. In true Stevieblunder style the first leg of my journey is a £1 bus trip from Newcastle to Aberdeen - beat that!
I have just purchased the last of my vaccinations (£280 ouch! I think the price hurts more then the jabs) and organised my Mongolian visa. I still have to sort out my Russian and Chinese visas. I have paid for my trans-siberian St Petersburg to Beijing train trip. I have sorted ferry tickets to the Shetlands, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Latvia.
My house should be sold by the end of May and I finish my Post Graduate Certificate in Renewable Energy at Newcastle University next week. I have opened a Nationwide Flex account which doesn’t charge for overseas withdrawls. I have also opened a high interest online savings account. So everything appears to be on track. I am currently trying to sell every possession I have which is cool as my mantra is ‘Possession is Theft’!
So what am I doing? Where am I going? Well I don’t really have any solid plans as such. I am going to go wherever I fancy within the framework of a loose itinery. I plan to travel for between 1 and 2 years spending around £20000 in the process. I feel extremely lucky and priveleged to be afforded this opportunity, very few people in the world can undertake a journey like this for a whole litany of reasons. You need to be very focused to end up with such a chance.
I want to use as few flights as possible - primarily for environmental reasons and secondly just for the hell of it. My ‘loose itinery’ is: Ferry to Shetland - Faroe - Iceland - Denmark - Sweden - Latvia. Overland to Lithuania - Estonia - St Petersburg - Moscow - Siberia - Mongolia - Beijing. Ferry to Japan - South Korea - Okinawa - Taiwan - Hong Kong. Overland to Tibet - Nepal - India - Sri Lanka. Fly to Thailand. Overland Cambodia - Vietnam - Laos - Malaysia - Singapore. Fly to Phillipines. Indonesia - Australia - NZ - Pacific Islands - LA - Mexico - South America - Antartica - Africa.
Like I say - nothing is really fixed in the above list. I aim to do a ‘Teach English as a Foreign Language’ course in Thailand as I fancy working in Taiwan and learning Mandarin Chinese on completion of this trip. My other personal goals are to climb Mt Kilimanjaro, travel across both the Arctic and Antarctic circles, step on all seven continents, spend a month in Tibet and see Everest base camp, sleep in a jungle, spend a month chilling on a beautiful Pacific island and generally leave the spirit crushing monotony of Western life for a while.
Watch this site for fortnightly’ish’ updates. Ciao.
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