To Do Whilst Travelling

This is a list of stuff that Tom and I wrote down so that we could get excited about our trip. Just wanted to capture it somewhere so that we can see if we achieve them:

1. Drink beer out of a coconut
2. See a 3 legged dog
3. Put part of a limb in the Ganges (this one is Tom's - I'm not doing this!)
4. Stay in a local's home
5. Cook with the locals
6. Ride a bike in India
7. Watch the sun rise or set over the himalayas
8. Tom to drink snake blood (not me!)
9. Tom has promised not to decline anything anyone offers him to drink. I think he's crazy
10. Learn at least a new word everyday in the local language
11. Sit in a pub and talk to the locals
12. Be in a bollywood film
13. Stay on an island only accessible by boat
14. Update online blog at least weekly
15. Tom to firewalk
16. Karen - learn to juggle (*actually i've already learned this so I want to get better!)
17. Make one child smile everyday!
18. Ride an elephant
19. Tom says he's going to eat dog or cat - yuck
20. Do a thai cooking course
21. Learn about different indigenous religions
22. Go to a full moon party
23. Have a "special" pizza
24. Go snorkelling off a thai island
25. Watch the sun set over the ganges
26. Wear indian clothes
27. Fall asleep in a hammock
28. Buy indian bangles
29. Sit and observe in an indian temple
30. Have xmas with James and Claire somewhere exotic
31. Watch the burning ghats
32. Drink tea in darjeeling
33. See everest
34. Climb to over 3500m
35. Get a massage in asia
36. Get henna tattoos

Drifters

We are now unemployed, homeless, possessionless hobos. And it feels so good! We have rented our house to some lovely girls going to griffith university, have moved out, have stopped working, have packed our backpacks and we're now down at Byron with mum and dad saying some last goodbyes.

Foo, Sharna, Fiona, Tom and I sat out on the front lawn yesterday evening, dad's beautiful soft grass under our rumps, watching the sun go down. The sky was an incredible blue merging into an incredible pink and it was amazing to see. I feel so lucky to have a place like this to come to, especially to know that it will be here when I come home. This picture was taken at dawn from my parents front lawn and this is the view.... i bet you don't wonder why i love it here.

We had a lovely evening last night sitting around the campfire with all the guys. Was good to see everyone together and having a good time.... much booze was had, much wood was burned and much laughter filled the crisp night air of Newrybar. I felt a few times a little melancholy about the prospect of not doing this for the year or more, but there was too much happiness around that fire to stay in my mood for long. Fiona and I did cartwheels and acted like teenagers - i always feel more youthful coming to mum and dad's place - could have been 17 again last night.

There's so few days til we go, and I'm really glad to be here spending it with Mum and Dad. They're wonderful people and so warm and loving. It will be a wrench to say goodbye but it's going to be an amazing adventure.

Next post will probably be in the UK. WOo hoo!

Stuff

Less than three weeks til we go!

Pretty pictures to entice us.

House!

My lovely house. Another test blog.

Testing images

Check it out. Just learning to use the blog. This is a picture of my beautiful cat, Kitty!

I'm gonna miss her.

It (Almost) Begins

Hey Folks So, it's less than three weeks til we go and i thought I'd better start a blog so that everyone can see what we're up to for our trip and get used to looking here. We'll obviously not start really using the site til we're in India but I'll send emails to remind you. Will be a good record of our trip I think and will be interesting to look back and see what we did on our travels. SO, the plan is 2nd August we leave Australia for the UK and lots of cider and chilling out with TOm's family in Devon. 20th September we leave for India and we'll be there for 2 months (ish). THen to SE Asia - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and also hopefully to Hong Kong to see my older bro, Kris. THen back to the UK for TOm's sister's wedding in April 2008. Lots of travel to be done between now and then. Just testing the site really to see what it offers. Will try posting some photos and see how easy it is etc. Bon voyage to us! Kxxx