Our "see you later" drinks

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone that made such an effort and came down to Brighton to say goodbye to us last night. We had the most amazing night but it has made it harder for us to leave as were going to miss you all so much.

We have realised how important our blog, facebook and skype are going to be to keep up to date with everything going on back home . . . .and we can make you all jealous when your working the 9 to 5 while were on the beach.

Our skype account is "jonnyandamber" please add us so we can have a gossip.

We have a few more goodbyes and no doubt there will be a few more tears (from amber) before we depart to Bangkok a week on Tuesday. And although all these farewells are sad we are still unbelievably excited that our adventure is so close to beginning.

Three Weeks To Go

Firstly we would like to apologise for how long it has taken us to update. Im sure though when you read what we have been up to and what we have had to plan you will forgive us. So if you are interested in what we have been up to probably best to grab your self a cup of tea now as you could be here a while.

So the leaving date is coming round very quickly and what seems like yesterday when we had months to go till departure date all of a sudden is three weeks time on Tuesday.

The Route

A few things have had to change with the proposed route that we wanted to complete. Having carried out in depth research we have now decided that we are sadly going to give Laos a miss on our once of a life time journey. This is due to border crossings into Vietnam being very unpredictable in terms of opening times and also the time restraints we find ourselves carrying within the Asia leg of our journey. Instead we are now going to be returning to Bangkok after visiting the north of Thailand. From here we have then decided to catch a flight up to Hanoi (North Vietnam) where we will work our way down the country before entering Cambodia and then back into Thailand. From here the plan is head down to the south of Thailand visiting some of the many islands to soak up the sunshine, enjoy some white beaches and turquoise seas.  After a relaxing period we will head even further south through Malaysia and into Singapore where we are planning to spend a few days with Dad (Lara) who coincidently will be in Singapore on business.

From here the plan is still pretty much the same as we plan to travel to Australia where we will be spending Christmas and most probably New Year in Brisbane. After a planned 6 months touring and working across Australia we will be leaving the sunny climates and heading for the cooler weather of New Zealand.

After a month of touring New Zealand we will be on the move again for some well deserved relaxation on the gorgeous beaches of Fiji.

Fully refreshed and ready to move on, if time and money allow we will be planning on landing in LA and taking in some of the scenes that the west coast of America has to offer before returning back home approximately two weeks later.

Shopping

Sometimes trying to save money for the trip of a life time can seem extremely hard when at weekends all we seem to be doing is going shopping for the essentials that we will require while travelling. Needless to say Amber has been in her element.

Insurance, clothes, mosquitoes nets, rucksacks, day bags, money belts, waterproofs, toiletries, sun cream, walking shoes and a Netbook Laptop are just to name a few of the many items on the list.

Injections

I think that it is fair to say that we both want to stay fit and healthy while away and to make sure that this is the case we have had to have a few injections including Typhoid, Diphtheria, Hepatitis A & B, Tetanus.

I think it is fair to say that our arms are beginning to feel like pin cushions.

Staying In Touch

At least now having a Netbook (mini laptop) we will be able to stay in touch with all of you that are following us. If you would like to stay in touch with us we have set up a skype account and a round the world email address which we will be giving out in a future blog . We really want to stay in touch with you all and would love to receive any emails and chat to you over skype should the time difference allows us to.

You can be guaranteed that hundreds and thousands of photos will be taken and either put onto Facebook or this blog. If we are visiting a place that you may have been and believe is worth a trip please let us know and we will add it to the many places already on the list that we wish to visit.

Finally

So for now the packing continues and the Goodbyes have to start being handed out to close friends and family.

Were really going Travelling

The flights have been booked, it is all feeling real now, we are actually going travelling.

After many weeks of searching the Internet, telephone calls and emails to find which company to use to book our flights, we decided to book with STA Travel. We sat in the Guildford branch for over 4 hours searching for the best deal. With a lot of date switching and swooping one airline for another we found the route we wanted at a price we were very happy with. Andy, the travel agent at STA Travel who we were dealing with was fantastic and a massive help. I think it would be fair to say though that as we walked out the door he was probably glad to see the back of us.

Booking some of the flights have been a little difficult due to airlines only releasing seats 11 months in advanced. As some of the flights are more than 11 month in advance the dates for the latter part of the trip have to be dummy dates until the seats are released later in the year. This however shouldn’t be too much of a problem as STA offer a package which allows unlimited flight changes for £99, this is something that we managed to negotiate into the price of our ticket, and now allows us to change the later flights in out trip to dates that suit our timetable.

The flights are as follows:

Flying with Emirates - Heathrow to Bangkok - Tuesday 4^th October 22:00 London

Singapore to Brisbane 12^th December

Sydney to Christchurch – date to be confirmed

Auckland to Fiji – date to be confirmed

Fiji to LA – date to be confirmed

LA to home – date to be confirmed

Having now booked the flights I think its fair to say that we are more than a little excited at what lays ahead. Travelling has all of a sudden become real. We leave for Bangkok in four and a half months.

The Initial Ideas

Ok so hear it goes for the first post of many. I guess we need to talk about our plans and what we want to achieve on our travels.

So the basic plan that we have so far is as follows....

October: Leave England and head to Thailand

Start of November: Head through Cambodia to reach Vietnam

November: Get to Vietnam and spend the month travelling from the south to the north

December: Catch a flight from Hanoi to Bangkok

December 12^th ish: Fly to Australia where we are going to look to buy a camper-van.

December 25^th: Spend Christmas in Brisbane

January 1^{st :} Celebrate New Year in Sydney

January, February and March: Explore Australia and carry out some part time work so we dont forget that nasty working feeling.

April: Fly to New Zealand, working our way round the South Island before moving up to the North Island.

May: Spend a week or so in Fiji, have a bit of a holiday

Middle of May: If your lucky we may come home.