This shit is happening. For real. We have not booked anything quite yet, but the plans are coming together. We have another meeting with another travel agent this Saturday, so things will continue in their progression.
It looks like we will be flying out around the 28th of August for Tokyo. After a week to 10 days in Japan, we will be flying to Bangkok, Thailand - after 2 days in Bangkok, we will take the train south to Phuket. Five days in Phuket will see us checking out the beaches, riding elephants, trekking through the jungle, amongst other awesome things I am sure. After Phuket, we will be traveling to Ko Phangan - and island of Thailand's east coast. We plan to spend 4 or 5 days there, staying in a bungalow on the beach for less money than it costs to take the bus here in Vancouver...
Some sweet HDR shots in Thailand
After Ko Phangan - it's back up to Bangkok for another 2 days before flying to Hanoi, Vietnam. In Hanoi, we will take in the city for a few days, check out Halong Bay and probably take a trip up to Sa Pa, in Vietnam's northern countryside. There is an awesome eco-lodge just outside of Sa Pa where we want to spend a night or two - but the town itself is relatively unchanged by tourism. It's starting to have its effects, but it is not like much of the rest of the 3rd world tourist destinations - here you can even set up home-stays with local families... that may still be an option for us...
Countryside in Sapa, Vietnam
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
All of this will bring us to early October, when we will be making our way to Australia. We've got a wedding to attend, and I've got family and friends to become acquainted with... this is a little bit nerve racking, but I am ready for it... excited even. After a month of taking it easy, we will be driving up to coast to Cairns. Our road trip will take about 2 weeks - and I plan to make a stop in Rockhampton to see Shane. Hopefully he is around...
What will be my home in Australia - Brisbane...
Upon returning from our journey to the north - we will be flying to Singapore where we will spend 7 days. The details of this stop have yet to be researched, but we are both confident it will be sweet.
Singapore at night...
This is about as far as our planning has taken us as of this moment. We plan to fly back to Vancouver from Singapore - taking a few days to a week to visit, rest, unpack, organize, repack, and find ourselves a cheap flight to London. From London, we will take a train up north to Scotland - where in Scotland we are not sure yet... I want my time in scotland to be something different though, so different from the life I know and am accustomed to here in Vancouver. I want a tiny apartment. I want a brick building. I want no furniture - just a mattress in the middle of the room, and enough cookware to make a meal. I want to eat right out of the pots and pans if we have to. I don't want computers, or internet, or tv. I don't want anything...
From time to time - I ponder the fact that we have all become so attached to commodities. To things that we do not need. I am the worst for it. I am falling victim to it as I type this... I while I believe that it is possible to cut back... to use these commodities less if you make an effort to enjoy other things - I also believe that it would serve better to start fresh. I want to reinvent myself on this trip. Maybe not with the hopes of changing forever - but with that hope that in an entirely new environment, I might be able to make such a change to the things that I depend on, and hopefully this change will help me to appreciate the little things in life even more. Hopefully it will spark something new in me that will have even a small change when life resumes its normalcy. Or maybe life won't resume as I know it now...I guess I really can't say right now.
I've also started to consider the idea that it may be impossible to be sure where we are happiest in life if we never leave home. I am watching my friends find contention in what is comfortable. What is easy. They get married, have babies, buy houses... and while that is great and wonderful, I don't think I could do that... I always have assumed that Vancouver is my home, but really, I have no grand attachment to this place anymore. I feel like this trip will help. Maybe we will find someplace new - someplace that feels more like home than this city is able. Or maybe we won't, and this place will suddenly feel more welcoming that it does now. Either way, I am happy to take some time to find out. I guess this is my big thought for the week... and while it is technically 2 days late... it will have to do.
Take some time to think about it. We know everything in life through experience. Whether it is our own, or through the experience of another - we only know what we can see and feel... We spend our lives not trying to figure out who we are, but learning who we are not. Our experience of the things, the people, the places that we don't like - those realizations govern our knowledge about the people, places, and things that we do like. See, I don't often look back on the things I have done thinking ' man, that made me feel awesome' - it would seem that the actions which made me feel terrible are the ones I hold dear. It is those experience ,where I could stop and think to myself, 'this is not me, this is not who I am' - those are the things I remember, and those are the moments that make me who I am.
So the concept of home really does follow those same principles...
We know our home because it's what we have been taught, it is something we don't usually question. But how can we be sure it is really 'home' unless we leave it for a while...
So - I am going to leave it for a while and see what happens...
