Eighty days to go.



A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao Tzu

Sometimes it takes an awful lot of courage to just bite the bullet and do something, whatever that may be; leaving a job, a break up, giving someone close to you a few home truths, or booking the trip of a lifetime. I did the latter yesterday and I don’t think it has quite occurred to me that this is it – I'm now on the countdown to departure.

Eighty days.

It sounds quite a lot doesn't it? But it really isn't. That’s eighty days to figure out just how much it’s going to cost and see whether I have enough money. That’s eighty days to sell up most of my life, leave my job, meet up with friends I haven’t seen in a long time, get myself some travel essentials (namely a new wardrobe, most of my clothes aren't especially travel friendly), apply for an Australian bank account, learn some basic (and I really do mean basic here) Thai, book a few tours for Thailand, and most importantly – have a full blown Christmas dinner in November. 

I’d like to think that over the next few weeks everything will start falling into place. Yesterday I finally booked my flights so prior to then I've been feeling a little limbo-like. I knew I was going, of course I did, but it didn't feel real. I'm not 100% sure whether it feels real now but it is – oh boy it is. 

I have my itinerary planned somewhat until I touch down in Perth (and I guess a little after that to). The idea now is to fly out on the 15th November, via Dubai (again I get to visit that lovely airport), and arrive in Bangkok on the 16th midday. That’s quite nice, it gives me a chance to get to a hostel (I will book it, I will) and plonk my stuff in the room, freshen up and have a really good mooch around to see where I am and take it all in. I don’t have much time in Bangkok so I need to make the most of it, even if I will be running on very little sleep and 7 hour jet lag. Thai coffee anyone? 

After a few days in Bangkok I go up to Chiang Mai for x-amount of days (I've still not decided, okay? You know my problem with committing to things) and I've been told that I simply must do the three day jungle trek. I'm torn between two, one goes white water rafting and the other doesn't (just bamboo rafting) and there’s only £2 between them both so I don’t really know what to do there. If I'm a little pushed for time (again, I really need to sit down and see what the timing is like) I’ll just do a two day trek. I think they all include a trip to see the elephants but I refuse to go if they force them to do ‘tricks’. It just isn't natural and not far from treating them like circus elephants. There is short elephant trek through the jungle which does seem nice (I'm battling in my head between the ethics though) but I think I can decide that on the day whether I do it or not. I just want to ensure they’re looked after and wouldn't carry too much weight. 

Following the trek I'm not really sure of the must-see places in Chiang Mai. Obviously I want to go to Wat Rong Khun which I believe is about 2-2.5 hours away. For that I’ll see how much an organised trip is (purely for ease of getting there and back) or see how much a local bus/train would be. 

Following Chiang Mai I need to get myself down to Koh Tao as mentioned previously. The easiest option for me (to cut down on time travelling) looks like it’ll be to get a flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok (costing approximately £24 with my bags checked in) and then get the bus or train down to Chumphon so I can take the ferry across to Koh Tao. From Koh Tao (after the diving and little exploration if I have time) I want to go to Koh Phangan and again, after a little exploration probably grab the night boat to Surat Thani for the trek towards the new little addition to my trip.

I need to get to Singapore.

I gave myself three days to get there (in retrospect I wish I chose a little longer, how lovely it would be to properly see Malaysia along the way), but the basic plan is to somehow get from Surat Thani to Kuala Lumpur, spend a night there and then grab a flight to Singapore (takes a whopping one hour and costs, again, about £25). Then, I've got until the evening of the 10th before my flight heads out to Perth.

Crazy.

It’ll all come together – I know it will. I have a knack of wanting to map out every footstep I could possibly take and thrive on taking control because I'm just so scared of failing. It’s just what I'm used to. I am getting better, for example these blueberry puddings might completely fail once I pop them in the oven to steam but if they do it is hardly a matter of life and death, it just means I won’t be winning the Great British Bake Off any time soon. This adventure is going to be a huge test of character to see whether I can really loosen the strings and just let whatever happens happen. Maybe now it’s time to start utilising one of my favourite little phrases huh? Hakuna matata, it means no worries.




twitter • bloglovin'


2 comments:

  1. Yay you got your own website :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh wow, only 80 days to go! The countdown has begun, I am so excited for you hun and really hope you get a chance to blog about your travels as I have been loving your posts and can't wait to read about this excited adventure once it begins! x

    ReplyDelete

 

Blogger news

Blogroll

About

Follow on Bloglovin