Friday 23 October 2015

23rd October 2015 - 3 weeks to go and I haven't got a plan.....

well not a good one at any rate....

I do have a loose collection of ideas, but no real plans, and my preparation time is starting to run just a little bit short now. I fly for Bali from the UK on November the 15th 2015, 3 weeks and 2 days to go. I leave work in 2 and a half.

When I leave Bristol in 23 days, I will have no job to return to, and no house or ties either, A few small belongings and non small clothing items may find their way into storage, with either friends or family if they have the room, but nothing larger than what can be contained in a couple of bags. I'm not planning on never returning of course but I'm not sure when that will be, and I don't want to keep things for the sake of keeping things. Ties to the past are something I don't want or need.

I have a finite amount of money which I need to make last as long as I can and probably no way to make any extra income as I travel (as yet). Diabetes and it's potential complications hang around like a ball and chain and if, to start with I can survive away from the U.K in the hot and humid conditions constant in Asia for 6 months, I will be happy. If I can stretch it out any more than that and become more comfortable in those conditions, well, I might even start showing positive emotional signs on the outside too. Stranger things have happened (although not that many that I am actually aware of, perhaps only the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947).

So I start off in Indonesia, a place of which I admittedly know virtually nothing, then plan to make my way up to Thailand for Christmas, maybe Myanmar and Laos in January and March, with a couple of weeks in between teaching kids english if I can get my rear into gear and book something up. I'm currently at the point of writing up the final exam piece of an Online TEFL Course, and whilst it's doubtful I'd ever become good teacher material, it would be a good to experience it in some way, however small. And I guess, again........you never really know....the boot might just fit.

Also on my loose travel list, Northern Vietnam (after abandoning my last trip due to the impending approach of typhoon Haiyan in late 2013), Hong Kong, China and hopefully Taiwan. There's still a lot to plan, and think about. At least I have my travel injections done already and anti malaria tablets ready to go. I have a Flu jab scheduled in for tomorrow morning at 8:40am which will undoubtably rough me up a little for a couple of days, so not really expecting to get much done this weekend. This will then leave me with 2 spare weekends to finalise storage and goodbyes, and evenings to get the few last bits of medical necessities, notes and the like organised to avoid any immigration issues.

I swear that in my 60 litre backpack, initially a quarter of that will be my own personal medical supplies, including insulin and the accompanying cool bag and cool blocks to stop the insulin become unusable in the warm temperatures. the space needed will obviously diminish over time as I travel,  but at the start of a trip thats a fair bit of room that is going to be taken up. There is no concession that can be made on that one.

So not long to go, and much to do about nothing. A foolhardy trip into the not so unknown beckons and it could be a great experience. I'm leaving behind very little to return to, but that's not to say it will be easy to leave, or even enjoy to begin with. For a man with my absolute lack of natural social skills, travelling like this is never easy, but it is probably (most likely) a necessity from time to time......