My plan of travelling light didn’t quite work, my 45+10 litre pack is completely stuffed to the brim. I was hoping to have some space to put stuff in that I buy. I have to give myself some credit though. Included in my pack is eight t-shirts three pairs of shorts and two pairs of track bottoms that I won’t be needing after I’ve finished in China. And they take up quite a lot of space!
I did however manage to fit six t-shirts in a compression sack and then compress them down into a solid block of cotton. Which is good 🙂

Yep, my departure from the currently very wet and chilly Plymouth retreat can be measure in hours. As the day of departure looms I increasingly get asked if I’m excited, scared, nervous or any other host of leaving emotions. Truth be told I’m not really feeling anything. I have a lists, a list of things I need to do and a list of that must be packed. I’m working through these lists and making sure that I complete everything that needs to be done before my flight is all that’s on my mind.
Neither of my lists includes ‘get nervous’ or ‘start to worry about…’ so I’m not.
That being said I do feel intensely under prepared when it comes to my physical fitness. I was starting to hit the gym hard when I had my operation, and that completely threw a spanner in the works. Fortunately I got back to yoga and Capoeira pretty damn quickly, so my anaerobic fitness and my flexibility haven’t declined (although I would have preferred for them to increase). My CV fitness is going to let me down I think. Not much I can do about that now though.
Perhaps I am slightly worried in that respect, it would certainly explain why I find myself holding my breath randomly.
Thinking forward I’m predicting that I’ll be back to a good level of fitness (in comparison to my past) after two weeks. And I’ll be definitely noticing some marked improvements on that after a month and a half (half way through).
Lets see how my predictions fare :).

I’m still nervous about getting this new visa, I’ve been expecting a phone call all week telling me that I didn’t have the correct documents together for it. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. Fingers crossed my passport should be back by tomorrow, then I can really relax and move my worry onto other things 🙂

Arg!
Visa stress (which reminds me I need to get another passport photo – Damn), China have moved the goal posts and changed the rules! The visa I have is for 60 days, but I’ll be there for three months. Originally this wasn’t going to be a problem I was going to extend my visa while I was out there – as long as this is done before it expires it’s not a problem. However now the Chinese officials have decided that in order to extend you visa you have to have a Chinese bank account with £1500 in it…. !!

Realgap have given me the documentation to try and get a 90 day ‘F’ visa…. I’m a bit dubious but I’m going to have to give it a go!
I’ll keep you posted.
I also had to re-arrange a whole load of travel insurance as well, because of the fact that I’m doing dangerous activities (Martial arts and SCUBA diving) but they’re not one after the other.
Fortunately insure-and-go sorted me out without too much bother 🙂

My passport arrived back from the Oriental Visa Company today, with a Chinese Tourist visa in it! All systems are now go, there is literally nothing left to stop me from going travelling!
I have to admit I was a bit nervous as they claimed that they would email on reciept of my info, but they didn’t (they got it on Monday – the joy of special delivery). I almost gave them a call, but I decided to wait until next week – I have to at least act like I’m calm and rational!

I’m sure that you are interested in how much all these world travels I’m going on will cost. For those that are out of the loop it will be thus: China – Three months in a martial arts training camp, Hong Kong for a week, New Zealand for four months, Fiji for Six weeks and then at least some time in Australia (the further into the future you go the more vague my plans get).
So here is the costing, first is what I’ve already paid for:

• China – £1800
• Flights – £1400
• Hong Kong Hotel – £550
• Travel Insurance – £250
• New Zealand first week – £500
• Fiji Diving experience – £2300

And the Grand total is: £6800… Wow, that’s the first time I’ve totaled it all up!
I’ve still got to pay for the flight to Fiji, which will be roughly £400, then I’m expecting to drop about £1000 on Australia – plus the flight to and from Australia which I’m guessing will be in the region of £400 too. Also have to get travel insurance for Fiji, no idea how much that will be.
For those that are wondering, the reason that the week in New Zealand is so expensive is that it includes visa application, help getting work, bank account, mobile phone and generally all the things you will need to get started.

The postman did not know how right he was.
I was picking up a package that had not been delivered on the 21st of December (no-one was in). The postman thought I was luck because it was supposed to be returned to the sender on Tuesday, but the Christmas backlog meant that it was still in Guildford. I happened to know that this was just the beginning of the luck.
The package contained an iPod Touch, which I had won by accident.
You see what had happened was that I’d put down my deposit for the first stage of my traveling. At the time I did not know that this would enter me into a competition. I’ve already relayed the surprise I experienced when I got the phone call informing me that I’d won the iPod Touch.
Of course the luck goes deeper than that:
I’m going traveling this year, a trip that should be an experience of a life-time. I have great friends and a supportive family, in fact there aren’t many parts of my life that aren’t flipping amazing.

Yesterday my airline tickets arrived. It’s definately happening now!
My plans have roughly solidified (assuming everything I want to do is still available), it goes, China, Hong Hong, New Zealand, Fiji, Australia and home.
Not really a round the world trip but certainly an extensive trip!

Now I’m spending my time trying to budget for everything – I think I’m going to have to be pretty stingy over the next few months!

So after a bit of frantic money moving and bank hopping yesterday, I’ve paid for my flights. I’ll be leaving on the 1st August 2008, ready to start training on the 4th. At the end of the martial arts academy I’ll be spending a week in Hong Kong before flying on to New Zealand, arriving on the 2nd of November.
Then with luck I’ll be going to Fiji around February, although I’ve yet to book this part (something for next year methinks!).
All of this means that I’ll be back in the UK around April 2009, which makes for a ‘career break’ of roughly eight to nine months!

It’s all pretty exciting, even though my iPod Touch still hasn’t arrived…