Return of the Blog.

It took me an absolute age to upload my European Adventure Blogs and now I’ve finally finished, I’ve decided to start all over again. That’s right, I’m leaving Northern Ireland and heading to the warmer climes of Southeast Asia and better yet, I’ve decided to waste my time (and maybe even yours) by writing about it.

Rory and I had been thinking about this trip for a while but the timing was never great and something always held us back but after a few uneventful months and several unsuccessful job applications, we decided to just go for it. When you’re going that far I think you need to go for a substantial period of time but I also love Christmas and didn’t fancy missing the niceys and family friendly feel good movies, so we’re going for six weeks and will be back in time for the most wonderful time of the year.

Our plan is to travel with Stray Asia from Bangkok to northern Thailand where we will cross in to Laos and make our way down to the Cambodian border. We’re not completely sure but if we have time we might nip across to Vietnam and if not we’ll continue through Cambodia and head back to Bangkok where we’ll catch a bus south to some nice Thai islands.

This is our first proper backpacker trip so we weren’t sure what exactly to pack but from what we’ve read it’s best to travel light. Not exactly rocket science but packing for six weeks is hard, especially when you’re a little OCD and like to have anything and everything you might need. I’m literally packing the bare minimum – two pairs of shorts, a few t-shirts, one pair of sandals and... wait for it, no make up or hair-straighteners.

I’ve also decided to bring only what I already own and wear, hopefully this will mean less useless junk in my rucksack and in an attempt to keep costs down I didn’t buy a rain cover or a rucksack liner – fingers crossed there’s no torrential rainfall when my backpack is sitting outside. But if it does rain, I’ve taken the cheap decision to pack all my stuff in individual Ziploc bags. It’s fiddly and time consuming but I won’t lie, it was kind of fun rolling my clothes.

So that’s it – we’re packed, we’re medicated and we’re on our way to Southeast Asia. Stay tuned for some actual adventures!