Two years on the road!

This month marks two years since I left England to travel the world! So far the trip has gone pretty good I would say!

The map above shows my route as I have made my way to various locations. The yellow lines are the flights, and the red lines are the overland routes.

1. I started off in England. It was pleasant enough there, but travelling was something that I felt that I had to do. So I said goodbye to all of my friends, and set off to pastures new with Sharlene... My new friend who I met around two months before setting off!

2. My first flight took me to Cyprus! I have to confess that I wasn't really travelling in the pure sense of the word... In fact I was staying at my parents holiday villa! It was very pleasant all the same and I did some scuba diving there. I also got involved in the local salsa scene, and went to the Salsa Jam in Cyprus. I also took a boat over to Turkey from here, and spent a long weekend looking round Alanya.

3. Also from Cyprus myself and Sharlene took a side trip over to Egypt. There I met some very good friends, Alaa and Rero, that I knew through facebook! We went inside the pyramids, smoked a hookah and I went diving in the red sea... which was amazing!

4. Sharlene found herself a job in the Czech Republic, so I took my leave as well... only waiting to see my parents for the last time in a long time! I headed over to Nepal... I was trying to get to India... but no-one told me that I needed a visa BEFORE I arrived there... this led to a pretty exciting adventure... A pretty good way to start my proper travelling. In Nepal I went trekking in the Himalayas, met some people and saw some animals. The trekking was an amazing experience that I will never forget!

5. From Nepal I flew over to Thailand. I hung around in the north of Thailand for a while before meeting my friend Kathryn and spending a very pleasurable couple of weeks touring round Cambodia with her. We saw Angkor Wat, freshwater dolphins, a bamboo train and some awesome sunsets! Kathryn left for her home in Malaysia so I visited some of the Thai islands, did some diving, before meeting up with her once more in Malaysia. I spent a very pleasurable couple of weeks with her in Malaysia, celebrating Christmas there with Kathryn before...

6. ...heading south overland to Singapore and flying to Indonesia... Singapore was very clean, nice, anal, and expensive. The zoo there was pretty awesome! I met another good friend (from facebook), Elaine, there. Indonesia was a complete contrast to Singapore... Dirty, busy, hectic... I loved it! I went to a theme park in Jakarta, a volcano in Malang and chilled out in Ubud, Bali.

7. After Bali I flew into Sydney and the next chapter of the journey started. I had very little cash by this point, so a job was a priority. I tried to apply for the best job in the world... unsuccessfully! So instead I got the coach to Brisbane and found a job there selling electricity door to door. I met another good facebook friend here, Jan. I did this for three months waiting for Namrin to come to Australia. I had met her in Thailand at the Bangkok salsa congress. She had decided she wanted to come travelling with me and made it over by May. Together we bought a van and worked and travelled all around Australia. Fun times and good people... After a year of this however her visa ran out and she had to go back to...

8. Thailand! I visited her there for a month with my good friend Allan (not from facebook, from school!). We travelled through Laos, visited Chiang Mai (one of my favourite places), and took a trip over to Koh Tao (another of my favourite places). We also visited her second hometown of Ratchaburi...

9. Before too long though I had to return to Australia for the final time... I'm mostly working now, but will be visiting New Zealand soon for a mini family reunion! Life is still good. I'm hoping to collect enough cash together in the next few months to get to South America and spend some time there... but we will have to see how that goes...