On The Road, Again...

SAYONARA

Once again, I find the stars aligning and I am ready to head out into the world for a new set of backpacking adventures. The last year was spent doing a house down-size, and it took quite a bit of work to bring the old house up to snuff.

When I did the big 10 month HoboTrack trip around the planet in 2009/10, I skipped SouthEast Asia...and for a good reason. I was worried that I would get in there and really not care to leave. The internal drive to get around the world was pretty high.

When I say that the stars are aligning...it basically takes a lot of luck to be able to do a backpacking trip like this. At a minimum, you need these 5 things to be true:

TIME MONEY HEALTH MOBILITY DESIRE

Everyone who travels long-term has some sort of mix of these variables. Most backpackers fall apart a bit on money, but the flip side of the coin, is that if you have a lot of money, you would probably not want to be a backpacker...walking everywhere, hitch-hiking, sleeping in hostel dorms, making a lot of your meals.

MOBILITY is separate from HEALTH. You can be basically healthy, but not be able to walk 5 kms, or hike over a mountain.

So, I am off for a few months, hopefully until February or so and hope to end up in a few countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar). I will be doing some Wwoofing (organic farm volunteer) in likely 2 countries, and hope to get in lots of walking, swimming, surfing and maybe even some climbing.

I have a few friends to visit along the way and will likely make some more. That is why I like travelling by myself and staying in hostels. I do what I want most days and spend evenings in hostels, sharing the days experiences with fellow travellers from all over the world.

I'll be posting to this blog 3-4 times a month and posting pics to Facebook as I get a chance.

So it goes...

Bruce