34 days to go.........

There is only 34 days to go or 4 and a half weeks. Only 12 night shifts left to work - wahey!

There is still quite alot to do packing and sorting, but the most important 2 events are now planned, sorted and finalised - the leaving drinks on the 6th and 13th January. I have no idea who's really coming to either saturday, but the Oxford drinks will be a large affair as its now not just mine and Alans "do", its now mine, Alan's, Petes's, Rosie and maybe Jane's. We are all, apart from Pete (who got a new job) leaving Oxford for a while/permenantly. It seemed daft having several nights out when we could just combine them and have a really good night out altogether.

So there's now another tick on my hugely long list. Only insurance, van hire, sorting final bills, electrical testing to go...........

Is Alan ever going to write on this blog?

This was a question that Alan's sister Helen asked me last night, whilst we were chatting on MSN messenger. At first I thought, there is no way he is going to write on this blog - he'll leave the writing part to me and he'll sort out which photos and (if we can do it) video footage to post on the blog. I'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to computers hence there are still no pictures on the blog and I got incredibly frustrated when trying to publish our itinerary (the computer almost went flying across the room).

But Alan has assured me that he will write on this blog, his thoughts and opinions about the places we are visiting, but only once we are there.

5 weeks to go

The departure date is getting closer, only 5 weeks and 2 days to go. I managed to have 3 panic attacks in a week and told Alan I wasn't going anymore, his response was "well thats very nice Samantha, but I don't know where your going to live as we have tenants moving in to our house".
Luckily our acupuncturist Patricia sorted me out, destressed and relaxed me and now I'm starting to look forward to going now.

In the past 2 weeks, we have found somewhere to store all our stuff and organised the moving team - Big advanced thank you to Eileen, Anne, Fred, Tasha, Barry, Alex, Mike and maybe Harry. We have got a container on a remote farm to put all our stuff into.

We have booked our first 7 nights accomodation in Hawaii, we are staying in Wakkiki Beach just a few minutes walk from the beach. We have looked up the location on google earth and the beach and sea look stunning.

We have narrowed down the New Zealand tours, Alan fancies the "Funky Chicken" tour provided by the kiwi experience but I'm still deliberating over 2 of the magic bus tours. Still got a couple of weeks to decide.

Anyway still lots to get on with, especially working out how we put our pictures on this blog x

7 weeks to go.........

Its getting closer and things are really starting to move along now. The leaving drinks plans are still being finalised for Oxford but are all sorted in Gloucester, yes, we are that special that we are having 2 saturdays on the beer (red wine for me) and 2 sundays, dying from hangovers,swearing that we will never indulge in the nasty alcohol again.

Alan has now finished studying, his exams were last week and we may publish his results when we're in Mexico! Now his next projects are helping to pack up our house and finishing decorating and straightening up our house - the study is going to be a lovely yellow at the weekend.

The Bali tour is now booked with Intrepid travel, and now we are looking at which tour bus to use to get around New Zealand - you might think that this is easy, but I have found at least 3 tour companies with very similar routes and prices. So its difficult to decide which one is going to be the best one to choose. Lizzie emailed me another bus company today so we're even in more of a dilemma.

Lots of things to do in the next 7 weeks and in the middle is christmas and new year, so one moment we are christmas shopping and the next moment I'm finding a storage company to take away all our belongings in January. I'll apologise in advance for anyone who is coming to stay at our house for the Oxford leaving do because chances are we'll have no furniture x

They have cancelled our Bali Tour

We received urgent phonecalls about a week ago from the lovely (but scatty) Rosie at STA Travel. She informed us that Imaginative Traveller (the company we have booked all 3 of our tours with) have bought out a new brochure for 2007/2008 and our tour dates are not listed in next years copy.

But its not quite so traumatic now because we have found a better tour with Intrepid travel. A little bit more expensive than the Imaginative traveller tour but so worth it. Its called the Bali getaway and is advertised as sun, sea, spas and dolphins. We looked up some of the hotels we will be staying at and they are some of the best on the island. We do this tour on our own though. At first I thought it might be a bit quiet after going on all the coach trips in OZ and NZ, but then I thought that a break from having lots of people around for 2 weeks before we start the Singapore to Bangkok route, might not be such a bad idea.

The good news is that the other 2 tours haven't been changed (yet) because apparently they are very popular. Our itinary may change slightly but that should be the only thing.

We had started to calm down a little and focus on all the jobs and organising (and for Alan studying) that needs to be done before we can go, but now we or at the very least I am back to bouncing off the walls.

Our Tours

We have decided to do 3 tours with Imaginative Traveller; Magic of Bali, Singapore to Bangkok and China Discovery. The itinararies listed below are just a taster of what we will be up to.

The Magic of Bali tour lasts for 7 nights/8days and starts on 22nd July (my birthday).
We arrive in Bali a few days before the tour starts and so will already be checked into the hotel so day 1 (which is my birthday) so we will probably just be lying on the beach and drinking some champagne.
Our hotel is at Seminyak Beach - sounds lovely but I haven't googled it yet.
Day 2 - Seminyak Beach to Ubud
Day 3 - Ubud to Lovina
Day 4 - Lovina - swimming with dolphins hopefully
Day 5 - Gunung Batar
Day 6 - Kintamani to Padang Bai
Day 7 - Padang to Seminyak Beach
Day 8 - Seminyak Beach

Our next tour starts in Singapore and ends in Bangbok and it lasts 16 nights/17 days.
We arrive in Singapore a couple of days before so we will probably go along to the Raffles hotel for a genuine singapore sling.
Day 1 - Check in to hotel (we will already be there)
Day 2 - Singapore to Melaka
Day 3 - Melaka
Day 4&5 - Kuala Lumpur - will be climbing the Petronas Towers
Day 6&7 - Cameron Highlands
Day 8&9 - Penang
Day 10 - Penang to Surat Thani
Day 11-14 - Koh Pha Ngan - gorgeous thai island
Day 15 - Surat Thani
Day 16 - Bangkok to Kanchanaburi
Day 17 - Bangkok

Our last tour is the China Discovery which starts in Hong Kong and ends in Beijing. It lasts 14 nights/15 days.
Day 1 - Check into hotel in Hong Kong
Day 2 - Hong Kong to Guangzhou (Canton)
Day 3 - Yangshuo
Day 4 - Yangshuo to Longsheng
Day 5 - Longsheng to Wuhan
Day 6 - Wuhan to Yichang
Day 7-9 -Yangtse boat cruise - opportunity to visit the three gorges dam
Day 10 - Chongqing to Xian
Day 11-12 -Xian
Day 13 - Beijing - visiting Tiananmen square and the Forbidden city
Day 14&15 - Great Wall of China

It sounds like the tours are really busy and intense for the entire time, but I've been assured from the information we have received that we do get some free time to rest and recharge our batteries x

We have tickets and a plan

Our itinarary

We have picked up our tickets today, which was very exciting and most definitely worthy of a small celebration this evening.

We are booked on the 12.30pm flight to Mexico City on the 17th January 2006. Its a British Airways flight so free beer - wahey!!! We will arrive in Mexico city at 6.20pm (their time) and we have booked our first couple of nights at a very nice hostel in the centero historico (basically the city centre of Mexico city), we will publish more information when we arrive.

We have booked 3 tours with Imaginative Traveller, the first is in Bali for 8days, 7 nights starting on the 22nd July (my birthday I know, but all we do is check in and meet the other people on the tour), the second tour starts in Singapore and lasts just over 2 weeks and we travell through malaysia and thailand to Bangkok. The final tour is from Hong Kong and lasts again for just over 2 weeks and goes through china ending in Beijing.

I am getting very very excited about going, although not about the flying part, and Alan is just simmering nicely and trying to keep my feet on the ground. Lots to do now in getting ready and renting out our house - this is incredibly stressfull but I'm just focussing on the end result.

Alan and Samantha xx

The Planning Process

Welcome to our blog!

We are planning on leaving the UK on the 17th January 2007 (very exciting), to fly to Mexico for the first leg of our year tour. This date will be definite in the next few weeks as we are booking the flights.

We will be updating our blog and adding our photographs at every opportunity whilst we are away, as this should be easier than sending out bulk emails.

Bye for now

Alan and Samantha xx