So, here it is, friends and family, and maybe the occasional random stranger who can’t figure out how they accidentally got to this page or why they’re even looking at it (how DID you get here??).
I present to you, a blog!
In a little over 6 months I’ll be flying from the lovely little Midwest in the USA to Bangkok, Thailand with my one-way ticket, my backpack, and my false confidence that I probably bought on amazon prime. I haven’t traveled much in my 23 years on this planet and have never been out of the country, so this is a big step.
Waiting for my passport = weeks of excitement and anxiety as I immediately ran to my mailbox when I got off work, then walked sad-faced away from it with the realization that I hadn’t received it yet (I forgive you post office for not getting my passport to me the day after I applied for it).
- Duration of stay? ..open, though 4-6 months seems to be around the amount of time I’ve decided upon as a guesstimation- at least for my Southeast Asia wanderings. Plans in SE Asia? Well, that’s still being sorted out. I know I’d like to see Thailand (obviously), Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia. I also know that even if I do nothing else in life, I have to volunteer at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand and that I absolutely have to see the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia or I’ll die (okay, I probably won’t DIE. but, temples.).
- Actual time frames or approximations? Yeah, I haven’t quite figured that out. Who do you think I am??
- Plans after Asia? ..um, again, these are open to interpretation and spontaneity. Ideally, i’d love to go to New Zealand on a working holiday scheme, but we’ll see. Maybe I’ll have had enough of my cultural immersion and constant state of “where the heck am I?” (let’s be honest, though, I get lost at least once a day at home, too, and I’ve lived here my entire life) and just head home. I’ve never really been that great at those little things called ‘plans’. Minor details, who needs them? (probably me). Or maybe i’ll have discovered that I want to head somewhere completely random for a while. It’s all kind of up in the air, which is definitely a mixture of exciting with a pinch of scary.
For the most part i’m just anxious and excited, though. I still have quite a bit of time before I leave for my trip, but I also have a lot to get done beforehand, including fixing up a few odds and ends on my car and selling it so I don’t have to deal with paying a loan every month on a car i’m not using. Fingers crossed!
Me and said car not even a year ago when I was about to drive it off the lot. It’s gotten a few bumps and bruises since then (not all of them entirely my fault!).
Well, here’s to figuring out what to do with my little space on the internet and musings about my adventures (screw-ups) leading up to and during my travels!
Oh right, I’m Ali.
homesweetbackpack 