Traveling update

I have decided to throw caution to the wind and go the rest of the way around the world with Josie and Miriam, Despite having trouble keeping the money together and sorting out what there is to do, as a very bad rapper once said "this is your shot, one opportunity to make yourself" so I am going to nike it. I can get a flight to Melbourne leaving on the 14th April and coming back via South East Asia for £600 this flight would enable me to go along with Jo and Miriam for the rest of the trip, but additionally it would give me until April 2006. Which leaves me with a few questions.

1. Can I afford it? - probably not but hey can I afford any of the trip and it is probably my last chance to do something like this for a while so why not live a little. Lets change this answer to Yes
2. Do I want to stay for longer? - I don't know yet given that I will have already been traveling for a year I may just want to come back, but then could I rally justify that with all the world still to see. Also the advantage of the ticket is that the return fare is fully flexible and I could change my return date whenever I wanted to so that makes this answer a Yes also.
3. Where do I go with the extra 6 months? - perhaps the most difficult question of all, but given that I will be in south east Asia and without adding an extra £400 to the flight I would have to stay roughly in the same region, here is a run down of the options.

• Nepal - Always wanted to go to the Himalayas and now that I am planning to do Killie next march it would be kind of cool to have a look at Everest the very next year. Also Julie and Kate are talking about doing Nepal in 2006 and so we could meet up there just before my return. The down sides are that it is quite a distance from any where I could fly out of back to London (At some point I am going to have to come back). And I don't think I could spend 6 months in Nepal however I could probably spend more time when I take in Kashmir, Assam, and some more of the Indian sub continent and I could travel overland through Burma, and Butan before weather flying back from Delhi or get a one way flight to Bangkok before I return. And there are many more bits of India that I could spend my time in. So lets give this an 8 out of 10.
• Japan - Another of my most wanted's I could get my return flight back from Tokyo and then a single flight from SE Asia to Tokyo from where I can get my return flight to London. 6 months in Japan I reckon I can handle, and if I get bored the is all ways Korea. But I don't know anyone there and it is quite expensive so lets give this one 7 out of 10.
• Russia - Now this is a big country so I would definitely be able to spent 6 months here but it is a bit far away and by the time I got there it would probably be better just to come home directly which would add cost but could use lower cost Russian airlines. This of course would add the advantage of letting me come back whenever I wanted. I would have to investigate where to go a bit more but I could jump on the trans Siberian railway and come back all the way from Bangkok by train. Sounds a bit much like a trip in its own rite and quite complex to organize which leaves Russia on a lowly 5 out of 10
• Back To Oz - Not really a practical option but I know plenty of people that say 6 months is not enough and that they wanted to stay for longer, so I could island hop back to oz and new zeeland spend a bit more time in the sun and then get a single flight back to Bangkok for my final return flight, probably the safest of the options so far but it is a bit of a reverse and I am sure there are more exiting places to go than back to Oz so we are left with lowly 4 out of 10
• China - Now china that would be something else altogether could defiantly spend 6 months out there, but was not on my travel to list until I went to India. But now it strikes me as being a completely different environment. It is reknowned for being difficult to travel in and being difficult to enjoy, but currently if there is any where in the world where you get to see a completely different side of life china would be it. it is the closest of my options and is a definite possibility which would score higher if it wasn't for the difficulties about visas and such, which leaves it in third place with a 6 out of 10
• UK- I could always come back to London in October 2005 and get back in to the European swing of things after a year of traveling it might be quite appealing, and there is no reason I would have to come back to London so the world or at least Europe would be my Oyster. I could then come back and start saving to plane another proper trip either to Nepal, South America or one of the other options above, it actually has really possibilities when you think about it so we' give it another 6 out of 10.

oh and of couse my passport runs out in June 2006 so that is another thing to add to my to do list.