So for a while I’ve been planning to do some more serious travelling. Ever since I got back from America last summer I’ve had the urge to get back on a plane at the first possible opportunity. During that time I’ve gone from wanting taking a short break in Europe visiting 3 or 4 cities to a rather ambitious 6 month plus trip across the Southern Hemisphere!
Having found such a good job once I got back last year has really helped, but with only a one year contract I have the perfect travelling opportunity once it expires. As a result just over a week ago I booked a round the world trip which will see me take in the sights and sounds of South America, Oceania and South East Asia.
For anyone interested in where to book these types of flights, I looked at both STA Travel and the Flight Centre. You have to go to a travel agent really, as all the online options brought the cost in at much more. Also being 25 or under helps a lot as you can get a youth fare. In the end I booked from the Flight Centre as they were able to include flights to the exact cities I wanted rather than just to the appropriate country, and they also matched the STA Quote as well as having a lower admin charge for changing the flights. In addition I found the STA sales person rather annoying for continuously hassling me to try and get me to book, and even asked me to come in on a different day, when I said I was going to come in to book it on a certain day. In the end I just went elsewhere.
So I will be leaving on the 4th November for Sao Paulo, Brazil. I should be attending the Brazilian Grand Prix with a bit of luck, with more to come on that once the details are firmed up a little more. My first week down there will be spent with work colleagues, the company I work for now is Brazilian so it’ll be cool to meet people who I’ve been working for the past year. After this I have around 5 or 6 weeks to kill and get myself down to Buenos Aires. At present it looks likely that I’ll be taking two intrepid trips, the first from Rio de Janiero to Buenos Aires, before catching a flight to Santiago, Chile and taking a second trip that will bring me back to Buenos Aires. As I don’t speak a word of Spanish or Portuguese I’m quite keen to do these types of trips and not attempt to make my own way around like I will be doing quite a bit once I get to Australia.
I fly into Sydney the week before Christmas before taking a short trip over to Melbourne to see a few things one wouldn’t normally if I just took the bus or a flight straight to Melbourne. Then I’ll spend Christmas in Melbourne staying in a hostel in the St Kilda beach area, and go to see the opening day of the Boxing Day Ashes test, looks like I’m somewhere up in the gods at the MCG. Then I have a bunch of time booked at Sydney over New Year, the hostels hike up the prices at this time of the year and I’ve had to take about 10 nights to stay at that time!
After that I don’t really know what I’m going to do. I want to go up the coast and see New Zealand also. I have 4 months to see everything in Australia, and I’ll probably take the working holiday visa (well will probably have to, to stay that length of time) and maybe make use of that if it seems appropriate, as well as visiting quite a few of the Aussies I’ve met over the past few years. Then I have 6 weeks to see everywhere in South East Asia from mid April time to late May.
However that stuff is all a long way off and at present I’ve just got to make sure I manage my finances right! Fortunately it’s quite cheap to change the dates of my last two flights from Sydney to Singaore and then Thailand to London, so that may all get changed by the time of the New Year.
Needless to say once I set off in November I’ll be trying to keep regular updates.
