Sunday, May 8, 2011

What the heck are you thinking???

We've had loads of questions from friends and family about where we're going, what we're doing and why we're doing this.  Well, I thought this was a perfect place to answer everything at once (from my perspective anyways - Chloe and Paul may have some different notions!)  


Why we are doing this:  When Paul and I were in Paris in 2006 for my 40th birthday Paul noticed a tour bus pull up as we were enjoying a meal in an outdoor restaurant.  Many of the people getting off the bus needed to either hold on tightly to the railing, use a cane or grab onto a helping hand as they gingerly side stepped down the stairs onto the awaiting sidewalk.  He turned to me and said, "We have to travel before we're that age!"  Reason #1 - we still have our health.   I often hear children and adults alike talking about all of the "stuff" they are proud to own or the things they absolutely "need" to have.  I too enjoy a good shopping spree and have been known to buy things that I have absolutely no need for but feel somehow that I must have.  Reason #2 -  to get back to basics and hopefully develop a better understanding of how privileged and fortunate we really are and that we don't need to keep up with the Jones's!  Our lives get so busy with the day to day business of working, cleaning the house, preparing meals, paying the bills, and most importantly of all raising a child, that we often forget how much we enjoy each others company and how much fun we can have together.   Reason #3 - we realize that we only go around once and we are looking forward to laughing, learning and being amazed together!


Where we're going:  We are starting from the west coast of Canada in July 2011.  After exploring our marvelous country and delivering the dog to Nova Scotia, we will head down as far as Boston to catch a flight to Peru. After a 3 week stint volunteering in Cusco with Peru's Challenge, we will continue to explore some countries in SA and then fly to Australia. We are booking flights  a la carte rather than the RTW ticket option so we haven't booked any flights past that.   We are thinking we will head into SE Asia from there and then through India, Africa, Turkey and Europe.  We remember the planning of our youth when we would meet other travelers who would recommend a great spot and that would become our next destination.  Although I'm sure we'll book a little bit further in advance than we did in our youth, that is our plan - not much of a plan to some but a great adventure for us!!

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