Pondering on travel.

When you think about it, it is amazing that you can FLY to the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD, half a planet away, in less than one DAY. Going to a place where they speak other languages and have different weather.

I have been keeping fairly quiet about my upcoming trip. This is basically because I don't like hearing people say "you should see this" and "i went here and it was amazing". This makes me feel 3 things: 1, jealous, because you've already travelled and I'm ignorant, 2, pressured to do things I didn't yet think I wanted to do, and 3, some of the magic of discovery has been killed because you already discovered it. It's like anything you prepare for, really, you want to collect SOME information and make good decisions, but you don't want to follow other people's paths and take their opinions on board before you experience if yourself.

The internet is great. Well, so far it is anyway. I've been able to search, email, and compare accommodation on the other side of the world! In my spare time of an evening! What would I have done 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago if I did a gap year before uni… most of these places would not have had websites. I guess the proof will be when we get there, have they been honest and all that.

I'm collecting interesting tips. Interesting tips so far include: jeans aren't as useful as you think, they are bad for wet weather and bad for hot weather; buy a cheap ring so that it looks like you are married and you don't get hassled as much; when you are on the plane, just try and sleep—that should be your main goal when flying; you only need as much clothing for 4 weeks as you need for 4 days, assuming you rewear and wash every so often.

And other then that, I'm not thinking about it very much at all. I'm enjoying the vague sense of anticipation, but if I start thinking about details I start to worry. And I think I'm better not worrying and just dealing with things as they come up in an adventurous way.