The professional amature

Alas, I have totally made my mind up as to where I want to travel to this year. It is still Vietnam! I'm currently debating with myself as to whether I should take a trip into Laos and Cambodia whilst in Indochina. It does seem an obvious thing to do, and will add a couple more countries to my short list of 'where I've visited'.

On the other hand, working out my funds hasn't been the most enthralling experience. I'm selling some of my prized posessions, and have A LOT of work coming up over the next couple of weeks. After which I should have what I need to spend two months in Indochina. Any money I earn after this point will either be used to make my stay that little bit more luxurious, or to spend longer travelling, remaining on my shoestring budget. We'll see!

Another thing that has been going on is my few days in the Lake District. Having just bought a kayak from a neighbour, we took it for a spin on Ullswater. A beautiful lake, renowned for housing some of the most aweinspiring landscapes in Britain. With rugged mountains to the South and calmer, undulating hills to the north on perfectly still water.

Although the weather wasn't to be boasted about, the trip was great, and I've finally mastered paddling in a straight line over long distances. Hurrah!

Shortly after returning home from the Lakes, I was whisked off 400 miles South to Portsmouth for a few days of hard work, and then back home for a welcomed rest in my own bed. The following day, I made my way down to London with a friend for a three night trip to the capital.

Shortly after arriving in London, we found our way to the hostel that we booked a couple of weeks before. At a first glance, it was cramped, dingy, and extremely basic, with an odd smell at the top of the staircase. Suprisingly, I slept fantastically among the worldly people we were sharing our room with, including a young French couple, an Australian, and a few students from Japan. And after a 'continental breakfast' of tea, Cornflakes and some toast, we set out through Hyde park toward the centre.

It was a good few days, with a lot of trawling through the city in a rather unpleasent amount of sticky heat. This was not to be mistaken for the heat experienced on the last day when we were hauling our bergens around a busy, boiling London, but we still had a good time.

On the penultimate day, we went to see STOMP at the Veaudeville theatre. Although the theatre was slightly disappointing in terms of size, the show was fantastic. Very funny, entertaining and massively enjoyable. I admit that this was my first proper visit to a theatre, so I have nothing to compare it with, but I am confident that the show was a great success in comparison to other shows out there.

Out of my many visits to London, this was definately one of the most interesting, and daunting, seems I was majorly responsible for where we went, and what we did, which is probably one of the reasons why I think it is to date, one of my most memorable trips. This has only fuelled my thirst for more travelling in more remote, varied and cultured parts of the world that I aim to visit soon.

My taster has spurred me on to get saving so that I can experience enjoyment like that which I experienced in London, on a hopefully grander scale that will last for many times longer in more exciting surroundings!

Last night I got back from a week long camping trip to Newquay. The forecast predicted bad weather. Oh how wrong it was! It definately wasn't the hottest Newquay I'd visited, but still hot enough to give me a lovely bit of sunburn!

We obviously went to the beach everyday. Crantock, Watergate, Perth, Fistral. Of those, Crantock was my favourite. It was quite quiet, with nice sized waves, and a river running down its North side.

I rented a surfboard for a few days so I could try to learn this sport I'd always wanted to try out. At first I thought it was impossible. Every time I caught a wave, the nose of the board went under water and flipped over in a succession of spectacular summersaults, with me not far behind. Fortunately, after a few hours of being battered by this crazed board, I managed to stand up on a wave and ride the surf to the shore. Ah yes, the feeling of beating the board that hated me at its own game!

After this, I didn't retreat to the sand until it was time to head back to the campsite, and by the end of the three days, I do have to admit, I was getting better, although I could still barely steer the board so if I started to hurtle toward a 12 year old boy on a bodyboard, I'd just have to jump off and hope the safety leash wasnt so long as to cause the board to crack the boy's skull, landing me in quite a bit of trouble!

At night, we went to some local pubs. The best of which was 'The Mermade' at Perth. This pub is deceptively big, and extremely lively. The Scottish 'busker' was of course the host of best night, and his skit of the James Blunt song 'Beautiful' was pure genius, with the first line being 'My life is shit'.

After a couple more days of body boarding, we decided to head off to the Eden Project. This is a fantastic place to visit, especially the 'humid tropics biome' which gave me a taster for what to expect when I visit Vietnam and Cambodia. Lovely sweat.

After the Eden Project, we headed off for a last splash around at Crantock Beach. By now we had grown accustomed to the freezing water, and when out feet felt it's temperature, the rest of the feeling in our body just gave up and let us run out into the water and risk pneumonia and all those other diseased that you get from freezing Atlantic waters.

Next morning, we started our 8 hour car journey back home where the weather was as we left it. Cold, cloudy, and raining.

Today I've found out there isn't much work for me, so that's stuck a fortnight delay on my plans of IndoChina. Oh well, at least I'm now refreshed from this dastardly town!

Early tomorrow morning, I shall be venturing through the predicted heavy showers accross Britain to arrive in Newquay by 9am.

We'll then 'set up camp' (luxury style of course!), and head off to the beach, where the sun will hopefully be beaming down on full power. We're meeting a few people out there to go surfing, and are not yet sure how long we'll be staying. Maybe a week- maybe two!

After five or six days, we might travel East to Bournemouth, and on the way back home, could stop off for a couple of days in London, which I'm looking forward to!

I just love London! the atmosphere is fantastic, and the whole 'minicultire' is something that I really enjoy- although not for too long!

Oh yeah! I've been offered a job in Guernsey! Now I have a dilemma...I can either move to Guernsey to work for a couple of months (room and food provided), or stay with my current job, earning slightly more, but in a location I hate, doing tasks I hate....arrgh!

I'll ponder over it whilst on the beach.

Any thoughts??

Today I found myself an epprentice to take mountaineering with me. My brother wants to get into it, so I'm going to take him up to the lakes to see what he's made of.

We'll probably tackle some of the Western Fells. Who knows, we may even do an ascent of Scafell Pike! Now that would be good! Some wild camping will be chucked in free of charge aswell.

If he enjoys it, and can stand the heat it would be great because we could stay at my Uncles house in Southern France, and attept our first alpine climbs.

I've made some progress as to what I want to do, and where I want to go. I've found out that flying to Hong Kong is quite reasonable, and looks like a great place to start seeing the world!

From there, I will move South West to Vietnaam, and slowly travel South, down the length of the Country, eventually heading West, through Cambodia, and into Thailand. Finally I will fly home from Bangkok- or to another destination. I've not got that far in planning yet!

I've found out that I can stay in Vietnam for at least six weeks for about £400, which is pretty amazing in my books. I'm not sure about prices in Thailand, but I'm expecting them to be slightly inflated. In fact, inflated a lot!