The Skinny

I have started this blog in hopes to take my mind of the numbing work thats is the travel industry. But as you can see this blog is irony at its best. I want to get a away from travel by talking about my own personal travel goals. Hmmm.....

Moving on, as the previous entry said, our Top 4 areas of interest being Nepal, Thailand, Oz and New Zealand, I wanted to write a bit about the areas we hope to see. Over the next 4 posts I will try to elaborate a bit on each place. But will probably just end up writing about nothing.

Numero Uno

NEPAL

Standing out in Nepal are the formidable Himalayas. Anapurna could be a fun hike with outstanding views as well and a strenuous hiking. Kathmadu will probably be of main focus at this point due to the accessablitly and the programs that are offered. Also if things pan out with rock climbing, Kathmandu will be the center of this teaching due to resources. Wwoofing isn't as prominent here as of countries is Asia. It is basically just starting up and few farmers are able/capable to grow organically. I feel that wwoofing will take us through the country in remote places thats are seldomly visited, which is was both of us are looking for.  It seems that most of Nepal if not all of it, except base camp, is seldomly visited. Nepal would be our starting point for the trip and what a place to start. Being thrown into culture so foreign to both of us could make quite an impact.

Having done some research on traveling, living, experiencing Nepal, this could be one of the biggest challenge in our lives. Having no previous or current knowledge of the Neplaesse language, which is some sort of sanskrit, communication will be ZERO. Kathmandu being the largest city in Nepal will probably be the best bet to try to adapt the language or adapt a way to communicate with the locals. This may seem like insanity to people but this is what we are looking for, escaping the comforts of the monoculture that is America.

-Aaron-

Where too?

Hmmm, a question that has stumped us for many nights. Keri and I have drawn up a rough itinerary of the places that we want to travel to. Top 4 being Nepal, Thailand, Austrailia and New Zealand. We have also have been entertaining China, Bangladesh and possibly Indonesia. It would seem easy to pick a place and just go for it, but the fact that there are endless areas of interest out there it makes it difficult to set anything in stone. Let me give a little background on our travel plans.

Currently we have a whopping 700 dollars saved up for our 1 year expedition to Asia. With that sort of savings we won't even be able to make it to Los Angeles. We plan on departing some time early '11 (hoping for feb/mar). With such little savings we plan on WWOOFing throughout these countries to save on food and board. Working with the locals on sustainable farming etiquette, we are hoping put this knowledge to use for our future goals in life. For most people this sort of trip is on the boarder of insanity, but we have put behind our doubters and have fully engulfed ourselves on this idea of being glorified vagabonds. Within Nepal, I have hopes for appling my knowledge in rock climbing to the local children of Kathmadu. Having a few contact over there, I think that it will be a fun way to engrain myself in the culture and also with the locals. Who knows if this idea will actually come to fruition, if not so be it, there will be enough to keep us occupied. WWOOFing is an option pretty much anywhere were go.

WWOOFing stands for something like world wide opportuinties on organic farms. What this program basically is, is an opportuinty to work on and organic farm and in return they offer free room and board. Work schedule is usually something like 5hrs a day for 5 days, seems like a pretty good trade off to me. Having this opportunity available to us is a life line for our travels.

Thats about it for today.
-Aaron-