Bitten by the travel bug!

I spent yesterday afternoon scratching off countries I’d visited on my World Scratch Map, and it struck me how much of the globe I’d left uncovered. Now, this isn’t to suggest that I never get out of the house, I certainly do! I consider myself a bit of an explorer. I’ve always had a huge desire to visit new places and to see new things, and to a large extent I have. But whilst stepping back to admire the work I’d tentatively created, I realized how pathetic my adventurous endeavors looked. I’d spent consecutive holidays during my teenage years visiting the wonderful Mediterranean islands of Corfu, Crete, Majorca, Menorca, Cyprus and Malta with my family. Listing them here does fill me with a sense of pride, as at least it goes some way to proving that I’m not a housebound scaredy-cat. But it doesn’t change the fact that on my map, those islands represent merely a drop in the ocean. It was at this point that I also realized that I’ve only left the continent twice: a 5-day trip to New York, and a month in the South African bush. The majority of North America is left unexplored, along with the vast continents of Asia, South America, Australasia… So many places I’ve yet to grace with my presence (*cough*)…

So with a huge sigh of relief I turned my gaze to South East Asia. We will be touching down in September, and boy can’t we wait. Over the next 4 months we’ll bring you the tense yet exciting build up to our two-month adventure, and the adventure itself.

At this point I should probably deliberate into who ‘we’ are. I’ll start with myself…

My name is Ewan. I’m a filmmaker and I graduated from Staffordshire University 2 years ago. I live in the sunny town of Milton Keynes (at least sunny compared to Stoke-on-Trent), and have done all my life. I have many passions and hobbies from playing guitar to cooking, the list is endless. I believe in taking as many of life’s opportunities as you can and tend to favour a “never say never” attitude. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot more about me over the coming months… bring it on!

My travelling film companions are George and Gaby. I’ll summarize them for you in a bite size fashion so you can get a taste of their character:

George is a lifelong friend of mine. He took a geology degree in combination with media communication at the Royal Holloway. If there are any interesting rocks along the way (I doubt there will be), I’m sure he’ll blog about it. He also needs a haircut… He’s the James May of our trip.

Gaby’s fabulously vocal. She’ll never sit on the fence in a matter and will happily share her opinions on this blog. She’s of Italian decent so expect many Italian characteristics. Mix this with a London upbringing and you get a very exciting personality-cocktail. She’s got a great eye for fashion, film and food. Gabs attended the same Media Production course as myself and so far is the only girl on our trip.

I’m also delighted to announce that our good friends Dom and Tom are also joining us for half the trip.

Tom joined the RAF after his A-Levels and last year served in Afghanistan. He’s athletic, down to earth and also one of the best men I’ve ever met. Tom is the only singleton on our trip… more updates to follow.

Dom is constantly flirting with education and on paper is the brightest out of the lot of us (I’m sure this will cause debate). He’s currently on a Masters course in Meteorology and you can look forward to some cloud-formation themed blogs along the way. Dom is competing in the Amsterdam half marathon just a few days after he leaves South East Asia.

I’m sure everyone will introduce themselves personally at some point in the lead up to our travels.

We can’t wait to start our trip. Some of us have been bitten by the travel bug and can’t get enough; some of us are so far immune. Stay in touch as we bring you all the stories from our preparations and travels. If you’ve thinking of travelling in the future then walk it with us on here.

Also, as a final note, feel free to ask questions or set us mini tasks along the way. We want to promote travelling as much as we can,

Ewan.