Jan 2009

We set off on Friday 30th January, and headed down to Rotherham to drop our cars off and say goodbye to our parents. We then headed south to stay overnight at Toddington Services on the M1 South.

What a great first night we had! We had planned to get up and have our last English breakfast for a few months, but the whole services had a water cut when we got there! We went back to the room at the Travelodge, and the water was also out there! Then to really add insult to injury the power went down. So overall, a great way to say goodbye to England!

The flight to Beijing itself was great. We could see the glow from Moscow in the distance as we flew over Russia, and dawn broke as we flew over the frozen wastelands of Mongolia.

As we approached Beijing, we were flying over mountains covered in mist and clouds – it actually felt like we were entering a different world. We touched down in Beijing at 11am local time (GMT +8 hours) and, having cleared passport control in less time than it takes to get back into the UK, finally arrived in Asia and the start of our trip.

Just woke up to my last day at home before we set off tomorrow to Heathrow.

We've both now finished work, Mandy on Friday and myself on Tuesday. We spent the entire day yesterday deciding what to take with us and what to leave here. Finally finished packing and unpacking at 11pm last night. It was then that the full horror of what i would have to lump around with me for 6 months became apparent!

I now know what a pack mule feels like!

Got various last minute stuff to sort out today, but hopefully should be finished tonight. Will be driving down to Rotherham tomorrow to say goodbye to our families, and then picking up a hire car to drive down to Heathrow. We're stopping at a Travelodge tomorrow night, and then flying out on Saturday.

The next blog entry will be in China and we'll be finally on our trip!!!!

I'm Jim, 37 years old and currently living in Manchester, UK.

After years of thinking about doing it, and months of research, my wife Mandy and I are now ten days from our round the world trip!

We're now at the stage where we are counting down to quitting our jobs, driving down to the airport, and flying off to Beijing.

We're planning to go to :

China
Hong Kong
Vietnam
Cambodia
Malaysia
Singapore
Australia
New Zealand
Cook Islands
Tahiti
Easter Island
Chile
Argentina
Uruguay
Brasil
Peru

Stay tuned to see if we make it in one piece!!!!