“…in 6 months, it will be spring again. And I’ll wonder, “Where did the time go?” 10/09/2018

Six months later, here I am again! Another update. Lots has happened in the past six months so I know quite well where the time has gone. I went on holiday to Alicante, Spain, had a birthday (25!), sold my Qashqai (finally! Cha-ching ££££!), sold my 20-year-old “good-old-days” RAV4 (failed its MOT 🙁 ), spent New Year’s in Bremen, Germany, bought a Peugeot 207 run-around car, had flu for two weeks, paid £3000 off my credit card (cleared!), put a deposit down for a Kathmandu-Delhi guided trip and have just spent a lovely week on the coast of Cornwall with my girlfriend and eight strangers (her friends) who were the most wonderfully kind and caring group of people I’ve met for a long time.

I have changed the name of my domain again. It’s not kirstyrtw (roundtheworld) anymore as I’m no longer planning a round-the-world jolly. I wouldn’t want to claim that I’ve been “around the world” because wherever I went there would always be something that I’d have missed – a country, a festival, a unique way of living. I didn’t want to feel like I am going to places just to “see” them, to look from afar, to tick it off a tick box list ✔ Instead, I want to go to wherever I feel like at the time, to places that excite me, that I want to experience, rather than having a list of all the countries of the world and a having a “look what I’ve done!” ego-trip. I want to broaden my horizons and go where opportunity leads rather than chase an end goal. It’s a personal adventure, so now I’m kirstyb.blog.

My new plan consists of leaving end of September/start of October, rather than start of September. This will give me a couple of months off work to sort everything out, get rid of belongings, pack, etc.! Despite how much money I might have been able to save, I was anxious about what happens “after the travelling”, needing money to settle down somewhere again. I had planned on going to Europe first, but Asia is what I would really like to do, so I am going to save money by cutting out Europe at this stage of my adventure and go straight to Asia – Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bali, Singapore, Fiji are all on the list (and probably more!). I am prioritising my “wants” and reducing anxiety by not feeling like I have a large, but limited, amount of funds to get me from A, all through the alphabet, to Z. Instead I can do A, B, C, E if I fancy, maybe a Y, go back and do G, without the stress of “I need money to get to here, here and here because that’s what I said I’d do.”

I still plan to volunteer/WWOOF during some of my travels, to help people and become more involved with the culture, but also recognise that I’ll need a break/holiday from travelling all the time so will factor in some leisure time in some incredible destinations!

I had previously decided to not get a working visa for Australia as I didn’t want to settle for a year or two and all the admin hassle that that involves, in case I never set off again seeing “the rest of the world”. I’ve had some time to think about this and have decided to leave the opportunity open in my head, rather than closing that door of possible opportunity before my trip has even started. That’s what I love about plans – they’re as flexible as you are and if I change my mind then my plans can be changed!

I’m very excited. I’m excited about leaving work, I’m excited about having two months to myself, I’m excited about exploring other parts of the world, meeting new people, and I’m excited about what might happen after that. Anything can happen!

Total savings: £14,060.71 = 70.3%!
(now includes some previous savings I had, so this is literally ALL my savings!)