My trip

2.5 more days to go - very exciting, I'm sending the link of this blog out to my mates in a day or so - so the following is a bit of an intro on what I am planning to do.

In Cambodia I’ll be visiting the PEPY ride school, whom I have been a volunteer fundraiser with this year. They are a group featuring cyclists biking around teaching kids that its important to respect mother nature and live in harmony with her. http://www.pepyride.org/ What will I be doing? I will be spending some time in the area understanding the environment, checking out exactly what I've been fundraising for, and get to know the locals a bit, sing to the kids, painting a mural, check out the solar panel PEPY put in, dig vege patch, that type of stuff. It would be very short but hopefully I'll take a lot in as well. I spent most of 2005 doing fundraising in Australia to support PEPY, and I can't wait to see this dream come into fruition.

In Vietnam and Lao I will be a general pest and one of those annoying overweight tourist that complains about the heat and the feather in my noodle soup and that kind of stuff. Doing a bit of mucking about, and hammocks and you know, spiritual therapy. Hopefully I will be meeting up with Mickey (a mate from Canberra) and her mum. Then I will be spending Xmas in Thailand with the lovely Emma who is flying in from Japan and joining me in PEPY, and some good old girl time with Jib, who currently works for the ADB in BKK. She's a mate I had met in Canberra whilst doing our Masters degree. In Taiwan I will be eating a lot and sleeping a lot and spending time with my grandfather and ever growing brood of cousins. I will then go into pre-hybernation mode and load up for lunar new year (this year its 29th Jan). Back in Canberra February. Maybe.

So that's a quick wrap, and I am sure you'll get many details in the next few months of posts. Bon Voyage to me!! Email me or leave a comment on the blog, but I have a feeling that I'll only get to it every 3 or 4 days at most.

p.s.

This is a quick schedule:
10 Dec - Sydney to Taipei (Meeting up with my family when I transit for the night. Get a bit of hug fix)

11 Dec - Taipei to Hanoi
12 Dec - 15 Dec - Hanoi, Ha Long Bay
16 Dec - Hanoi to Lao boarder
17 - 18 Dec - Lao
19 - 20 - Chiang Mai & North Thailand
20 Dec - arrive Bangkok
21 - 26 Dec - Bangkok & surroundings, maybe a few islands
27 Dec - 30 Dec - Phnom Penh
31 Dec - 6 Jan - visiting PEPY project near Siem Reap, Angkor Temples
7 - 12 Jan - Saigon/HoChiMinh City, Mekong Delta
12 Jan - 2 Feb - Taipei
??? Sydney - Canberra.

Woo hoo!