the big trip:

So the time has come - well almost  anyway - tomorrow we jet off on our grand adventure! For those who are not sure of where we are going, I created a map, above, that might help. We are are going to try our very best to update this blog every couple of days so you can see what we are up to. There'll be loads of images and not very much writing! (I'm not a writer by any means!) We would also love to hear from you, so feel free to drop us a line here. You will find out more information about trip as we go along, so stay tuned!
First stop is the Philippines, and in particular, beautiful Palawan. We will be island hopping with my sister and her husband for 10 days. Can't wait!

Here is a bit more info on where and why.



where:

We will be travelling throughout the Middle East (starting in Istanbul, meandering down to Cairo) and Central Asia (the Silk Road from Beijing to Tashkent) if all goes to plan. We will however, be taking a short detour at the start to the the Philippines, as this was planned as a separate trip last year with my sister and her husband.

Choosing where to go was really hard. REALLY hard. We had a million ideas and places we wanted to visit. However we did have a bit of a criteria and chose accordingly.

We really wanted to travel to places that:

 - we had always want to visit

- that may change in the next few years whether it be politically or culturally

- that are adventurous and off the somewhat beaten track

- that cater to our interests (architecture, textile design, shopping, food etc)

- are culturally interesting and different to Australia

- where we can 'rough it' a bit while we are young and don't need our comforts as much

- that we couldn't do in the 3-4 weeks of annual leave we have per year

why:

We have been talking about doing a 'big trip' ever since we have been together. Towards the end of last year though, we decided that this year would be the year. It was something we needed to do sooner, rather then later.

Ideally we would have loved for it have been a 6-12 month trip, however we had to compromise as we both will have our jobs upon our return! This is a massive blessing as we both love our jobs and it'll take a bit a bit of pressure off financially once we get back. So we thought this was a pretty good deal. Plus four months is still a decent amount of time to be out and about!