It was an ordinary afternoon in May 2016. My best friend and soon to be travel companion, Nia, decided to come and visit me from her hometown. She lived miles away from me, East, towards Hereford way. I perhaps know what you are thinking, Nia and Leah. Pronounced the same? Yes. So, yeah, we did get quite a few laughs out of it while we were away.
Anyway, we hadn’t seen each other for a few months so it was time for a good catch up, all the normal girl to girl sort of stuff. We went for lunch at our favourite spot, just 20 minute drive from were I lived at the time, and resumed the normal tradition of ordering way too much food for the table and gossiping about only we will know.
We suddenly came into conversation about what we wanted to do for the rest of the year. At that point it became clear that neither of us wanted to work in our jobs anymore. This sparked off the idea that we both needed a break from the normal day living. “Let’s go travelling!”
Ideas across the table started to fly. What about Africa? South America? The US? We both had money at the time saved up but the income of twenty-something year old’s did not fit a long and luxurious travel plan. I had just got out of college myself two years earlier and was trying to make my way into the Make-Up Artistry world. This started in retail so at the time it was a case of stocking shelves and cleaning stands; not a lavish job and not one that paid the highest wage at the end of the month either. I was still extremely fortunate to be able to save money up for a rainy day. That rainy day had come sooner than I had expected, but wonderfully at the same time.
We realized we had enough to last us around 6-8 ish months in total. So Asia took the winning spot.
We had just got into Summer at the time and if you haven’t experienced a summer in the UK before; it’s just the best. Beer gardens, socializing, days out by the river and heading to the beach. The only time they get any use at all. September was a tricky one for both of us with prior engagements, so October was the time.
Now most of you are probably thinking “well, that’s a bit rubbish as it’s monsoon season in South East Asia”. But what other choices did we have? Wait another two extra months at jobs and lives we both wanted to take a break from? The soon the better. Monsoon who?
So now it was time for the route. We each listed countries we wanted to see. We started looking at travel blogs and experiences people had had about how much they were spending. By the time we came up with a list of five Asia countries, we released that with the money we had, we could add on top of this Australia and New Zealand as well. WOW!
We planned the rough route accordingly, aka, we discussed it for 30 minutes probably over some more food or a coffee. We looked at the logistics and where we thought we could get away with the weather as best as we could. We knew we wanted to be in Australia and New Zealand for the months of January through to April, so we worked backwards from there.
Bali as it’s close to Australia. Thailand as that is closest to Bali. Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia as we could loop them around all together and make a start in Bangkok. That was enough of a brainstorm for us. We just needed to have the rough guide to get us going, we would figure the rest out when we actually started the journey. We headed onto SkyScanner and searched for the cheapest flight to Bangkok: 2nd October, Jet Airways, £200, done.
And with that we had our departure date.
LEAH HANCOX 