South America if NZDave isn't offering to put you up Beaches & babes in Rio - Iguaçu waterfalls - Patagonia - Bolivian salt flats - Machu Picchu Cheaper option would be Africa or India once you get bored with Europe
Fly to New York, buy a bike, ride it down through the US, through Central America, heading down through South America until it gets really cold. Send pics, fly back
I know it's just me, but I've always thought that "travelling" was a bit sad. I don't like the idea of just aimlessly drifting about but the idea of going somewhere new until you get bored of it and moving on somewhere else sounds smart. You could just take a guitar and go and play in bars and whatnot to finance yourself. You're bound to meet a load of interesting people and do new things, so that sounds good. I guess like bikers, musicians quickly make friends and contacts. (I was wandering down a road in Orlando last November, met a guy playing on the street and he was keen for me to pick up his second guitar and join in with him. I turned him down as I didn't feel confident enough in my ability to really help him out. Whereas you...) And I guess if you got your health sorted out a bit, you could dive instruct again, pretty much anywhere. Seeing as you are at a hiatus in your life, why not bugger off for a bit. What have you got to lose - a winter in Nottingham?
If you can then do it. My mum died relatively young, in her last few months she told me to do what I could, when I could. You're only here once and I'd hate to be sat in old age wishing I'd made those special trips!
Wow! I've just checked back into this thread, thanks for all the positive support..i never knew you were all so keen for me to piss off... Matt, you're gonna laugh at this, but that Littlest Hobo music always makes me feel a bit teary eyed..sort of reminds me getting home from school and having a cuddle with my two beloved staffordshire bull terriers, dearly departed but with me every day of my life and with their pictures facing me as i type... Glidd...travelling is going somewhere until you get fed up and then move on..fucks sake man..you went to cambridge..or was it closed that wkend? x I booked an around the world ticket in 2000 with stop offs in Oz..then i got offered a place at Uni as a mature student and i ended up cancelling my ticket..who knows where that might have taken me.Australia does appeal but im scared that id want to live there..and i know from experience i wont make the points test..even with family sponsors! A great memory i had when i was 26 was when me a friend i made in Kentucky were sitting in a KFC (ironic, but true) arguing about whether to go to Nashville or Memphis..i had my pic taken under the sign outside!! (i'll see if i can find it and post it on here)...we ended up laughing about our dilemma...went to both eventually..Id already been to Nashville when i was on Blind Date with Cilla!!!! I wouldn't be in a position to go for another year to 18 months..id probably only be away for 3 to 6 months because i dont want to rent my house out..unless i change my mind in the meantime..last time i went i rented out my flat and never looked back..but now ive got some expensive stuff... I need to do some soul searching....my ex and i were gonna go for it..its kind of sad thinking id be going without her..but her loss i guess...i have no ties to Nottingham..i just ended up here..i don't have family here and i wasn't born here or grow up here.. As i've told Glidd, i'd love to live abroad...but if i travelled it might financially scupper that idea..but you never who you'll meet or what you'll do in the meantime... My mates dad quit everything when his wife died....sold up and bought an ocean going boat..he'd had a skippers licence for years...he spent 5 years or so sailing around the world..spent about a year in the caribbean...came back a different bloke..like fkn robinson crusoe..he's got long hair now, looks like an old biker...financially he's poorer than he was but richer in other ways and has a story for every occasion... When i was in the states i used to love that feeling of getting up in the morning and not knowing what the day had in store or where i was going to go...i can say it was the single most exciting and challenging thing ive ever done..the experience changed me for the better and i think about those times every day....sleeping on the beach in Maui coz me and my mate had our tent pinched, and then waking up at about 5 in the morning because the tide had come in!!! I need to do some serious thinking..theres so much i want to do over the next 5 years and im taking stock of my life right now and actually, for once, making a plan...i think probably at my age, ive missed my chance of becoming a dad and im not back in the dating game yet....but i feel ive got this chance at life again and i want to have an adventure before im too old or settled... Instead of thinking perhaps what ive missed out on, i should be thinking and enjoying the fact that ive got no responsibilities to anyone other than myself...i would like someone to share it with, but hey, i might rent a tasty lady boy in Bangkok!!
