Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Being Excited Can Suck At the Same Time

After a full day of clearing the last of my posessions from my apartment and working my ass off to fulfill the landlords ludacris cleaning checklist a person would think I'd be sawing a log about now. Apparently I am unable to sleep when I'm four days away from the trip of a lifetime. What better thing to do than lie there trying to fall asleep? Blog. This should show all you readers my dedication to you. You can thank me in the form of Email Money Transfers.

Thankfully I'll have a few days in Vancouver to rest and decompress from normal working life, because after this week, I think I'll need it. Back to bed for me.

Oh yeah, T-4 days!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

T-13 Days!

Well this trip has officially taken it's first step to being a life changing event for me. I had requested a leave of absence from work as a fail safe in case the economy was back in the toilet when I finished rambling around the world, but it wasn't approved. Thursday night was my last shift. Working my last shift at night was a piece of solid justification for giving up that career, but there are definitely parts of the job I will miss, namely the solid group of guys I worked with. As I sit here typing this out, I am definitely glad I didn't get the leave. Now there's nothing to tie me to the past, everything from here on is the future.

I also sit here typing this out with a massive hangover from my going away party last night. Translation: Massive hangover = great time last night. I couldn't have asked for a better way to exit home and say the goodbyes to the best friends a guy could ask for. Thanks to you all for coming out and getting me utterly polluted!

My favorite shirt turned into a farewell card full of best wishes and drunken scribbles.

Friday, August 6, 2010

So Here's the Man


Ok, I figure this blog should have an introduction and a little about myself in it, so here it goes. If you didn't gather from the header, my name is Kyle. Mid twenties, easy going, friendly, I'm my own kind of awesome. Basically I've come to a point in my life where I feel a good change is due, and while I'm young enough to take full advantage of my freedom from any family or relationship restraints, so I've decided I should seize the day and travel. Is it a big risk to give everything up and just take off? Absolutely. Why would I do this? I want the taste of freedom. The freedom where the biggest thing on my mind will be what I want to have for dinner that night or what kind of beer I should buy. And I want a taste of something other than North American culture, which I've grown somewhat disdainful of. What am I going to do when I get back? No clue, I figure that out later. Right now I'm going where the wind takes me.

Anyways, update on the trip progress: I've given my notice for my apartment and just gave my two week notice to quit my job, so the ball is definitely rolling. I just did a three day backpacking trip and can confidently say I will be in good enough shape for the trek to Everest Base Camp. Not quite good enough to climb it though, but almost.

Also, big thank you to my friend Katie for helping me get this blog rolling, notably with the header picture. If you need a graphic artist in Edmonton, check her out: Bonded Design

Monday, August 2, 2010

So Here's the Plan

For a while I'd been thinking of making a career change from the railway, which was slowly bleeding me dry with the horrible shift work schedule it entails. After downloading a couple seasons of a travel show I like, I had an epiphany: to just say fuck it to everything and take off traveling for a while. I did the math, worked my ass off for six months trying to save up as much money as I could, and here I am, 33 days away from making my goal reality.



So here's the plan: (see above photo for a rough route (Thanks to the Cartographic Research Lab of the University of Alabama, I stole your picture)) I plan to start in Nepal, work my way through India, then fly over to Thailand, possibly to Malaysia, then start a journey through the common backpacking route of Southeast Asia: Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. After that, a short journey through Southern China and to Hong Kong, then fly over to Indonesia. After that, the hardcore destination: Papua New Guinea. What happens after that is a big question mark, I'm going to see what my bank account looks like. Maybe New Zealand, maybe Australia, maybe go to work with the TESOL degree I earned back in May.

I'll have this blog up so you can live your life vicariously through me and possibly throw some tips or advice my way. Or if you just feel like having a laugh, I'm sure I'll be sparking a few of those as well. As you can see on the left, I'll have my Flickr photostream active and hopefully regularly updated with photos from my trip.