The day finally came. I was ready to board my flight and hit the skies. It was a little scary I must say, considering I had no idea what to expect as I had never been on a plane prior to this. The feeling was quickly erased shortly after take off and with the comfort of a few scotches served by the pleasant and understanding flight attendants. There was no explanation required as to why I requested three scotches and thankfully so, because I needed them. 

The flight was completely fine from Melbourne to Singapore as the 9 hours flew by. Getting off at Singapore airport was much needed as the legs were screaming for a big stretch. I had a two hour stop so there was some time to kill. Effectively, these were my first steps on foreign soil which was very exciting. I was in need of some fresh air so I thought I would venture outside and give my lungs what they wanted. Bam!! What a shock it was when I opened the door to the outdoor area. It was about 4am and something like 36 degrees Celsius at the time! What a shocker! My first thoughts were that if it were this hot at this time, what the heck would it be like in the middle of the day?? I stayed outside briefly and then quickly returned for the air conditioned indoors. What a relief it was to feel the cool breeze. It was quite chilly in Melbourne before I left sitting at about 16 degrees Celsius so this heat was like a huge punch in the face as I was certainly not expecting it. 

It was time to fly again. I boarded the plane and this time had a different seat. I was positioned in the middle aisle, middle seat but had plenty of room in front of me as there were no other seats and only the wall which divided the economy class from the business class. I was stoked with this as I could stretch my legs and position them in any way I wanted. I thought the next 14 hours would be heaven and easy to get through until an hour into the flight I realised that this was going to be tough. The wall in front of me had a huge clock with a countdown of the time until destination. For the next 14 hours there was no escape from watching just about every single hour, minute and second tick away. This was especially painful. I would fall asleep then wake up thinking that I was out like a light for about 5 or so hours, only to see that big clock staring right at me telling me that there was still 12 hours to go. As you may have guessed, I ordered more scotches to help put me out of my misery. 

After a long 14 hours and numerous thoughts of never wanting to take such a long flight again, I finally landed in London. Was I glad to be off that plane! 

More on the next blog.

Due to the cancellation of my trip, I was now back to where I started and experiencing mixed feelings: on one hand I was relieved that I was not amongst the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami disaster, whilst on the other there was the huge disappointment that I had not realized a life-long dream. I know, heartless and selfish to some degree with everything that was going on, although I did contribute to the victims as best I could. I was effectively looking forward to this my whole life, so can you blame me for slightly feeling this way? This is the stage where our good old friend ‘doubt’ crept in as I began to question whether it would ever be my destiny to travel and see the world. Shortly after, I received the refund from my travel agent and decided not to re-book.

A few months passed by and with every day an increase in the desire to travel and embark on a journey. My desire finally got the better of me and as I stumbled upon a travel agent one day I entered without giving it a second thought. I’m not too sure what got over me that particular day, but some 45 minutes later I walked out of the travel agency with a one-way ticket to London. I somehow did a full 360 on taking a short holiday and decided to go for the long haul as this would ensure that I would be stuck in a different location for a considerable amount of time and nothing would get in the way of pursuing my dream. I immediately went home with massive excitement which I shared with my family and friends, much to their amazement and amusement for that matter. They could not believe that I had committed to something like this without having any previous travel experience. All sorts of questions were raised, such as where I was going to live, what I would do for work etc. I didn’t care about these things I just wanted to experience the world.

The time was nearing and my journey into the unknown was about to begin. Never in my life had I felt such excitement. More next time.

Hello again! Hope I find you well. I had a rough sleep so it was a tough start to the day for me. I thought I was in the midst of a mild earthquake last night as my bed was shaking for a few minutes. Now we all know that earthquakes are rare in Australia so I then proceeded to believe that there was something alive underneath my bed to which I looked under to investigate and much to my disappointment there was nothing there. How hilarious would it have been if I had found two cats fornicating? Not to be.

Enough of my ramblings and on with the blog.

I thought I would give you an insight as to how my love affair with travel began and why my passion has now become an obsession. It all began late in the year 2004. I had never even been on a plane before my first trip so it was an entire lifetime of built up excitement that finally pushed me over the edge to pop in to the local travel agent and get myself booked for a trip.

Based in Melbourne, Australia I began contemplating the idea of taking my first trip to a relatively close destination such as Thailand. This was definitely the way to go I thought, so I told the travel agent that I would think things through and visit her again in the next few days to finalise the ticketing arrangements.

Over the next few days I bumped into an old friend who had been living in London for the last 4 years and we got talking. I told him of my plans and he said that I should come and visit him in London after my stay in Thailand as he would be more than happy to let me couch surf for as long as I wanted. It didn’t take much to persuade me so off I went to my travel agent, sorted out the London details and there I was, counting down the days until I boarded with the exact date of departure the 28^th of December 2004.

We all know what happened in the Indian Ocean 2 days earlier on the 26^th of December 2004. For those of you who don’t, an undersea earthquake reaching 9.3 on the Richter scale resulted in some of the most devastating tsunamis along the coasts of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. There were nearly 230,000 recorded casualties from the disaster.

Had I booked my trip earlier I would’ve been right in the heart of the affected areas and not sure if I would have made it out. On the 27^th of December, my travel agent advised me that my trip was going to be cancelled as there were no flights going in to the area.

Grateful I am that I had missed the disaster and thankful that I still have my life today.

I would like to dedicate this blog post to the casualties of the disaster and may they all R.I.P

2004 Boxing Day Tsunami R.I.P tribute video

Hello there travel enthusiasts from wherever you may be in this amazing world of ours and welcome to Travel YoYo!

My name is Jorge and as the founder of the website I endeavour to keep you on top of all the latest travel news from around the world, so that we can maximise our adventures and experiences. Along the way, I will post about my past travels, however good or lame they may be, as well as any new adventures that I embark on.

About the website – Travel YoYo was created to allow travelers to create their own blogs, share experiences, connect with other travelers,  talk things up regarding the good times or have a bitch and moan about the bad (both encouraged) just to name a few of the features.

Let me introduce you to Bill. Bill is the website developer and an important member of the TravelYoYo team. Without him we wouldn’t be live on the web. Feedback on the website and how it can be improved can be sent directly to bill@travelyoyo.com, so feel free to pester us with requests as we want to make this the best travel website in the world. We can also slap him on the wrist if he has been misbehaving!

If you’d like to get in touch feel free to drop me a line at anytime on jorge@travelyoyo.com

Once again, I would like to welcome you to Travel YoYo. I look forward to sharing my travel experiences with you, have plenty of laughs throughout the journey and the pleasure of meeting as many of you as possible.

Until the next post!