One gone one to go...

It's Saturday 16th August and Mark is currently on his way to Heathrow airport to catch his 4 o'clock flight to Beijing. He'll arrive in Beijing about 3am Sunday morning which will be about 9/10am Beijing time! Here comes the jetlag...

I'm (Nikki) back on the Isle of Man and busy gathering all the last minute 'essentials' like wet wipes and a pen knife that seem to have been missed off the miles of list we've made (and remade) over the past few months. I'm also contemplating if I'm actually going to be able to lug these huge mounds of stuff surrounding me on my back for a whole year and why, oh why, did i not go for a backpack with wheels?! (for the sissy backpacker BUT I AM a sissy and there's little to no upper body strength in these arms!..)

Anyway that's just a little update after months of nothing - we're pretty much prepared (we think). If we've forgotten anything Mark's going to give me a ring (skype) and let me know all the things I should grab last minute and all the "essential" items we've forked a fortune out for that we should just leave behind to gather dust!

The weather in Beijing at the moment sounds a little erratic - Olympic rowing being cancelled due to huge electrical storms while the sailing has to be delayed because there's no wind! Mark's off to watch some of the athletics happening this week and will hopefully be able to get a few extra tickets for other events when he gets there.

the initial plan when I arrive (26th August) is to spend a few days in Beijing (acclimatising, sleeps erratically and sweating lots) then we're off to S/Korea by boat then another boat to Japan where we'll hopefully arrive by my birthday (Sept 8th - all donations welcome :P ) for a weird Japanese styled celebration (?!) A couple of weeks spent drifting around Japan trying all that we fancy and daring each other to eat the most disgusting foods. Boat journey (48 hours long!) back to China but into Shanghai this time from where we'll then head west and hopefully make it into Tibet (via the highest railway in the world with pressurised cabins!)

I should stop writing now or I'll go on for ever. We'll hopefully be updating this more often from now on and using it as our main travel blog so you can keep up to date about where we are and what we've been up to.

If you want to subscribe to our blog there's a link at the bottom of this page (subscribe (atom)) which should tell you what it is and how to do it... good luck.

See you all in a year!

N&M