Retro Travelogue Blog-What is it?

28 July 2009

In October 2002, two months after we got married, Emma left her job as an attorney in San Fransisco and I quit my job as a Purchasing Manager in Silicon Valley and we went walkabout. On November 1, with the car overflowing, we left our apartment and headed south on the first leg of our journey. We had a few adventures as we drove down south and then across the US to Minneapolis. We then flew to England at the beginning of Dec. On January 13, 2003 we left from London to begin our big adventure. Our first stop was in Kathmandu, Nepal. We spent five months travelling through Asia before we returned to England to settle down in London, find jobs and get the house fixed up.

During our trip, blogs were still in the future. We kept handwritten journals of our adventures. Every few days we would find an Internet cafe and send out an email with a summary of what we were up to. When we left on the trip we didn't even have a digital camera. ( That is another task of mine, to get all our photos into digital form so we can share those too. You are always welcome to stop by and look at our albums.) Times have changed and Emma keeps reminding me that another goal of mine was to transfer the journals into digital format so we can save them and share them. The purpose of this blog is to relive our big adventure. I am really writing for us, but many friends and family enjoyed our emails and expressed interest in knowing more about what we did and saw. My aim is to just put down what we wrote in our journals, without changing anything.  I will try to correct spelling but write everything else as we recorded it, without fixing mistakes or misperceptions we may find through hindsight. This means you can relive the whole experience; the mundane and boring, as well as the humorous and adventurous.  Mostly we wrote by candlelight, a small bulb or our headlamps. We sat on small beds, tiny plastic chairs or on the ground. My journal is unreadable except sometimes by me. Our trip was six years ago so take any travel details or prices with that in mind.

Excluding our flights there and back, our target budget was $50 a day including lodging, food, entertainment and all activities. We were budget backpackers and after five months we pretty much stayed on budget.  Emma started her journal on Nov 1, 2002 when we left Millbrae, California. I did not begin mine until we left the UK for Asia on Jan 13, 2003. Emma's journal ran out in March and I kept writing until we got back to England. For now I will start when we left England.  I hope you enjoy our experiment with our retro-travelogue blog. This blog is dedicated my wonderful wife and the extraordinary five months we spent together on the road at the beginning of 2003. Relive our big adventure with us and remember, it is never too late to get up and go!