Well it's happened, 6 months after leaving we made our way back to England. We had actually booked our flight home while in Vietnam a few months ago but didn't tell our parents so that we could surprise them. So after a 2 hour delay, a 2 hour flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, a 2 hour wait, a 1 hour delay and a 14 hour flight to Stansted we had a 4 hour drive to Preston to do our surprising at about 4am Friday morning. Over 48 hours after getting up to go to the airport in Thailand we somehow managed to sleep!
Our last 3 days in Bangkok were taken up with shopping - lots and lots of souvenir shopping! We also drank a decent amount of Chang. We ate sushi - lots and lots of sushi for 3 days. We even had it for breakfast at Bangkok airport to make the delay easier ;-) it was a very good 3 days. I'm glad we had a little bit of time after the beaches to hang out in Backpacker heaven - we kinda feel at home there now. But there's no place like home here in Preston... we even brought the weather.
Since we got home we have been considering our options for the present and future. The priority is to get a job, save up and do something similar when I finish university in a year. We're not ready for the mortgage, marriage and kids just now :-) Taz has some electrical jobs to do and I'm volunteering at the local leisure center as a climbing instructor so that I can get my qualifications and do it myself somewhere a bit more adventurous over summer. I can also use it to get a job in America if I take my last opportunity to get a USA summer visa when I finish my degree next summer. But as the aim is to make money asap I am applying for jobs in the travel industry for work experience too.
The world is our oyster, we're not depressed to be home, it has opened loads of doors and we've seen the opportunities that are out there. The massive variety of travelers that we've met since we arrived in Asia are inspirational and everybody seems to do different things while they're out there. We met a couple who have been working seasonal/temp jobs for years and for about 4 months of the year they travel to wherever they fancy. We met a Russian girl that was in her 4th year of working her way around the world. We met a couple that were about 70 years old at the full moon party. The point I'm trying to get at, is this is not a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's just an eye opener.
On the plane on the way home we were thinking about all the places we want to see now we know how possible it is when you have no house and no kids to just up and leave for as long as you want. I would like to do "work america" again but in New York this time rather than Colorado. We'd both like to island hop in the Phillipines, spend some time in Canada and maybe go to South America for a while so Taz can do nothing but fishing and teach me. I can't wait...
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