The Professional Hobo

We’ve been working on our new plans for a while now, but now it’s official – the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed – and it’s time to announce them!

By the end of April, we’ll have been in Hawaii (and the U.S.A.) for 6 months, and are required to leave (if even for a weekend). But we decided to take more than a weekend to see what else the world has to offer.

Here’s what the next little while holds in store for us:

May 2008

After a quick stay in Oahu (and a trip to the North Shore to check out the waves), we’ll say goodbye to Hawaii and take off for Asia. A quick overnight stopover in Taipei will give us the tiniest of tastes (literally) of what Taiwan has to offer.

From there, we’ll be spending the month of May in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Activities planned include taking a cooking course 50km outside of Chang Mai, staying at a friend-of-a-friend’s resort on a remote island, visiting friends in Kuala Lumpur, and basically eating our way through these cultural and culinary epicenters of southeast Asia!

We plan to overland our Asian travels by train, as the cost of an overnight first class sleeper is less than $20US. We may take the occasional plane or ferry when we need to, but are ultimately leaving our itinerary up to our fancies once we get there. Many hostels don’t take advance reservations, and this will be a wonderful exercise for Kelly & I in thinking on our feet in a foreign environment. Let the fun begin!

June/July 2008

At the beginning of June, we’ll fly from Singapore to Cairns in Australia where we’ll spend a day exploring northeastern Australia and (of course) the Great Barrier Reef.

But Cairns is only a very short stopover to our first real Australian destination: Brisbane. It is here that we’ll be picking up the World Nomads Ambassador Van and commencing our six-week sponsored trip from Brisbane to Melbourne!

Sponsored by the likes of World Nomads, Lonely Planet, Nokia, Adecco, Global Gossip, Auto Barn, and a myriad of others, we’ll be outfitted with a garish camper-van, mobile (that’s “cell phone” in Australian), lappie (“laptop” in Australian), internet access, cameras, and everything else we need to document our 6-week adventure. We can go wherever we like; the only restrictions are that we start in Brisbane (“Brizzie” in Australian) and end in Melbourne (“Melbie”?) six weeks later. In exchange for all this lavishness, I write about the experience and come up with a few videos.

Hey wait a minute – we already do that! Wicked!

During that time, I’ll be writing our blog updates on the World Nomads journal platform, but never fear: I’ll provide links here each time I write a post over there so you can continue to enjoy the sagas and adventures with us!

August 2008 – March 2009

The Caretaker’s Gazette has provided yet another step in the right direction for us: this time it lands us 90 minutes northeast of Melbourne in a small town called Taggerty, at the foot of the Snowy Mountains.

It is here at Kingbilli Country Estates that we’ll be helping to take care of the beautiful property. Already versed in managing accommodations in the tourism industry, taking care of these gorgeous cottage retreats will be a piece of cake for us. In exchange for our efforts, we’ll be staying in a cottage with all the amenities including a BBQ, fireplace, Jacuzzi, utilities, internet, and a view to die for.

We’ll also get a chance to use our guiding skills in leading eco-treks…on llamas.

No seriously.

Llamas.

There’s an animal sanctuary on the property, and endless hikes and nature to enjoy. And since we are missing the nature and beauty of the Rocky Mountains so much, we are eagerly anticipating our arrival in such a vast and beautiful place as Australia. We’ll just have to watch out for the icky poisonous critters that plague this beautiful place! Ah well – I’ve had a trial by centipede already…how bad can it be?!?!