Well here we are... after 3 long years of saying we are going travelling, we are finally in the final stages of planning our trip! I don't think anyone thought we would actually go.... us included!

One of the first questions I asked Steven the night we met was 'how do you feel about travelling?' his response led onto a very long and slightly intoxicated conversation about travelling and a desire to take a gap year. This then led on to second date and then three years of saying we will go and explore the world! When we discussed our desire to travel we both agreed that we wanted to save as much money as possible so we could experience as much of the world as possible. So while everyone around us flew off into the sunset to see the world, we stayed behind, worked and experienced year after year of glorious British weather and endless amounts of pasta with tuna.

We haven't always been as strict as we should be with saving and that is mainly due to my 'we could die tomorrow so let's make the most of today' attitude! This is not a good attitude to have while trying to save but I blame my time working as a nurse in A&E. This frame of mind has led to Steven rolling his eyes more than once when I suggest we go for drinks with friends or book a weekend away, in fact there are days where he rolls his eyes at me so much that you would think he was having a seizure! This is especially prevalent on our nights out, when I get a bit wispy with my money after a cocktail or two. This often results in Steven giving me the 'Dad' lecture about saving!! Or when we sat at the Isle of Wight festival 2012 up to our armpits in mud as I wanted to 'make' memories... haha memories were definitely made though! His one weakness however is food and he will happily spend a fortune on the food shop! On the day of the food shop the saving goes out the window and he is like a child in a sweet shop as he puts enough food in the trolley to feed a small country!

Thankfully however we have somehow managed to save something between us and have now set the date of departure... Our first stop is India of which we have booked a tour... this is mainly due to our lack of experience with travelling and the fact we would like to ease our parents into our travels. This trip ensures our parents can follow our progress and know where we are at every step. It's a 28 day tour which ensures we see most of India and spend as much time as we can experiencing the wonders of such a unique and amazing place. This is followed by a 'free week' where we will probably head up to Goa to have some down time before heading off to China.

China is our second tour which again shows us the highlights of such a huge country, again we could have probably travelled through on our own but we are both a bit apprehensive as we have not travelled before plus we got such a fantastic deal on the trip! We will be spending Christmas day at the great wall of China which I am really looking forward too... we are heading to China out of the tourist peak season so should be an amazing time to go.

After this the world is our oyster... would both love to see Burma as it looks like an incredible place full of history and intrigue, this however we shall decide as we travel. So here we are with 85 days to go... need to still book travel insurance as well as decide what to do with the mountain of belongings we are leaving behind! We are starting to get excited now as its all beginning to feel a bit more real, though I think no one believes we will actually go :) it's been coming for so long!

Roll on 15th November as we head off into the great wide open :)