Last days in Florida

Just a short post, this one, before we depart for our grand tour of Asia. During our last few days in Florida we've been doing a mixture of relaxing in the pool (again), doing some chores, and frantically finalising the preparations for our big trip.

Cutting the lawn for Angela's parents.

On our last evening with Angela's parents we ate at a Japanese steakhouse. Seems appropriate given that Japan is the first destination on our trip.

All packed and ready with the backpacks I'll be living from for the next six months to a year.

Someone on reddit posted this interesting world map recently. What struck me is that the circle it displays - in which more than half the world's population lives - almost perfectly encapsulates the area in which we'll be doing most of our backpacking. While we may possibly visit some Middle Eastern and European countries towards the end, the main bulk of our travels will take us around East, South-East, and South Asia. The fact that it's the most populated part of the world may be a blessing as well as a curse: these will no doubt be rich, exciting, and happening countries, but also stuffy and overcrowded. Whatever the case, Asia has always been the continent I've been most drawn to, and it's been my longtime dream to travel these countries. It feels great to finally be realising that dream, and it's especially wonderful to be sharing that dream with someone I love.

Having said that, Florida has been great and we'll miss our time here immensely. The near constant sun and relaxed atmosphere were just what we needed after our stressful year-and-a-half in Korea, and I'm so grateful to Angela's parents for hosting us for three splendid weeks in their home. They've been extremely generous, paying for most of our meals, driving us around to see different sights and attractions in the state, and letting us enjoy their swimming pool, canal and other amenities. We'll miss their company a lot.

Tomorrow morning, we take a plane across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, the first destination of our Grand Asian Expedition. Hopefully I'll have the time and energy to keep making regular updates as we travel.