Oxford, UK

C: NEWS FLASH!!!!!!! we've bought the tickets!!!! hip-hip-hippety-hoppety-huppety-HOORAY! yes, today Philippa and I spent all our money on our tickets, and boy is it going to be worth it. In the end we went with Trailfinders because they could offer us a really rather good price. Philippa - would you like to write something?

P: ..........I would like to confirm that we turned down STA in exchange for a pretty good offer. I've also learned the horrible truth about Catherine's issues with flying and if she doesn't go to sleep on the insanely long flights we're going to be on I will not be a happy bunny.

C: Philippa just smacked me!!! anywho, so whoever is reading this may be thinking "for god's sake tell us where you're going and stop blabbering!" - ok...calm down..it's on the left hand side of the screen. As you can see, we're going to Bangkok, overland to Singapore, then flying to Oz and going north to south, and then NZ going south to north, then blowing our remaining budget on a luxury trip to Hong Kong!!! no, that last bit's a lie, we'll be spending a budget-breaking 3 days back in asia - a nice way to round off the trip.

Our ticket cost £1168.10 each, which we think is good considering tax etc. We will now be starting to organise and plan our route and visas and insurance (yuk, boring stuff, but necessary) before we jet off. With the help of the LP guide books we should be just fine! We can't wait!!!! That's all for now, we'll update as we progress......................:)