Destination One: Sabah, Borneo

We chose Sabah, Borneo as our first destination because we wanted somewhere new and interesting to relax for our first part of our trip. We didn't know that much about the Sabah, or the island of Borneo for that matter, but it seemed like a great place to start. So far, our research is telling us we were on the money!

Source: Visit Malaysia

Apparently ten square kilometres in Malaysia Borneo has more biodiversity than all of North America and Europe combined. I can't remember where I read it but it certainly got me excited. Our plans for Sabah (weather permitting) include a bit of beach-side relaxing, potentially trekking up Mount Kinabalu, visiting the local wildlife and learning about the history and culture. 

When dreams become a reality

Yesterday whilst waiting to be let into a cinema to see the Lego Movie I got a promotional email from Air Asia. A sale was on and we could potentially book our first flights at a significantly cheaper price.

All of a sudden "Everything (was) Awesome!" as I envisioned our travel dreams which suddenly seemed a whole lot closer to reality.

Source: Shoop Training and Consulting

By the time we went to bed that night we had booked flights to Kuala Lumpur for day one of our adventures:

January 13, 2015! 

Today we booked two more flights within Malaysia and one to Vietnam:

Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu
Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Kumpur to Ho Chi Minh

In a whirlwind of booking, our first few destinations were now confirmed! We planned to have under a fortnight in Sabah, Borneo, a few days in KL before heading on to Vietnam for a month or so. 

Our first destination: Sabah, Borneo
Source: Tropical Research and Conservation Centre

2 Australians, 20 dreams, 17 countries

A year or so traveling initially seems like a lifetime. A year! A year of global roaming could fit so many amazing adventures! We soon realised the more you think about it, the more you research, the more you break down the time, the shorter a year seems. 

so when you want to go everywhere 
in only one year, how do you determine 
how many places to see and where 
to travel?  

Source: Eventbrite

Each with ideas from previous travel, and a year or two of dreaming together, Rob and I decided to make a list of travel dreams.

Our travel dreams were not to be limited. At this stage, we could choose 

anywhere in the world 

where there was something to see, an experience to be had or a place that inexplicably called upon us.  We each picked 10 dreams and listed the country or general area were it could be achieved. Some of our dreams could be done in multiple locations or involved more than one country. Some dreams were about simply setting foot inside a country we knew next to nothing about. What was important, was that this would frame our year of travel. Additionally, these experiences were MUSTS, that once on the road we would endeavour not to alter too much. 

We also thought it might be a good strategy to prevent the frequent (and tempting) trap of trying to do and see too much within the time you have. 

There was one further assumption. For a long while we have discussed shaping our trip by travelling on the Trans-Mongolian train route. We basically excluded this from our lists so we could each choose more dreams! This is what we came up with:

Travel dreams mapped (click to enlarge)

ROB'S 10 TRAVEL DREAMS

1. Nepal to Tibet through Mustang, mountain biking tour/rental

2. Russia: Visit the Kremlin, Moscow

3. Nepal: Chitwan National Park

4. Spain: El Camino de Santiago (Way of St James) Pilgrimage route

5. Mongolia: The Silk Road on a pony

6. Tibet: Be a Buddhist in Lhasa

7. Japan: Visit a Ryokan

8. Germany: Houseboat or stay on the Rhein

9. Germany: Eat bavarian sausages and beer

10. X-Stan?: Visit a Stan country!

KAT'S 10 TRAVEL DREAMS

1. Vietnam: Volunteer somewhere for awhile

2. Sri Lanka: Safari (was originally Tanzania)

3. Norway: Build an igloo

4. Switzerland: Go on the Glacier Express

5. Croatia: Go sailing somewhere

6. Tuscany: Cycling trip (Possibly revised to somewhere else: the Netherlands?)

7. Vietnam: Trek in Sapa

8. Turkey: Cappadocia

9. Scotland: Roadtrip through a country side

10. Norway: Try to see the Northern Lights

Originally some of our dreams (cycling trips, Nepal times) overlapped so we chose new dreams to make a total of 20. After making the lists we rules out Africa and I chose to relocate my Tanzania safari dream to Sri Lanka!

We plan to use these dreams to further shape our route whilst keeping some flexibility. It is already a lot to fit into just one year but who knows where each dream will actually lead us.