reading things like this make me want to leave now. 
make me regret not learning skills earlier. 
make me wish i was more outdoorsy.
make me wish i could just leave and not worry about money. 
reading things like this pushes me closer to leaving. 
closer to buying a ticket. 
one way. 


"I had never heard of the Kaveri River until I decided to walk across India. I could only squeeze a 6-week trip into my calendar so I cast my eye southwards down India’s triangular shape until I reached a latitude I reckoned I could get across in the time available. And that is how I spotted the holiest of southern India’s rivers. This was starting to sound like an adventure: I would walk from the mouth of the Kaveri on the east shore of India to its source in the mountains, and then drop down from there to the sea on the other side.

And that was it. I deliberately chose to do no more planning or research than that. I flew to Chennai, asked someone which bus I needed to take to get down to the mouth of the Kaveri, and I began walking. Adventure is a state of mind. It is an attitude. I wanted an adventure, a journey, a challenge, not a holiday. By doing no research every day would be novel, unexpected and exciting. Every day I would need to seek out food and water, somewhere to sleep. I was travelling light too. Carrying your bag for 600 miles encourages you to pack light. But I also wanted to be travelling light as part of my quest for a simple, pure, uncluttered experience"

-Alastair Humphreys, Walking through India 

oh the places you'll go

how did i never read this book as a child? my bookshelves were dominated by robert munsch.

it's not now

today i've been running around doing errands. one such errand on my list consisted of paying $89 to a dentist so he could tell me that i need to pay $1500 for a crown replacement.
when i hear $1500, i see 'ticket to mongolia' or 'dental work'.
this got me thinking about money. how much i have, how much i need to travel, how much i will make before my contract is up. this thought process ultimately lead me to make a pro/con list.
i started with the pro's and con's of waiting to go on another adventure a little bit later, like maybe another year or so.
PRO's of going later:
-more time to earn more money
-more time to learn russian (i've been taking russian lessons since november!)
-more time to learn to use new gear
-more time to organize country visa's (china, russia, the stan's etc.)
-more time to get fit before i leave (HA)
-more time to research the countries i want to travel to (visa prices, restrictions, hitching laws)
-more time to read blog's, articles, or books that people have written about the places i want to go

CON's of going later:
-it's not now