So here is the current itinerary:

• Thailand – for some time on the beach and a bit of yoga with my NYC besties Amy and Shereen.
• Sydney – my second ‘home’ and first visit for three years, to spend time with old friends.
• New Zealand – hiring a camper van and exploring together with my parents (hopefully we’ll still be speaking to each other by the end of it!).
• Perth – to visit friends and explore the West coast. South for wine or North for beaches and vast open spaces?
• Singapore – catching up with friends and to pop into the Getty office on Amoy Street to say hello.
• Sri Lanka – teaching, exploring, riding on trains, beaches, the hill country, ancient cities and to reconnect with this beautiful country and its people (see coming blog post ‘Serendipity’ on past travel experiences in Sri Lanka)

I booked my flights in July through ‘Round The World Experts’ www.roundtheworldexperts.co.uk. Charli my contact was brilliant, highly knowledgeable and very patient. The itinerary ended up as follows:

• London > Bangkok – 25^th Dec* (via KL)
• Bangkok > Sydney – 19^th Jan (via KL)
• Sydney > Queenstown – 2^nd Feb
• Auckland > Sydney – 2^nd March
• Sydney > Perth – 23^rd March
• Perth > Singapore – 13^th April (via KL)
• Singapore > Colombo – 15^th April
• Colombo > London – 15^th July (via KL)

The main carrier for the trip is Malaysian Airlines. I booked my flights after the tragic loss of MH370 and before MH17 and QZ8501. People questioned my choice of Malaysian as a carrier, but I’m the daughter of an airline pilot and understand statistically that the chances of being involved in such an incident are very low. The current crash rate is 2.1 for every million plane that fly, and even lower on large commercial aircraft^.

*Traveling on Christmas Day evening was £350 cheaper than the days before or after the 25^th Dec.

^I am however knocking on wood as I type this!