The first entry.

Hello Friends, Family, and Others,

This is the first, and the most boring entry you will read. Please do not let this one put you off those to come in the near future.

We leave tomorrow morning, and are very nearly ready (probably). We fly from Seattle to San Fransisco, to Hong Kong, to Manila. Not a bad itinerary at all: only 22 hours of total travel time, and only three of those sitting in airport terminals. All the advice we have gotten about Manila is to leave as soon as possible. Reckon it's worth at least one day, then on the Puerto Galera where Ian can get his scuba certification. From there the plan gets a little fuzzy: we are going to spend a week with Ian's Colorado College friend Mark, where his family has a beach compound (not even sure what that means, but couldn't be bad). From there, perhaps an organic farm in the north (wwoofing) or down into the Visayas. After perhaps a month in the Philipines, on to Borneo, maybe south into the Indonesian Archipelego (hoping to find a yacht full of young lovelies who need help drinking cocktails and applying sunscreen). Then up to Bangkok, where we will base ourselves as we explore the mainland: Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

At some point (March has been suggested) we will be met by Shane Lohnes. There is also some hope of Scott Eaton coming around the same time. Please feel free to apply pressure to Scott- surely nobody would believe that a masters degree is more important than a bit of exploration!

It's been a lovely run in Seattle, great to see so many old friends so often. But here's to new friends, new places, new food, new ideas, and epic adventures. Thanks for reading this: we'll try to make it as compelling as possible. In the movie Big Fish, Ed Bloom said "Most men, they'll tell you a story straight through. It won't be complicated, but it won't be interesting either." Like a good meal, a story can be a bit bland by itself: you might need a pinch of salt.

Talk to you soon,

Gaelen