Trip to Mexico

Its easy to imagine what could happen in my travels, whether everything goes to plan or difficult challenges awaits me. Its never easy knowing especially when this is my first ever travel. Don't get me wrong I have been to other countries but this.. Well, this is a whole new way of living. On the 29th of Oct 2011 I will officially be homeless, roomless, no place to call comfort zone. On that day I will have me, my rucksack and my destiny. 2 years of experience, that's how I see it. Mai will accompany me in Mexico, my lovely Thai friend will stay for 21 days and then we would both depart opposite ways. I'm glad I'll have good company especially at the start. After then Ill travel to Fiji and then Australia for a year and a half. If everything goes to plan, I'll get to visit New Zealand, I have some good friends who live there.

Too long have I been dreaming of becoming a traveller and too long have I wasted, I'm seriously exited about this trip. I'm 26 years old for crying out loud, its time to make a change. I know times will be hard and I'll miss everyone I know specially my family who I hold dearly to my heart but this is all part of the travellers experience right? Nothings easy until you know how to handle it. But for now, I wait for the beginning of my trip.

List before I leave:

• Spend as much time as I can with everyone I love so much
• Re-think what I need to pack in my rucksack, 60% of my rucksack should be my limit of packing
• Finish off Emptying my room
• Music MUSIC MUSIC cant stress how important it is for me to pick the right music!
• Sell things I wont ever need
• Hair cut
• Every day gym, sweat it all off
• Bits and bobs... Let do it!!!

We all love to visit new countries, experience a whole new section of this globe. I personally love seeing cultures new or old, the history and the landscapes of each places. These are fun times for everyone but before the beaty of travelling begins your rushed off your feet trying to get to the airport, skimming through the list in your head of what you are taking hoping you haven't forgotten anything. Mai had her own ride which also added to my panic list, hoping she will be at the airport on time. I arrived first, spewing through the front door just so I can see my flight details. I had my mum, dad and brother Damian accompany me to the airport knowing that my sister Laura, brother in-law Julian, little Francesca and very little Sebastian were arriving shortly after. That's what I love about my family, they put so much effort for the last goodbyes, they would happily drive all the way to a far out airport just to say goodbye the same way as they would have done at home. Ten minute after arriving I could see Mai trodden along with her turtle like rucksack. The best thing about our rucksacks is that they are such rare looking things, Mai one looks like a turtle shell when she wore it, I think if my memory serves me well she was smaller then the rucksack and as for mine, it looks normal only that it was bright glowing yellow, I mean even simpsons would have thought this is too yellow for their taste. So here we were, the two travelers ready for the big trip, walking to the ticket line where 100s of people already await for the tickets they paid for weeks ago. Our first flight was to Atlanta which would then take us to Mexico City, this was the cheapest and fastest way saving a total of 1 hour from our 13 hour flight. One of the girls that worked at the airport moved along the line checking peoples details. "Hello, have you both got your visas to visit America?", me and Mai looking at eachother shocked and confused "no we are heading to Mexico, we aren't going out of the airport!" Came out of our mouths with shivery fear that we may have fracked our whole trip. The noob from STA Travel, the incompentent female assured us that we didn't need anything. Lucky for us we had time to rush off and create a visa from the internet rooms. It was done, our bags were booked off to the plane as I had time to say goodbye to my sweet and loving family. Now it was just a waiting game and lucky for us English airports had so much shops to visit, even if you don't buy, there was loads of time to waist looking at things you could have.

I could easily say the flight was amazing or not so bad so that I could continue talking about my Mexican trip but I'd be lying if I did. I shouldn't really complain but I wasn't sitting next to Mai. This was because of the visa problem which then left us late getting a ticket. Instead I ended up sitting next to a huge American guy! There was two seats and mine had to be on the window side. Out of all those times I'v been begging to have a window view seat, I get it now, I know I wasn't a feather weight person but it wasn't easy having to ask permission to go to the toilet because let's face it, it was a hassle for both of us. Now that I could handle because I might just head to the loo once in this 4,100 mile flight but I couldn't handle the fact that my tv screen in front of me wouldn't turn on. That was painful knowing that all these hours I would be staring at white clouds and looking back at the American laughing out loud to two and a half man. I gave up after 2 minutes of the blank screen teasing me and found two spare seats at the back, brilliant! The screen works so I got Mai to accompany me to the back so we could chat for 3 minutes and ignore eachother by hours of film watching. That was pretty much it on that plane Mai watched xman and all sorts of superhero films, the lady to my other side watched shoot'em up, gangster type and I happily watching cartoons and black swan. In Atlanta we had two hours to spare, I felt safe for the very first time in America, crowds of Army female and men sat and waited effortlessly for the moment to reunite to their family or loved ones. Never thought at that time how important that moment was for those people, to finally be home and to finally live out their life. N there's me thrilled and exited to be out of England.

The next flight was at night, I think the roaming around shops and watching films got the better of me and Mai so we just fell asleep in the plane. I woke up 30 minutes before landing and gazed out the window at the glittering lights of Mexico. We landed safely and entered the airport, we were lucky to see the airport at around 11 pm because there wasn't a lot of people around but I could imagine the hell it would have been if it was afternoon. We heard about the dangers of getting a random taxi in the street so we got one from the airport and headed off to the backpacker hostel. The Mexicans laughed at me when I told them how cheap the taxi were, maybe they just laughed at how bad my Spanish was but either way I was in for a shock to find everything in Mexico is cheap. A taxi that would have taken me from Aylesbury to Milton Keynes would have cost me no more then £7.50 in Mexico. Food and drinks!! I was curtain on getting fat here because a big and I mean BIG meal would have been £5-10 including a drink!!!! I couldn't tell if I was going to save a lot of dosh or spend it. Anyways we arrived at our destination to what I could describe looked like a rough place, police cars operated the area every hour. There were noone around these blocks and seeing as it was 12am I wouldn't blame them but one things for sure I'v notice Mexican police have it under controll. Every corner you head, you are bound to see red and blue flashing and that's the thing everyone who hasn't been to Mexico needs to be aware of, the flashing lights stay on all the time so don't be alarmed if your driving and you notice a red and blue flashing police car on your tail.
As we got out of the taxi we were greeted by these guys smoking outside the hostel with blood on their t-shirt, torn trousers and a messy looking face full of cuts and bruises. Great start. Another one opened the door and came out, this guy was different, he had hair all over him, big ears and sharp claws and teeth which made me think we was dressed as a wolf. It was holloween that's why and we were about to walk in to a party with our jetlagged spirit helloing nurses, wolves, zombies and a guy wearing a silly hat. I didn't want to sleep, I had my sleep on the plane and I was buzzing by the taquila bottle that was scoffed down me as I walked towards the reception. Rucksack in the hostel room and straight back down stairs, it was a great night.

More to come.......