What a muppet I am.  I left the UK in October 2015.  I quit my job, I told everyone I was going, updated my Facebook, changed my Twitter and Instagram handles, and set up a new blog to write about my travels from a dedicated perspective.

Oh yes, I set up a new blog.  It’s called The Flashpacker.  Did I not tell you about that?

I may only have a very tiny following on Bells & Whistles but I do have a few people reading my stuff.  So I have no excuse for miserably failing to announce that I’d be be off travelling for eight months, and indeed that I’d be writing about it far more regularly (on the whole) than I updated this blog.

But you know, better late than never and all that . . . so if you fancy reading the posts from the beginning, go to this one (or click these thumbnails).  If you want to see where we’ve been so far, check out this map.  And if you’d like to learn about international breakfasts, you can do that right here!

So what have I been up to these past seven months?  Well, I’ve done the Trans-Siberian railway, taken a ferry from Vladivostok to Korea, slept in Mongolian gers, seen the Terracotta Warriors (again), climbed a sand dune, crossed multiple international borders, celebrated Christmas in Singapore, and Chinese New Year in Bangkok.  I’ve travelled from London to Seoul without flying; crossed the Thai-Burmese border in a pick-up truck and had my passport stamped in a shed; climbed ancient monasteries to see the sun set in Bagan and trespassed in a southern Burmese school I thought was a temple.  I’ve stayed in more places than I care to remember (including a five-star hotel, empty Balinese resort, Romanian shag pad, cockroach-infested Thai flat, multiple trains, someone’s parents’ guesthouse, and – right now – I am writing this in a hotel room attached to a casino in the biggest town on the Black Sea coast).  I’ve got naked in front of strangers, chewed paan (accidentally), seen the world’s largest Lenin head, stayed in a Korean love hotel, luxuriated on Thai islands, stumbled across a festival in Tokyo, and gorged on street food in Penang.  There’s more to come but I’m way behind as ever, and my blog is currently in Burma whilst I personally am in Bulgaria!

So if you fancy a bit (a lot) of procrastination, it’s not too late to come along for the ride.  I do hope you’ll join me over at the Flashpacker!

Oh and for one last shameless plug, you can also Like the Flashpacker Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or check out my sporadic and generally unchronological images on Instagram.