Leaving on a Jet Plane

After a month's rest in Canada, tomorrow I leave for Japan, where I will start my travels. I'd say I'm about 25% excited and 75% freaking out about it (which is probably about par for the course... that's how I felt before going to Scotland too).

I'll be spending roughly three weeks in Japan (including attending my brother's wedding), 10 days in Cambodia, 25 days in Vietnam, 10 days in Laos and two weeks at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. After that, I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I'll figure it out as I go. Japan I'm doing with family and then by myself and then I'm joining tours for most of the rest of what I have planned so far.

The last month has been good. I got to spend time and catch up with friends and family that I hadn't seen in a while and I had a chance to rest and be lazy before getting sorted for my trip. Before I got home, I had had vague ideas about being a hometown tourist and visiting all the local tourist sites, but that didn't happen (laziness). I did manage to make it to Toronto Island though. We used to go there quite a bit when I was little and, although I have been back a couple times in the last 10 years, this was my first time going without one or both of my parents - I was visiting the island unsupervised! It was a beautiful day and I had a nice time wandering around, wading in the lake and easing my way back into being a tourist.



Log ride at Centreville (I was terrified
of this ride when I was little. Somehow
 it looked a lot bigger back then)

Toronto Island











Toronto - from the ferry