The adventure begins again....

This weekend, a slightly reduced team Starrett will head off on our 2014 adventure to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Weary of travel and uninspired by the destination, Jason has elected to stay home this year. It was a big decision to do family travel without the full family but we took a deep breath and forged ahead with our plans. The boys are wonderful travellers and I am not worried about being down one adult. Both the boys and I will miss Jason terribly but the blog and modern technology will keep us all in touch.

For those not particularly familiar with team Starrett, the cast members for this adventure are as follows:

Me - 42, group activity leader

Josh -14, teenager with dry wit and a veneer of indifference that disappears quickly when anything interesting happens

Campbell - 12, friendly, cheerful and voted most likely to spend all of his souvenir money on day 1

Flynn - 10, engaging and thoughtful with an advanced sense of humour 

Jason - 41, keeping the home fires burning while we jaunt around the world.

This is the first time we have chosen an organised tour. Generally I spend months planning the itinerary for our annual trip, with my sidekick Campbell providing the junior input. This year, apart from a desultory flip though a couple of travel books, we have done no preparation. This may come back to haunt us later, but my understanding is that our guides will handle everything, including dinner suggestions for 'on your own time'. Work has been crazy busy, so it has been handy to drop the time consuming planning.

After 4 years of an annual holiday, the pre-trip jobs are almost routine. Someone always discovers that they have no underwear (what HAVE they been wearing?); someone else has no shoes that fit (ditto) and one of the zippers on the suitcases is magically broken, although it worked fine last time we used it. All the minor dramas have been taken care of now though, and we are ready  to head off.

The temptation here is to give a summary of our planned trip, however I have decided to leave the first post at this and let you follow our journey as it unfolds.

I have attached the most recent photo of our family (February this year) and one of the boys filling in their outgoing passenger cards.