I Would Walk 1000 Miles

I am currently in Hanoi. A couple of nights ago I mentioned the Walk to Mike, one of the owners of the Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel. Mike was a) drunk and b) generous and straight away said "put us down for 200 bucks". True to his word and despite Max, the other owner and definitely the guy who knows how to wheel and deal blowing a fuse (kidding!), Mike invited Michael from Blue Dragon over and handed him the cash. Mike is on the left of the picture, Michael on the right. So now I have to do the walk or Mike’ll be after a refund! The money is effectively already spent. A few months ago, the Foundation successfully put a young man through a drug rehabilitation course in Ho Chi Minh City. Recently, a friend of his in the same dire situation approached them and asked for help. This clinic is not cheap and the money kindly donated by Mike and Max will go towards paying for this. So, thanks guys. And if I can promote the hostel any more than I’ve already been doing for the last 8-9 months, I’ll do it!

In case you’ve not noticed, or you’ve not got JavaScript enabled for this site (go on - I’m safe!), there’s a timer ticking down under the title. It’s the time until 9am in Monte Carlo on August 1st.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Argh.

(I got the timer from here)

…I’ve created two new pages. One with all the donation information on and one with all the donors listed.

I think I need to come to a decision as regards donation-making. I would have loved ot use JustGiving or FirstGiving, but they require a charity to be registered in the UK/US and then further registered with themselves. As Blue Dragon is registered in Vietnam, this is a problem! It’s also a shame as both organisations allow citizens of their native countries to add a tax refund to donations, maximising the amount collected. Another option would be just to put a PayPal link on the blog. I don’t want to collect the money directly myself as I incur charges from all transfers - I had to "upgrade" my PayPal account some years ago to accept a credit card transaction. I could just link direct to BDCF’s PayPal, but then I’d have no way of keeping track of how much the Walk is raising. So, here’s a suggestion. I’ll link you all to BDCF’s Donation Page. Please choose the best method for yourself - there are ways of donating tax-free for US and Australian citizens. We hope to have a similar procedure for UK taxpayers soon, but we’re waiting to hear back from a third-party charity. Donate through this page and CONTACT ME as well to let me know how much you’ve been kind enough to give. If you just want to pledge an amount and cough up when the walk is over, then please also let me know so I have a running total. Also, let me know if you want me to put your name, link to a web page, or whatever online. I’ll try to keep a list of the sums and donors (where they’ve given permission for their names) on a separate page. But the important thing, in the immortal words of Bob Geldof: "Give us yer f***in’ money!"

I will start the walk on AUGUST 1ST.

I had to decide sometime on a firm start date otherwise I’d just keep wandering around Europe until the depths of winter. So rather than the previously vague “late mid-late July”, I’ve settled on the 1st of August to start my trudge from Monte Carlo.

Some Italian guy’s nicked mine! Story on Ananova. Thanks to Chris for pointing this out for me. I really should start publicising a bit more, though. Hopes are to speak to the Vietnamese BBC correspondent in a couple of weeks when I get to Hanoi.

Just to let you all know I’m still working on things behind the scenes! Still no reply to any letters sent by my folks recently, but I may follow those up with phone calls in the next week or so if I have broadband (and therefore Skype) on my laptop.

I’ve had quite a few people get in touch with me via CouchSurfing.com, which is cool. A couple of offers of accommodation - though not on the path of the walk as yet - and three offers of company for some of the stretches, which I will likely take up. As well as being someone to talk to, and a safety net in case of accidents, they can also vouch that I don’t cheat!

I was looking through the Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring book in a shop over the last few days (I won’t mention the name of the shop as it’s not the wonderful Dymocks), but after working out the price after the stickered 20% discount I figured it was barely cheaper than the UK cover price. I may as well look for it second hand or buy one off the shelf back home so I don’t have to lug it around Asia and the Middle East for the next 6 weeks.

Unless someone fancies donating a copy…?

Update: I notice Amazon are doing it for a shade over a tenner, and I have £20 in vouchers to use up. Methinks that will be the best route!

A huge thank you to Cedric of MaxLifestyle.net for popping a quick story up on their ABC of Hiking site. Here’s hoping it gets a few more people’s attention!