Lives of Wander

Jeff January 10th, 2008

When I was in college, we went to Sweden one summer, not unlike a number of other summers of my childhood, since my mother is from a small town in central Sweden. On this particular trip, however, my mom, dad, sister and I all stayed for three weeks in one hotel room in Uppsala, while my sister and I took a language course. With European hotel rooms being what they are and at that time in my life, let’s just say it was difficult to be confined in such a way. To boot, we were right on an intersection that, while not seeing much traffic, is friendly to blind people. Meaning it beeps. Loudly. Alternating between quickly when the pedestrians have a walk signal, and more slowly when they do not. So all through the night, my brain would rattle with a bee-bee-bee-bee-beep … beep … beep … beep … bee-bee-bee-bee-beep. I longed for mere Chinese water torture.

The carrot for enduring this temporary loss of sanity, along with a few more bureaucratic hoops, was permanent Swedish citizenship, which these days translates to EU citizenship. This has already been very useful, affording me flexibility in work trips to Sweden while my classmates fiddle with visas. (And since Theresa is married to me, she can easily get a work visa should we ever desire to move to Europe. Nice option to have, and one that many others would kill for.)

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy being Swedish for the culture as well. I see a lot of how I am in the way the society works, both in good and bad ways. I feel I understand and fit in with both the timidity I disdain and the thoughtfulness I appreciate. Swedes have a very egalitarian perspective on society (as their government reflects … or is it the other way around?). And Stockholm manages to be the cultural center of Sweden while still feeling small and walkable.

But now there’s another new reason now to be pleased about being Swedish. When we looked up the visa requirements for all of the countries we were interested in visiting, we saw that many countries charge EU nationals substantially less than U.S. nationals for visas. I mean, check out the chart (click here to see a full-size version). At least Vietnam, Zambia, Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia all charge way more for U.S. visitors than Swedish visitors. I figure in total, my visa fees will be less than half of Theresa’s. So that’s useful.

I guess what I’m getting at is, thanks mom for pushing me to get my permanent citizenship. It’s an invaluable trait to have in an increasingly connected world. While my Swedish nature leads me to desire citizenship even without any benefits, saving a few bucks on my visas sure doesn’t hurt.

• Money , Non-RTW Travel , Planning
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Jeff January 6th, 2008

We met with our local Allstate representative on Friday, because the completely useless DMV decided to further complicate our already busy lives. While there, we checked the official DMV records with our agent and the proof of insurance they threatened to fine me for not sending them was in fact in their database already. Silly DMV. Anyway, we thought it would be a good opportunity to ask a few questions about our travel related concerns in regards to insurance.

Anyway, here’s what we learned there:

(1) Renter’s insurance will still cover your personal belongings in storage. Though we plan to be able to find homes for most of our belongings with friends and family, it’s reassuring to know that our standard renter’s insurance policy will still cover our belongings against damage or theft while they are at a storage facility. We’ve accumulated a fair number of things already that we plan on keeping for a while. This makes me hear Tyler Durden in Fight Club hearing “The things you own end up owning you.” Food for thought.

(2) You should never cancel your auto insurance policy (while still keeping a car). This seemed to me to be a great idea to save money while we’re gone, but it turns out I was way wrong. Here’s why. This causes all kinds of headaches in terms of vehicle registration, because most states (including Maryland) will require the insurer to take your tags. Also, when you return and want to purchase insurance again, you must pay a substantially higher rate because you have not had continuous coverage. What you can do is reduce the levels of insurance to a very high deductible with liability coverage only. So it still costs us a couple of hundred dollars, but that’s better than having to re-register and pay a lot more later. The other option is to just sell the car, but we’ll need a car as soon as we get back (wherever we end up) and don’t want to have to buy one right away.

(3) A lot about life insurance. I’m gonna be honest, it’s not something I have thought much about getting, since we’re young and can both support ourselves just fine. But with this trip and the uncertainty we face anyway when we get back, we thought it would be a good time to get some sort of policy. At our age, term life insurance makes more sense as it is a lot cheaper, and we have decided to just get a 10 year term policy. We’d be plenty young to get cheap insurance when we reassessed in 10 years. Anyway, it is definitely something to think about when planning a trip, just in case.

So I hope that wasn’t too boring for anyone, but it definitely has a lot of good tidbits of information for any of you thinking about logistics. Just a few more of the many things to worry about for us to now check off of our list.

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Jeff December 21st, 2007

Originally I was planning on expanding on what Theresa said in her latest post, just below this one. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out, it’ll make you realize how affordable a RTW trip can be with some planning. But reading through it, I realized she already pretty much covered what I planned on saying. To sum it up in one sentence, it’s very financially doable.

So I thought I would give you a little insight into what we plan on doing financially while we are traveling. I know that this isn’t the sexiest of subjects, but it’s a pretty necessary component to traveling. It is a very different financial world abroad than it is here in the US. Both of us, like most people our age, are creatures of the modern financial world. Our preference for using credit cards is met by almost ubiquitous acceptance of them everywhere from parking garages to the corner deli (we, of course, pay them off every month, and we get some great rewards from it). We rarely carry cash. Our salaries are directly deposited. We dabble in the stock market. A lot of these things are going to change when we go on this trip (starting with the no more salaries part).

There are a few main goals we have financially while we are traveling:

1. Maintain a reasonably sized pool of cash that will be on our person.

Our travels will be mostly in the developing world, where cash is most definitely still king. Credit cards and other forms of electronic payment are by and large not accepted, at least outside of major cities, where even there they are mostly confined to pricier hotels and restaurants. For daily usage, we will need to be carrying cash.

2. Keep enough funds for our entire trip in savings with easy access.

One thing that has become pretty easy to find (again, in most major cities) are ATMs. That is how we plan to maintain the aforementioned cash pool. We also want to avoid ATM fees and while earning as much interest as possible, and fortunately, a number of checking and savings accounts have started to offer this features. We probably will open a Fidelity high yield checking account that seems to meet all of these requirements (I’m sure other companies have similar offers, but we have been happy with our previous experiences with Fidelity).

3. Minimize the number of credit cards we carry and minimize foreign transaction fees we pay

As I said, there are not many places to use credit cards in the developing world. They have their moments of extreme usefulness, however, so we will carry a few cards (a primary one and two backups) with us and use them when we can. We do have too many credit cards; this stems from me applying for cards for a myriad of great benefits — this has also contributed to our frequent flyer mile collection. So we will cancel or consolidate many of these that we will not use. Some cards are better than others when it comes to travel because there are extra fees added on for foreign transactions. There is a standard 1% fee that Visa or Mastercard adds, and the issuer of the card (ie Chase or CitiBank) usually adds an additional 2% charge. Even with these fees added, credit cards still offer the best exchange rate … banks and currency exchanges will charge heftier fees. Some card do even better though. We will be using almost exclusively a Capital One, that not only has no fees of their own, but they refund the 1% Visa fee, and our card pays 1.25% back, for a total savings of 4.25% on everything we charge compared to an average card. Another useful card to carry is an American Express card, because although they are rarely accepted outside the US, they have travel offices in many larger cities accessible only to members that can be very helpful. You can find the foreign transaction fee policies for most credit card companies here.

4. Simplify our investments and long-term cash.

Like I mentioned, we dabble in the stock market. This is not something we are going to want to think about at all during our travels, and a lot can charge in a year. Just think back to how hot real estate was at the beginning of the year compared to now. So we want to change our investments into something simple and safe. We’ll be selling most of our individual stocks and putting some money into some safer mutual funds and CD’s, but I won’t bore you with any more specifics here.

I think we’ve all had our share of finance for today. But with this simple set of changes, we will have easy access to cash, the best value from our credit, and won’t have to worry about our money for the trip or for afterward. So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.

• Money , Planning
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Theresa December 15th, 2007

Money. We all want it. We never have enough of it. It’s the root of all evil. It’s the means to making great things happen. It’s essential to this trip we’re soon to take. And it’s something everyone wants to know about, though not everyone is ballsy enough to ask about. So we’re just going to go ahead and address it straight on, Miss Manners and etiquette rules about not talking about money be damned.

I think a Q & A format works best for this, so that’s the approach I’m taking.

Q: How much does a one-year trip around the world cost?

A: Well, we haven’t taken said trip yet, so I can’t give you a final number, but I can give you an estimate. The estimate has many sources: guidebooks with their suggested daily budgets, the costs given by other travelers who have taken such trips, and our own personal experience traveling and living abroad.

First off, there is no standard amount for what a trip like this will cost. One major deciding factor is where you plan to travel. Traveling around Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and other highly-developed first-world countries is going to cost you a lot more than traveling around the developing world. For example, in Egypt, we ate steak kebabs for $1 and stayed in a nice hotel with pool and other amenities for $7. In Paris, the same would have cost us between $10 and $20 for the food and over $150 for the hotel. In Egypt, over the course of an entire week, we spent under $200 per person, and that included all food, train, taxi, and bus trips, admission to museums/the Pyramids/Temples, etc., hotels, a felucca ride on the Nile, a snorkeling trip in the Red Sea, souvenirs, etc. In Paris, $200 could easily disappear in a day.

On our RTW trip, we will be traveling almost exclusively in the developing world, which means that our money will stretch rather generously. (Also, as most of you are probably aware, the dollar is plummeting in value thanks to the current economic situation in the U.S. This does not have nearly as much of an effect in the developing world, however, for multiple reasons: the first being that many Third World currencies are tied to U.S. dollars, the second being that costs are so low to begin with in these countries that increases in costs are relatively small for American travelers.)

A second factor that determines how much a one-year RTW trip costs is your style of travel. If you want Western-style accommodations and food and opt for planes over trains and buses, your costs will be high. If, however, you seek out local lodges, eat where the population eats, and don’t mind long-distance overland travel, your costs can be quite low.

We actually prefer (gasp) the second option. We believe this is how you best understand a place. We don’t travel to recreate our own lives in another place, but to experience others’ lives as they live them everyday. That’s not to say that every once in a while, we won’t splurge. But let me be clear that for us splurging won’t mean a night at the Hilton, it will mean spending an extra $5 to get air conditioning when it’s 100+ degrees outside (and inside). Truly, everything is relative.

So, to answer the question, Jeff and I estimate that we will spend under $30,000 on our one-year trip around the world. This is just over $82 per day for the two of us. This is less than we spend in a year at home.

Q: How are you able to afford this?

A: To clear up any speculation: No, we are not trust-fund kids. No, we have not won the lottery. No, we do not have ridiculously high-paying jobs.

So how can we do it? Simple. We made it a priority. Some people want nice cars. Some people want large houses. Some people want to eat dinner out every night. We want to go on a trip around the world. So that’s what we plan for, save for, and invest in.

Jeff is currently in graduate school, although we are fortunate that his program provides him a real honest-to-God salary. I work for the government, making under $50k (well under, if you must know). We live in the Washington, D.C. area, which has a high cost of living. We manage, however, to save my entire salary every year. This is how we can afford this trip, and at the same time, be in a position to come home with enough money to pick up our lives without major changes.

So, how do we save so much? To begin with, we’re both naturally very conscientious about money. We’re savers, which means we’re going along with our natural impulses, not fighting them. This starts us off on a good foot. Secondly, we’re not into luxury. We don’t care much about cars, high-end clothes, fancy dinners out, or luxe hotels. Thirdly, we’re not especially social; we’re not the type who need to be out on the town every night. Jeff might go out for a beer after work every now and then, but we’re not regulars at any watering hole. Given the choice, we’d rather have friends over for dinner and game night than go out for dinner and a movie. We seek out free festivals. I snag free tickets to movie premieres and theater performances. We love to hike, bike, and go to the parks.

We also budget, which I think is key to saving money. We all know how easy it is to blow the $20 in your wallet and not have any idea of what you spent it on, so we keep track of all of our income and where it goes. We plan out menus for the week and then shop carefully and cook regularly. We take our lunches to work. We don’t buy a coffee every day.

For some people, this might sound like no fun at all. For us, it’s no big deal. Even if we weren’t going on this trip, we’d still be like this. It’s the way we are. And it doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy a nice dinner out every once in a while or go to the cinema to see a movie. We just make conscious decisions to do it. We don’t go because we’re bored or lazy, but because that is what we really want to do. And we’re not cheap either. We don’t nickel and dime when we go to dinner with friends. We buy nice gifts for our friends and family for weddings, birthdays, graduations, and other special occasions. We give to charity. And we probably spend more than the average person on travel. Obviously, we love to travel, and we’re not afraid to spend our money to do that. But even then, we’re generally budget travelers. Our biggest splurge since we’ve been married would probably be our Grand Canyon trip, but even then we made sure we got the absolute best deal possible. We just don’t spend willy-nilly. Never have. Never will.

I think Jeff will follow up in a future post with some concrete saving and investing tips. He’s our money guru and has much more informed things to say about this. Let me just finish by saying that if you want to do a trip like this, you can. You just have to make it a priority and save for it just as you’d save for anything else. Goals, people, goals.

Q: What do you think will be the most expensive parts of this trip?

A: The first and most obvious answer is airfare. Flying isn’t cheap. That’s why we’re going to try to do much of our travel overland, saving flights for long trips between continents. The benefit of having a whole year for the trip is that you can take full days to travel. You don’t have to be everywhere now. As Jeff mentioned before, we’re also hoping to be able to use our miles to offset some of this cost.

Another expense is insurance. We will need to purchase health and travel insurance for the entire year we’re gone. We’re currently comparing options and will post more about this later.

Specialty activities will be a third expense. Going on safari, trekking to see gorillas, climbing Kilimanjaro, and other similar activities have high costs. The trick is determining how much certain activities are worth to us. This is how we’ll determine which of these specialty activities we choose to do and which we pass on—a good ol’ cost-value analysis.

Q: Will you be writing further posts about money and expenses?

A: Yes. I plan to be rather forthright about this. I love reading travel blogs by others who have done similar trips, but so often I find myself saying, “Well that sounds cool, but how much did it cost? Is this something I can afford?” Money might be taboo to many people, but not to me. Things have a cost. Why not let people know what it is? It’s like those damn menus that don’t print the costs of drinks. Nobody likes to wait until they get the bill to find out that their margarita cost $15. So I’ll just go ahead and tell you. Then, if you’re reading our blog because you’re planning a trip of your own, you’ll have the facts you need to make informed decisions. Otherwise, um, well you can gossip about it or something.

• Money , Planning
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Jeff December 11th, 2007

Joyce’s advice got me going about all the cool travel gadgets I’ve been seeing while looking around, though I have to say, the foundation/sunscreen combo does not make my list. Those who know me know that I’m quite the gadget geek, and while traveling is when a truly useful product shines. So I thought I would post about some of those things that I think are particularly interesting and/or neat products. These are some of the things I plan to have with me next year:

Gorillapod
With our camera, we didn’t know what to do about low light conditions or flash-free zones. Enter gorillapod. Nope, it won’t be a full size tripod, but it’s just small and light enough to fit with the rest of our small belongings. Plus it gets bonus points for being an impromptu drying rack just by turning it upside down (or coat hanger!).

Spork
It’s a fork, spoon and knife all in one! So you never have to hunt for or use dirty utensils. And it comes in multiple colors! I want red, Theresa wants green, but luckily, they come in a 4 pack, with one of each color.

Steripen
Insta-water purification from a tiny pen. It uses UV light to kill off all the bacterial and parasitic trouble that you can find in unsafe water. Supposedly works a treat, though it is expensive. But it’s worth it to avoid the nasty taste those iodine tablets leave behind.

Renewable Flashlight
It always seems that flashlight batteries die whenever you need them most. Using some cool simple electromagnetic physics, you shake the flashlight for three minutes, and presto, it works for half an hour (or something like that). Just a cool idea, and in the right (or wrong?) situation it’s a life saver.

Packing Cubes
With everything living in one bag, it’s going to be important to keep it organized so I can find whatever I’m looking for at a given moment. As I am not the most organized person out there, keeping things in individual packing cubes will help immensely to keep things sorted out.

Flip & Tumble Bag

I’m not gonna lie, I like this because it folds up into a ball. I love having something to play with. In all honesty, though, it would be a miracle if one of these actually made the whole trip without disappearing. It surely will accidentally find a river or become a stray dog’s chew toy at some point.

Credits: Most of the pictures came from REI, and I read about the bag and steripen at Practical Gear Traveler.

• Gear , Planning
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Jeff November 27th, 2007

Flights, at least intercontinental ones, are pretty essential when it comes to a round the world trip (unless you’ve got a ton of time and reeeaally like the open ocean). And yet, arranging them can get complicated in a hurry. This is only made worse by the fact that a “round the world” trip is by nature not a round trip, but a long series of one-way trips. As anyone used to flying knows, this is not conducive to being cheap. But fortunately, a number of budget consolidators, and even the airlines themselves, offer “round the world” tickets at reasonable rates.

These tickets generally have a lot of restrictions, but are also quite flexible, if that makes any sense. You have mileage limits, time limits, minimum stops, maximum stops, no backtracking, and surely more depending on the specific type, class or plan you choose. But you can also change dates quite easily, though changing destinations may cost you a tidy little fee. We’ve started sifting through some of these plans and looking for what makes the most sense for us. The major problem is that vague information is pretty easy to get, but specific information about actual fares and comparisons are very difficult.

Our first option is one that isn’t likely to be useful to too many people. We have managed to pile up a lot of frequent flier miles on Continental (the one “plus” of all those years in Houston … as if it can make up for the rest). They have an option where you can redeem your miles (a whole 140,000 of them) for one round the world ticket. But all is not rosy. As anyone who has tried redeeming miles for anything, it’s not as simple as it sounds. There’s all kinds of restrictions on available seats, and it gets exponentially more difficult when they have to coordinate with other airlines about this. Then throw in their further restrictions that all travel be completed within one year of issuing the ticket, meaning we would have to wait until almost immediately before leaving to even book our ticket. Also, the ticket itself is quite restricted, with a maximum of six destinations. So it’s our first option because it’s cheapest, but it’s pretty clearly not the easiest and/or best. We’ll update you about our experiences with the system as we go.

The cream of the crop as far as airline alliances go seems to be the round the world ticket from Star Alliance. United and US Airways the American carriers of Star Alliance. I’ve flown both of them and have never been a fan of either, but here’s why they’re good for RTW trips. You can venture to up to 15 cities, there are different tiers of mileage and class (and therefore price) to fit your trip, you can change dates at will (though changing cities will still cost you). As importantly, they have the largest network of flights, and are one of the few that has direct flights between Africa and South America, something we would prefer to do (though their coverage in South America is apparently weak). There’s still that little matter of cost, since they’re not the cheapest. We will be trying to get actual quotes for our trip and see how they compare. If only we had the foresight to get United miles instead of Continental, as these tickets are also available with miles, but alas, we do not have a spare 200,000 United miles.

Another good option we still need to consult is STA travel. If you can believe it, I’m still technically a student so this works for us. They’re very well known and very used to doing these kinds of tickets, and surely could sit down with us and hammer out something that would get us to all those places we want to go.

The remaining options delve into the network of consolidators. And as far as this is concerned, right now, your guess is as good as mine. I found a cool tool at Airtreks that lets you interactively pick your route, but I haven’t exactly been blown away by their rates. We may also consider not purchasing a traditional RTW ticket as we are doing fairly specific traveling. Especially with the rise of local low cost carriers, it may be worth simply purchasing tickets between our big destinations, say US to Bangkok, Bangkok to India, India to Africa, Africa to South America, and done. In between flights we could purchase on location.

As you can see, this not quite a sorted out part of our trip. But the point is the process. We’re here now, we’ll see where we are in a few weeks/months. Hopefully we’ll have these tickets before we leave.

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Jeff November 19th, 2007

Remember when Theresa wrote up a details about all the countries in Africa we wanted to go to? Well around that time I was supposed to do my analysis of Southeast Asia in much the same way. And in typical Jeff fashion, here it is, three weeks late. In my defense, one of those weeks was in Sweden while the other was in San Diego. Throw in a weekend in Richmond, and here we are.

But tales of my procrastination and lack of organization are not why you are here. So having finally finished my leisurely 700 page read “Southeast Asia on a shoestring,” here’s the long list of places we’re most interested in going.

Cambodia: It’s definitive draw (justifiably so) are the Temples of Angkor, the most famous of which is Angkor Wat. The whole country seems dotted with these Khmer temples about a millenia old. It’s probably not the coolest thing about me, but one thing I do love about traveling is the history lessons, and Cambodia seems to have them in spades. I’m sure Theresa will humor me. It’s more recent past with the Khmer Rouge is intensely sobering, though they are arguably more important history lessons. Memorials to those lost are also required visits.

Indonesia: We may be better off going by islands rather than nations because of all the islands in Indonesia, only Borneo, comprised of three nations, and Papua, comprised of two, particularly interest us. The more well known islands of Java, Bali and Sumatra seem overcrowded, touristy, and indistinct, respectively. Anyway, we love the natural beauty, rural setting and tribal dominance that exist on Borneo and Papua, not to mention Orang Utans, pygmy elephants and rhinos to see.

Laos: It seems to be the laid back country in the region, which sounds like a welcome change after Cambodian temples and Bangkok, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City. Though I’m sure we’ll both relax comfortably in the charming French colonial city of Luang Prabang, I’m excited about spelunking at Vang Vieng and looking for the Irrawaddy dolphins at Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands).

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur and it’s incredibly diverse experiences is an obvious spot to hit, but we’re really intrigued by a lot of the other options on the peninsula: trekking between villages and tea plantations in the Cameron highlands, riding a train along the jungle railway, jungle camping in Taman Negara National Park. This doesn’t even include half of Malaysia that is on Borneo (already discussed under Indonesia), with more spelunking, 4000 meter tall Mt Kinabalu to hike, and did I mention pygmy elephants?

Philippines: There are three things drawing us to the Philippines, all of them in the water. The first is the islands around Cebu, connected with a dizzying array of ferries. The second are the Calamian islands, beautiful, laid back, with some amazing diving among WWII shipwrecks (see more about diving with Thailand). The third is swimming with whale sharks in Donsol, which has got to be ridiculously cool, I mean, they’re 50 feet long!

Singapore: I don’t have much to say here besides we know we will be going there. Since we know we’ll go there, I haven’t looked so hard into what exactly we’ll do there. That will come when we start to think about how much time we’ll want to spend there. Just another victim of procrastination …

Thailand: We’ll get the obvious out of the way again, because Bangkok will probably be our first stop on the whole trip (by default … we’ll probably fly in there). It does have an absolute ton of culture and history to offer in one chaotic, slightly dirty package (which sounds a lot like Cairo to us … and we loved Cairo). There’s a lot more to do though, the beautiful and crazy resort town of Phuket, the dive mecca of Ko Tao (where we intend to get PADI certified), elephant rides and treks to hill tribe villages near Chiang Mai, and the ancient cities of Ayuthaya and Sukhothai. Thailand has a great travel reputation for a reason.

Vietnam: Finally, there’s the country that conjures up all kinds of imagery to Americans. To be frank, we’re fascinated by the country, it’s beauty and it’s hardship. Hanoi houses Vietnamese and communist history in a French colonial wrapper, while Ho Chi Minh City reveals the hardship in the War Museum, the Cu Chi tunnels and Reunification Palace. In between lie beauty at the archipelago at Halong Bay, the ruins of Hoi An and the highlands of Dalat.

So that pretty much sums up where we want to go in Southeast Asia. The one that hurts to leave off is Burma, as it seemed like a fascinating place. But as we have earlier describe, we don’t feel right about going there and supporting the current regime, especially when the democratically elected leader under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi, has requested foreigners not to visit the country. Additional countries we won’t be traveling to include East Timor, since it is not particularly stable, and Brunei, since it’s on Borneo with Malaysia and Indonesia, countries we have more interest in visiting.

So anyway, all things considered, we’ve now finished the easy part (at least with Africa and Southeast Asia). The hard part is figuring out where we can actually go on our budget and time frame. There’s were the real parsing begins. And just like in Theresa’s Africa post, there’s a lot of overlap … beaches and islands and jungles and trekking, with a few large cities thrown in. Though to be fair, I don’t really get tired of those things.

• Asia , Planning
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Theresa November 2nd, 2007

I’ve finally finished my perusal of Lonely Planet’s Africa on a Shoestring, which I was using to get an idea of places worth visiting. Actually, I’ve been done for a while, but I was holding out on posting, hoping Jeff would finish the Asia guidebook and we could also post about that region. Unfortunately, Jeff has been swamped with work as he tries to get everything done in time to graduate with his PhD early next summer, so Asia will have to wait a bit.

Anyhow, on to Africa. While others might think of South Pacific islands, in my mind Africa is the definition of exotic. It’s a place so entirely different from my “ordinary.” As we’ve talked about this trip and slowly begun to turn it into reality, Africa has always been my goal, the one place I most wanted to go. I’m pulled to this continent by its stunning natural beauty, its awesome wildlife, and its unique culture. I think I could spend our entire year here, so narrowing places down was hard, and there is still much decision making to do. There will certainly be some wonderful places that end up on the cutting room floor.

So why don’t I then begin with the places that we will not be going.

West Africa: Because Africa is such an enormous place, we had to first narrow possible destinations down by location, and when it came to East versus West, East won. The Serengeti, Victoria Falls, and Mt. Kilimanjaro just held too much sway. Perhaps on RTW Take 2, we’ll do West Africa.

Countries We’ve Already Been To: So that’s only Egypt. Africa is very much a land of unknowns to us. If Egypt is at all a taste of the continent, we’ll both be very happy. I don’t think either Jeff or I would have any resistance to going back, but this trip is about the places we haven’t been, not the ones, no matter how cool, that we’ve already experienced.

Unsafe Spots: Yes, life is about taking risks, but not unnecessary ones. So we will be avoiding Sudan, Congo (Zaire), Burundi, Somalia, and Angola.

And now for the exciting part, the countries that interest us. Yes, I know this is way too much, but for this go-round, I was being open to the possibilities, noting everything that captured my imagination.

Rwanda: I can see the radars going off already. For most of us, our defining image of Rwanda is that of the merciless civil war that pitted Hutus against Tutsis and led to what can only be called genocide. However, the country has moved on from the atrocities of 1994, and it is now a safe place to visit. Highlights of Rwanda are the Parc National Nyungwe Forest, where you can see chimpanzees in the wild, and Parc National des Volcans, where you can go on gorilla treks and explore the volcano.

Uganda: Like Rwanda, Uganda has the gorilla thing going on. We’ll obviously only go see them once (it’s not cheap!), but where, I’m not yet certain. The bad news with the Uganda gorillas is that they live in an area right near the border of Congo and sometimes cross over, which then means you are out of luck, since you can’t follow into Congo (and don’t really want to). Also, apparently, Uganda is the more popular destination, making it harder to get a spot on a trek. Other cool things in Uganda include Queen Elizabeth National Park–which was wildlife walks and drives and has hippos(!), Ssese Islands–a lovely beach area, and Jinja–the source of the Nile and a hot spot for whitewater rafting.

Tanzania: If there’s one country that really has it going on, Tanzania might be it. You’ve got Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and Zanzibar. So crazy wildlife, amazing mountain trekking, and great beaches and scuba diving. There’s also the Usambara Mountains, which are known as “Africa’s Switzerland,” and are great for hiking. What’s not to love?

Kenya: Often thought of as the traditional land of the safari, Kenya is home to the Masai Mara, famous for the annual wildebeest migration, and Tsavo National Park. Tsavo just happens to be the name of the lion that resided at the Louisville Zoo when I worked there (and may have been the lion that was thought to have escaped one Halloween although it turned out he was just doing a very good job of hiding). Interesting trivia, huh? Kenya also offers an opportunity to mountain bike at Lake Naivasha and & Hell’s Gate National Park. Seriously, a park named Hell’s Gate, how can you not want to see that?

Ethiopa: This isn’t your mother’s Ethiopia, no longer the image associated with the “There’s starving children in Africa” ploy to get you to eat your vegetables. These days there is plenty of injera to go around, t hough I can’t say that I’m much of a fan of this spongy bread. But I am intrigued by the city of Addis Ababa and it’s markets, the ancient sites of Aksum, and the rock churches of Lalibela.

Madagascar: I don’t know about you but I associate Madagascar with lemurs, and I think it would be awesome, although potentially deafening, to be in a forest full of lemurs. From my days at the LZ, I can recall the piercing noise just a few of those creatures could make. It was insane. The Parc National de Ranomafana is the place to spot some of these endangered critters. For great hiking and waterfall exploring, there’s Parc National de I’Isalo, and for swimming with the whales and sharks (eek), there’s the lovely waterfront town of Ifaty. Main problem here is that Madagascar is pretty darn far away from the mainland and not so easy or cheap to access.

Mozambique: Africa with some Latin flavor thanks to its Portuguese colonizers. The diving is good at Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, and the dhow trips around the Querimba Archipelago sound enticing. But I’m not completely sold yet.

Zambia: Sharing Victoria Falls with Zimbabwe, Zambia is an adventure lover’s paradise. There’s gorge swinging, microlight flights, white water rafting, riverboarding…

Zimbabwe: This country offers up the same Victoria Falls adventures as Zambia, but also has a few other things peaking my interest. The canoe safaris at Mana Pools National Park sound pretty cool and the hiking at Chimanimani sounds top-notch. The issue here though is whether I want, through my tourist dollars, to support the out-of-control President Robert Mugabe.

Botswana: You know those cool National Geographic pictures of rivers just teeming with hippos, so many that it seems you could walk across the water on their backs, that’s Botswana, specifically the Okavango Delta. Want to explore that in a dugout canoe? Yeah, me too. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Botswana is expensive, the land of luxury safaris, and fancy resorts. So most likely, unless we win the lottery prior to this trip, Botswana will be a no-go.

Namibia: German is one of the languages officially spoken here, so I think that means that I better go. It might just be the only place on this trip where I could put my language skills and college degree to work. And it’s a happening country, so it’s worth a visit with sandboarding in Swakopmund, wildlife watching in Etosha National Park, and red sand dunes exploring in Namib-Naukluft Park. The only trick here is that it’s not an easy country to get around, but I think I’m willing to work a little harder for this one.

South Africa: There’s lots going on in this popular African destination. Just in Cape Town alone, you can revisit history at Robben Island, get a peek at penguins on Cape Peninsula National Park, and take a hike up Table Mountain. Then you’ve got the Winelands, the coastal town of Cintsa which is like a summer camp for grownups, the ancient rainforests of Hogsback, and Kruger National Park, where I’m psyched about the exciting and affordable walking safaris.

Wow, that’s a lot. Africa just oozes excitement. There are so many unique things to see and do. But if you’ve actually read through all of my descriptions, you’ll have noticed that there is also a fair bit of overlap with the main themes of safaris and adventure sports. Obviously, we’re not going to do the same activities over and over while just simply switching countries. We have to narrow things down, figure out what’s best, where we can get the most bang for our buck, and what places really capture the authenticity and awesomeness that we’re looking for. This isn’t the Amazing Race (they’ve rejected me twice, damn it), so we’d like to actually spend time in the countries we ultimately end up choosing to see, not just breeze through, checking off sites. The planning is underway, but there’s still a lot to do.

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Theresa October 24th, 2007

In the November/December issue of National Geographic Traveler, an article addresses what they have deemed “Vacation-Deficit Disorder,” referencing a recent study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research called No-Vacation Nation. The article focuses on both the sad state of paid vacation available to most U.S. workers and the fact that many Americans don’t use the few vacation days they are given.

Among countries with advanced economies, the United States is the only country that does not mandate vacation days. Throughout Europe, companies are required to give employees anywhere from 20 (Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, the United Kingdom…) to 30 (France) vacation days each year. Even workaholic Japan stipulates 10 vacation days each year. No wonder Americans are so poorly traveled in comparison to the rest of the world. A two-week European vacation or a trip to Australia isn’t going to fly for the majority of working Americans.

So, how, I can hear people, asking is it possible to take an entire year out to travel? Well, as I see it, there are a few options. First, if you have a job that you like, check with your higher-ups to see if they’d be willing to give you a leave-of-absence or a sabbatical. This will give you the freedom to travel with the security of a job to come back to. Unfortunately, I must say, that the likelihood of your job allowing this is slim. But, as my momma always told me, the worst they can do is say no.

Second, if you’re still a young’un, consider taking your first year out of college to travel, or even put off college for a year to travel right out of high school. In the United Kingdom and Australia this is a common practice, referred to as a gap year. One problem might be that having never been employed, you’re unlikely to have much money. The good news is that as a young person you’re likely to need less money. You haven’t yet got used to the luxuries that older people find hard to give up. And you can always do odd-jobs as you go to bolster the bank account. Though this idea is still a bit radical in the U.S., it’s starting to catch on, meaning that universities and employers are beginning to look at it as a positive experience, not just a year of goofing off.

Third, you can say the heck with the job and give your notice. That, effectively, is what we’re doing. Or, more precisely, what I will be doing. Jeff is completing his PhD, so in some ways, he falls more under option two (although thankfully he is making money). I, having moved here with the stipulation that we’d leave D.C. once the PhD was in hand, would be quitting my current job regardless, so in many ways this is a natural break for us. But instead of moving to a new place and getting new jobs, we’re going to move to a lot of places and have no jobs. Obviously, a good choice.

In some ways, that’s a little scary. What in the heck are we going to do when we get back? We’re not 18 year olds who can just head on to school, we’re not retired folks who have no plans to go back to work, and we’re not beloved employees of a company dying to take us back upon our return. But you know what, I’m not too concerned. We’re both intelligent, hardworking, talented people (in my humble opinion, of course). We have education, and we have experience. We’ll find something. And if I have to work some weird jobs while I find a good position, well, that’s okay. I once pulled garbage bags full of maggots (see job at the Louisville Zoo). I can handle anything.

There’s never a perfect time. But there are plenty of good times, and in my opinion, it’s about priorities. This is what we want to do. There probably won’t be a better time to do it. So, hey, that’s it, we’re doing it. I’m not going to miss the rat race. Would you?

(And, yes, I know that the other question on everyone’s mind is how in the heck can we afford this. We will be addressing that in a future post, and while rumor has it that it’s not polite to talk about money, I’m going to do it.)

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Jeff October 21st, 2007

Not that the internet doesn’t get enough praise, but spare me a few moments to make my case. Last weekend, when we were back in Seattle for a friend’s wedding, we got to talking about my parents adventures in Africa in the 1970’s. They had headed there as part of a travel tour that would take them from Morocco to South Africa in the span of three months with adventures galore. As the trip began, it became clear that all was not as advertised, their tour guide had never made this trip before and a number of their reservations, such as Land Rovers, were not as certain as previously thought. After three months they were not even one-quarter of the way. It wasn’t that they got duped or anything: the tour guide was a friend of a friend and had decent intentions, he just wasn’t prepared for what he had recruited people for. Fortunately, my parents were resourceful enough to put together their own adventure from then on, and to this day this trip is a source of some of their best memories. But here is what I kept thinking listening to the stories:

How did they not know more going into it? There are lots of other lessons to glean from my parents trip, like the value of resourcefulness, the lifelong friends you make along the way, how to handle emergency situations. Many of which I’m sure will be covered much more in depth on this blog in the future as we plan, but I’m not going to focus on that now.

Instead, I’m going to quickly mention the reasons that quickly came to me … among other things, they didn’t have any internet, guidebooks weren’t as ubiquitous. The access to information was not nearly as instantaneous. The first thing I would do today if I was thinking about booking a tour would be to fully vet them online, googling and looking for online reviews, opinions and experiences. Alternatively, I would’ve dug through a guidebook from the library looking for recommendations of tours or which places I would want to go. And, in fact, that is what we have spent the better part of our preparatory time doing: research.

These mediums are not without their downsides, the internet makes misinformation just as accessible and guidebooks can help create an almost insular travel culture, but they provide an unprecedented ease and convenience to access information. So with that, I would like to offer a simple thank you to those things that make preparations for this trip much easier. I do hope (and fully believe), however, that we will have just as many opportunities to test our resourcefulness and make our own lifelong friends along the way.

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