Author: globegazers

Traveling for a Year: Harder or Easier than “Real Life” ?

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As you can imagine, the anticipation for a year long journey is intense. We have been thinking about and looking forward to this trip for a very long time. As the time draws closer (3 months and 6 days!!) I have been swinging back and forth between two mental states:

  1. Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to get out of here. The day to day grind of work and life is killing me! Life on the road will be so much easier!

    and …

  2. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. I’m terrified. I won’t get to sleep in my own bed and curl up comfortably in my own home for a YEAR?! I have to live for a whole year with only the clothes that fit in my backpack? That is going to be really difficult!

So, is traveling for a year harder or easier than our “real lives”??  Both, perhaps?

Traveling will be easier.

  • No day to day grind! We will not be feeling the pressure of jobs or bosses or any of those normal “things you have to do.” We won’t ever feel bored with life.
  • We will have more choices about how to spend each day. If we want to rest, we rest. If we want to go out, we go out. If we enjoy a city or town, we get to stay longer. If we don’t find that something meets our expectations, we can get out of there more quickly. If we meet cool people who are going somewhere we didn’t even think of, we can change our plans on a whim and join them!
  • We will have a lot fewer schedules to keep. This sounds like the ones above, but has an extra layer. There will be much less time pressure. We will be able to forget about time for days at a time if we feel like it!
  • Sleeping in! This is really similar to the above bullet, but I mean come on! We can sleep in on any day we want!
  • And, the obvious – We can lay in hammocks sipping beers whenever we want =)

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but…

Traveling will be harder.

  • We will be pushed outside our comfort zones every day. We will be navigating cultures and locations so different from our own constantly.
  • There won’t be a place that we can call “home.” We will constantly be on the move, living out of small backpacks, sleeping in all manner of places from the really grand to the really not, wearing the same set of clothes day in and day out.
  • We will be far away from friends and family having to function without any of the support system that we are used to. At times we will fill completely disconnected from everyone as lives will continue on without us: potential weddings, babies being born, birthdays, and holidays will proceed where we can’t be present.
  • Every day will require new and different kinds of problem solving. Talk about mental exercise! We will be exploring new places, using transit systems unfamiliar to us, in languages that we have no competency in. We will often worry about being scammed, cheated, or robbed… or just generally ending up in bad situations due to our mistakes or even just poor luck.
  • Traveling can be exhausting! We’re looking at a TON of long bus, train, rickshaw, taxi, and plane rides. Ugh.

So, while I’m sure that I will continue to think “only a few more months and I’m out of here!” every time something gets frustrating, I will remember that it won’t be a dream. Sometimes it will be gritty, real, and exhausting. I will miss you all very much and will hope you keep us updated on the big happenings in your lives!

Any comments on your experiences with long term travel would be appreciated!

 

 

 

Learning Something New Everyday!

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Did you know that a braai is a BBQ grill?

Did you know that an ablutions block is a bathroom?

I didn’t. But now I do! At least they are in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana.

We’re getting close to having our plan put in place for our self-drive safari! (More details to come)

How Can You Afford to go Around the World?

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This is another one of the questions that we get quite often when we tell people about our trip plans.  The answer is both really easy and really difficult. Traveling like this will definitely require a significant amount of cash.

The first answer is that this trip is a priority for us, so we have been saving money. We are extremely fortunate to be debt-free (except for the house) so we can afford to put money towards savings.

The rest of the answer is not as clear-cut. We believe that traveling in the way that we want to may be significantly cheaper than living a year in our normal manner here in the U.S.

In our initial effort to think about the budget for the trip, we gave ourselves a daily limit. We plan to spend no more than $100/day for the two of us. This would be an average of course, because naturally there will be bigger expenses on some days and less on others. We hope to get several of our large flights covered by airline miles, which will help keep the costs down. We also know as we move through different areas of the world, the cost of living will change drastically. We believe that there are places where we can spend much less than our $100/day and some places where the $100/day limit will be a struggle. In addition, we know that there will be certain “adventures” we want to experience that may cost more. But, based on our experiences traveling in the past, we think that the limit is reasonable.

Using the $100/day plan, we can assume we will spend approximately $3000/month. $3000 times our potential trip length of 10-12 months would get us up to ~$35,000 for the two of us. With our savings, as well as perhaps a little income from renting our house, this seems doable. It is quite a bit less than what it costs to live here in Denver for a year!

As for traveling cheaply, stay tuned to the blog for our budget posts. We’ll let you know how easy or difficult it turns out to be to stay within our budget. Also, we might give you some ideas about how to travel more economically and where in the world you can visit without breaking the bank.

You’re Taking a Year Off to Go Around the World??

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Telling people that you’re planning on taking a year off to travel around the world is always an interesting experience. The range of reactions you get is quite large. Some people can barely contain their excitement for us while others can scarcely hold in their horror. There are definitely some commonalities though. The largest being the question: How in the world did you decide to do that?

We thought we would focus on that idea: How does one decide to take a year off from their established life and travel around the world?

The answer is varied of course. There are as many reasons as there are people who decide to do it! There are some answers that you would probably get from almost everyone, however.

General Reasons:

1. The world is a gigantic place. How else would you find the time to see and experience all the amazing things out there? With close to 200 countries on our globe, you could never find enough time to visit all the sites that are worth seeing. Taking a year to do it seems like a necessary step.

2. Sometimes a break from the day to day grind is welcome and needed. It becomes very easy to get bogged down and potentially disenchanted with the jobs that we do every day. A year to explore, awaken our senses, and reevaluate the reasons that we choose our jobs in the first place may be necessary.

3. For some people, there is an innate desire to stretch the boundaries of our comfort zones. A trip like this can make us supremely uncomfortable at times, but at the same time teach us how to be stronger. If we can navigate our way through different cultures, with different languages, without the comforts of home, there is nothing we can’t do!

 

In addition to the general reasons, every person has something that tipped them over the edge, or ultimately brought them to this kind of decision. We thought it might be interesting to explain our stories separately, because we came to our choice to travel in very different ways.

Della’s Reasons:

1. This in many ways sounds silly, but it is definitely true: I wanted to do something like this because my parents did. I have heard about their trip since I was tiny. They describe their trip with such humor and excitement that I couldn’t help but want to do one of my own. Because of their stories (of which there are many that I have heard over and over again), it has been a lifelong dream of mine to see all the places that they saw – and more!

2. There is so much to see and know in the world. I want to see and know it all. I feel like the travels that I have done in the past have opened my eyes to such diversity and have helped me form my views on life. I am intrigued to learn more.

3. The adrenaline rush! Figuring out how to survive day to day in completely foreign situations is very exciting. Plus, I want to see if I can do it.

Eric’s Reasons:

Della is making me.

Just kidding! But I certainly can’t claim that I have had the RTW travel bug for as long as Della has. I had done a decent amount of domestic travel before I met Della but she has opened my eyes to the world of international travel. So these are my main reasons:

1. The quest for knowledge. There is so much going on all around the globe that I only vaguely know about and want to learn more about. Or there are things that I have learned that I have forgotten. But I feel like traveling helps you connect with stories from the past and the present in much more detail, and to remember those stories better in the future.

2. It’s not as hard as I thought it would be. Originally, when Della told me about her parents’ trip and her grand vision, I thought it sounded impossible to pull off. But some quick Googling proved that many people have done it before, and they have published excellent planning resources.

3. I don’t want to be too old to cross things off of my “bucket list.” Well, first off, “bucket list” seems somewhat overplayed so I’m going to not use that terminology. But the idea is the same – many people put off doing things that interest them until they have completed the “normal” life checklist. But what if by the time you are fully retired your health has declined? Or you are in a situation where it’s impossible to go? There’s no time like the present to just do it, because while it may be a gamble to deviate from the “traditional” path of earning money, it’s also a gamble to assume that you’ll be able to do everything you want in 30 years.

4. I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to planning things, and travel provides an outlet for doing cool research and then seeing it come to fruition. It’s fun to spend a bunch of time researching the best options and then seeing it pay off.

5. Meeting people with a wide variety of stories. In our past international travels, we have met people from all over the world and had a great time hanging out. Being able to learn about other cultures and share our culture is fun! Plus, remember how at summer camp you felt like you had made best friends for life by the end of the week? Meeting someone out traveling often feels like that as well.

Caye Caulker Overview

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When we finally headed to the Cayes of Belize we chose Caye Caulker from the many options.

Where We Slept

Daisy’s Guest House.Our traveling companions from Caracol had been to Caye Caulker before us and had recommended Daisy’s. The rooms were spacious with two beds, a ceiling fan, and bathrooms down the hall. It reminded us of a dorm room at college as all the rooms were attached to one long hall. We were quite lucky because we ended up having the entire guest house to ourselves for one of the nights, which we enjoyed quite a bit. We spend time lounging in the hallway because it was a bit cooler and the WiFi worked better.

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Relaxing in the hall on a rainy evening

Daisy’s Guest House

Favorite Place to Eat

Barrier Reef Sports Bar. We realize this is a strange choice in an island known for seafood (during LobsterFest for that matter!) But, we did enjoy their trivia night. Unfortunately, the food is only OK. However, what we really enjoyed was finding all sorts of Texas and Rice University (!!) paraphernalia adorning most of the walls. There was even a picture of the 2012 Rice Women’s Soccer team in the bathroom. We also enjoyed chatting with the owner who was an expat from Houston.

Things To Do

Swimming at the Split

Caye Caulker did not really have a lot of options for truly public beach. The best place to go to lay in the sun, drink cocktails, and swim in the ocean was at the northern end of town. We heard it was called the split because several years back a hurricane came through and tore through the island splitting it in two. The channel that runs through is clean, clear, and offers some mediocre snorkeling. It’s not really a beach, and tourists and local alike did more relaxing along the crumbling sea wall which was not very comfortable. However, the water was warm and welcoming. Our time in Caye Caulker was plagued by mosquitoes (they were out in mass EVERYWHERE! At one point, Della got 7 mosquito bites in about 4 minutes on an early morning walk down the hall to the bathroom of the guesthouse!) so we did not enjoy laying out too much. There was a neat bar right on the edge of the split that had tables IN the water. We did spend some time drinking beers and completely submerging ourselves in the shallow water of the bar.

Go  Snorkeling

We took a snorkeling trip out of Caye Caulker and were in agreement that it was the best snorkeling we had ever done!

Relax

Caye Caulker was an easy town to be in with lots of shops, restaurants, places to stay, and street food/vendors. We enjoyed seaside bars, karaoke bars, and lots walking around town.

Lobster Fest

Obviously, Lobster Fest doesn’t occur year round. But if you have a chance to experience it, you definitely should!

Summary

We chose Caye Caulker above some of the other Cayes because it was supposed to be quiet, relaxing, and a little less touristy. Because we arrived during Lobster Fest and came from the small quiet town of Hopkins, we didn’t find Caye Caulker as quiet as we expected. It was definitely a relaxing place to spend a couple of days, though as we already mentioned, the mosquitos were almost unbearable which severely restricted how much time we spent outside. In addition, it rained a fair amount of the time that we there, so we were sometimes happy just to spend time in our guesthouse and read or check email. Overall, we got a little bored in the three days that we spent there. We were lucky that we had met and traveled with our travel friends from Hopkins. Getting the chance to hangout with and get to know them better was definitely a plus during our time in Caye Caulker. The highlight of the time was definitely the snorkel trip, which we loved! (although, it would have been better if we had been more careful with sunscreen!)

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