RTW Planning

One Month: To Do

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As of June 2, we are one month from our departure date! Here’s an updated to do list! There is still A LOT to get done, but we are hoping to ramp up our speed once we are both done with work – THIS FRIDAY!!!!!

PLANNING

  • Contact and plan our safari – DONE
  • Make lodging arrangements for Johannesburg
  • Explore Travel Insurance Options & select/purchase policy – HALF DONE
  • Add pages to both passports  – NOT NEEDED TILL ASIA
  • check visa/passport requirements for all countries
  • Get passport photos taken for visas (have several printed)
  • Scan all documents into digital format and save to both emails
  • Gather all CC contact numbers, embassy numbers, etc. – download app?
  • Get new international drivers licenses
  • Get family and friends setup with Skype/Viber – HALF DONE
  • set temporary change of address with  post office
  • Finalize packing lists
  • Put together med kit
  • figure out how to unlock Eric’s phone?
  • Figure out what to do with Della’s phone
  • decide on final packs
  • decide on final plug options (give dad others to return)
  • purchase plane ticket to NYC
  • decide where to stay while in NYC
  • purchase plane ticket to South Africa – DONE
  • purchase plane ticket to Prague – DONE
  • purchase train ticket Johannesburg to Capetown – DONE
  • Collect travel planning documents (scanned/packed) – HALF DONE
  • Contact insurance company related to cars – HALF DONE
  • fill out power of attorney documents (general and medical)

HOUSE/STUFF

  • Rent our house – HALF DONE
  • write a lease for our house rental – DONE
  • Donate stuff not worth selling – HALF DONE
  • Make arrangements for storage of the amount we plan to keep – DONE
  • Pack up the house
    • Study
    • Master Bedroom
    • Guest Bedroom 1
    • Guest Bedroom 2
    • Kitchen
    • Living Room
    • Basement big room
    • Basement sound room
    • bathroom 1
    • bathroom 2
    • master bathroom
    • garage
    • utility room
  • Sell extra clothes on ebay
  • discontinue utility services

PETS

  • Texi to vet – DONE
  • Texi to TX – DONE

MEDICAL

  • Make a visit to our travel doc for meds/vaccines – DONE
  • Dentist appointments – SCHEDULED
  • Final doctors appointment – DONE
  • Eye exams – new glasses (della) – DONE
  • figure out when insurance ends – DONE July 1

MONEY$

  • Finish up credit card minimum spends – DONE
  • Cancel unnecessary credit cards
  • decide which cards to continue gaining miles on
  • notify all cards of international travel

TO BUY

  • External Hard drives – DONE
  • wire padlocks (TSA)
  • space on the cloud for storage (decide what spaces we will use: dropbox, google drive, other??)
  • rain covers/travel covers for packs – HALF DONE
  • drain plugs – DONE
  • extra camera batteries (della) – DONE
  • buy more camera memory cards – DONE
  • Good walking/hiking/zumba shoes – HALF DONE
  • good sandals – DONE
  • travel clothing – MOSTLY DONE

EVERYTHING ELSE

  • Get website up and running – DONE
  • Photo website up and linked into our Blog – DONE
  • Della – figure out how to pack/transition classroom – ALMOST DONE
  • Buy new washer
  • Buy new dryer – DONE
  • Install washer/dryer
  • Have going away party – SCHEDULED
  • Eric – learn/practice driving stick shift
  • Eric – transition to shaving with bladed razor – DONE
  • Eric- get LASIK – DONE
  • Della – advertise student blog – HALF DONE

Texi Goes to Texas

globegazers 1 Comment

Once upon a time there was a little cat who needed to travel from Denver, CO to Dallas, TX. There was much discussion on how she should travel.

“Which would be better” the Sorcerer Eric asked, “flying upon an aeroplane, or driving overland?”

“Tis difficult to decide,” replied the fairequine Delic. “Flying costs more in gold press latinum, but traveling by car requires more time as Dallas is 14 hours to and hence from Denver.”

“Upon my magical consideration,” replied the sorcerer, “flying shall be best.”

Flying a Cat

Fairy tales aside, we did need to transport Texi to Texas and we did decide, upon careful consideration, that flying was the most appropriate option. While we had never flown with a cat before, we discovered that it is quite possible, though definitely a bit stressful.

We had heard that many airlines required pet health certificates from the vet in order to board the plane. We did not think that American Airlines did, but we took Texi to the vet within 10 days of the flight just in case. We were never asked to present the certificate. We did, however, get her a clean bill of health and secure a prescription for kitty drugs to keep her calm during the flight.

Texi has never enjoyed being transported and this time was no exception. Despite taking a double dose of the drugs, she never did completely zonk out.

Things you Need to Know to Fly a Cat

  1. You can choose to take your cat as a carry-on. The pet carrier counts as your personal item that travels beneath the seat in front of you, so plan accordingly.
  2. Buy a soft sided pet carrier as there are rules about the size of the carrier. The soft sided gives a more flexible option and will likely fit under the seat while giving your cat more room to move around.
  3. Visit the vet within 10 days of flying to secure a health certificate. Many airlines required this, though it did not turn out to be necessary for us.
  4. Book your flight online to save phone booking fees, but after you do that, you will need to call to add your pet to your flight information. Some airlines only allow a certain number of pets on board each flight so you need to make sure that your pet will be welcome.
  5. Be prepared to pay a pet fee. We were a little frustrated that Texi cost more to fly then we did. We chose to fly American Airlines because they offered 1 free checked bag (with Eric’s status as a credit card carrier) and offered a direct flight to Dallas. Their pet fee was $125. In comparison, the 1 way ticket for me cost only $95.
  6. Know that you can ask for a private TSA security screening. You will need to remove your cat from her carrier to go through security. The carrier will have to go through the X-ray machine, but your cat should not. We were concerned that (despite the drugs) Texi may squirm enough that she could get away if we removed her from the carrier. Visions of her dashing through DIA were not exciting. So, we requested a private screening. I was able to take her into a small enclosed room where she could not get away. The TSA representatives took the carrier out and ran it through the X-ray and then returned it to me. This whole process is easier if you are not traveling by yourself. Eric had to take care of all of my bags while this was occurring.
  7. Take advantage of the family restrooms which are available at airports. We used two at DIA and one in DFW to let Texi out of the bag for short moments so she didn’t go stir crazy. It allowed us to let her relax a little while doing the waiting thing at the airports.
  8. Don’t worry too much about the noise the cat will make. Due to the general white noise on an airplane and the fact that the carrier is under the seat, it is difficult to hear it. We also covered the carrier with Eric’s fleece just to make sure. We’re not sure anyone on the airplane even noticed we were carrying a cat.
  9. Beware that takeoff and especially landing may be difficult. We guessed that Texi had pain in her ears much as everyone does when going up and down in the airplane. She was mostly OK on the way up, but landing was a different story. She freaked out a bit and ended up pawing and biting at the top of her carrier, potentially trying to get out. We had to hold it closed (velcro may not be the best option). It was difficult for about 10 to 15 minutes, though she calmed once we were back on solid ground.

Overall, the entire ordeal went smoothly. We were grateful that our plane ran on time and we did get Texi to Texas in an orderly fashion. She even seemed to feel comfortable in her new home rather quickly.

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Shots, Shots, Shots: Our Visit to a Travel Clinic

enjean2013 2 Comments

Part of our trip preparations was to get some shots!

Actually Lil Jon, we don’t mean those kinds of shots. We mean vaccinations!

There are a lot of nasty diseases out there in the world that we don’t want to contract. So, we decided to get ourselves preotected from those dangers.

Rather than try and figure out on our own what we needed, we decided to visit a travel clinic. They wanted to see us six weeks before our trip, so we went and visited the second-to-last week of May.

During our visit to the clinic, we first went over our itinerary with them to identify the different entry requirements the country might have and the different risks we would be exposed to while in the country. Once we had gone through all of the itinerary, they gave us recommendations of what we should get, and we decided what to accept. In the end, we went with most of their recommendations.

  • Hepatitis A: Eric needed this one. Della had it in 2007
  • Typhoid: Both of us got this. It is actually taken as an oral vaccine now
  • Japanese Encephalitis: Both of us had to get this one. We felt a little unprepared to decide on whether we needed it, but we decided better safe than sorry. We will need to get a second dose of this in June
  • TDAP: Eric needed this one. Della had it in 2007
  • Polio: Required for entry to Israel and India, so both of us got it

So in the end, Eric got four shots (two in each arm) and Della got two (one in each arm).

We also got a few prescriptions for some pills:

  • Doxycycline (malaria): this seemed like the best choice among the different malaria pills. Still going to be a pain though. Based on the time we will be “at risk,” we have to each get 220 pills!
  • Cipro: Anti-diarrhea antibiotic treatment outside of Asia
  • Zithromax: Anti-diarrhea antibotic treatment in Asia
  • Diphenoxylate (Lomotil): Anti-diarrhea treatment similar to Imodium

There were a few immunizations we declined:

  • Rabies: they said we only needed this if we would be outside reach of medical care for over 24 hours. We don’t think this will be the case very often, so we declined. Plus, this was a pretty expensive shot…
  • Meningitis: recommended for group living situations. We will be in hostel dorms some nights potentially, but we didn’t think this would be often enough to justify the cost

In the end, the cost of this was quite high, but this was mitigated somewhat by the fact that we each have an HSA that we were able to use for payment. Also, probably better to pay the high cost than get the disease later!

 

Planning Our Self-Drive Safari

enjean2013 7 Comments

Why Self-Drive?

When setting out our overall itinerary, we decided that we wanted our first stop to be South Africa.We also know we wanted to do some sort of safari to see some of the amazing wildlife and sights that Africa has to offer. But what kind of safari should we do?

First, we had to figure out where we wanted to go. Some people just go out to Kruger National Park in South Africa. While that sounded like an excellent destination, once we saw pictures of places like Sossusvlei and Victoria Falls, we decided to focus on getting to both Botswana and Namibia out of Johannesburg.

A quick glance at the prices or the luxury guided safaris let us know that was a no-go. Another option that a lot of “backpackers” do is to do a group “overland” tours through a large tour operator. This would have allowed us to see a lot the highlights, but the downside seemed to be to us that we wouldn’t be able to set our own pace.

Then, we stumbled across a blog by Traveling 9 to 5 about a self-drive safari. Intrigued, we looked into this further and thought it sounded pretty cool. You rent a truck with camping equipment and drive yourself on your own itinerary. This seemed like it would allow us to see exactly what we wanted while not breaking the bank. So, we started planning for this option.

Picking a Truck

There are many operators in Johannesburg that will rent you the standard self-drive safari vehicle: a four-wheel-drive pickup (always white for some reason) with a tent mounted on top and camping supplies included. We wanted to find a good deal, but also wanted to go with someone that seemed responsive to our concerns.

We got quotes from a few different places, then made a spreadsheet to compare their daily costs, insurance options and other fees. In the end, we went with Bushlore. Their costs were on the lower end of the spectrum, and they were very responsive in answering questions. From their selection of trucks, we chose the Toyota Hilux with Safari Camper.

Choosing the Route

The next step was to figure out where the truck was going to take us. July is part of the high season for safaris, so we couldn’t afford to dawdle. Conveniently, Bushlore offers a service to help plan the itinerary and book accommodations along the way. So, we got in touch with the booking department and started making plans.

The agent came up with a day-by-day plan and quoted us a price to book the whole thing. However, we felt like we needed a little more information. First, we mapped out the itinerary ourselves to see if the number of days could be condensed. Then, we researched all of the proposed campsites (cross-referencing against Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor, of course) to see if any of them could be booked by us directly.

Our first attempt at mapping out the destinations

Our first attempt at mapping out the destinations

It required a little back and forth, but eventually we settled on a route and cost with the agent. We came up with a 25 day itinerary, which doesn’t allow for a lot of downtime but hopefully won’t be too hard to get done. It turned out that it was easier and almost as cheap for Bushlore to book the campsites for all but one of the destinations…

The Time We Wired Money to Africa

The website for Etosha National Park in Namibia seemed petty straightforward, and the price they were requesting for a campsite was about half of what Bushlore quoted. So,we decided to try and book it on our own. Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly until it got to the whole payment part of it.

We had thought we could pay by credit card, but it turned out the only option was to wire money. We hadn’t really done that before, so it took a little figuring out how to even do that. It was tough to even figure out if we were sending it the right place – the way it was supposed to work was that we wired to an account in the US that is associated with a foreign exchange company that would then send the appropriate Namibian dollars to Etosha.

We were a little scared that somehow this was a scam (and trying to explain that we were attempting to wire money to Africa while talking to representatives of our bank felt a little silly), but by this point we were in deep enough that we decided to just send the money anyway. If we ended up losing it, it wasn’t going to be the end of the world and would be a good lesson learned. We were getting a little nervous because it took Etosha quite a while to email that they received the payment… but they finally did (after close to 3 weeks)! Hopefully when we show up there, they will still remember that…

 

After telling everyone how flexible we want to be on our trip, it feels strange to have planned out the first month in such detail! We’re just hoping that all of this up-front planning will help make this self-drive safari go as smooth as possible. Look forward to more posts in the future about how close we can stick to this plan 😉

Two Months: To Do

globegazers 2 Comments

As of May 2, we are two months from our departure date! There is so much to do. We decided to make a list to help us celebrate what we’ve done and keep track of what is left.

PLANNING

  • Contact and plan our safari – DONE
  • Make lodging arrangements for Johannesburg
  • Explore Travel Insurance Options & select/purchase policy
  • Add pages to both passports  – NOT NEEDED TILL ASIA
  • check visa/passport requirements for all countries
  • Get passport photos taken for visas (have several printed)
  • Scan all documents into digital format and save to both emails
  • Gather all CC contact numbers, embassy numbers, etc. – download app?
  • Get new international drivers licenses
  • Get family and friends setup with Skype/Vyber
  • set temporary change of address with  post office
  • Finalize packing lists
  • Put together med kit
  • figure out how to unlock Eric’s phone?
  • Figure out what to do with Della’s phone
  • decide on final packs
  • decide on final plug options (give dad others to return)
  • purchase plane ticket to NYC
  • purchase plane ticket to South Africa – DONE
  • purchase plane ticket to Prague – DONE
  • purchase train ticket Johannesburg to Capetown
  • Collect travel planning documents (scanned/packed)
  • Contact insurance company related to cars
  • fill out power of attorney documents (general and medical)

HOUSE/STUFF

  • Rent our house – HALF DONE
  • write a lease for our house rental
  • Sell books on amazon?? (eric)
  • Donate stuff not worth selling – HALF DONE
  • Make arrangements for storage of the amount we plan to keep
  • Pack up the house
    • Study
    • Master Bedroom
    • Guest Bedroom 1
    • Guest Bedroom 2
    • Kitchen
    • Living Room
    • Basement big room
    • Basement sound room
    • bathroom 1
    • bathroom 2
    • master bathroom
    • garage
    • utility room
  • Sell extra clothes on ebay
  • discontinue utility services

PETS

  • Texi to vet – SCHEDULED
  • Texi to TX – SCHEDULED

MEDICAL

  • Make a visit to our travel doc for meds/vaccines – SCHEDULED
  • Dentist appointments – SCHEDULED
  • Final doctors appointment – SCHEDULED/DONE
  • Eye exams – new glasses (della) – DONE
  • figure out when insurance ends – DONE July 1

MONEY$

  • Finish up credit card minimum spends – DONE
  • Cancel unnecessary credit cards
  • decide which cards to continue gaining miles on
  • notify all cards of international travel

TO BUY

  • External Hard drives – DONE
  • wire padlocks (TSA)
  • space on the cloud for storage (decide what spaces we will use: dropbox, google drive, other??)
  • rain covers/travel covers for packs
  • drain plugs
  • extra camera batteries (della) – DONE
  • buy more camera memory cards – DONE
  • Good walking/hiking/zumba shoes
  • good sandals – DONE
  • travel clothing – MOSTLY DONE

EVERYTHING ELSE

  • Get website up and running – DONE
  • Photo website up and linked into our Blog
  • Della – figure out how to pack/transition classroom
  • Buy new washer
  • Buy new dryer – DONE
  • Install washer/dryer
  • Have going away party
  • Eric – learn/practice driving stick shift
  • Eric – transition to shaving with bladed razor – DONE
  • Eric- get LASIK – DONE
  • Della – advertise student blog

First Goodbyes

globegazers 4 Comments

We are getting closer and closer to the departure date of our trip. We’ve definitely been getting swept up in the anticipation. Luckily, a lot of things are coming together for us: we have both spoken to our jobs and have a start date for our leaves, we have someone potentially lined up to rent our house, we have a plan for our kitty, we have major plane tickets booked and a safari planned! But, there are definitely some things we are not looking forward to. I had to face one of those tonight.

IMG_5649

Today I taught my last Zumba class at Dancing the Soul. It is a wonderful dance studio where I have worked for almost the last three years. It’s a strange thing to say goodbye to something that has been a constant part of your world and routine for so long. It was also time to say farewell to some of the wonderful women I have been dancing with every Wednesday!

Saying goodbye is never an easy task. I know that this will be the first of many goodbyes we will have to undertake before we leave in just over 2 months. It will be goodbye to family, friends, routine, familiar faces and places. While I am so excited for the adventure this trip will be, I am dreading the part where I have to do things like this.

But enough with the sad stuff for now… back to the anticipation. Even though I will be leaving Dancing the Soul, I hope to not give up Zumba for the year. One of our goals is to attend Zumba classes in as many different places as we can! Just keep your eye out for posts tagged Zumba Round the World and I’ll let you know what it’s like to Salsa in Slovakia or Cumbia in Kathmandu!

For those of you who can’t wait to dance around the world, check out this song!  Zumba Round the World (All Around the World by Paulina Rubio)

 

I Wear Your Granddad’s (Travel) Clothes… I Look Incredible!

globegazers 4 Comments

As we’ve been planning for our trip, we have had to think about what clothes we want to bring that can stand up to a year of travel. We’ve read all about getting fabrics that are durable, quick drying, odor resistant, etc. The easy way to do this would be to go to REI and have ourselves a shopping spree…

but that’s not really our style!

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We’ve been shopping for our travel clothes at… surprise, surprise… the THRIFT SHOP!

Why the Thrift Store?

We’ve always shopped at the thrift store for a cheap source of everyday clothes. As part of keeping our trip affordable, we figured we would take the same approach when searching for travel clothes. You can find quality clothing for reasonable prices. Despite Macklemore’s song, it’s not all multi-generational hand-me-downs or quirky, outlandish things. Brand names are not that hard to find.

How to Search

It does require a little bit of extra effort to find items appropriate for travel. It’s not like there is a special travel section like you might find at a “new goods” store. First, we did our research on the kinds of things that we were looking for. Most people tout clothing made out of synthetic fabrics like polyester because it dries quickly. Other people say merino wool is even better for temperature control and odor resistance. Most thrift stores organize all of their clothes by size (though some by color). We have gotten pretty good at gauging fabric as we’re flipping through hanger after hanger of shirts or pants. We have also mastered the art of finding the tag that lists fabric type and care in almost no time at all.

What We’ve Found

CAM00277

Eric’s Haul

 

IMG_20140423_225507

Della’s Haul

 

We were excited to find some of the brand names that we would probably have searched for if we were looking for new clothes such as Go Lite, REI, and Columbia.

IMG_20140423_225533 (1)

 

What’s Left?

We aren’t only shopping at the thrift store. Certain items, like underwear and shoes, we think are better to buy new. Also, we have received some excellent gifts of other new items. We have also utilized Ebay and Sierra Trading Post (which has been great with coupons and an easy return policy).

We definitely recommend making the thrift store part of your travel shopping plan!

Macklemore said it well… “One man’s trash, that’s another man’s come up!” 

 

 

 

How We’re Getting to Europe for $200

enjean2013 9 Comments

We’ve bought our second set of plane tickets for our trip! It wasn’t quite as cheap as our first flight, but we were still able to use miles!

The Africa leg of our trip will be concluding in Cape Town, and the next stop on our journey is Prague in the Czech Republic in Central Europe. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to search for award flights between these two airports.

As with our flight to Africa, the Star Alliance seemed to be the best bet for finding an award flight because they have the most members that fly in the region. It costs 30,000 United miles to fly from South Africa to Europe. Luckily, Della just got 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (transferable to United) from the Ink card, and Eric had just enough left over from his Sapphire bonus.

Award availability was good for the week we wanted to fly as well. For a while we just watched the flights and pondered which day of the week we wanted to leave. It seemed like the best bet was going to be on Turkish Airlines flights with a layover in Istanbul. However, by the time we got around to booking, that flight on that day had disappeared.

But… we noticed one of the other flights that was available had a 8 hour layover in Munich, Germany. Sounds like a good chance to add another country to the itinerary! Eric was especially excited when he found this well-organized guide to Munich layovers. It is always nice to have the options so well laid out, plus a chance to see the oldest brewery in the world is hard to pass up!

In the end, the fees were a little higher than the Turkish Airlines option: $100 a person. But, the departure date was right and the opportunity to (briefly) see Germany seemed cool too, so we went ahead and booked:

Screenshot from 2014-04-15 20:49:50

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

globegazers 3 Comments

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!