FAQ - Choosing Destinations

Well, so I'm sitting here staring at a (mostly) empty closet and a (mostly) empty kitchen, hoping that (mostly) + one more day = a packed clean house by the time we leave for Italy tomorrow morning. I've been meaning to update the blog a bit more, but it seems every time I turn around there's another cat fur tumbleweed on the floor to be swept away or an item I've forgotten to pack. And the 'real' packing - in the backpack - hasn't even started yet, because I decided on a whim to order a new pack yesterday and get it overnighted here... crossing my fingers it will actually get here today and will work out.

Anyhoo, gotta get to the point, because there's a ton more packing and cleaning to be done. I thought I'd make some notes about how we chose the destinations we are planning to visit since that's one of the questions I've been getting a lot (some destinations are still tentative further along into the trip, though).

Italy: Our original plan was to stop in Stockholm, since that was a logical stopover destination on the way to Moscow. Turns out Stockholm is pretty much cold and dark and depressing in December, though. So we decided we had to find a warmer place, still at least sort of on the way to Moscow. So we chose Italy! We were going to stick to Rome and Pompeii (we recently saw a tv show on the brothels of Pompeii and wanted to check it out for ourselves), but then a coworker of mine said the Amalfi coast is the most beautiful place she's ever seen, so bam! it's on the agenda too. Which also meant we backed up our departure date from TX by a day... and are now leaving on the busiest travel day of the year. Ah well.

Russia: My brother is living in Moscow, and can't do a whole lot of research in December since the archives are closed, so we decided to freeze our butts off and visit him. :) I've been reading Fifty Russian Winters and A Russian Diary to get some background before we go.

Galapagos: South America was originally not on our itinerary at all, but I sat next to Lance Tarrance (one of McCain's political advisors) on a flight recently, and he raved and raved about the Galapagos - and he's been around the world a time or two. So we decided to take a little southern detour down there between Christmas in the US and heading to Thailand.

Southeast Asia: It's cheap, relatively safe, and there's a well-worn backpacker circuit. And everyone who has been to Thailand has said it is fantastic. :)

India: Brian has been here once before for a wedding, but I really want to see the Taj Mahal, the International Museum of Toilets in New Delhi, and the houseboats in Kerala (Brian has a coworker who knows people). Plus they have a lot of vegetarian food!

Dubai: This area has very little recorded history or culture, but due to the recent influx of oil money, the country is creating its own identity as a land of luxury and lavish extravagance. Everything has been built to be bigger and better here, so it should be fascinating to see. Hopefully I can use my hotel points for a free stay in a resort on the artificial island Palm Jumeirah (shaped like a palm tree - see picture).

Cairo: Gotta see the pyramids, plus we've never been to Africa.

Eastern Europe: Turkey is at the top of Brian's list of places to see, and we may be able to meet up with my brother and a couple friends in the Ukraine next summer. Also, Eastern Europe tends to still be a bit cheaper than western Europe.

Alright, I just saw another cat fur tumbleweed roll by, so it's back to cleaning and packing...

FAQ - Budgeting

Well, now that news of our trip is spreading, we're getting a lot of questions concerning logistics, so I thought I'd address some of them here. Probably the most common question of course is, "Did you win the lottery? Are you rich?" :)

As much as we would like to be able to say we just hit the Powerball jackpot, no such luck here. Brian and I have worked hard to live well within our means, buying a 900sf 1936 "fixer-upper" house, keeping our cars for many years, and not buying things we don't need. Unfortunately the consumer culture in the US leads many people to become prisoners to their possessions, which is especially lamentable if it ends up keeping someone from their ultimate goals and dreams. But if you want to travel, it can definitely be done, and the great news is, it doesn't have to be expensive!

Let's take South Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India), for example, which is where we will be spending a good chunk of time during our trip. The average cost of living per day runs about $20, including a room in a decent guesthouse, and round-trip flights over there from the US are around $800 right now. So a 6-month sojourn could be had for under $5500 ($3600 cost-of-living, $800 flight, ~$1000 incidentals (visas, vaccinations, travel insurance, gear, transportation)). That's less per month than just my rent ever was here in Austin!

On our trip we are planning a couple splurges to more expensive areas (one week in Italy, 2 weeks in Russia, and 8 days in the Galapagos), but the majority of our trip will be spent in much less expensive areas (namely South Asia and Eastern Europe). We also will be using the hotel points we have built up with our reward credit cards, and should garner enough airline miles along the way to get a few of our later flight legs for free. So hopefully you won't see us panhandling on the street corner upon our return... but then again, there's that saying: "Why live in a $200,000 house when you can live under a $2 million bridge?" :P

So What's the Plan, Stan?

Our tentative itinerary (November 2009-July 2010):

• From Austin to Rome and Sorrento, Italy for a week
• Then to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia (to visit my brother, who is currently living over there)
• Back to TN to visit my family for Christmas
• A quick stop in Austin to change out winter wear for warm weather gear
• Down to Quito, Ecuador, with a week in the Galapagos Islands
• On to Bangkok, spending 6+ weeks circuiting through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia (so cliche, I know) :)
• Then to New Delhi, India, hopping south to Kerala
• Dubai (where we will hopefully have enough Hilton hotel points for a nice stay!)
• Cairo
• Eastern Europe (Turkey, maybe Ukraine... things are still up in the air this far in advance)
• Paris (I told Brian we have to stop here for at least a couple days since it's the "City of Love" ...which might be useful for rekindling after spending 8 months together 24/7, haha)
• Finally back to Austin

I'm sure there will be changes depending on circumstances, family situations, our likes/dislikes, etc., but this is our "Susan has to have a plan" Plan. (I'm just one of those types!) Life has a crazy way of screwing with even the best laid plans, it seems, though. But hey, our plane tickets are one-way, and we're just purchasing as we go along, so Universe, go ahead and throw some curveballs our way! (If you're listening, Universe, I didn't REALLY mean that - I was just trying to make a point about how I can be flexible if I absolutely HAVE to be.) :)

So that's the plan, Stan!

You're WHAT?!!!!

After a couple years of planning and many years of saving, Brian and I are finally planning to break out of the cubicle and depart on our 8-month backpacking trip around the world in November. And what better timing, as I just recently found my first gray hair! Brian has taken to referring to our trip as "The Amazing Race - Special Olympics style", but maybe that's giving us too much credit, ha. No, we actually have a fair amount of travel under our belts... and between the two of us we have missed flights, been pickpocketed, gotten stuck in foreign restrooms, been chased by the police, and even spent 9 days trapped on the US/Mexico border due to a flash flood (thanks for the rescue, park ranger!). Call us greedy or adventurous or just plain loony, but we still want to see more! So, barring any major disaster, we're putting aside our jobs, having a couple friends move into our home and look after the pets, and embarking on a loose itinerary that will take us 40,000 miles over 5 continents.

Things we are looking forward to:

1) No more gray hairs, stomach ulcers, joint pains or quarter-life crises. Is this really what defines the 20s these days?

2) Instead of explaining to our grandkids/nieces/nephews that we spent our youth living vicariously through others, we will be able to read our own travel journals to them just as my 92-year-old grandmother recently read hers to me about her 1937 trip to Italy.

3) Being able to feel the sand in our toes for days at a time. (I don't think my office would have appreciated me filling my cubicle with sand!)

4) Discussing "transparency" only in a "Look at the beautiful transparency of the Mediterranean Sea!" sense.

5) Burning 1000 calories a day exploring rather than 10 calories a day pushing the elevator button and walking to coffee break.

6) Spending the same amount on nice lodging in Southeast Asia as we would spend here on a Taco Bell burrito.

7) Finally having a real excuse to wear the same pair of pants 5 days in a row.

8) Trading worry lines for tan lines (well, maybe "freckle lines" in Brian's case).

9) Finally seeing the photos in our travel magazines with our own eyes.

10) Taking cooking classes in foreign lands (American cooking didn't turn out to be my thing - I kept blowing up the microwave - but I'm convinced there's another style of cooking out there that I have latent talents for...)


“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson