What?…How?…Why?

We’re going to see the world!!

Our decision to abandon our stable lives for footing on foreign lands has been met with many responses – most of them positive. Of course some people have been confused as to why we would consider taking this much time off work or away from our families. However, a few years ago a friend of mine once said – “You can’t just live life, you have to live YOUR life.” That always stuck with me as I tossed and turned around the idea of the “Big Trip”. Finally, one day I just realized I was missing out on my life and I knew I had to go on this trip. One if the worst things to carry around in your soul is regret and I knew there would be a tremendous hole in my heart if I didn’t do it. I met Randy shortly after and all I had to do was talk him into it, which wasn’t really that hard.  :)  

I also want to take the time to address some questions that keep popping up:


What – Aka: What the heck are you thinking? Taking all that time off? Are you crazy?

No, we’re not crazy we’re just going around the world. Since it would be unfeasible for us to take 2 or 3 months off every year for the unforseeable future we decided to just save up and go all at once. We’ll be travelling with a loose itinerary and no  pre-purchased plane tickets since we want to be able to change plans easily. This way when Lonely Planet emails us to cover a feature story in Australia, Cambodia or St. Petersburg we can say “Sure! We’ll see you in a couple days!”. Plus it gives us super flexability – if we like a place, we’ll stay – if we don’t, we’ll leave. We don’t really see it as a year of vacations – instead we’re hoping to turn this into new opporunities for the future. We’ll be working along the way to defer costs and we’ll be using the upcoming year to look for all types of freelance work we can do along the way as well. Our time abroad will be for seeing new lands, meeting new people, learning new languages and hopefully we’ll learn a thing or two about ourselves as well.

Where?

This is my favorite question! Everywhere! Ok, not everywhere but as many places as we can! The general itinerary will look something like this:

Ireland – Amsterdam – Germany- Prague – Vienna – Russia – TransSiberian train to Mongolia then China – Japan & South Korea (depends on teaching jobs) – Vietnam – Thailand- Cambodia- Laos – Indonesia-Australia-New Zealand-Australia (again)-India -Nepal-Spain-Morocco-Spain (again)-France-Switzerland-Italy-Greece -Turkey-Egypt-South Africa – Kenya -Unganda-Argentina-Chile-Peru-Brazil-Columbia-Panama-Costa Rica-Honduras-Guatemala-Carribean-Belize-Mexico-US 

When?:

Originally we were scheduled to leave Sept. 8 2008 but due to unforseen events starting with a capital C, it has been pushed back to March 8, 2009. This is the official date and will not be pushed back again!! This way Randy can pay off his car, I can get all my health issues squared away and we can both get back on the savings train. So this is the new official leave date unless of course we win the lottery or get a huge corporate sponsor - in that case we’ll be leaving as soon as we get all our vaccinations!


Why?:

Why not?
This is a trip of a lifetime and we have a lot left to discover about the world and ourselves. After the Capital C problem, I learned more than ever that life is just too short to not be lived fully. Life is meant to be enjoyed and now is the time to do it. I do not feel bad about taking time off work, I want to live life. We will be sad to say goodbye for such a long time but we’ll be communicating constantly thru email, this website, pictures, video and by Skype internet phone. You’ll probably start to wonder if we even really left, PLUS I will even make a specific point to irritate Kate from halfway around the world!! We’re most worried about leaving our little Chachy – since last we checked he hasn’t learned how to read email yet!  

How?:

Basically it involves long nights of working and researching. We’ve got the basics down but we’re just beginning the process of immunizations, visa requirements, weather patterns, budget making, language learning and deciding which electronics to take.  Overall we’ll stay in the cheaper places longer (read: India & South East Asia) and go thru the more expensive places quicker (read: Europe & Oz). Plus being debt & rent free we’ll be able to stretch our money out much longer than if we just took a year and traveled in the U.S. – yes, in many awesome places you really can get a room on the beach for less than $10/night and the food for even less!

Moneywise – we’re paying off everything, except the student loans before we go. We’re hoping to have 25k – 30k before we hit the road next year. It’s going to be a long year of scrimping and saving but we can do it! We are good friends with Two Buck Chuck and that makes staying in so much easier!

Since we’ll be budget traveling we’ll be staying in hostels and making the most out of Couchsurfing.com. We plan to get most of our gear used and we’ll be volunteering and WWOOF’ing to make our dollars stretch. We’ll also be doing a stint teaching English in Spain and hopefully in South Korea which will cover our food and lodging and maybe put some money in our bank accounts.

Please stay updated with the website and Subscribe to our Reader so you can be notified of new posts.


We would love to meet any of our friends and family members on the road – let us know if you have any international travel plans for the next couple of years and we’ll try to meet you there!

If you can’t meet us in real time then come along online on a magical journey around the world as we explore new cultures, see new lands and volunteer on farms and in ophanages. Hang with us as we drink beer in Ireland, ride a train thru Siberia, explore the rice paddies of China, teach english in South Korea, surf the waves of Indonesia, bike thru Australia, eat & meditate our way thru India, learn to tango in Spain, wander thru Moroccan markets, explore cafes in France as Randy writes the next big novel, hike the Swiss Alps, roam the hills of Italy, climb thru the pyramids in Egypt, follow gorillas in Rwanda, safari in South Africa, discover ruins and lost villages thru South and Central America and sun ourselves on the beaches of the Carribean. If you have a couple tickets, we’ll see you somewhere – if not, then this website will be your portal.

Happy Travels! Beth & Randy

About the Author