One Giant Step…Is All It Takes

Now that we’ve returned home and have settled back into our routine lives again we find it funny how our travel stories keep coming up. Invariably one of us will look at the other and say ‘Remember That Time…’ I thought it would make a good series; a way to tell these small stories that take us back in the blink of an eye.

Call me cheap, but I color my own hair. I always have and luckily, knock on wood, it has never turned out disastrous. It maybe hasn’t always looked exactly how I wanted it to but, then again, I’m only investing $14.95 in the process rather than $70 – a classic case of ‘you get what you pay for’.

I had even done this previously on the trip…at least 5 times previously…and had had fairly decent results even though I often couldn’t read the instructions or didn’t have all the usual equipment.

It all came tumbling down in Vietnam.

There are no drugstores in Vietnam – it seems that anyone that has any space, and something to sell, just does. I found a place selling a few boxes of hair color, chose a box labeled ‘light brown’ and headed back to the hotel.

There were no gloves in the box and I can’t even remember if there were instructions but, having done this a million times before, I just set to mixing the various bottles and applying it to my head.

I thought it strange that my fingernails stained black almost immediately but put it down to applying color without gloves and thought no more of it.

The last time I had colored my hair (in Thailand) I had not left the color in long enough as I was afraid it would be too dark and it ended up fading out sooner than it should have, so this time I was determined to leave it in for the prescribed amount of time. I busied myself while I waited for the 45 minutes to pass (yes it takes that long….I have, ahem, some grey that needs extra attention).

I rinsed the color out of my hair, toweled it dry, and took the first look in the mirror to see how it turned out.

AAAAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!

It was black. Black, black, black! As black as any raven haired Vietnamese beauty I could see on the street. Really, really black. I cannot emphasize enough how black it was.

I was mortified but there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t risk coloring over it, and besides, what color would I use? I have a sneaking suspicion that every box of hair color in Vietnam, whether labeled black or light brown or blond or red, all has the same formulation in it. Black.

At home they say you shouldn’t wash your hair right after coloring it because it will fade…so I washed it, and washed it, and washed it. It didn’t look any duller at all. Still black.

I slowly realized that I was going to have to live with it. I was going to have to go outside.

Keep in mind – this in no way, shape or form looked natural. Some black lipstick and dark clothing and I could have passed for ‘goth’.

Eventually we made our way outside – I held my head up and faked confidence I didn’t have. I felt like everyone was looking at me and laughing. Luckily the sun sets early in Vietnam and, soon enough, I was comforted by a drape of darkness. But it would have to get light again at some point.

That mistake took forever to grow out. Normally hair color fades over time and grows out eventually. Vietnamese hair color is tenacious and sticky and, even after returning home, and coloring my hair a few more times I could still see traces of the black in there.

My father-in-law referred to me as his ‘Vietnamese blond’ – funny.

I want to throw a little party, show some slides, have a beer with my friends.

My house isn’t big enough (I’m blessed with enough friends to say this) so I need to rent a hall.

In order to have beer available I need a liquor license.

In order to get a liquor license I need to have a special certificate showing that I know how to serve liquor.

In order to get the certificate I need to take a course, pass a test, and pay $25.

The liquor license also must be approved by the police station…who also charge me $25 to sign it. Sheesh!

Good job I didn’t want to serve my favorite Gin and Tonic with Victoria Spirits Bitters because that is a whole other kettle of fish…separate license…separate approval…separate craziness!

I could have put up a sheet on the side of my house to show the slide show, thrown a couple of coolers of beer in the corner of the yard, cranked the music and invited all of my friends over and no one would give a sh*t but because I want to rent a small room to be inside I have to go through all of this palaver.

I find Canadian liquor laws to be archaic. I have thought this for a long time but since returning from travel the rules have really irked me and now, with this, I am just left wondering…why?

In Germany we embarked on an all day hike up The Brocken. As we enjoyed the hike and thought back to the time when Russian soldiers would protect this border between east and west Germany, we worked up a thirst. Lo and behold, a ranger station came into view. A cute, little wooden shack with a few picnic tables and a couple of shady trees…a perfect place to enjoy a packed lunch. Inside, a friendly man served wurst and beer…German beer to boot which, as you may or may not know, is my favorite beer. That’s what I call civilized.

When marchers had finished their part in the Inti Raymi Festival Parade in Cusco, Peru they pulled up a section of the public square and got their drink on. Thousands and thousands and thousands of Peruvians enjoying food and drink and music and friends – partying the night away with nary a bad attitude or fight to be seen. It was an amazing display of cultural pride and community and a rockin’ good party besides!

Bia hoi may not be the best beer in the world…but it might just be the cheapest. At 25 cents a glass the bia hoi joints on the corners of Hanoi’s Old Quarter get pretty busy at the end of the work day. We pulled up a low plastic stool, indicated our order to the attendant, and watched as all around us the city changed from day into night. No food was served but a steady parade of vendors stopped by making sure we were well and full before the evening was out. I miss Hanoi.

Here in Canada I cannot have a drink in public. It is against the law to have a beer at the beach or to enjoy a glass of wine at a picnic. Want to kick back and enjoy a beer at the campground? Nope, not on certain long weekends…no beer allowed. Not even responsible, of-age, grown up people. No-one. Want to slake that thirst and celebrate an epic mountain bike ride? Better bring along the Coca Cola Coozie to disguise it or risk being taken downtown. Makes me feel like I’m 15 again…which wouldn’t be so bad except that I didn’t particularly like being 15 the first time around.

Why all the rules? For fear that we might enjoy ourselves, get out of control, set a bad example for impressionable young minds? I assure you that me enjoying a cold one on the beach is no more a bad example than the acrid whiffs of marijuana smoke that waft over almost every public place in BC.

I not a raging alcoholic (and really, so what if I was?), I just want to enjoy a drink with my friends and show a couple of slides from my trip.

On the up-side, I revisited the liquor license folk and asked some better, more refined questions. We will now be celebrating a birthday party as I don’t need the special serving certificate in this case. Happy (very early) birthday to me!

It’s two years today since I took the first tentative steps into the blogging world. I had been reading other peoples blogs for a while; watching them be brave as they put their voice out there, listening to them grow, hearing their stories while waiting for mine to begin. I had researched how to do it, elicited advice from those already doing it and felt ready to step out and get started.

I was nervous. Not only had I really never written anything un-technical, but I had certainly never written anything public and we were coming out with a pretty big secret. I didn’t know my voice, my story-telling cadence or how much of ‘myself’ I wanted to show. We were sure of our plans but were anxious to hear what our family and friends would think and say. I published the first post and, with heart beating loudly in my chest, sent the emails sharing the web address to all who I cared about…and waited.

It soon became clear that the anxiety I was feeling was for naught – my family and friends were more supportive than I could have imagined and this became the first step for me to get my puppets under control.

Since then I have published 119 posts. Like mothers with their children, I love them all but some I love just a little bit more than others. While I enjoy the posts that tell where we went or what we did, I am really proud of those that tell a story or show a little bit more of me.

I loved the post that announced that we were leaving India…The Old One, Two Knock Out Punch. It told the story of our decision to leave but also, I think, displayed the respect that we still hold for a country that challenged us in ways that we are still trying to decipher. For me, the metaphorical writing style brings the story to life and graphically illustrates exactly what I remember feeling – like an amateur boxer who had bitten off more than she could chew but is happy that the medics are nearby.

Magic Carpet Ride is another favorite. I love its rambling nature that weaves back and forth throughout the day it describes. That’s how the day, and the process of buying the carpet, felt…it was a flowy, warm and relaxing process that culminated in the dance of the bargaining process. It’s still a great story.

Some posts make me do my homework or examine my feelings on an issue a little closer. Memory Studies is one of those posts. The idea of thinking about how a country or culture manages its past was a topic of discussion between Jason and I and we were interested to learn from our Berlin walking tour guide that a branch of academic history dealt with just that subject. We saw, throughout our travels, how different countries manage their past – from the March of the Mothers of the Disappeared in Buenos Aires that protests the ‘disappearance’ of their children in the ‘Dirty War’ to the seemingly open door policy that Vietnam has in regards to American tourists despite the heavy toll of the ‘American War’ – there are so many factors that weigh on how history will be viewed.

Some posts I just love for their titles and, although they probably don’t do anything for SEO Optimization or bring in any readers using keywords, I love the creativity. My favorites are probably the song titled posts…Like A Rhinestone Cowboy, We Had One…One Night In Rio, and Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk. They were fun to come up with and write stories around and they just make me feel so witty and hip (do people even say that anymore?).

One of my favorite perks of having the blog is the opportunity to connect with other people – both figuratively and literally. I have communicated with plenty of folk through blog comments and email and have received lots of well needed advice from those that took the time to answer my questions. We’ve met people that we previously only knew ‘online’ and have followed people that we first met ‘in real life’…a great melding of technology and community.

What about the future of OneGiantStep?

I find, since coming home, that my attention is pulled in a thousand different directions and I don’t just mean by life’s normal distractions of work and other obligations. My interest has been piqued in so many ways and I seem to be struggling with finding time to investigate all the options and fun things that dominate my thoughts.

And so OneGiantStep, that started out as a travel blog, will probably evolve over the next while in the same way that I have evolved, and you’ll start to see some of those interests and ideas peeking out. It’ll be interesting to see how it all works out…but I hope you’ll stick around for the ride!

Today I share a video that I recently came across quite serendipitously. I was perusing a photo-blog site that was recommended to me in the comments of one of my recent posts (thanks Amy…I love her!) and came across a video that, for me, summed up a concept that I have been struggling to articulate.

I struggled as we traveled with the question of whether wanting to see other cultures and learn more about them is a voyeuristic pursuit brought about by my relative wealth and privilege (as a Westerner) or am I trying to fight the ‘single story’ by learning firsthand about a country.

Before leaving I certainly had a single story of many of the places that we were to visit. I shamefully admit that I was surprised when places did not live up to the monocular view that I had assigned them. Pleasantly surprised…and interested. Interested to learn why I had the vision I did and interested to see how my vision evolved as I spent more time in a place and learned more about its history and culture.

And yet I know that it doesn’t matter how many books I read, how many places I visit, or how long I stay there I still will not ‘know’ it as I will always filter it through my own lens. I cannot know what it’s like to be a Peruvian woman living in the Andes any more than I can know what it’s like to be a Muslim Turkish woman or a Vietnamese woman running the iced coffee stall in the market. I am a Western woman living a typical (and not-so-typical) western life. I will view everything though this lens – it’s impossible not to. I will compare and contrast what I see to what I know about my own life. I can only imagine what a life might be like when I imagine my own life like that and that has to take into account everything that I am made of – my upbringing, my place in society, my socio-economic position, my education, my hardships (or lack thereof), my opinions.

That’s not to say that we should not travel. On the other hand I argue that we should even more. We should gather those stories and keep adding to our books so that we can learn how similar we are rather than how different. Although I may never truly understand another culture or person, I can certainly go a long way to eradicating my complete ignorance. Learning the other stories people have will take me closer to having a broader lens through which to view the world.

$49,744.71

That’s the big number. What it cost for us to put our jobs on hold, sell our home and car, say goodbye to friends and family and travel around the world for a year (326 days to be exact). That’s under our predicted budget of $50,000 – and no I didn’t cook the numbers to make it look good! You can look at the raw numbers here.

It seems like a big number doesn’t it? But what would it have cost to stay home for the year? Let’s say a modest mortgage payment of $2000/month – that’s $24,000. Then our regular weekly spending budget of about $400 – that’s $20,800 and we’re at almost $45,000 already not including any vacations, insurance, utilities, car payments etc. Sure, we weren’t making money while we were away, but it certainly didn’t cost us a whole lot either and I got to travel around the world for a year! Seriously, why doesn’t everyone do this!

The number does not include any pre trip costs such as clothing or equipment that we bought especially for the trip, vaccinations which we also paid for pretrip, or the Spanish lessons we took to prepare ourselves for three months in South America. These costs came out of our pocket as we were planning and preparing. During this time we didn’t buy ourselves new clothes, stopped eating out as much and sacrificed more than one mountain biking trip so that we could better afford to spend the money on trip focused items. There is a ‘PreTrip Costs’ tab on the spreadsheet that shows that these items totaled just over $6500. A good chunk of change but money we would have likely spent during this time anyway.

It does include every penny we spent after we left Canada. We carried a small notebook with us everywhere and wrote down every single item we paid for every day. It was not as onerous as it sounds and, when the only way money is flowing is ‘out’, there is incentive to track it all! We used a page per day but I have seen other travelers budget books and have marveled at the teeny tiny print they used in order to squeeze a week or more onto one page! Some even have complicated coding systems to categorize expenditures on the go.

The numbers really don’t mean anything though if there is no idea how we spent the money. It’s fine to say that we averaged $21/night for accommodation in Thailand but were we sleeping in a bug-infested hut or ensconced in a 4 star hotel? I’ll try to shed some light.

Accommodation

Accommodation varied greatly. We always had our own room (no dorm rooms) with a private bath (most of the time). We stayed in hotels, hostels, guesthouses, huts, cave rooms, boat cabins and desert camps. Sometimes it seemed like we were paying a fortune for a sh*t room (San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, or the ‘prison cell’ as we call it in Rio de Janeiro) and other times it seemed like we were getting the deal of a century (‘the beach’ room in Thailand, or the 5 star hotel in India which wasn’t cheap but compared to what we would pay for that in Canada was a steal!). I would say that we stayed in average ‘Flashpacker’ accommodation and, on average over the whole year, paid about $30 a night for a room.

Food & Drink

Some variety here from country to country although our eating habits stayed pretty much the same. Breakfast was often included in the room charge, or we would eat a small breakfast out. Then we would typically have one large meal in a restaurant of some sort and a smaller snack maybe from a street vendor or with a beer somewhere. We always ate local food and tried to shy away from ‘tourist’ restaurants. We would certainly have a drink with every meal (okay, not breakfast…often) and probably one or two more besides – it would be interesting to see food and drink broken out separately but, because they are so intrinsically linked for us, it became impossible to keep track. It looks like, generally, we spent more on food and drink per day than we spent on a room to sleep in. That makes sense to me because we like to eat and drink and use it as a form of entertainment.

Ground Transport

We did not take that many flights during our year – only 12 actually. We did, however, take a lot of buses, a few trains, a couple of boats and occasionally a car.

Taking public transit, buses and trains cuts down on costs dramatically. We spent a lot (and I mean a lot) of time on buses and I find them great value for money. I love travel days and we had the time to spend so they were a great option for us. We took trains in Germany and, although they were famously reliable, they were also expensive. We never did rent a car as it always seemed expensive although we did share long distance taxis in Jordan and hired a car and driver as part of a package in India.

Sightseeing

Trying to see what we wanted to see, do what we wanted to do and being able to afford it all was a constant struggle.

Included in this category were any entrance fees to sites or museums, any tours we took (whether short city tours or multiday region tours), cooking courses, and bike rentals etc. Some of the longer tours were a set price including transport, room, site fees and food but we tracked the cost in just this one category.

Miscellaneous

Pretty much everything else. You know…all that other stuff that doesn’t fit in one of the definable categories. Bathroom fees, buying books, toiletries, tour guide tips, internet fees, ATM charges, laundry, new clothes, postage…a litany of miscellany that doesn’t fit anywhere else.

Souvenirs

We purposely did not buy too many souvenirs. I did not want to worry about carting around, or mailing home, tons of trinkets and treasures. It all looks so wonderful while on vacation but I know me and it’s very likely I won’t like whatever it is once I get it home. That’s not to say that we didn’t buy anything while away – we picked up these nice things that will always remind us of where we went:

• A beautiful woven belt from Taquile Island on Lake Titicaca in Peru.

• A kilim (carpet) from Turkey that I love as much for its story as I do for its beauty.

• A Buddhist mandala print from Nepal.

• A stunning woodcarved wall hanging from Thailand – the artistry and workmanship is amazing.

• Silk wall hangings from Lao. In the end I think maybe they are knock offs from China, but that is just part of their story.

• Two very small, but interesting, paintings from Bali.

Visas

Eight of the fourteen countries we visited required visas, although only two of them required that we have one ahead of time. We had neither before we left home and so applied for, and received them, while we were on the road.

We obtained the India visa while we were in Ankara, Turkey where there is an Indian Embassy. The Brazilian one we initially tried while in Buenos Aires, Argentina but couldn’t get our sh*t together so we tried again in the border town of Iguazu Falls where the office was small and much more relaxed…they didn’t even want all of our sh*t and supplied the visa with no trouble at all…go figure.

All other visas were obtained at the border, either at the airport or the border crossing…for a fee of course. Some countries even insisted on us paying to leave…Bali charged almost as much to leave as to enter!!

Some Fun Budget Stuff

• Most expensive country. Per day costs in Brazil were the most expensive of the year. Accommodation was expensive (and crappy, except in Paraty) and food and drink were also costly.

• Cheapest country. The cheapest country per day was Vietnam and we certainly could have done it for much less even. We upped our accommodation budget to $30/night and slept in some very nice rooms but a normal room could be had for much, much less. The country is as cheap as legend says – I couldn’t believe it but it was true. One night J and I had dinner (in a restaurant not a roadside stall) and ate all the noodles and pork and springrolls we could fit in along with as much beer as we could quaff – the bill? Six dollars!! Seriously! I love Vietnam!

• Most Expensive Flight. The flight home from Bali was the most expensive. Not surprising as it was also the farthest flight.

• Least Expensive Flight. Zero dollars! That’s right…free. Our flight from Turkey to India was on Royal Jordanian Air and had a stop over in Amman, Jordan – it was free for us to stay for 10 days and continue the flight then. The flight from Singapore to Bali was also free. I don’t understand the economics of offering free flights but, yay for free!

• Most Expensive Drink. Without doubt it was the double Gin and Tonic I had to have in the New Dehli airport. Only one bar in the whole airport and it had run out of beer. I was getting on a plane!! $40…enough said.

• Totally Worth The Money. Some things are just worth the little bit of extra money (see ‘Most Expensive Drink’ above).

  • Getting apartments in Santiago, Buenos Aires and Berlin was totally worth the money – we loved settling into neighborhoods, cooking meals and feeling like a local.

  • Trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru was totally worth it as it stands as one of the highlights of my year.

  • I loved taking city tours or short term region tours as it gave me a chance to easily learn about an area and was a great chance to meet other travelers.

Balancing a budget over a year of travel when current costs are higher than expected and future costs are unknown can be a challenge. Remember that these are our numbers and that everyone travels differently. We met people who were traveling on half of what we were and know of others who spent significantly more than this for one person. Would I have liked to have had a bigger budget? Hell yeah! But at some point you have to stop saving and planning and just step out and do it!

I know it’s a little crazy to buy a big, bright, shiny, new camera after returning from the trip of a lifetime but I seem to do everything a little late. I went back to school late, started my career late, met Jason late, traveled around the world late, will probably have to retire late and will hopefully die late too!

We took some amazing photos while we were away and I have no complaints about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 that we took with us. It’s compact, lightweight, and durable while still packing in some great features including a 10X zoom. It was easy to pack away and so we always had it with us.

There were times though when I wondered just how much better the pictures could be if I just had a better camera. I had an SLR camera back in the days of film and so know what they are capable of and what they bring to the party. Would I have wanted to tote such a big camera around all the time? Probably not but I think it would have been worth it for sure.

Why didn’t I just get one while we were on the road? Well, did you hear about my budget anxiety? There was no way I could have justified spending almost $1000 all in one shot! But now that we’re home, and the budget has settled down a bit, I realize that I am still interested in photography and so…why not?

The hardest part was choosing. Just like trying to decide which countries to visit, trying to decide between the 5,386 different digital SLRs was difficult. There are plenty of brands out there but, for me, it came down to Nikon or Canon. In the end I chose Canon because it was what I had in the past and I was familiar with how it worked. But even within the Canon line up there are about 492 options to choose from. The trick was to get enough camera for me to grow into but to not overdo it and buy too much.

The Canon EOS Rebel T1i was the perfect choice for me. There is plenty of room for me to remember and learn and it didn’t break the bank. It gives me the opportunity to figure out my style and see where it takes me. I’m excited to learn all about it and have already spent many hours poring over the manual with camera in hand.

The last thing I am looking for is a great beginner photography website. I know the basics of how the camera works, about aperture and shutter speed, and how the different settings work. What I need is some info about composition, lighting and style as well as some knowledge around digital processing (RAW vs JPEG etc). Know of one? Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email.

I had always said that, although a year seemed like a long time to be away, a year would pass anyway whether we did it or not. Now people see me and exclaim how quickly it seems to have gone by. Quickly indeed. We’ve been back home for more than a month now and we are settled in. Our routines have re-established themselves and that big, long year seems like just the blink of an eye.

It is almost two years since we tipped our hand to family and friends letting them know of our, until then, secret plan to put our jobs on hold, sell our house and car, and travel the world for a year. As I think about it, I can feel again the anxiety and nervousness I felt then…unsure of how people would react, scared that no-one would approve, worried that we wouldn’t be strong enough to see it through.

What a difference two years can make. I now feel strangely confident, strong and powerful…like I can do anything. I think success does that to a person – it finds a hole in self doubt and instead instills a sense of power. I’m slowly realizing what I might be capable of and, although it scares me, I am excited by the possibilities.

I have felt a mix of emotions in the past two (and a bit) weeks. Contentment, excitement, sadness, optimism, pride. I feel settled…and unsettled. I seem to be more emotional now than I was before. I was sitting at my desk one day listening to all that was going on around me and suddenly I felt like crying. There didn’t seem to be any reason for my sudden sensitivity – I wasn’t thinking about travel, or being home, or anything really – I just suddenly welled up with tears. I find myself on the verge of tears more often now than I did before. TV commercials, magazine articles, news stories…all seem to affect me, it’s weird.

I don’t think it’s because I’m sad the trip is over – I was ready to come home when we did. Maybe I’m sad that the adventure is over. Every day was different while traveling and new challenges were constantly presented. The tasks, such as getting dinner or finding a room, may have repeated themselves but the logistics around them were always different – we were always in a new city and often didn’t speak the language. Every day was an adventure and that is not the case any longer.

And so I feel settled…and yet not settled all at the same time.

**********

Mini TBEX

The Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) got it start in early 2009 as a place for travel bloggers and writers to meet and support each other. There are now almost 3000 members sharing their stories, experiences, photos and blog addresses. It’s a great place to get answers to all kinds of travel, writing and blogging questions and to join groups with wide and varied interests.

This weekend the 2^nd annual TBEX conference was held in New York City. I didn’t attend this year…but maybe one year I will be able to. It would be a great opportunity to connect up with follow bloggers, hear talks given by more successful bloggers, and generally mix and mingle with people who do amazing things.

We held our own Mini TBEX conference this weekend in Victoria. Granted, it was small with only OneGiantStep, ForksAndJets and ProjectRunaway in attendance but we had a wonderful time sampling local beer, eating fabulous food and laughing the weekend away. We and Lisa (from ProjectRunaway) live here and were happy to host Jeremy and Eva. They were on their Home Is Where The Hops Are tour and we did our best to showcase our local beer culture while still trying to preserve our livers. It was great to meet people that we have been following on line, talk about travel and places we have all visited, and discuss what it’s like to come home. I’m sure the NYC TBEX was this, and more, on a much grander scale…but we did pretty okay.

As we unpacked our packs for the last time a few weeks ago I realized how many of the items in there had stood the test of time and had earned their passage on our RTW journey. There were also a few new things we had picked up along the way and I quietly chuckled as I remembered those items that were ‘voted off the island’ and did not make the round trip.

Making the packing list was one of the most stressful parts of planning to leave. I read tons of blogs and referred to their lists endlessly, worried about packing too much or too little. When I finally posted our almost final version almost all the comments stated that perhaps we were over packing. They were right. Here’s a look at some of what worked, and what didn’t.

How We Carried It All

Choosing our packs was a big decision and, luckily, we were happy with our choices for the whole trip. J’s Osprey WayPoint 60 was a winner. He would stuff it jam packed and it always looked like a nice, compact package because the compression straps on it pulled everything together. My MEC Pangea 60 looked a little sloppier, but I loved all the pockets in the interior! Everything had a place and I always knew where to look for what I wanted. The straps at the bottom of the pack were perfect for carrying my small sleeping bag.

Inside we used packing cubes to keep it all organized. I labeled mine so I could easily identify what was inside then I could quickly find whatever I was looking for and just pull out the one cube rather than unpacking the whole bag. We used two of these for toiletries rather than a single, bulky toiletry bag. There was never any arguing over who would carry the heavy toiletry bag – it was always evenly distributed between the two of us.

I used the daypack that came with the pack and found it to be more than enough. It didn’t look very big but I managed to keep all I needed in it – I even used it for a couple of multi-day treks. J’s daypack was bigger so he took care of all the electronics (which we never kept in our big packs). We did find though that we wanted something a little less ‘backpackery’ for running around cities and towns and so we found a messenger bag that worked really well. We then used it as the main around-town daypack and it packed nicely onto the outside of J’s big pack for long haul travel.

What We Wore

Whittling a regular wardrobe down to a traveling wardrobe is difficult. It’s hard not to pack too many clothes. There are countless situations that can be imagined where this item, or that item are absolutely necessary and so must be packed. We did our best and, even though we left many items behind in hostel rooms, other pieces were worth their weight in gold.

Despite what was packed in the bags, we wore the same clothes over and over and over and over again. Just like home we gravitated to our favorites and other pieces made their way to the bottom of the pack and were seldom worn – these were eventually left behind. In the cooler climates we layered clothes to stay warm and, once we hit the heat, we picked up some lighter weight clothes to stay cool.

Some pieces were just bad ideas from the start. We packed running shoes and running clothes but didn’t run enough to keep them so we sent them home before leaving South America. I had packed some shoes for going out in but soon realized that even when we were going out the shoes looked funny with my quickly fading clothes and so I never wore them and eventually sent them home too.

Keeping Neat And Clean

We kept our personal care items to a minimum. Shampoos and moisturizers and lotions and potions are all very heavy and can take up a lot of space. We used shampoo for every cleaning need (body, hair, shaving, laundry, dishes), I packed only face powder and lip gloss for makeup (and hardly ever used either), we had only one small tube of moisturizer and we shared deodorant (always trying to find one that didn’t smell too ‘girlie’ or ‘boyie’). My routine has always been fairly fuss-free but this took it to a whole new level! It did show me though that I don’t need all those products to be clean and look good – our bathroom cabinets at home now are much emptier than they were before we left.

A note about feminine hygiene. I was able to find everything I needed everywhere we went. I had to be prepared, and public facilities abroad are not what they are here at home but I never had any trouble finding what I needed – supplies are easy to find, and not expensive, in any large town or city.

The Medicine Cabinet

We packed our traveling medicine cabinet to take care of any ailments that we normally treat at home – with a few exceptions. We carried all the normal pain relief, decongestant, antihistamine, anti-diarrhea and ‘can’t sleep’ medication plus some antibiotics ‘just in case’.

I agonized over anti-malarial medication and ultimately decided that we would take only enough to cover our time in Laos.  Not everyone will agree with my decision but, based on my research and consultation with a travel nurse, it was where I felt the greatest risk was. In the end we saw so few mosquitoes that we did not take the medication (but were diligent in applying mosquito repellant at dusk when they would be evident).

We had one other complication to deal with in our medical bag. I have Crohn’s Disease and so had to carry enough medication for the whole year as I could not be sure that the medicine would be available, or reliable, in other countries. I packed it all in original containers with original labeling and carried a note from my doctor indicating my condition and explaining the need for the medication. The pills held up well in all the different climates and I was only ever asked about it once during a Provincial border check in Chile  – the pill vials showed up on an xray machine and the guards questioned what it all was. I explained that it was medication and they gave me no trouble.

Geek Stuff

The EEE PC we carried was fabulous!! We used it to write the blog, do research, watch movies, play games, track the budget, Skype home…it was indispensable. The size and weight made it travel friendly, it withstood all the bumping and abuse, and the battery life (6 hours!!) was amazing. Not having to spend time in internet cafes was totally worth it – we could do everything ‘offline’ and then upload once we were in a wifi zone again. One could travel the world without one…but I wouldn’t.

Our camera was a Panasonic Lumix point and shoot and worked well for us. Sure the pictures aren’t as nice as those from a digital SLR but then we weren’t lugging a huge camera around either. This one fit into the daybag nicely and could be easily carried. I have no complaints about the pictures I took – in fact my only complaint is that I didn’t take enough pictures. I should have taken more – more street scenes, more daily life, more special shots, more people pictures – all too often the unfamiliar became familiar, the strange became not-so-strange and the weird just seemed normal and I would forget that one day all this would be unfamiliar, strange and weird again and that I would want a picture of it! That’s my advice – take more pictures than you’ll ever think you’ll know what to do with.

The iPod didn’t get as much use as I would have thought. I used it when flying and once in a while to listen to music on a bus but, mostly I feel ‘tuned out’ when I have it on and so don’t like it – I prefer to hear what’s going on around me. We did use it (with an earphone splitter cable so we could both listen at the same time) to listen to podcasts on long bus rides.

The ‘Bits and Bats’

• First Aid Kit. Didn’t use at all I don’t think…but good to have anyway.

• Steripen. We were very good about sterilizing our own water for the first half of the trip. I didn’t trust it to clean Indian water and then I think we just got lazy and didn’t really use it after that.

• Sleeping Bag. I used it quite often if I didn’t like the sheets (or none were provided) or if we needed just a little bit of extra warmth. It wasn’t big enough for trekking – we rented bags for the treks we did.

• Documents. We carried photocopies of our ID papers, passports, medical papers, insurance papers etc. We each carried a whole set of each others papers in case one bag was lost/stolen.

• Ziplock Bags. The value of ziplock bags cannot be overemphasized!!

• Cribbage/Backgammon Board. We played tons of games to pass the time. Often times people would gather to watch and we taught one or two people who to play – language barriers aside.

• Books. Book exchanges were our friend. We carried four novels and just switched them out whenever possible. It’s amazing what I will read when there is no other choice.

• Earplugs. There is always a crowing rooster and a barking dog. Enough said.

In the end, I think we did a pretty good job.  Sure there were items that should never have made it onto the original list – I know, I know…the ‘cute shoes’ – but not too many. Our packs were never over stuffed or over weight even on severely restrictive airlines in Asia…we saw plenty of people frantically weighing their bags and ‘repacking’ in the airport – we averaged about 14 kilos each. No packing list is ever going to be perfect but I think we did pretty okay. For a detailed look at what worked and what didn’t have a look here where I annotated the original list.

I returned to work this week. Admittedly, it’s been a slacker week – my supervisor and co-workers are fabulous and are easing me back into the reality they have been living while I’ve been gallivanting around the world. It felt, however, like I was just away for a long, long weekend.

I went to a meeting where a woman, who I had worked with often previously, kept glancing at me with a puzzled look. I could tell that she knew something was up but couldn’t put her finger on it. It wasn’t until someone else welcomed me back that she clued in to the fact that she had not seem me in over a year.

At first I felt like a little baby who knows nothing. I looked through documents and listened to conversations and was impressed by all the stuff I used to know. I knew a lot of stuff and had a tremendous amount of information available at the fingertips of my brain…I was smart!! It’s amazing how quickly one set of information can be usurped by another – how all the things I know about traveling will soon be supplanted by work again…I will be indoctrinated.

As the week wore on more and more of my memory returned and I found I could easily retrieve even small details from meetings and decisions made long ago. Next week it’s likely I’ll be expected to be a contributing member of the team again…I think I’m up to it.

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People have been asking how we are adjusting to being back home. It’s hard to answer without somehow feeling as though I am questioning the Great North American Ideal. I’m discombobulated by how un-discombobulated I am…how ‘the same’ everything is…work, shopping, working out, life…it’s all the same…like slipping on an old sock…like we’ve just been away for a long, long weekend. I’m bored with it and we’ve only been back a few weeks…how do I tell someone that? And what do I do about it? I don’t have the answer…yet, but know that I am not trying to be insulting; I’m just trying to figure it all out.

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I’m finding some aspects of daily life annoying. I am particularly annoyed by advertising, especially for those products that are trumpeted as must-haves if we are ever going to live a life of adventure, beauty or comfort. Wrinkle cream ads, home decorating magazines, Oprah…I seem to have no patience for anyone telling me that if-I-just-did-this or if-I-just-had-that I would be so much better off. I feel stripped down to the basics and, so far, I like it. I wonder if we wouldn’t all feel so much better about our lives if we weren’t constantly inundated with messages that tell us how much better it could all be ‘if only’.

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I’m trying to watch less TV than I did before we went away. Not for any high-and-mighty righteous reason other than I find that it can easily suck a lot of my time. I’m a natural procrastinator and, although I have embraced that fact in the last few years, I also don’t want to feed the procrastination addiction. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of other ways to procrastinate and I think I’m creating new ones every day – but TV was a particularly bad one for me and so less is better.

There is plenty to do to keep me busy.

• For one, there seems to be an expectation that I show up at work every day – that severely limits the time I have for other interests.

• We read a lot while away and I would like to continue reading – not only novels but also non-fiction books and websites that challenge how I think and keep me moving forward.

• Although I edited my pictures as we went and posted them on Flickr, I would like to do some kind of electronic scrapbook that I could have printed as a physical memento of our travels. I made a scrapbook of our Greece trip in 2004 and we often look through it to ‘remember when’. There are plenty of options available out there and I think I’ve narrowed it down to one that is a)free, and b)gives me some good editing options. I don’t need too many doodads and thing-a-ma-hickeys – just some photo collaging, interesting backgrounds and an ability to add stories. It’ll be a fun project and so, obviously, gets to the top of the to-do list pretty quickly and becomes a procrastination tool in its own right.

• This American Life. I was turned on to this most interesting series by Dirk of MyMindsInk and have him to thank for relieving the boredom of many a long bus ride over the past year. The tales told are diverse, interesting, and entertaining. I’ve learned a lot about a variety of subjects and have had my interest piqued about many more. I want to keep listening to them but, while it was okay to listen to them while staring out a bus window for an hour, it feels funny to just sit on the couch listening and I find that I really can’t be doing anything else and pay attention to the storyline. Maybe I’ll listen while gardening or cooking or doing some other non-brain needing activity.

• I’d like to keep OneGiantStep going and have some thoughts of a site redesign. That would mean re-learning how to do that and then actually doing it. I really enjoyed setting it up the first time though and think it will be fun again. I have some ideas of where I see it going but need to work further on the goals and vision around it. On that note, if anyone has any ideas, thoughts or suggestions regarding the site feel free to let me know. Tell me what you like, what you don’t and/or what you would see change or stay the same.

The return home continues to be an interesting ride. In some ways more interesting than the trip itsself – I think because travel challenged what I didn’t know about myself and coming home is challenging what I thought I knew about myself. I’ll keep you posted.

Could you spend 24/7 with your partner for the next year? How about if you weren’t at home and were subjected to constant stress, unknown circumstances and outcomes beyond your control? No breaks, no ‘see-you-after-work’, no cool down period, no-one else to rely on. Although there were plenty of things we were worried about before our trip got underway, spending all our time together was not one of them.

We Like Each Other

We genuinely enjoy each others’ company and have tons of fun together – that can make all the difference in the world. We have similar interests and spend a lot of time together even at home so being with each other non stop was not something we had to get used to. There are plenty of times when spending so much time together that nerves can get frayed and patience tested – the fact we like each other makes us take a moment in these situations and stops us from saying things that can’t be taken back – I don’t want to hurt someone that I like this much.

Knowing What Is Priority #1

We are number 1 priority, the trip and everything else is number 2. We talked about this before we left and were very clear that if anything should go wrong between us we would return home to deal with it under more familiar circumstances. There would be no breaking up on the road for us – we’ve been together almost 12 years and consider ourselves to have a fabulous relationship – there is no way that traveling was going to come between us. In the end that is why we left India. We were miserable, not talking to each other and barely being civil – our decision to leave was about remembering Priority #1.

Set Up Task Responsibilities

Jason is amazing at navigation. I have been thoroughly impressed by his ability to find our way around any number of cities, either on foot or on the myriad of confusing public transportation systems (Note to self: never piss off the one person in the whole world who can get you back home!). I check out all the accommodations on-line and do all the route planning. J took care of finding and booking all our flights, trains and buses while I managed all the pictures, writing the blog and keeping up on email. We each have our strengths and weaknesses and we used them to our advantage. We also didn’t duplicate tasks – we trusted that we would each do our job and so didn’t have to waste time checking up on each other. It’s a system that worked really well and we use it now that we’re home too.

Meet Other People

Being introverts, this one was hard for us but still important. Although we may not have met as many people as other travelers do, we did meet  some great people, had some good laughs, and learned a lot too. Some travelers eschew tours thinking of them as too ‘touristy’ but we thought of them as an easy way to learn about where we were and a great way to meet other people. While on a tour we would rarely be together – it was a great opportunity to chat with someone other than each other! We would almost immediately separate and start learning about the people we were with. Many times we would meet people who had been where we were planning on going and got some excellent recommendations of places to stay or sights to visit. Meeting other people and sharing stories also helped us to understand our ‘traveling selves’ a bit more too. Hearing about other travelers ups and downs showed us that our ups and downs were perfectly normal and helped us relax into it a whole lot more.

Agree On The Plan

We’re planners and so did a lot of research before we got underway. We left plenty of room and possibility for spontaneity and changing of plans but we pretty much stuck to the original plan. It would have been madness had  we not agreed on how we were going to travel, or where we were going to go, or what the expected budget would be. Things were easier for us when we had a plan. I know that’s not the case for everybody but we were less frustrated and uneasy when we knew what was coming up.

It’s Not Always Easy

We were not the same couple while traveling. We lost some of the ‘lightness’ and ‘playfulness’ that is part of who we are. The first three months were definitely the hardest, while we were still figuring out who we were on the road. There certainly were times when we were ripping our hair out with frustration over the seemingly tiniest things. Sometimes we were just ‘done’ with each other and there was nowhere else to turn. We would just have to let it simmer for a while and wait it out. It’s not like at home where there is a chance to get some distance by going to work, or the gym or seeing friends and using the time to gain some perspective on the situation. On the road it really is 24/7. It did get easier though and we find that now that we are home we have returned to our normal selves.

But It’s A Lot Of Fun!

There is nothing like traveling around the world with a best friend. The giggles and the laughs, the knowing glances, the inside jokes, the endless games of cribbage and backgammon…having someone to keep me warm or tell me how cute I am even though I’m wearing the same outfit for the 276th day in a row and haven’t showered in 5 days…the memories we will share with each other forever. It was totally worth it!

We are lucky to have had a chance like this. We still love each other tremendously and have learned how much farther we can go together.