One Giant Step…Is All It Takes

One of the first things I did after we came up with this crazy sell our house and car-put our jobs on hold-store all our stuff and travel the world for a year idea was to search the web to find other people who were doing the same thing to prove that we weren’t that crazy.

That’s how I ‘met’ Christine. She was a little farther ahead of me in her plan to ‘Quit your job. Travel the world.’ and I liked her temerity, her honesty and her move forward attitude. She encouraged me in those early days, and I like to think that I encouraged her too.

Now she is a successful ‘digital nomad’, making a living remotely as she writes about her experiences and shares advice, tips and stories of her travels and her move from corporate hack to freelance author. She is an example of how we are all One Giant Step from making our dreams come true and she inspires me to keep reaching beyond my comfort zone.

Today, I am super excited to have a guest post on her blog AlmostFearless. While you’re over there checking out my Travel Days post, have a look around – Christine writes for more than just the traveler and has plenty of good advice to help you ‘Redesign Your Life’.

We are now past the nine month mark of our trip. Time for another look at how we’re doing:

I think about home more often than I thought I would. I don’t miss home as much as I miss having a home. I thought I would be going home kicking and screaming, wanting to stay on the road forever, but actually I am looking forward to going home. I dream about routine, about sleeping in the same bed night after night, about cooking and cleaning, about running and riding my bike, and yes, even about going to work! I’m sure that within a few weeks of being home the tables will be turned and I will once again be dreaming of the freedom and adventure we have had while away.

Travel fatigue has set in. I have been following travelers blogs since first thinking about this trip 2 years ago. It seemed that they all ‘hit the wall’ at about the nine month point and, sure enough, I think we too are suffering from travel fatigue. The constant work of having to find a room, or a meal, or a bus/boat/train is wearing. We have gotten used to not quite knowing what’s going on and not being able to communicate as effectively as we would like, but it’s tiring to always be trying to figure it out. And, after being in a region for some time, sightseeing loses it’s appeal…we don’t try as hard to go visit another temple, or museum, or waterfall as we do when we first enter a region.

We know now what we need to travel. We may be tired and looking to home a bit more than we thought but we also now know what we need to make us happy. We have realized that the number one thing that affects us is the quality of our accommodation. We like to have a nice room in a nice guesthouse that has space to hang out in and maybe meet other travelers and, if it has wi-fi, all the better. It should have a double bed, it must have a private bathroom with hot water, it should be near enough to everything so we can walk but off the main area enough so it is  quiet. We like to use local buses to get around (and actually prefer them to the tourist minivans that run all over SE Asia), we love to eat at street stalls and markets, and renting a scooter to see the sights (rather than going on a tour) is one of our favorite things to do, but we have learned that spending the money on a good place to stay is more than worth it.

SE Asia is definitely the easiest place to meet people. NomadicMatt told us early on that SE Asia is the place to meet people and he was right! There is a well worn backpacker trail through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia and there are travelers everywhere. We have met countless people on buses and cooking classes, in guesthouses and pubs, and then just keep running into them at various places along the way. I run into more people that I know here than I ever did back home. My favorite though was when Damien and Kara of RunningTowards stopped us on the street in Chiang Mai to ask if we were the folks from OneGiantStep…fame at last!!

Blogging is getting harder. Maybe you’ve noticed that it’s getting a little longer between posts. I don’t know why but it’s getting a little harder to write all the time. Maybe it’s because our time here has been much more laid back – we’re not doing ‘stuff’ all the time and are spending more time just relaxing…not good blogging material. We should be moving more now though and in a few weeks we enter into Vietnam where, I’m sure, there will be lots to write about!

Nine months in and we’re still learning about this travel stuff and how it affects us. Every phase is different and we try to take it all as it comes. We seem to be trudging over a bit of a hump right now but I think we’re almost at the top of it now and will really enjoy the next few months and what they bring.

I don’t know how it happens. I don’t know how it all gets all over everywhere so darn quickly and I have no idea how we ever get it all back in.

I’m talking about our backpacks. Inevitably we arrive at some cute (or not-so-cute) guesthouse, put  down our packs, open up the zipper and…BAM…seemingly immediately there is stuff scattered absolutely everywhere. Even when we’re only staying one night, and so are being careful not to disturb it all too much, stuff seems to creep it’s way out across the floor.

Some of it makes sense. There is bathroom stuff that should be in the bathroom, shoes should be near the door, stuff for sleeping should be near the bed etc, but it’s the ‘other’ stuff that makes the room messy. Papers and pamphlets that we have collected, empty water bottles, receipts for stuff and activities, coins, watches, books, and notebooks all spread themselves carelessly all over.

And the laundry…what to do about the laundry?!? If we are staying somewhere for a few days our room starts to resemble the bedroom of my youth…clothes everywhere, some piled on the floor, some draped over furniture, some neatly folded in various stacks. We have a mesh bag that we use for those items that are deemed dirty enough to wash…yes, deemed dirty enough…it did not take long for our general level of cleanliness to deteriorate, although not to any disgusting level…but  what to do with those items that still have a wearing or two left in them? We pile them, drape them and stack them according to an elaborate system so that we know what state every item is in. Well, we try to use a system but, typically, we apply the ‘sniff test’ to determine if something is wearable or not. I’m not kidding.

There are, however, some upsides to living out of a backpack.

• We always know where everything is. We employ a system of ‘everything in it’s place and a place for everything’…you have to really, it would be chaos otherwise…so we always know where those nail clippers are, or a plastic bag for putting that do-hickey in, or the bottle opener.

• We are used to wearing the same clothes day in and day out. It is actually freeing to have only 2 or 3 outfits to wear…I don’t fret over ‘what I’m going to wear’, if it’s clean and is appropriate for the activity then I can wear it. At first I treated my wardrobe as if I were at home, wearing something different everyday, but I soon gave that up and now wear an outfit for days at a time until it is dirty. No-one knows me or what I wore yesterday so who cares? And besides, it makes laundry management easier (see above).

• We carefully choose what we will carry and what we won’t. We certainly thought that we had honed our packing list perfectly, but it turns out that there are always little lies we tell ourselves. ‘Of course I’ll wear the cute shoes’, or ‘We’ll run at least once or twice a week’, or ‘This shirt will go with everything’. Those items showed their true colors fairly soon and we either left them behind somewhere or sent them home. New items are added only after vigorous screening…’Do you really need to have it?’, ‘Are you sure you’re going to wear it all the time?’. Lugging every little thing around day after day after day ensures that everything is carefully chosen.

• We can pack it all up in 15 minutes flat. We used to spend time the night before leaving a place packing up and getting ready for the morning. Now we carefully calculate what time we need to get out of bed to pack it all in a flurry of activity before leaving. We can seriously pack up both exploded backpacks in 15 minutes flat…and not break a sweat. And that is the value of everything in it’s place, wearing the same clothes day in and day out, and choosing what we will carry.

Our favorite foodie travelers, Forks And Jets, tagged us in a blog challenge to reveal our Three Travel Secrets. So, here are three things that I’ve learned about travel.

Touts Are Not All Bad. I used to think that touts were all about tricking me into spending more money than I needed to but I have learned that they can actually save me money and get me what I need.

We often land in a place and have not yet found a place to stay. It can be difficult to trek around, with our packs on, to place after place to find a bed. Touts solve this problem by surrounding me with pamphlets, pictures of their hotel, offers of discounted rooms and transport too. They answer all our questions and, if they can’t give us what we’re looking for, they usually know someone who can.

This approach has worked for us countless times and is how we currently find ourselves in a beautiful resort on a white sand beach on Koh Pha-Ngan, Thailand for a price we thought we’d have to pay for a hut ‘within walking distance to the beach’.

Use The Travel Network. There are plenty of ways to get travel information besides the trusty guidebooks.

I follow a number of bloggers who either have traveled, or are currently traveling where I am going. I read their stories and make notes of where they went, what they liked or didn’t like and how they got there – not to replicate their trip of course, but to use what they have learned to help me. Sometimes, if I’m nervous about a place or can’t find enough information, I will email a blogger ‘friend’ and ask them directly. Without fail, they are always willing to help and provide encouragement…as am I when I receive emails – it’s nice to help out.

Many travelers use Twitter, not only to stay in touch back home, but also to reach out to other travelers to get tips and information. Christine, from Almost Fearless, has put together an excellent ebook on Twitter For Travelers – she makes it easy and provides tons of contacts – there is always someone to help.

It turns out that many of my friends from home have done plenty of traveling and many of them have traveled to places we’re now visiting. They told us of their favorites, their ‘hits’ and ‘misses’ and their do’s and don’ts. Some of them have even taken the time to send us emails on the road as we near their travel niche – thanks guys!!

Don’t Be A Budget Slave. It’s no secret that I have had trouble with our budget but I have realized that letting it rule our travel would be a mistake. Certainly there is always a budget but there is usually a little flex room – we’re just using that flex room. Make sure when planning your budget that you leave this flex – it can make the difference between being a budget slave and being a happy traveler!

There are tons of travelers out there, all with secrets of their own. I’ll tag these five to see what secrets they can share:

• Pam of Go See Run Eat Drink
• Lisa from Project Runaway
• Where Are Liz And Adrian
• Keith from Green Around The Globe
• Daniel the BackPack Foodie

Hard to believe we’ve been on the road for six months…but here we are in India and the calendar is irrefutable proof that six months have indeed passed since we first left home.

I think we continue to learn and evolve, but I also think that we have caught our stride and are traveling much more assuredly now. Here are some thoughts:

Time passes very quickly. It is hard to believe that it is six months since we left. Time seems to have flown by and sometimes it seems that I can remember every moment as though it was yesterday. At times I wish for the clock to slow down so that the next six months would pass ever so slowly.

Time passes very slowly. At the same time it seems like forever since we left. We have visited so many places and so much has happened, it couldn’t possibly be only six months. The end seems so very far away…and there are so many places to visit before then.

Introverts can act extro-vertedly. We are both introverts but have been doing a much better job of acting extro-vertedly. We are meeting more and more people and are both more willing to start conversations and get involved than we were before. We recognized that we were insulating ourselves a bit and so have been putting ourselves in more situations to interact with others. This usually means tours etc but that also works well with our inherent laziness – we enjoy tours because someone will tell us all we need to know rather than us having to read about it!!

Budget be damned. We realized early on that our budget was not realistic for our travel style. We are by no means blowing it out now (okay, we might have for our birthdays) but we are traveling more comfortably and doing the things that will make our trip memorable. I certainly did not want to look back on this trip and wish that I had done things differently.

I now understand why travelers wear elastic-waisted pants. Some people say they lose weight while traveling…that has certainly not been my experience. My waistline has definitely expanded and I am softer than I have been in many, many years. I don’t like it but what to do…stop eating the fabulous food (and it’s only going to get better as we hit SE Asia!)…I don’t think so. I do dream about being in shape again though, but it will have to wait until I return…in the meantime I bought some elastic waisted pants today…they hide a multitude of sins and allow for expansion…I look quite fashionable as all the girls are wearing them!

Are we tired of wearing the same clothes over and over and over and over? Probably not as tired as you are of seeing them in the pictures over and over again! It’s surprising how a limited wardrobe is actually quite freeing. In fact, there are pieces that I don’t wear very often. We left some cold weather clothing behind  as we left the colder areas, I sent some shoes home (I never did wear the ‘cute shoes’), and will be ditching those not often worn pieces as I find replacements that I will wear. We are buying some new clothes too (some are necessary…see above) – we knew we would once we hit India and SE Asia – it’s a different esthetic here and lighter, freer clothes are more comfortable. You’ll have to see if you can spot the new pieces as the pictures are posted.

How is the equipment holding up? We are pleased with everything that we brought. The bags are still working very well and apart from being a bit dusty are not damaged at all despite all the abuse we put them through. All the electronics and associated gadgets have been great – we love having the laptop to surf the net, play games, write posts etc – it has definitely made life easier. The first aid kit is not often used but still necessary. The water purifier has come in handy – we are not using it as much in India…I  think I have some built in biases that cannot be sanitized and so we buy water here. The sink stopper and laundry line are absolutely necessary – we most often send our laundry out but occasionally it comes back still damp or we have to hand wash – we always have a place to hang it to dry. We did purchase one messenger bag – it hangs over one shoulder so causes less sweating than a day backpack does – besides it looks cooler too!

Are we still enjoying ourselves? Absolutely!! Maybe even more so now…we seem to have synced up and are enjoying the whole experience. That doesn’t mean there aren’t sucky days or locations but we are better able to manage them than we were in the beginning. I will admit to a tinge of homesickness lately but I actually think it’s because we have been moving non-stop for a while now. We have a stationary week planned in the south of India and I think that will make things better for me.

I can’t believe that we are only half way through this amazing journey…I can’t wait to see what the second half has in store for us. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Across the aisle from me the man reads from a small, bound, version of the Koran. His lips move and he visibly relaxes as the recital proceeds. Throughout, he performs modified versions of the motions of his prayer.

I reach for my gin and take a slug. Same effect…we are now both calmer…different method.

As we ready for landing I am calm. Not because of the gin I think, but because I believe that if he believes so strongly, and is such a good man that his god would not let him perish, then I must be okay sitting across the aisle from him. His puppet-master will keep me safe too.

Today I hear a woman explaining, with great conviction, about stories from the Bible and how they relate to the area of the world we are currently in (we are in Jordan, near the baptism site of Jesus and a host of other Christian religious sites).

I cannot understand. It is not within me.

Five times a day the call to prayer rises above the country, above the city, above the sea…and five times a day Turks, Jordanians, and other Muslims, take the time to gather, and wash, and pray. Together, and apart, in cities and in the country.

Christians the world over congregate every Sunday to worship, to be with family and friends, and to share their experiences.

I do not come from a religious background. I am, technically, an atheist. And yet I am fascinated by this adherence to an ideal.

I do not understand religion in my own culture…the giving over to a higher being, the belief that heaven exists (and will be better than life on earth)…but here religion is on a whole other level. It’s not just  a ‘go-to-church-on-Sunday’ kind of thing…five times a day they are called upon. It’s part of their being…un-separated…non-definable…just part of who they are.

It’s fascinating.

Faith, to me, is fascinating. I have often wished that I possessed that belief in something. A truth that is undeniable, unshakable, and above all else. But I don’t.

I have faith in myself…in who I am, and what I can do, in my relationship, my talents, my future…but it doesn’t come from a higher being. It comes from within me.

I guess that’s what I take from these people. Faith is faith. What I believe in is as strong as what they believe in. It’s just different.

I am currently on a plane from Amman, Jordan to Delhi, India. It is filled with Indians returning home. India is a land of hundreds of gods. I have faith that all these people believing in all those gods will see us landing safely.

One look at the budget spreadsheet and it’s easy to see that we are over budget. Significantly over budget. So far, more than $4000 over budget and we’re only 4 months into our one year trip.

For a while it caused me quite a bit of stress. As I saw the under/overage column be in the red day after day I would worry about it more and more. What were we spending so much money on? Why were the countries that I thought would be more inexpensive so expensive? Was this going to mushroom and affect the rest of the trip?

I was getting crankier and crankier about it and wasn’t enjoying everything because I was worrying so much. Did we pay too much for such-and-such? Could we have gotten such-and-such for cheaper? Should we not have done such-and-such because it cost so much? Why did we have to pay so much for what appeared to be a nothing room with an uncomfortable bed and a shower that doesn’t work? Was I not doing a good job of finding places? Was there something more I should have been doing?

It peaked with an argument between Jason and I where I accused him of not being concerned at all with the budget while I worried about it constantly. That, of course, was not true. We just had different views on how the budget was going.

The $100/day budget we had set out was meant to be an average over the entire year, taking into account that some countries would clearly be over and others would be drastically under. While Jason understood this concept completely and accepted that the law of averages would be upheld, I, for some reason, could not let it go that we were over almost every single day.

In the end we agreed that I would relax a bit and trust that it would all average out and that Jason would be also keep an eye on the budget.

What have we learned?

• I have learned to be much more relaxed about the numbers now and to trust that it will average out. We looked at all the ‘big’ overall numbers again and realized that, even if we’re a little over budget daily, there is some room in the big budget for that.
• We learned that maybe we’re not quite the ‘budget’ travelers we thought we could be. Although our rooms now are not luxurious by any standard, we are paying a bit more for a room than we were…and we’re happier for it.
• We learning that we have to do the things that we want to on the trip. We won’t have any fun if all we do is hang around the hostel. We like to take tours and do stuff, and that costs money, so we’ll spend the money.

Maybe I’m finding it easier now because our ‘expensive country’ travel is coming to a close and I can see the day when we’ll stop bleeding money and maybe even make some of it back. I don’t know…all I know is that I’m enjoying myself more now…and so is Jason.

Not only is today the end of our travel in South America, but the end of our first three months on the road. Time for a little review of what’s happened, what’s going well and what’s not, and answers to a few questions I’ve been asked.

• Traveling is easier than I thought it would be. The actual act of getting around, finding a placed to stay, having a meal, seeing the sights…is much easier than I thought it would be. I don’t know how hard I thought it would be, but it’s been easy even without knowing hardly any of the language. We rely on Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, Hotelz.com, Google, and countless travelogues for information…we don’t always get it right, but it isn’t hard. I hope this part continues.

• Traveling is harder than I thought it would be. I knew that it wasn’t going to be all sun drenched beers on the beach, that I wouldn’t always be in a good mood, that not every day at home is great so why would that change on the road, but the reality of it hit me a little harder than I was expecting. Probably magnified by own anxiety I found myself frustrated more often than I expected and I found that I was taking it out on Jason more often than not. I thought about it a lot and determined that it wasn’t because I was homesick but that rather I was just uncomfortable and anxious and I obviously needed to deal with it better. We talked about it and realized that we were at our worst when we didn’t have a plan, however short term that plan might be. Once we realized this we started planning a little bit more and things have definitely gotten easier again. I hope this part continues too.

• Traveling is more expensive than we had planned. I won’t go into this too much as I’m planning a post to specifically talk about the budget. Suffice it to say that if you click on the budget link you will be overwhelmed by red font. We have talked about this plenty too and are acting on it in a way that helps us manage the money anxiety and no, it won’t involve putting a ‘Donation’ button on the website!

• Do we like it? Yes, absolutely! Have you seen the smiles on our faces? Neither of us is even remotely homesick (sorry guys!). We are continually interested in the new place we are going and learning about the history and culture that we are faced with. We, obviously, feel that we are only scratching the surface of every place but it makes us connected to every single place we have visited and therefore forever interested in what happens there.

• Are we meeting others? The short answer is no, we are not meeting as many other people as we thought we would. We think we know why and sometimes we try harder but mostly I think we’ve just come to terms with it. Maybe this will change as we change countries, maybe not. Again, I’m planning a post about this specifically.

Are we traveling ‘off the beaten track’? This means different things to different people. I don’t think we’re ‘off the beaten track’ – we’ve been visiting major cities and sights and all the ‘must sees’ within them. To me, ‘off the beaten track’ means getting away from all other tourists and being on our own…no, we haven’t been doing that. We may often be the only ‘white’ tourist around but there are always other tourists around. However, we have stopped in some pretty small towns and have rented apartments in regular neighborhoods to get a feel for a city…to me that’s a little bit off the beaten track, but you won’t find me out in the jungle without a guide trying to communicate with the natives to get some dinner and a bed!

I know that as we continue to travel, our  expectations, frustrations, realizations and style will continue to evolve. This is us at the three month mark…I’ll check in again at six months and see where we’re at.

Some backpackers take overnight buses to avoid having to fork over the cost of a room. Some use them as a time saving device, to quickly get from one place to another. And some must take them just for the bragging rights of how many hours they’ve clocked in a darkened, rolling funhouse.

I’m not a fan. I’ve come to quite like bus riding. It’s a great way to see the country and watch the landscape slowly change. On a night bus, there is no seeing the country  or the landscape…it’s dark.  And, in this part of the world at this time of year, it’s dark about 12 hours a night.

But, as we have found, sometimes they are inevitable. And so, here I am, on the dreaded overnight bus. And tonight, as a special treat, there are three children under the age of 5 right in front of us. It’s a 23 hour ride….twenty three hours!!

There are varying degrees of buses in South America but it’s been a bit of a crap shoot as to which level we’ll end up at (I should probably do more research). Our first, from Lima to Cusco, sucked the big one. The second, from Mendoza to Buenos Aires, was sweet heaven. The third, from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu was mediocre but passable. And tonight…well we’ll see but this is the longest ride we’ve done and there is no meal service on board…we just stopped at a truck stop restaurant for ‘dinner’ (it’s 10PM)…who knows what breakfast will hold?

They all start out fine as it’s still light outside and I can pass the time staring out the window - which I’ve become quite good at. There might be a movie playing – if it’s not an action movie, or violent, or dubbed only in spanish, I might watch or I might just keep staring out the window. I save all my reading, writing, game playing and other such activities for after dark…there’s a lot of ‘dark time’ to pass.

I always hope that dark will fall later than I expect…but it never does. Night always falls and the familiar pattern begins.

Just before dark, as the temperature outside drops, the windows will start to fog up. I hate that as it robs me of precious staring out of the window time. And so the windows and I start our night bus fight – I ritually aim all the air vents at the windows and pull out my ‘window rag’ to wipe the condensation of as quickly as it forms. I’m usually pretty successful and manage to keep a clear hole until nothing more can be distinguished in the dark.

During this time, if there is an attendant (and there isn’t tonight), he/she will come around and close all the curtains as if we riders could not decide when or if we wanted our own curtains closed. There is no disputing that this should be done – it’s best to let it happen and then open them again once they leave. The reverse happens in the morning.

Depending on the level of service dinner may be served. Keep in mind that even the best service offers airline type food…the worst serves a box with a stale sandwich and a juice box. If not, then it’s now that Jason and I pull out our snack/dinner which is usually tastier and somewhat healthier than either above option – except tonight as we’ve had potato chips, peanuts, pop, and an ice cream bar to get us through the night.

After dinner, maybe another movie or some reading, or writing, or card playing…anything to fill the time and wait for sleep to come.

Now the bus is really dark. No aisle lights, no illuminating tv, no reading lights and, if we’re really out in the country, no street lights either. Just complete darkness, the sound of the engine and the wheels and the feeling of the bus hurtling down the highway.

I hate this time. Usually I am tired but just can’t drift off. The movement of the bus simultaneously lulls me to the edge of sleep and then pulls me back from that edge…it’s exhausting. At best I can sleep an hour at a time, waking up regularly for I-don’t-know-what-reason, at worst the cycle continues and I count down the hours until dawn will break and I can see outside again.

Eventually, thankfully, dawn does break, the windows and I start our battle again, and I can resume staring out the window until we arrive at our destination. First stop? Find the hostel and have a nap!

PS…there are no pictures with this post…because it’s dark!!!