Maps & Itinerary | Packing & Gear | Cost

Why?

- While backpacking through the wild jungles of western Europe, we were savagely bitten by the travel bug and have been horribly infected ever since. So while we toiled away in the laborious confines of our office jobs, we plotted and schemed our escape from the cube.

I heard a story once of a man who wore a Super Man costume every time he rode an airplane. When asked why, he said, “Life is too short to not wear a Super Man costume.” Well, this trip is our Super Man costume.

How can you afford to do this?

- Well, we can’t. OK, the truth is that for 3 years we scrimped and saved back as much money as possible for a time when we  could say goodbye to our normal lives and go gallivanting around the world. We were frugal and lived without cable, cellphones, nice cars, a robotic lawnmower, and all the other essentials of a civilized life.

Now that we’re on the trip, we track our expenses daily down to the last cent–no joke, you should see Lin’s poor little calendar book–and are constantly having to carefully budget and analyze our remaining finances to be sure we’re not over budget (i.e so that we can eventually buy that flight back to the States). It’s an ongoing, sometimes exhausting process but there are worse things to endure!

How much will this trip cost?

- You can find the cost breakdown of our trip here but the short answer is…probably more than we have.

How do you handle your money on the trip?

- We both have primary debit cards for ATM withdrawals and backups for emergencies. Typically we purge our wallets of every last bill we can (usually down to moments before actually exiting a country…procrastination…) and hit an ATM straight away when arrive into a place of different currency. It’s the cheapest way of dealing with so many different currencies and beats the money exchange office rates any day.

How much did you plan beforehand?

- Too much, and then probably too little. We quickly realized that something of this magnitude can not be planned. So we came up with a route and a monetary figure, looked at the monetary figure, shortened the route– rinse, lather, repeat.

What did you do about your jobs?

- We quit! In all seriousness, this was a difficult decision. We both really enjoyed our jobs and definitely thought twice (okay, maybe more) about leaving them. But in the end, there will always be another job but a trip like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

What did you do with all your stuff?

- Peddled, donated, tossed, and burned. We only kept a few items that are important to us like our dinosaur, our declawed saber-toothed tiger, and our plant Harold.

How did you  decide where to go?

- 195 countries in the world, minus the ones that won’t let us in, minus the ones hostile to white American kids from the ‘burbs, minus the ones we can’t afford, minus the ones with polar bears, and you get 25 countries. However, the itinerary is ever changing because of things like rare time constraints, sudden lack of interest, polar bear migration, budget changes, or yeti sightings.

How did you decide when to go?

- Actually, this was a much more difficult decision. Lindsey just graduated university five days before lift-off and we wanted to take this opportunity before she was set in a career and we were both thoroughly dragged down into a set “normal” life. Other than that, we kinda wanted to stay out of Southeast Asia during the monsoons. So, our window of departure was slightly reduced.

Where do you stay?

- Initially planned to couchsurf but that hasn’t worked out so well because lots of places don’t have enough hosts, sometimes no one wants to host us, etc.  So we stay in (a lot of dirty) cheap hostels, airports, train stations, buses, and a couple of park benches.

What are you taking with you?

- Not much! We only carry 35 liter backpacks so whatever doesn’t fit inside doesn’t go. But for a better answer, you can find our whole packing list here.

How long will it take you?

- Probably in total, about 16 months…or until the money runs out.

What will you do at the end of the trip?

- We have no idea. Suggestions?