Dorte's Walk-with Closet

Most women dream of having a walk-in closet, and I was once close to getting one, but surrendered it to my daughter - maybe another time! Instead, I am now facing the challenge of having a walk-with closet for 7 months.

 

As you may remember, we had decided to travel with check-luggage, which should make deciding what to bring a little easier than just traveling with carry-on - not the case!

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. 

Then take half the clothes and twice the money 

– Susan Heller

In Dorte's Bag
I did a trial packing to get idea of the space my clothes would take up, and to decided what to bring. We will be doing several 3-5 day hiking trips, so we have to bring hiking clothes and gear for that as well as some nicer clothes for visiting museums and nice restaurants. 

So this is the clothes I will be bringing:

• Two pair of hiking pants; both zip-off as shorts and one pair can also be turned into capris
• Rain jacket and rain pants
• 5 pairs of socks
• Toque
• Long johns; it might be cold camping or hiking in Himalayas
• Fleece
• Five pairs of underwear; hiking and city-wear
• Three bras; suitable for hiking and city-wear
• Gloves
• Two hiking tops
• Two long sleeve blouses; hiking and city-wear
• Three short sleeve blouses; hiking and city-wear
• Two sleeves tops and a white shirt
• A sarongA cardigan
• Silk pyjamas
• A dress
• A pair of nice short
• A nice par of black pants
• A Tilley hat SPF 50

I might change my mind along the way if there it turns out that I won't be wearing some of it. In travel, less is more!

It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe

- Muhammad Ali

Footwear

A female dilemma and another tough decision; these are my choices:

• A pair of light day hikers, which will also serve as trainers in cities
• A pair of flats for when dressing up
• A pair of sandals suitable for short hikes and city-wear
• A pair of flip flops for showering in hostels and public places

Clothes and shoes weigh 8 kg/18 pounds, and we have a limit of 20 kg/40 pounds, so there is room for more..........

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. 

Take off all your envies, jealousies, un-forgiveness, selfishness and fears.

– Cesare Pavese

Carry-on or Check-in Luggage?

Our good friends Sharen and Keith recently did a 6 months trip around the world with only carry-on, and it worked well for them, so during our initial talks about luggage, we could see it might work for us as well. It was certainly a tempting thought not to have to wait for luggage or lose luggage at airports. On the other hand, Andy always seems to bring at least half his closet, and it would NOT fit into a carry-on! Andy note: I am not keen on washing underwear in a sink!!

Hiking Poles

One of our passions is hiking, and the legs are not what they used to be, so we both need to use hiking poles - especially on long downhill trails. We knew for sure we would be doing a three day hike in the Swiss alps, a five day hike in the Himalayas, and day hikes in Italy and Vietnam. We also new we would not be allowed to bring our poles in the carry-on luggage, as they would be perceived as potential weapons. So, the questions was weather we should bring our poles and check in luggage or buy some poles along the way and just bring carry-on? We were leaning towards bringing our own poles, so we would have the freedom to go hiking when we feel like it or the opportunity arises.

Type of Luggage

What type of luggage should we travel with: suitcase? backpack? sports bag? luggage with or without wheels? We would be doing more overland travel by public transportation than flying, some periods we would be moving around a lot and thus live out of the luggage, and we would need a smaller backpack for day trips. We looked at luggage online, read travel blogs, and visited stores selling luggage and outdoor gear. 

So, we finally decided to go with a 55 L check-in backpack with

• Zip-away straps, so they don't get ruined by conveyor belts
• Space for hiking poles in the compartment for the straps
• A smaller day pack which zips on to the big backpack
• A sports bag shoulder strap for staying at 'non-backpacker hotels'
• A separate compartment for wet stuff or shoes
• A full zip a la sports bag, so we don't need to take everything out to find something (a lot of backpacks have top openings)
• Space for (some of) Andy's clothes and shoes

Now we 'just' need to figure out how much and what to bring!

Everyone has baggage! The key is to find somebody to help you unpack!

- Anonymous

Round The World Ticket Or Not?

Once we had agreed on the destinations we would like to travel to, we had to decide whether to buy a Round The World (RTW) ticket or not.

Airline Alliances

We read travel blogs and researched the options offered by various airline alliances, which had many (and different) criteria we had to consider, e.g.:

• Only able to travel in one direction, e.g. from east to west
• Change travel dates, carrier and time of traveling for free, but pay for rerouting
• Travel a certain total number of miles
• Make limited number of stopovers
• Include a limited number of non-air sectors

Via the alliances' travel planning tools, our trip was estimated to cost around CAD$ 8,000 per person. 

Advantages 

• The direction, destinations and timing would be set
• We wouldn't have to decide or discuss where to go next 
• We wouldn't have to spend time keeping an eye on flight prices and booking flights

Disadvantages

• It would cost us between $125 and $200 if we wanted/had to change destination
• We would not have the freedom or flexibility to stay longer or change destination
• We would not be able to use rewards points for some of the flights
• We would have to pay for the flights before we left homeIt is cheaper overall to book your own flights

Freedom and Flexibility
This journey is happening for many reasons, and one of them is importance to experience the freedom to do what we want when we want to do it, and also having the flexibility to be spontaneous, change plans on the spur of the moment and go with flow. Therefore, buying a RTW would defeat this purpose. And we do have the time to wait a day or two for a cheaper flight or catch a flight on short notice. All choices have a price, and we think we will have more fun valuing the unplanned and unexpected. 

And then we booked the flights Vancouver-Munich-Zurich and Amman-Kathmandu - on reward points!

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape

- Anonymous

Destination Everywhere - Research and Planning

To Plan or not to Plan?

We had decided when to go, where to go and how to go, so it was time to do some research and planning. Or was it? Most of the online travel blogs and websites of people who have traveled the world do NOT recommend making any but a few plans as things will change along the way anyway. Well, we are two people traveling, we are a middle-aged couple with different needs than 20 year old backpackers, we don't want to spend time along the way doing a lot of research, we had the time to do it, and, last but not least: for us planning the trip is a huge part of the trip itself, exciting and fun!

                                  The journey not the arrival matters 

                                                                         - T.S. Elliott

Travel Intelligence

So, over Christmas we took some pictures of the walls in our living room, put up an extra table, bought maps of the countries we want to go to, picked up travel books at the library, and set up a 'Research Lab'.  When I told my daughter she said that I had watched too much CSI!

Destination Everywhere

The Internet is, of course, a great resource, but, man, is it overwhelming!  You research one place, and in a few clicks you are on to somewhere or something totally different, and you have to back track. But it is also inspiring and full of valuable information. It worked well for us with a mix of travel intelligence from our friends and colleagues, maps on the wall, books and the Internet.

Courtesy: Study in Canada

Spreadsheet Galore

In order to keep track of our research, progress, web links (we were drowning in Bookmarks!) and various confirmations, we developed a spreadsheet with many different tabs, e.g. 

1) Itinerary 

2) Visa rules: we are not the same nationality, so who needs visa where?

2) Contact information for Canadian and Danish Embassies

3) Budget

4) To Do list

With a 'Little' Help from Our Friends

Several of our friends and colleagues had done similar trips, and they were very generously sharing their itineraries, ideas and tips, which was a tremendous help and very inspiring. So, why spend time researching accommodation, things to do or how to get from A to B, when we could get first hand information from somebody who had been to the destinations recently or new somebody there? THANK YOU!!

You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, 

because you might not get there

 – Yogi Berra

Voluntouism - Stop And Smell The Roses!

Voluntourism Definition
The practice of taking a holiday which combines leisure and sightseeing with the opportunity to work for a charity or other worthwhile cause (Macmillan Dictionary).

Stop and Smell The Roses

We could easily be on a constant move to see as many places and countries as possible, but we do not think we would ever be able to catch up with ourselves. Our daily life is all about being on a string and on the go, so why would we want to continue living like that when we don't have to? No way, Jose! We will stop and smell the roses, take time to breathe, relax, and digest the experiences we have had.

There is more to life than increasing its speed!
- Gandhi

Questions
Therefore, we decided to look into how we could we get some local experiences along the way, give back to the community, stay for a longer time in one place and cut down on our expenses. But before we could move on, several questions had to be answered:

- How much time of the trip do we want to dedicate to volunteering? Answer: 4-6 weeks.

- What is our personal minimum requirement for accommodations? Our own room? Our own bathroom? Tent? Dorm? Answer: None, as we will only be volunteering for maximum 2 weeks at a time.

- Will/can we eat everything put in front of us? Answer: Andy can and will! Dorte easily experience gastrointestinal challenges, so we decided it will be 'safer' mainly to volunteer in Europe.

- Which voluntary service would we like to do/not do? Answer: Anything but heavy lifting, babysitting, teaching, and pet care.

Volunteers aren't paid, not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless

- Anonymous

Which organization? 

There are many great organizations offering volunteering opportunities, but most of them charge for it, and that was not what we were looking for. After a lot of research we found WorkAway.info, where people like you and me are offering full board in return for work. It costs around $50 to sign up, and you get access to a database of all the hosts looking for volunteers. We researched hosts, looked at maps to see if the location would fit into our plans, and contacted many hosts. Some were quick to get back to us - others never did. Workaway is not the easiest site to navigate, but eventually you will get the hang of it!

France
So, we will be volunteering at an alternative retreat for two weeks in Vieussan in a national park in the Lanquedoc area in southern France working 5 hours every morning 5 days a week. The first week there will be a Family Retreat with meditation, silence, yoga and time for play, and the second week there will be a Singing Retreat -all in French! We can both manage with 'touristic' French, so this will be a linguistic challenge, but also an opportunity to learn many new skills. There will, of course, be time for hiking and wine tasting and a chance to experience French cuisine.

Italy

The second place will be for about a week in Piocca in the Piemonte area between Turin and Barolo! We will be working in a hazel nut farm/olive grove/winery getting ready for the harvest and learning about making wine. There will, of course, be time for hiking and wine tasting!

.... Nepal

I know! We were only going to volunteer in Europe, but we were contacted by one of the hosts, who liked our profile (tourism, marketing, hiking, English). He lives 8 hours bus ride north east of Kathmandu, runs a hotel, a school and a farm in order to engage and employ the community, and he needs help with writing a hiking and guide book in English for at least two weeks. We found that too good a offer to decline, as it is right up our alley and it could be fun! A lot of hiking, of course, but no wine tasting! And we hope Dorte's tummy is strong by then!

We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give

-Winston Churchill

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

Which Countries?
We will start our trip in the beginning of July 2013 and come back in January 2014. We realized very early that we would not have time to visit all the countries we had marked on the world map, as we do not want to be on the move all the time. I have traveled far more globally than Andy, and I did not want to visit a lot of the places I had already been to, so we had to compromise. The most difficult task was deciding where to go, because that also meant deciding where not to go. The world is a very big place!

Some Deciding Factors

• Priorities: Which are the top 5 countries for each of us? It is possible to visit them all in 7 months? Is it dangerous to go there?
• Weather: When is the best time to visit the chosen countries (monsoon, hurricanes, rain, too hot)? Will the weather work with our schedule?
• Cost: Do we want to limit the time spend in Europe due to higher costs than in Asia? How can we cut down on the cost in Europe?
• Hiking: Where would we like to go hiking? Where are we able to go hiking?
• Culture: What would we like to experience in each country?
• Intelligence: Travel reports, tips and ideas from friends, colleagues and strangers, who have traveled or lived in the relevant countries.

We finally decided to go to Switzerland, France, Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam, and the real work began!

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.

-- J. R. R. Tolkien

Are You Sure You Want To Do This?

Two years ago we bought a big map of the world, put it up on the wall and put pins in the top ten places each of us wanted to explore. The map served as an inspiration to follow our dream of doing a round the world trip for a year in the not too distant future. Well, that distant future starts in three months, and we are very excited. 

Are you sure you want to do this?

Trust me, it is not an easy decision when you are in your mid-fifties; these are some of the questions we asked ourselves:

• Why do we want to do this?
• How important is it for each of us to go?
• Can we afford it?
• What about work? If we can’t get leave of absence will we spend the whole trip worrying about what to do to earn a living when we come back?
• How much change can each of us tolerate? Change is very stressful.
• Can we deal with the guilt should the worst happen to the people at home?
• What impact will this adventure have on our marriage?
• Are we willing to accept the self-discovery which inevitably will happen?

We have to go!

We had to be ready to follow our dream, financially and mentally, and we took the time to talk through all the emotions and practicalities before we finally got the courage to finally say “Let’s do it”, and set the wheels in motion. For financial reasons, we changed our dream to last 7 months instead of 12 months, which we feel very comfortable about. We do not have to sell the house and put all our belongings into storage, and we will have our home and own things to come back to, which we think will make the transition much easier than having to find a new place to live. It will be difficult enough as it is.

 

Andy got a year’s leave of absence, and I had to resign from my job. Not an ideal situation, but we believe that it will all work out, and that we will be ‘rewarded’ for having the courage to follow our dream. We are convinced that after our break from ‘real life‘ we will be invigorated and rejuvenated as well as more comfortable with ourselves, each other and our life. Not going seems too high a price to pay!  

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