Pictures are one of the most important things on my journeys; they are my eyes, and heart; often showing the emotions of my journey that words cannot show. While traveling around the world I took about 50,000 pictures and reduced that down to about 11,000 worth keeping on my laptop. I traveled through India, Africa, remote areas of China, and I crossed bodies of water in boats; all leaving me a bit on edge as I hoped and prayed that my laptop (mainly my photography) was safe and secure.
Timing plays a big part in deciding where to go. Some factors to consider include weather, holidays & festivals, and the value of the dollar.
Weather:
There are a lot of decisions to make when planning a career break, but perhaps the one that is the most fun to make is deciding where to go. So how do you do it?
What Calls You
Muddy Waters: Borneo
Making the decision to take a cultural career break may have been a difficult one – but already you have pushed yourself out of your comfort zone. Don’t let that stop when you hit the road. This is your opportunity to explore worlds and cultures you never imagined and learn more about yourself in the process.
Comfort Level
Of course before hitting the road, you do want to have the peace of mind that where you are going is safe – not just for your own comfort but that of your friends and family staying behind. The U.S. State Department’s website offers tips for safely traveling internationally (including registering with the local US Embassies) as well as posting warnings and alerts for countries all around the world. And check out the CIA World Factbook for more detailed information on every country.
For years I wanted to travel to Vietnam and Cambodia – two places that I was fascinated with since high school. So I decided that in the year 2000, I would spend 3 months traveling through those countries. Then my great friend and traveling partner, Holly, said “Wait! If you go in 2001, I’ll go with you, but I also want to go to Nepal.” It’s hard to find such a great traveling companion, so I immediately said “sure!”
So for the next year or so, we planned our travels. My focus was purely on Vietnam & Cambodia, so we decided I would start there, and then we would meet up later in Nepal, continuing our journeys together to Thailand and then back to Australia, where we visited together in 1995.
As part of my travels in 2001 I ventured through Vietnam with Intrepid Travel. Following is an overview of that experience.
If you are going to be on a trip for any extended period of time, you will need to consider how you replenish your cash. There are a number of ways to do this, but I have learned (through some tough lessons) what works best.
Cash:
There are many different ways to plan a travel budget, and the key is to adjust it as you go and test your assumptions. Before I took off for my 16-month journey I sat down and tried to create a rough budget of what I thought I would spend. The problem was that I had never really traveled long term before, so I had a hard time determining where to start when I didn’t know where I‘d be staying from one day to the next for a whole year.
Egypt was one of the destinations I visited during my 16-month career break. Following is an excerpt from my blog.
I met up with my new Intrepid tour group in Aswan, Egypt near the southern most border of Egypt and Sudan. That afternoon we went on a hot walking tour of Aswan. Aswan was really a good place to lodge for the night on the way to the famous temple of Abu Simbel (close to the Sudan border). The Nile River flowed through Aswan and it had a large Nubian population. The Nubians are the old nomadic tribal people who inhabited southern Egypt and northern Sudan. They had fought turf wars with the Egyptians many years ago as well as turf wars with the Nile as it flooded their land. We took a boat ride on the Nile, visited an old Nubian village, rode some camels, and had dinner with the locals at the village. We finished the evening dancing with the local kids before we boated back to Aswan for a good, but short night’s sleep.
