During my childhood, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel alot as my parents brought my brother and I to many different places, and so I have always had an appreciation for experiencing and learning new things about the world. However it wasn't until I went on my first solo trip to Hong Kong in 2008 that I became hooked on the exploration and adventure. I had a brief 2-month internship in HK during the summer of 2008, in which I was chained to a cubicle by day, and out exploring the city by night. I had been there before, but this time it was without anyone elses' agenda (other than work).
The next couple of years after that, I took a few more solo trips out to San Diego, Vancouver, Seattle, Boston, Calgary, and Chicago. All of these destinations were just within North America but still I felt a great sense of freedom by stepping outside of familiar territory, and each time felt truly alive.
Now this brings us to around 2011 when Christine and I began dating, and we took a few trips out to the US (San Francisco/Vegas, Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, and Orlando), as well as a big trip to Europe (a whirlwind of a trip through Paris, Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Dresden, and Prague). So we clearly shared a love of travel, exploration, and adventure.
Since then we had alot of discussions about how we want to live, where we want to live, and what we want to do with our lives. In particular, we somehow landed upon this idea of taking a Round-The-World (RTW) trip while reading on the interwebs. We talked alot about what we think about the 'American Dream'; this crazy notion that everyone has conformed to - go to high school, go to university, get a job, get married, buy a house, have 2.5 kids, retire, die. The question we kept coming back to was: Is it going to make us happy?
We ultimately decided that we did not want to conform to the expectations of others and of "society", but instead truly live and go on a long-term RTW trip. This decision was made around April 2013, and the rationale behind this was that so many people spend their entire lives living in the same environment, subscribing to a life that is dictated by the norm, and never getting outside of their comfort zone. We wanted to do something that would make us happy, and give us an experience we would never forget, and then worry about the rest later. After all, you only live once.
So now by April 2013, we've made a decision to do this. What was stopping us? Well I was in the middle of completing my Certified Management Accountant (CMA) designation, and wouldn't be done until June 2014. We set an initial departure date of September 2014 (which has since moved up to June 2014), and started to work on a plan to get all of our ducks in a row.
On the list were the following. We will create separate posts about each of these items:
1. Saving enough money for the trip and for a parachute fund.
2. Laser eye surgery - We felt this would really help us on the road, as we would not need to worry about glasses and/or contact lenses. We both went through with the PRK procedure in September and October 2013, respectively, and could not be happier. Unfortunately this averaged out to $5,200 each.
3. Telling family and friends - We made a plan of telling our family and friends closer to the departure date in case anything came up to change our plans.
4. Leaving our jobs.
5. Travel Route - We have changed our departure date and route many many times, but have finally decided on one.
6. Flights
7. Vaccinations
- CS
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