W(TF) are we doing?… and other FAQs.

We’re leaving for Egypt on June 28, 2021. Nothing else is set in stone, but we have a rough sense of other countries we would like to see: Turkey, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. 

We’re keeping things flexible so we can leave whenever we’ve gotten our fill of a place, which means we’ll mostly be planning the trip one leg at a time.

We’re aiming to spend about a month in most of the countries and have set aside just under a year for the whole shabang but might shorten or lengthen depending on how we like the lifestyle.

Honestly, one of the main reasons is simply because we can. We are young(ish) and (mostly) healthy and it’s been gnawing at us to try something like this before we lose the energy to get started. We also have plenty of years left ahead of us to work and the luxury of not fretting too much about skipping just one.

The other main reason, for me at least, has less to do with travel and more to do with not working. The point of keeping such a slow traveling pace is to have some genuine down time. I’m hoping to learn a bit better what I like to do when my time is completely my own. Do I actually get around to all those books/movies/shows? Do I collapse from the lack of structure? Are there projects or problems I gravitate towards? 

I recently made a major career shift in deciding not to pursue academia. I want to make sure I’m mindful and deliberate in what I pursue next, and part of that is better understanding how I’d like to spend my time. I could do that in the U.S., but Thailand is a lot cheaper.

It really depends. There’s definitely a version of this trip that we can’t afford. We’ll mostly be staying at hostels and skipping the fancy restaurants and expensive attractions. We’ve only chosen very cheap countries and plan to stick to that, even though we’d love to check out places like Japan. We’re shooting to spend under $100/day for the two of us in total, including things like flights and accommodations. 

If you’re considering trying it, there are tons of great blogs and resources out there documenting exactly how much trips like this cost. Here are two that we found useful for reference.

Of course. We’re doing our best to take a calculated risk, though. Almost all the countries we’re going to have lower COVID prevalence than the U.S. did this spring, Jack and I are both fully vaccinated, and we plan to follow health safety guidelines that have been implemented worldwide.

With little exception, the crime rate in all the places we are going is low. Statistically speaking, it’s probably riskier to own a car. That’s no reason to be cavalier and we will be more on alert than we would be in Boston, but we’re trying to supplant natural fear of the unknown with sensible caution.

Lightly. We’re each planning to bring one backpack under 20 lb. You can find more details in this post I wrote all about packing.

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