How It Came To Be

Some people I have traveled with have asked me how I ever planned this trip. What processes did I go through? So I thought I'd commit some explanation and ideas to the blog in case anyone else is thinking along the same lines.

When I was married my wife and I planned to travel for a year and go around the world. But as we traveled we realized we didn't have enough money to accomplish that, so we settled for six months through Europe, Turkey and Morocco in 1979 and then flew home. For thirty years I had the thought niggling in my head that I hadn't done what I had set out to do and that there were lots of places that I wanted to get to that I hadn't made it to. But life gets in the way – marriage, a child, a mortgage, a career or two.

When I became a teacher and heard about the 4 Over 5 leave plan, I knew that was my chance to fulfill my dream. The plan allows you to take 4 years of salary and spread it over 5 year. You work for 80% of your salary for four years, and the board of education saves the other 20% for you. In the fifth year they pay you the 4x20% and you have the year off. You give up a year's salary but it is over 5 years. This would help me to save and give me an incoming source of money as I travelled. So I signed up. Then I had to bide my time, wait for my son to finish university and work for four years.

I made a list of places I wanted to go to. I contacted a travel agent, in this case my sister's best friend who had always been like a member of our family. I checked out the GAP and Intrepid catalogues she gave me, to find organized group trips. I found a 54 day trip through Africa that really appealed to me. I talked to a couple of people about when would be the best time of year to travel through Africa and then booked it. I had already decided that I wanted to do a long motorcycle trip through the western United States on my new motorcycle that I had purchased for exactly that purpose.

So, the first part of the plan was forming. Two months of riding in August and September and a safari through Africa in December and January. That left a two month hole for October and November. Where to go?

I thought about South America and what I would want to do there. I talked to two retired teacher friends who had been to South America and a friend of a friend who had also been there and picked their brains.

I made a list of five must do places: Galapagos, Easter Island (a place I'd always dreamed of going to), the Inca Trail, Rio de Janeiro, and Iguacu Falls, a place I had learned about through a Brazilian student who had stayed at my house.

I referred back to the travel catalogues and checked out trips and dates for Galapagos and the Inca Trail.

I took a monthly planner and tried to plot those places and see what time I would have left, and what route would be required to connect the dots. Then I looked back at the ideas I got from the other people and filled the holes.

The next step was to figure out how to get from South America to Africa. I explored the around the world ticket option but I couldn't find a group of allied airlines that flew that route. Plus they told me I had too many stops and too many miles. So no go.

This is where having a good travel agent helps. Mine, Denise, found Malaysian Airlines that flew from Buenos Aires to Kuala Lampur twice a week with a stop in Cape Town, perfect!

Then I had to figure out the other places I wanted to go to. Egypt and the pyramids for sure, India and the Taj Mahal and Thailand and Bangkok.

Back to the travel books. There were areas of the world I didn't want to do by myself, Africa was one, India and Egypt were two others. There is safety in numbers, and if I got sick or had any other problem there would be support in the group. A group also provides companionship.

So, I found a trip to Egypt that appealed to me and another through India.

Then as I was looking through the catalogues I became interested in the Middle East and booked Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Then I booked a trip through Nepal after India.

The next logical place for me was South East Asia. I booked a tour of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, and stayed in Bangkok for a week in order to get the visas for that.

The last piece of the puzzle was whether to go to Australia or not. I decided not to because: 1) I didn't have enough time to do it justice, 2) it is a first world country and would be like going home, 3) it was their winter time, and 4) their currency is really strong. I decided to leave Australia for a teacher exchange in the future, another wonderful opportunity that teaching offers. So, after finding out I could get a Chinese visa in Bangkok, I booked a three week tour of China to complete my round the world tour.

There it is, from the first inception to the end. Somethings planned, sometimes making it up as I went along. I wouldn't change anything. It was amazing from start to finish and definitely fulfilled all of my dreams regarding this trip. I completed my goals of traveling around the world and going for a year. I'd love to do something similar again sometime!