planning

The “Most” of 2011

January 3, 2012 By Jillian

Happy New Year! 2011 was a big year for us at IShouldLogOff. We transitioned from a permanent nomadic lifestyle to something a bit more traditional and settled. That doesn’t mean the adventures don’t continue, in 2011 we started adventure racing in Florida, snorkeled with Jesus in the Florida Keys and explored Mexico City. No bets yet on what 2012 has in store, but it’s sure to be another full year.

Last week I took a look at our most popular posts and pages of 2011. Interesting to see what people like and don’t like on the website. Turns out most of you are interested in South America and Southeast Asia. Can’t say I’m surprised!

In case you missed one (or two!) of the most popular posts, here they are:

South American Report Card – Budgets tend to be the most popular posts across the board, but this one beats the rest by far!
Tips for Buying Clothes in Southeast Asia – Everyone dreams of inexpensive custom clothes. Here are some tips to make sure you don’t look in your mirror and home wondering what went wrong.
Budget for Africa – Our Africa posts got a lot more interest and attention this year and I’ve seen more and more of you on Twitter and Facebook talking about your own African adventures. Maybe it will be the travel destination of 2012?
Hot Chocolate Colombiana – Chocolate and marshmellows are boring compared to this Colombian tradition.
Giveaway: Emergency Travel Assistance – This contest is ongoing through January- leave your comment for FREE Emergency Travel Assistance!

What do you have in store for 2012?

Traveler Talk Back: Leaving

July 19, 2011 By Jillian

A travel bug, when caught, is hard to ignore. It gnaws away at you. You find yourself looking at National Geographic magazines thinking, I could go there, or a Travel & Leisure magazine thinking I want to go there. But making the jump between those dreams and reality can be hard. We’ve been transparent about our own feelings here at IShouldLogOff, on the highs and lows of long-term travel, but a few weeks ago we introduced you to our traveler talk back series. This is the first of that series, which will deal with traveling from a perspective other than our own, the decision to leave, the decision to return, and living out the dream. One of the aspects of blogging we love the most, is the community we have. We highly encourage your participation in this series (and in general!), so if you have a question, comment or experience you’d like to share join our discussion either in the comments below or on facebook.

When and how much.

There are a lot of things to think about before leaving on an RTW, but the question we get asked most often is about money.

We asked Jill from JackandJillTravel, who left on an RTW in April, about her biggest concern before leaving on her RTW. She sums it up in one word – money. “Money. It’s all about money – how much should we save, how much should we have for re-entry, what are we going to do when the money runs out, wallah wallah…”

Where and When.

Jack and Jill, who blog under pseudonyms, started their RTW in South America in April. A long time in planning, the couple chose Colombia as their first destination. Like many long-term travelers, the couple left without a set itinerary. “We don’t really have any plan other than a vague idea of an itinerary (South America – Africa – Europe – Asia) – basically we’re going to travel until either money/motivation runs out. Whichever comes first,” said Jill.

Adam Seper, who runs World Travel for Couples, spent 51 weeks traveling the world in 2008-2009. He and his wife had an open ended itinerary. “We had always planned on coming home in about a year, but we left it open. We didn’t buy a RTW ticket, and we were open to finding a job somewhere or making this somewhat permanent. After a while on the road, though, we realized that being permanent nomads simply wasn’t for us.”

Ayngelina Brogan, editor of Bacon is Magic, started her RTW trip with a one-way ticket one-way ticket to Mexico. “When I arrived in Mexico I did not speak any Spanish so it has been an adventure for me,” she said. After traveling through Latin America for 14 months, Ayngelina has recently returned to Canada for a short break before heading out on her next adventure.

Leaving travel time and itinerary flexible and open is a common theme among long-term or RTW travelers. Having a vague itinerary leaves travelers open to take advantage of in-country opportunities, like volunteering or working. Jack and Jill spent nearly a month in Banos, Ecuador volunteering with an animal rescue group started by other travelers.

You are not alone.

When we left on our RTW, the first backpackers we met surprised us. They were people traveling for months, just like us, some traversing the Americas, others aiming to traverse the world, each on their own time frame, with their own path.

“There are a lot more of people doing these long term travel thingy than we have first expected,” said Jill of JackandJillTravel. “And some of them are doing some incredible things: like biking gazillion miles across continents and things like that. It’s been quite inspirational, really.”

The idea of a career break, or an “adult gap year” as some suggest, has grown in popularity over the last five years. According to the British Confederation of Industry survey in 2005, 75% of the British workforce is currently considering a career break. Of course this is probably highly over representing the people who are actually preparing and planning for a career break, but you get the drift.

Erin Davies and Pete Schaefer spent nine months traveling around the world and blogging about the adventure at The Scenic Route. The couple, who returned to the U.S. in May, decided to take off one school year, returning home in time for Pete, a high school teacher to find a job for the following school year.

“I wish…”

We hate superlatives (they’re too hard to answer!), but we love “wish” questions. We asked Jack and Jill some hypothetical questions four months into their trip.

I wish someone had told us….
“To double and triple check our departure date. We arrived at the airport in LA only to find out that for all of those months we had had our ticket, we’d gotten the date wrong.” (You can read about Jack and Jill’s auspicious start here.)

I wish I had left behind…
“Three days ago I would’ve said our climbing shoes and harness. But then we had an awesome day of climbing here in Baños which made it all worth it.”

I wish I had brought…
“Extra ATM card. We only have one and we lose it – we’re screwed,” said Jack. “More underwear. I only brought a pair of everything and at the current rate of losing stuff, it’s inevitable I’ll have to replace them. And I’m very, very, very picky about underwear,” said Jill.

How would you answer the “I wish questions?” What’s on your mind about long-term or RTW travel? About these Travelers:

Jack and Jill Travel left on their RTW trip in April 2011. They’re currently exploring South America. You can read about their (mis)adventures on their travel blog, find them on Facebook or Twitter.

Adam Seper and his wife, Megan traveled around the world for 51 weeks. Adam currently edits World Travel for Couples, a website with destination guides, travel information and great tips geared at travel with a partner. You can find him on Facebook or Twitter.

Ayngelina left a great job, boyfriend, friends and apartment to find inspiration in Latin America. You can read about her adventures on her travel blog, find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Erin Davies and Pete Schaefer are busy settling back into life in Ohio. They spent 9 months traveling around the world in 2010, covering every continent except antarctica. You can read about their scenic route from DC to home on their travel blog. You can also check out some of their great travel pictures on flickr.

Planning Central Asia Overland

September 23, 2010 By Danny

When we first starting looking at Central Asia and trying to think about our route, we really had no idea where we were going or what we were doing. We started with a map of the region and, made note of several very troublesome features (e.g. Afghanistan) and started to work at it. All through Latin America and Africa we basically traveled in a straight line along the ‘road;’ in Central Asia there are lots of ‘roads’ to choose from and we had to do some serious work and research to figure out which ones were open to us. To those who think we are on a permanent vacation, this should help to prove otherwise.

The first challenge was getting to Central Asia from Turkey and the Caucasus. From that region we looked to the east and came up with three ways of reaching Central Asia.

1.The southern route around the Caspian Sea. Through Iran. The visa process for US citizens wishing to visit Iran is straightforward and clear as mud. Pay lots of money, apply within the US, wait 3 months, maybe get approved (but probably not because we have a website) and then take an organized tour that starts and ends in Tehran. Given that we wanted to travel from one end of the country to the other…this really wasn’t an option at all.

2.The northern route around the Caspian Sea. From Georgia we would have had to trek up through Russia and around the Caspian Sea and back down. Problem is that the Georgian-Russian border is a bit fortified at the moment (there was a war between the two a mere 2 years ago) and foreigners are not allowed to cross. This would have meant backtracking across the Black Sea and back into Europe to enter Russia through Moscow….a bit much if you ask us. Not a great option either.

3.Through the Caspian Sea. Travel from Georgia to Azerbaijan to the port city of Baku. Take the near daily ferry to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan, or the not so daily ferry to Aktau, Kazakhstan. This was the ‘option’ we thought was the best.

Now that we knew where we were going we started our visa research:

Azerbaijan: Tourist visa $130 and takes 3-5 days to get. Thankfully there exists a $20 5 day transit visa, nice.

Turkmenistan: Tourist visa as much of a PITA as an Iranian visa, not an option. Thankfully there exists a cheap 5 day transit visa, nice.

Kazakhstan: Tourist visa is $60 and has two entries, no problem there.

So we begin a bit more research. We read rumors online that the Turkmenistan government likes to hold the boats at port and disallow disembarkment until transit visas have expired. This is seemingly confirmed by various warnings against said visa on the US Department of State website…the first such warning we’ve seen from them. We rule out the Baku-Turkmenbashi ferry option.

Next up is the ferry from Baku to Aktau, Kazakhstan. This should be a winner, operative word is ‘should.’ Problems. It has no schedule and generally runs only every 2-7 days or so. This means if we enter Azerbaijan to take the ferry we can either pay for the $131 tourist visa or risk overstaying the $20 5-day transit visa. Either way we’ll likely burn time and money while we sit in Baku waiting. At least we finally have an option. Confused yet, not so easy is it?

IMGP7281

The other option we can think up is to fly over this mess. From Georgia and Armenia only one airline, the Kazakhstan airline SCAT, flys to where we’d like to go. Good luck using their website, not much English to help you. From Baku there are a few more options, but again that means getting a visa. To make matters worse, we find at least two airlines that don’t even seem to exist….Central Asian and Georgian International (not to be confused with Georgia Air, Georgia’s actual national carrier). Naturally, none of the air tickets available could only be booked until we found an an authorized travel agent within the Caucasus.

Uzbekistan Airways also flew from Baku to cities within Uzbekistan, and is a ‘modern’ airline by all accounts, but we preferred to travel on land as much as possible and this would have had us skip a fair bit and meant going to Baku, Azerbaijan, in order to catch the flight.

This is the kind of ‘route planning’ we deal with frequently and have gotten quite good at. As we’ve found most of the information we’ve used on the Internet (and especially a few cousins of ours planning their own Silk Road trip) we are happy to help future travelers by sharing our experiences. Our next post will describe the route we actually took, what we learned, and the next steps we made.

Cell Phones and SIM Cards

August 12, 2010 By Danny

People back in the States often ask us how we communicate and if we carry a cell phone. When we say yes, many people ask us what plan we’re on or if we have a satellite phone. The truth of the matter is that the way cell phone plans, phones, and companies operate in the US is different than in the rest of the world….and in the rest of the world, thankfully, it is much easier to travel internationally with a cell phone.

We carry a basic cell phone that has a SIM card slot. In the US, this type of phone is used by AT&T and T-Mobile. There is a SIM card and that card basically IS your phone number and your plan. The phones in the US, sold to you by these companies, are ‘locked’ to run exclusively on the network from which you purchased your phone.

All phones however, begin their lives ‘unlocked’ and it is a very simply matter to take your AT&T phone and unlock it. We did this at the start of our trip with a guy on the street in Guatemala after we learned that the Spanish word for the process (they have LOTS of used US phones in Guatemala) is ‘Flashar.’ It was easy, he pushed a few buttons on his special machine, and it was done. Not going to Guatemala soon? Here is how you do it online:

Go to the search engine of your choice. Search for something like ‘unlock my cell-phone’ and follow the on-screen instructions. Depending on what site you find you should pay somewhere around $5-$10 for this one time service. It is easy, and takes about 24 hours for the whole thing to work itself out. We recently did this when we took a newer cell phone with us to Turkey.

Once in another country it is merely a matter of purchasing a SIM card and popping it in the slot. We traveled through Europe (and then the US as well) with a German SIM card. This card worked everywhere we went and was actually cheaper to use in the US than had we purchased a new card from T-Mobile in the US proper. The German card cost ten Euro but came with that much in calling credit. The only annoying thing was that no one could call us. We now have a Turkish number on a Turkish SIM card which cost a bit more than the German one but we managed to purchase 1,000 SMS messages for about $7.

We have had local phone numbers in these two countries as well as Egypt, Israel, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala & Honduras. We don’t use the phone much but when couchsurfing or trying to make any level of advanced plans it is a huge help. At its most basic level, when we find a taxi driver we like we can grab his number and use him again….something that has worked out in our favor on more than one occasion. When American’s travel overseas it is sometimes a nerve-wracking decision on how to call around and call home with the way our plans are structured, but if you just unlock your phone, or even an old one, things can become a lot easier.

The “Most” of 2011

Traveler Talk Back: Leaving

Planning Central Asia Overland

Cell Phones and SIM Cards

Recent Comments

Banking on the Road

Adventure Guides