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Roobens,
D-day is finally coming… A trip that started to cross your mind about a year ago. For the last twelve months, youkeep thinking about it, you’re preparing it slowly but surely. One year you keep telling yourself “You have to do it now, before it’s too late. Otherwise, you’ll regret it all your life!“. What happens in someone’s head before a round the world trip?
It first started when you and other coworkers got laid off for economic reasons. You didn’t really want to start over again with a new job, etc… You just wanted to take some time off for yourself, to take a breathe. You took the decision to travel around the world, since you love to travel! Honestly, You were thinking about it for a few years, and you wanted to do that once in your life. It’s now or never! After your last day at work, you had to make plans and organize yourself. You had to give up your apartment, which meant terminate the internet, electricity, sell a lot of the stuff you had -you then realised you had a LOT of stuff you almost never use!-, give a lot of stuff, and keep the bare minimum for your trip. Yeah… you felt a bit nostalgic the last few days before leaving, you did have a lot of fun in this apartment.
Of course you had to get vaccinated! Never overlook your health! You don’t want to fall sick and to be repatriated because of your carelessness. Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, already good! Hepatitis A, hepatitis B, same same, you’re all good! Get vaccinated against rabies, typhoid, encephalitis and yellow fever. You were a little dizzy after all these vaccines but you’re now (theorically) immunized. Take some pills against malaria as a precaution. Right now there are no vaccines against it. Once you have it, you keep it your whole life… Just in case, I wrote a list of vaccines to get before a round the world trip.
There’s a lot of administrative tasks to take care about, and yeah, it’s tedious… Your passport is still valid, for a few years so it’s all good (in some countries, it has to be valid for six months after you leave the territory). Your ID is also valid for several years. You have to warn your bank that you’re about to leave for quite some time. If they notice an unusual usage of your card (for instance payments and withdraws done in Myanmar), they may think it’s a fraudulent usage, and then block your card. I guess you don’t really wanna be overseas with no money and no means of payment!
This is when you realize you have a lot to think about before a round the world trip… Get rid of different subscriptions (gym, public transportation…). And start to buy all the stuff you need for this crazy journey. Backpack, appropriate clothes, sleeping bag, medicine, but also camera, travel plug adapter, security cable lock, mosquito net… You can’t forget a single item!
Also, don’t forget to forward your mail, just in case. Otherwise an important mail might get lost in the post office. Photocopy all the important documents (passport, ID, travel insurance…) and keep them in a safe place. Scan all those documents and keep them in your e-mail address. Also keep a digital copy of all your contacts (names and numbers), in case your phone gets stolen, or you lose it. And, of course subscribe to a travel insurance! If something happens and you need to go to the hospital, you won’t have a 10000€ bill to pay. Better safe than sorry!
You almost forgot the main point… Think about the itinerary! Where will you go? Where will you sleep? How long are you gonna stay in each city? What will you do there? There’s a tremendous amount of information you can find on the internet via forums, e-books, travel blogs… It’s really not complicated to find the information you need on a given place. You decided to start slowly, going to cities in Eastern Europe that you already know and/or where you have contacts. This way you’ll get in condition, you’ll get confident for the next weeks and you’ll get to know how to travel at a good pace, before getting in less “popular” places, less touristic. For each country, check if you need a visa to get there. If so, check all the required conditions to get it (it’s pretty simple, it can usually be done on the internet). Therefore don’t forget to take ID photos with you. I wrote a recap of all the things to check before a round the world trip.
Last but not least… This blog! To keep informed your friends and family! More than a blog, a real project for you! You didn’t wanna do one of those blogs created in two minutes. You wanted a nice one, one that people enjoy reading! You had zero experience and you knew literally nothing about domains, hosting, themes… You learned on the job, thanks to google and youtube tutorials. You’re not a geek, you’re not a tech-savvy person. It could have been done a lot faster, but you really wanted to get how it all works. Hosting, domain, emails, social media, SEO… I guess you have the basics now. You’re not really “connected”, you’re not all day long phone in your hand checking your notifications, and this blog probably won’t change you. But try to keep it updated on a regular basis.
This is the kind of thoughts you have before a round the world trip! Here you are, about to leave Paris! First tickets booked! Excited and at the same time a little bit stressed! You’re dreading a bit but everybody’s telling you you’re gonna love it, it will be all good! Let’s make it happen!!!
Regards,
Your inner voice
