How long do you plan such a trip?

The two of us are the best example that there is no recipe as how to prepare such a trip. It depends very much on a person’s personality. Some need their detailed check lists and prepare for months, other simply pack and leave.

Gilles loves Excel-List, ToDo-lists, so he fits the first category. His final draft included 162 items! Heidi is more aloof and takes things as they come.

For this reason most of the planning was left to Gilles who took about 8 months time all together. And it turned out that many of the things we carefully planed were not that unnecessary.

  

How about jobs?

As previously mentioned Heidi, a high-school teacher, has been saving for a sabbatical for the last three year, which means she received only 75% of her salary over the last 3 years and will receive 75% during the fourth year, when we are travelling.

Gilles negotiated a year of unpaid leave with his company, Xerox Austria, and will be able to join the company again upon his return.

 

Apartment, car and other stuffs

What seemed like a big deal in the beginning was done in no time.

We have found tenants for both our apartments in a whisk, the very first person who came to see it rented it. That is very fortunate. Same with the car, the very first test driver bought it.

Of course, lots of things need to be cancelled temporarily, like telephone, mobiles, saving plan, newspapers, and what not, but this is also rather straight forward.

 

Visas / Documents

No visas are required for the first leg of our trip, South America, at least for European Citizens. What worried us a bit was that officially all South American countries ask for tickets out of the country (onward or return tickets). Heidi has spent a lot of time contacting embassies, since there is no way we can produce these. The answers have been very evasive so we figure this is a rule that is not being applied.

Added upon return: getting a visa into China spring 2008, shortly before the start of the Olympic Games in Peking, was a bit tricky! Paranoia had set in after worldwide demonstrations against China’s policy in Tibet. Every tourist was suspected of only heading there to create troubles. Exit plane ticket and hotel bookings for every single night were requested… We almost gave up, then found an agency in Hong Kong that got us the visa in no time for … No less than 70 USD!

Only New Zealand was serious about an onward ticket, which we had. And this was it, for an entire year!

Copies of our all documents were scanned, printed plus stored on our e-mail accounts. We never needed it but still think it is strongly advisable to do so.

 

Health / Insurance

We have the usual vaccination against Tetanus, Hepatitis A & B, Yellow Fever, etc… from previous trips. The only one we added was against rabies, since we frequently might be quite away from any hospital.

After some consideration, we finally decided against malaria prevention, although we will be in areas like the Amazon Basin. We will however carry malaria medication, called Malarone, to be used after attracting the illness.

Heidi’s sabbatical is covered by Austrian health insurance. Gilles, being on unpaid leave, will pay extra to get himself covered (110 Euros per month). Of course we need to pay for whatever treatments we receive, but it will be reimbursed once we are back.

Austrian Credit Cards also offer an extensive travel insurance, no matter how long one travels, so we will enjoy this advantage without extra costs.

Prescription medication is crucial. Heidi needs to bring a year’s supplies to fight restless leg syndrome, plus spare glasses / contact lenses and yes, her optician’s eMail.

 

What to take?

We always travel light, so this will not change. In most places clothes is cheaper than in Europe, so we buy as we go. Laundry facilities are also easily available in all backpacker hostels.

What helps keeping the weight down is that we will not camp or at least do not intend to do so.

A big chunk of our weight is electronics. We are taking a digital camera and a small pocket camera and - after long considerations - our laptop. There is no way around to immediately sorting out the photos and writing down our diary for the website. We cannot do this after such a long trip. Along with these gadgets come cables, chargers, extra plugs etc. These are the things that weigh you down.

Several website recommend taking a head-light, Swiss knife, padlock, lighter, laundry line, airline mask, inflatable cushions, ear-plugs, mosquito-net & strong skin repellent and alarm clock. Most of these we needed, except the mosquito-net, inflatable cushions and a laundry line. Very handy and a must-bring are the supra-light sleeping bags made of silk we bought on a previous trip in Vietnam.

Money

Having read about people travelling a whole year spending only a meagre 8.000 € (per person), while others dole out more than 45.000 Euro (also per person), we figured that the truth is always in the middle: 18.000 to 25.000 € per person should allow a real nice trip. This is the price of a medium-sized car for the experience of a life-time!

The main question is how to pay and to get access to our money. We have each a credit card (one Visa and one Master Card) and each an ATM (Maestro) card. We decided to rely completely on ATMs, which are available in most major cities. Cash advance is also a possibility, if needed.

The only country where we need to carry cash will be Venezuela, since the official exchange rate is three times the money you get on the black market.

 

Website or blog?

We decided on a website, although it is much more expensive, but we could not find a blog that meets our expectations. This was a huge project, but now we have exactly what we wanted and we will be able to use it for previous as well as for further travels!

 

Contact us

Do you have some questions? Is there something you want to share with us?

We are excited about all suggestions and feedback. Please be a bit patient, we might be trekking or on a boat for a week. Needless to say there are also these obstacles of local “broad band” Internet cafes offering 56,6 KBps, or of course no electricity at all.