You won’t believe what Michael’s eating. Copyright TimeTravelTurtle.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Michael, solo Aussie traveler on his break. In part because of his last name, but also because of his preferred travel style his blog has the clever name Time Travel Turtle. Slow and off the beaten path for the most part, I first started discovering Michael’s posts on some remote places I had been in South America, which made them stand out in my mind. I finally met Michael in Italy in April and would be happy to travel around with him. But, as a self-described ¨garbage truck collecting trash¨ snorer at night, I would be seeking out the hostel’s private room.

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

I’m in Luxembourg at the moment, in the middle of a mission to walk across the whole country. You can tell I don’t like my missions to be too hard – Luxembourg is not that big. But it’s still going to end up being a six day hike that will cover about 130 kilometres, so that should be a nice little achievement.

2. So let’s get right to it: Eating animal penis in China. Walk me through the process of deciding that this is something you have to try once in your life.

Ha ha. I’d heard about this restaurant in Beijing that served only penis and I thought it sounded like something that had to be seen (and tasted) to be believed. I’m a fairly adventurous guy when it comes to weird things like that and, at the very least, I thought it would make a good story. I had a couple of friends in the city who were happy to come along so we gave each other enough moral support to actually go. It was pretty revolting, for the record.

Need for Speed? Copyright TimeTravelTurtle.com

3. I really enjoyed reading about your time in North Korea, especially your color commentary about what you were seeing and being shown. Is it possible to have a connection with the country or the people given how much the tour is controlled?

The short answer is no. The long answer is nooooooo. Everything is really tightly controlled – in Pyongyang, foreigners are only allowed to stay in a hotel on an island so they can restrict your movements, for example. There are quite a few opportunities to be around locals, though, so you may not get a chance to have in-depth conversations (not that they speak English) but can see a slice of their lives. Overall, you learn as much from the efforts of the guides to control what you see as you do from the sites you’re allowed to go to. Driving through rural areas you can see the simple houses people live in, when you stop in the countryside you can hear propaganda messages blaring on loudspeakers, and when you’re in the city at night you can see how little electricity is being used.

4. You’ve had some unique experiences like crashing funerals in Chile, obviously your animal penis meal, and getting caught in the matrix in Poland. Do you seek out quirk or does it come naturally to your quirky self?

Probably a mixture of both. I’m definitely always on the lookout for experiences and places that are off the usual tourist paths – but there are a lot of things you just can’t plan. I think if you’re open to different experiences and are prepared to take the time to go a bit deeper into a location, these things happen naturally. You’ve then got to be prepared to make the most of them!

5. You have a fascination with UNESCO Heritage sites. Has there been one that you’ve visited that disappointed or, if not, was completely different than you expected?

There haven’t been any that have been disappointing so far but I must admit I got a bit bored of the Italian ones. Sure, there’s a lot of history in that country but by the time you’ve seen a dozen old cities with old churches, you wonder whether Italy really deserves to have the most World Heritage Sites of any country. The one that was the most surprising was in Chile. It’s a small places called the Sewell Mining Town that is in the middle of nowhere in the Andes and you have to access on an authorised tour that only runs a few times a week. I didn’t really know what to expect so I was blown away when I discovered this abandoned town with colourful buildings, a theatre, and a maze of staircases – all set against the striking background of the mountains.

As they say, Texas is like a whole other country. Copyright TimeTravelTurtle.com

6. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

If I said ‘career break’, I might seem too optimistic that I have a career to go back to. ‘Nomadic adventure’ is probably the best way to put it. I left Australia about 13 months ago and have no plans to settle down anywhere in the foreseeable future. The world is changing at such a rate, though, that there’s no reason why an endless global journey can’t become a career if things pan out well.

7. What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?

I think the biggest misconception people have is that there’s an ‘us versus them’ mentality out in the world. You hear people say ‘oh, the <insert race> are going to try to rip you off’ or ‘you’ll never get anything done because the <insert another race> are too lazy to help’. Ultimately people are nice and there will always be someone to help you if you’re lost, bored or hungry. If you travel the world for long enough you’ll discover the goodness in humanity and realise that no culture has a monopoly on generosity.

8. What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

The first time I really felt out of my depth on this trip was when I went into Paraguay on my own. It’s a country that doesn’t really have any decent guidebooks written about it, has no tourist trail, no easy places to stay, and no English. I would go days without having a conversation in English, without knowing if I was on the right bus (or where I should get off), and without seeing another foreigner. But it was one of the best experiences of my time in South America because the challenge made the trip much more worthwhile.

At Iguazu Falls, Argentina. Copyright TimeTravelTurtle.com

9. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

Probably the time I spent in Buenos Aires when I was trying to learn Spanish (I say ‘trying’ because all I could do after three weeks was buy a beer and a bus ticket. And even then I’m sure I once asked for a beer to Mendoza). During the stay I was living in university accommodation with a bunch of Argentinian students. They knew that city inside out and we spent a lot of time in cafes, bars, nooks and crannies that I would never have found otherwise.

10. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

Well, if you don’t include every time I tried to speak Spanish in South America, the most embarrassing moment was probably in the US. I was hanging with some Aussie friends and some Americans we’d met and were having a couple of pretty wild days and nights (it was Halloween and the city knows how to party!). To cut a long story short, I woke up one morning and walked out to the hostel common room where my friends all started laughing at me. It turns out I’d thought it would be a good idea to get a tattoo on my face! Thankfully the woman in the tattoo parlour had been sensible enough to make it a fake one. Thankfully!

In North Korea. Copyright TimeTravelTurtle.com

11. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

Being flexible and not having any boundaries. I never book my onward transport until the last moment so I can change my mind if something better comes along. I always say yes to offers of something different (ok, not always, but y’know what I mean). And I always try to find the pleasure in any situation.

12. Finally, our lightening round. (Just a quick short answer for each please)

• Best dish you’ve found so far: Argentinian steak. I don’t know what they do to those cows, but yum!
• Most exotic food eaten: I think we’ve already covered this one
• Most breathtaking moment: Standing at Iguaza Falls on the Brazilian and Argentinian border
• Biggest disappointment: Rio de Janeiro. But it did rain for pretty much the whole week I was there
• Most memorable place: North Korea
• Most memorable person: The oldest backpacker in the world, John Waite, who was 89 years old and had been travelling with two changes of clothes for 30 years
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: War and Peace
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride: The runs
• Best thing you packed: My hoodie. It keeps me dry, keeps me warm, and keeps me comfortable. You can dress it up or dress it down. The perfect bit of clothing.
• Dumbest thing you packed: All my other sweaters!
• Funniest travel habit you have: I like to walk a lot so when everyone else will get a bus or a taxi, I’ll walk.
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer: Chile – it has been one of my favourite countries and a real surprise.

You can follow Michael online at TimeTravelTurtle.com. on Facebook and on Twitter @MichaelTurtle

Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There ^TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.  

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now: Michael is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Taking a break in El Chalten, Argentina. Copyright LandingStanding.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Meg and Tony, who left the corporate world to see the real world. I had the chance to meet them in Italy in April at the Travel Bloggers Unite conference. Their site, Landing Standing, has a lot of personality (no surprise having met them). So, follow their trip. You will be entertained.

1.  So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

Thanks for the kind words, Jeff! We just arrived in Berlin and are crashing with some friends that we have met on the road. Mooching is the key to any successful long-term travel plan!

2.  What’s the story behind your site’s name? How does it reflect your travel style? Who’s landing and who’s standing anyway?

Ohhhh, boy. As with most origin stories, it’s a bit convoluted. After we graduated college, we had the idea to start a blog about financial planning for recent grads. The name Landing Standing was hit upon as the perfect way to describe the transition from college to adult life (as in, landing on your feet). A little too cutesy and ridiculous perhaps? Definitely… but so are we! Plus, we thought the rhyming was catchy. Even though we are passionate and knowledgeable about personal finance (came in handy when planning a trip around the world), that blog lasted just 7 posts. But the name stuck.

Overtime, the name Landing Standing came to mean how we could face any challenge and always come out ok. Our travel style is to plan just enough to survive and then to face the chaos that life throws at us. Lost in the middle of a foreign city? No worries. Money running tight with so much more to see? Not a problem. Why? Because we always end up on our two feet… landing standing!

Relaxing! Copyright LandingStanding.com

3.  Before you left, Tony wrote a post, The Silly Things That I Will Miss When We Travel (and Why It Will All Be OK). In it, you included that you thought you’d miss your job. So, be honest, how much are you really missing your careers?

The careers… maybe not so much. But the people we worked with? Definitely! There is also that nagging feeling of being “unanchored” because we had to hit the eject button on the traditional life plan… but that also feels kind of great. Life is always better when you are outside your comfort zone and we truly believe it is the key to success. We have a few projects in the works to turn this career break into a permanent lifestyle, so we’ll see how it goes!

4.  Meg, you wrote about 15 things we need to know about you. You mentioned your penchant for getting hotel and flight upgrades. How was the adjustment to budget travel and do you have any tricks for adding a bit of luxe on your trip?

As a business management consultant back home, I accumulated a ton of airline miles and hotel points and got upgraded A LOT.  However, adjusting to budget travel was a lot easier than I expected.  Tony and I are incredibly grateful to be travelling the world so our expectations and needs are very basic.  As long as a hostel or hotel has a bug-free bed for us to sleep in, we consider it a win!  As far as tricks for adding a bit of luxe to our trips, we do occasionally leverage my hotel points to stay at a nice hotel on the road when we need a break from the hostel lifestyle. Also, if you tell people you are on your honeymoon, the free stuff and upgrades come flying in!

Meg befriending a street dog in Santiago. Copyright LandingStanding.com

5.  You started your trip in Santiago, Chile. I think it’s a good choice for easing your way into long-term travel. What was your strategy to putting together your itinerary and picking where you’d go and where you’d skip?

With our penchant for planning “just enough,” we didn’t make too big a deal out of it. We knew we wanted to start in South America because neither of us had been. Meg did a few hours of research online that said Santiago was a super easy city to visit. Once we had that info, it only took us a day of looking up cheap dates for flights before pulling the trigger. We decided against an around-the-world ticket as Meg’s points helped reduce some of the more expensive flights we’ve taken. Plus, we really love the freedom of having no places to visit picked out beyond a general area. The key was we bought the first ticket. Sometimes people get so hung up on the planning that they never actually do the traveling. You can always plan more later, so once you make the decision to travel, just make it happen!

6.  Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

People have so many different definitions of these, but probably a bit of everything. We travel on a budget, but have access to a decent amount of hotel points and airline miles to splurge on occasion. We took a break from our careers, but are looking to turn this into a lifelong nomadic adventure. We always default to calling it “vagabonding”, but that is more for the romance of the journey than any specific way we travel.

Tony trying cuy (guinea pig) in Peru. Copyright LandingStanding.com

7.  What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know? 

Technology in 2012 has made missing events back home almost non-existent. We have Facebook, Twitter, and email to stay connected to our friends lives. Skype lets us see our families face-to-face every week. Missing out on your current life is no longer a reason to not travel (not that it ever was, really). Plus, technology like Facebook and Twitter lets you be open to so many new opportunities on the road  Let people know what you are doing and get ready to be surprised at how many cool people you will meet.

8.  What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

It is definitely not the craziest thing we have seen on this trip, but the stray dogs in Santiago was definitely the first time where we felt “outside” of the US. Santiago was incredibly modern feeling, so the stray dogs everywhere were fairly surreal. But they were well taken care of, for the most part, by the local shop owners. As dog people though… it was really hard to not adopt a new dog everyday. Meg was having the internal battle of a lifetime just trying not to pet them!

9.  What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

While in La Paz, Bolivia, we decided to take a local bus to the city of El Alto, which is the largest city in the world built and inhabited by Native Americans.  Here we went to their famous market where we were the ONLY tourists there.  The entire experience was incredibly eye opening and we later discovered that El Alto was also famous for local kidnappings of American tourists… Yikes!

10.  What has been your most embarrassing moment?

Tony: I’ll take this one… as Meg has yet to top it. But about 2 weeks into our journey we were asked to partake in a full day hike in the Andes for our first sponsored tour. Beyond giddy that this little blog of ours was worthy of a sponsored tour, we set off on a day that I have still not lived down…

Extremely long and embarrassing story short: Whether due to drinking the night before or a slight stomach bug, I had a battle with my body all the way up (and down) the mountain that I did not ultimately win. I wrote about it in graphic, yet cathartic, detail here if you really to know. But the day culminated with me actually saying the words (unthinkable only a day before) “Meg, I pooped myself.” So professional.

Hiking the Andes in South America. Copyright LandingStanding.com

11. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

Plan as little as you can to survive. Overplanning can turn your journey into a chore and suck all of the adventure out of your career break. The best parts of our trip have come from the detours along the way based on advice from friends we have met on the road. You only need to book hostels online a few days ahead and buses are never sold out more than a day or two in advance. Revel in your freedom!

12. Finally, our lightning round. 

• Best dish you’ve found so far: Baklava in Turkey
• Most exotic food eaten: Cuy (Guinea Pig) in Cusco, Peru
• Most breathtaking moment: Finally reaching Machu Pichu after 4 days on the Inca Trail
• Biggest disappointment: La Paz, Bolivia… Not fans!
• Most memorable place: As cliche as it sounds, it was Paris for our two-year wedding anniversary
• Most memorable person: Our conspiracy loving, anti-semitic (with dashes of racism) cab driver in Croatia who loved to “share.” If you can’t laugh, you’ll cry.
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and earplugs
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride: Meg’s baby-sized bladder
• Best thing you packed: Tony: My Kindle, Meg: My jeggings really helped with my Italy weight gain!
• Dumbest thing you packed: Tony: An outdoor survival guide in paperback / Meg: A “stylish” fanny pack
• Funniest travel habit the other has: Tony: Meg has to nest upon getting a new place. That means clothes in drawers and bag in a closet… immediately! Meg: Tony is a complete germaphobe (although, he prefers the term “germ-aware”), which was funny to witness in many places in South America
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer: A friend’s home and guesthouse on the bank of Lago Maggiore in Switzerland. Heaven on earth

You can follow Meg and Tony online at LandingStanding.com on Facebook and on Twitter @LandingStanding.
Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now? Meg and Tony is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Gerard and Kieu at the Taj Mahal. Copyright GQTrippin.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Gerard and Kieu. While the name of their travel blog, GQ trippin, may be a play on their first names, The GQ may actually reflect them being the cutest and most fashionable damn travel couple out there: Gerard is a self-described health nut and Kieu has a background in the cosmetics industry. As they travel around, they’re paying special attention to the food of the world.

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

We just checked into our cozy homestay in Ubud on the beautiful island of Bali.

2. You each had different experiences leaving your jobs. Gerard was forced into a career break (even though you were already thinking about taking one) and Kieu, you left a job you say you loved. How did the difference in your employment status affect your planning, budgeting and even your attitudes towards your break.

Well, we were supposed to quit our jobs together. Gerard’s job quitting him just meant he’d be doing most of the planning and preparation – where to go, stay, do and of course eat – that sort of stuff. And because he was laid-off, his severance package added a wee bit more into our travel budget (but not much). In a way, Gerard getting laid off three months prior was actually a blessing and relief.

3. You started in New Zealand jumping right into the game by zorbing in Rotorua and you haven’t really stopped since. Is there any sort of action activity that you ultimately decided not to do? (please include a link to your zorbing video and I’ll put it in the post)

Gerard really wanted to go river boarding in New Zealand, but he’s not exactly good in the water – not unless you consider doggy paddling swimming. I was terrified myself so I made every excuse, mostly riding on the fact that he couldn’t swim, to get ourselves out of going. It worked. Gerard agreed it may not be the safest of sports. So we went bungy jumping instead!

4. This trip got personal on your trip to Vietnam where both got to visit family. How was your visits and what do they think about your world tour?

It’s always nice to be with family especially after being away for so long. This trip was extra special because Gerard got to meet his dad’s side of the family for the first time in Hue and found out he is a descendant of royalty.

On the topic of their thoughts on our world tour: My grandmother says I should go home and get a job. Others ask why so long? or my personally favorite, why you no marry yet? It’s an Asian thing I guess – to focus on career and marriage – but despite all this, they do think the world (pun intended) of our decision to travel long-term. Most could only dream a life of travel and world experiences, so the fact that we’re actually doing it, is a good thing. So long as we’re happy and healthy.

5. You’ve got a great list of 30 Before 30, essentially your bucket list. Is this the main way to organize your trip or are you just checking stuff off as you come across it?

Both. We didn’t organize the trip based on our bucket list, but we knew we had the opportunity to check off quite a bit so we modified our itinerary to make that happen, like making sure we were in Thailand in time for Songkran or in India for Holi. As for the rest, we check stuff off one by one, slowly as it comes to us. Honestly, that list far extends 30 before 30 and is constantly changing.

Getting ready to bungy jump in New Zealand. Copyright GQTrippin.com

6. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

Our current resume probably screams career breakers more than anything. I don’t think we stay in one place long enough to be considered nomads, and while we do physically carry backpacks, we’ve been living on a flashpacker’s budget. So maybe we’re a blend of all of the above.

7. What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?

Learn to be sneaky, manipulative and always stay one step ahead. That is, when you’re trying to pass your backpack as a carry-on luggage at the airport so you don’t have to ever check them in of course. I may lug around a carry-on size backpack but it by no mean meets the weight limit for most airlines in Asia (a ridiculous 7kg!). We typically hand-carry our backpacks and wear our daypacks on our back so it appears as if we’re not carrying much at all. Then when we approach the counter, we place our bags in front of us hidden by the counter.

We also found that if you spend some time and check in online beforehand, the whole counter process at the airport is much quicker. A quick passport check followed by a simple, do you have any luggage to check in? which we politely answer no and we’re on our way. And just in case they decide to weigh our backpacks, we’ve already shifted all our heavy weight items – camera, electric cords, toiletry, etc. – to our day packs beforehand.

As for accommodation: Just because you’re a backpacker doesn’t mean your only option for accommodation is a hostel. We find using Airbnb as a couple is more beneficial than hosteling especially for countries like New Zealand and Australia. The cost can be the same if not better.

Plus you get additional amenities you wouldn’t otherwise get with staying in a hostel like unlimited internet which is practically non-existent in those countries. In Australia, we stayed in an apartment complex where we had access to a gym and pool. In New Zealand, we had a private room with double bed, access to the laundry machine and a pet dog Milly for the week. But probably the greatest benefit from using Airbnb is that it feels like home.

Celebrating Songkran in Thailand. Copyright GQTrippin.com

8. What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

India. On our first day, we were told there was a look of fear in our eyes. From the moment we exited the taxi, trying to maneuver through the dirt and trash filled streets, dodging beggars, tuk tuks, motorbikes, cows and cow poo – I’d say fear was an understatement.

9. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

Attending a traditional Indian wedding in Jaisalmer, India. Gerard has never danced with so many guys in his life!

10. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

Bathing in the nude with total strangers. Or as the Japanese like to call it, a typical evening at the onsen (hot spring). I was fine, but Gerard was originally going to wear his towel around like a skirt. Haha.

11. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

Getting in with the locals. We’ve been fortunate enough to be part of the Couchsurfing community and met incredible people. Through this, we got to do things we wouldn’t otherwise on our own. The onsen experience along with the Indian wedding would’ve never happened had it not been for Couchsurfing.

We also live in the digital age whereby if I tweet a question like, where can I find the best coffee in Hanoi?, and I’ll get a recommendation or two in return. As much as our daily lives are inundated with social media, we’ve found it most helpful in getting tips from friends, family and complete strangers.

Living the Digital Nomad Dream. Copyright GQTrippin.com

12. Finally, our lightening round.

• Best dish you’ve found so far: Shanghai dumplings
• Most exotic food eaten: Balut (duck embryo)
• Most breathtaking moment: Bungy jumping in New Zealand
• Biggest disappointment: China
• Most memorable place: Pushkar, India
• Most memorable person: Jay, our first Couchsurfing host in Queenstown, NZ
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: headphones
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride: a loud snorer next to you
• Best thing you packed: Gerard’s Android smartphone.
• Dumbest thing you packed: Gerard’s hat and my extra swim suit
• Funniest travel habit the other one has:
  G: Kieu says cheese and smiles even when I’m taking a picture of her from behind. Q: Gerard throws up the peace sign every time I try and take a photo of him
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer: Japan

You can follow Gerard & Kieu online at GQtrippin.com, on Facebook and on Twitter @GQtrippin

Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There ^TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.  

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now: GQ Trippin is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Copyright TravelingRoundtheWorld.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Rory, who’s currently making a bona fide round the world (RTW) trip and blogging about it on Traveling Round the World. He’s got some true off the beaten path destinations that he’s visited like Tibet, Nepal and Iceland. And, he’s still going strong.

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

I’m currently parked in Shenzhen, China which is right next to Hong Kong and surviving on a steady supply of rice and noodles everyday.

2. Your site seems to have two names, Traveling Round the World and Where the Hell Is Rory. Do you have a tough time making decisions?

Yes I do struggle with decisions! I actually wanted a good name to describe what my site is about and to be Google friendly, thus “Traveling Round The World” was born. However, I wanted an easier name for my friends and family to remember while following my blog and thus came up with Where The Hell is Rory” however the name “Traveling Round the World” actually answers that question so it works out pretty good…

At Mt. Everest. Copyright TravelingRoundtheWorld.com

3. You wrote not long after you left, that you’ve been meeting people pretty easily. Are you that social, or is it easier than you thought? Any tips for people that are shy?

I wouldn’t say that I’m the most social person in the world. When I started out, the first couple days were a bit tough and lonely but after meeting a couple people in hostels, planes and trains, I started getting into the solo-backpacking groove of meeting fellow travelers. For advice on meeting others, just smile and be the first to say hello. Be curious about where they are from, where they have traveled so far or what their future travel plans are. It’s a great ice-breaker for conversation and you may just find out that they came from the same place you just did or are traveling in the same direction as you and they may ask if you are interested in traveling together.

4. You’ve mixed up going to some more frequently visited countries like Spain to heading way off the path to places like Mongolia. Do you like the change or do you have a preference for one type of country over another?

I had actually backpacked through Western Europe and parts of Eastern Europe before when I was younger though I didn’t have quite as much time to travel at the time and wanted to travel to other places. For this RTW trip, my desire was really to see not only the more popular destinations such as Istanbul, Beijing and Berlin but I really wanted to get off the tourist track a bit and see some less popular places such as my travels through Iceland, Morocco, Russia, India and Mongolia. There were of course still travelers in these places but most of these just aren’t notorious destinations that most people think about when deciding to travel abroad. And I must say, my travels in those countries (in addition to Nepal and Tibet) have impacted me the most and left with me with the most memorable experiences and stories to tell.

5. I loved the Lost in Translation part of your site. What’s your favorite bad translation? (Please send a photo of it)

This is a tough one! If I had to narrow my choices, they would all stem from my travels through China. The funniest (and most confusing) seemed to be in all the restaurants that actually had English translations on the menu. This one below had me baffled… I just couldn’t quite figure out what a “Urine Cow Pill” was though I wasn’t about it order it!

Lost in Translation. Copyright TravelingRoundtheWorld.com

6. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

My travels around the world has really been a dream of mine that I’ve been looking to fulfill for almost 10 years. After originally backing Europe after graduating from college, I had always had the desire to return to the freedom and lifestyle that travel provides and I had so many things on my ‘bucket list’ that I just didn’t want to wait until retirement to see and experience as so many others do in my own country. So basically, it was a bit of all three… a career break in which I planned to travel at least a year, a nomadic adventure in the fact that I would remain flexible during my trip and venture into unplanned territory and also a backpacking experience (even though I wasn’t the typical aged ‘backpacker’ out of school). And so far, after almost 12 months of travel, I have no regrets on my decision to leave and haven’t looked back since.

7. What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?

Travel really isn’t as expensive as most people think it is. And this doesn’t just mean traveling on the cheap in Nepal, India and Southeast Asia. I was able to travel throughout Europe on the cheap including travel through Iceland and Russia. There are ways you can plan your trip before leaving to minimize costs as well as many ways to travel within each country to stay within an ideal backpackers budget. This can include everything from accumulating frequent flyer miles before leaving or obtaining a buddy pass from a friend in the airline industry to avoiding fees for lodging and ATM usage as well as tricks to save on tours and food. Another common misperception is that travel can be dangerous in certain cities or countries however, aside from the occasional pickpocket, I have yet to encounter any dangerous areas so far through 20+ countries and countless cities. I would’t suggest travel to places like Somalia but for the most part, the world is no more dangerous than your own backyard.

In Jaisalmer India. Copyright TravelingtheWorld.com

8. What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

Love the question! Even though travel was a bit crazy through China and Nepal, when I got to India, my travels had hit a pinnacle on the craziness scale! It’s ironic to ask too because I actually said those exact words while walking down the streets of Agra on my second day in India. Walking through some of the streets was almost like one of those really random dreams you might have every so often. You want an example? OK. Picture walking down the street, horns from Tuk Tuk drivers blaring as the race past you, people pushing food carts into oncoming traffic, locals yelling at you to come ‘have a look’ inside there store as you pass by, monkeys on rooftops throwing stuff down into the streets, cows hanging out in the alleyways eating empty milk cartons on the ground (ironic?),  smells from the streets that sting your nostrils, a 45 yr old man pissing in a gutter off to your right, a lady to your left arguing furiously with her kids, and as you try to cross the street, a pack of camels come charging down the road carrying passengers and as you turn around behind you, off in the distance, you see a couple elephants shuttling tourists around at a nearby attraction. Crazy, intense, but awesome nonetheless.

9. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

This is a another tough one… but I’d have to say it was my time spent in Northern Iceland in a small town called Myvatn. I was with a friend I’d met in Iceland that wanted to travel the Ring Road with me around the country. We had found ourself on our 4th night in this small town of Myvatn going to a geo-thermal pool which few tourists have probably never ventured to as so many stay in the area of Reykjavik, Iceland’s only city. I just remember sitting in that pool that evening, staring at the stars and surrounded by about 10 Icelandic locals that probably enjoy their time at that pool a few times a week. At that point, I realized just how remote it was to be in this place at the time and it was a great feeling.

Krabi, Thailand. Copyright TravelingtheWorld.com

10. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

Lets see… aside from getting lost a million times and also almost ending up on the wrong plane, I would have to say it was probably when I was Yekaterinburg, Russia. I was in the train station and had just gotten some snacks while walking into a room with waiting passengers and trying to find a place to park myself for the next hour as I waited on my train. As I walked through the doors, there were two security guards though I hadn’t paid them any attention as I entered the room. From behind me, I heard someone calling out in Russian but having not understood any Russian at the time, I paid no attention. Well, about 20 seconds later, I heard repeated screaming in my direction. I finally turned around, noticed the guard yelling at me as he approached and as I looked around the room, more than 100 people were staring at me. To this day, I have no idea what it was all about! As I was escorted out of the room, you could have heard a pin drop at the time and was a bit uncomfortable to say the least.

11. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

Pace yourself. The last thing you want to do on any trip, whether its one week or one year is to continually rush from one place to the next. And every time you travel from point A to B is what will end up costing you the most money during your trip. So take time to enjoy each and every place you visit. Spend 2-3 days at minimum and don’t rush. You will save more money this way but more importantly, you will get more out of your travels by understanding more of the culture and having a more enjoyable experience. So don’t rush and if you’re out on a long term trip, say more than 5 or 6 months, take a vacation from your vacation. For me, after 6 months on the road, I chose to spend 3 weeks on the beaches of Goa, India to do absolutely nothing but sit on the beach. It was well worth it and restored my energy to hit the road again after that needed break.

Angkor Wat at Sunset. Copyright TravelingtheWorld.com

13. Finally, our lightening round. 

• Best dish you’ve found so far: Tapas in Tarifa, Spain
• Most exotic food eaten: Mongolian Great Energy Vitals Soup: Mutton heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and stomach!
• Most breathtaking moment: Dettifoss Waterfall in Iceland with a double rainbow off to my right on a sunny day
• Biggest disappointment: The Great Wall of China. We picked the foggiest day to go and could only see about 10 feet in front of us!
• Most memorable place: My travel through Tibet and onward to Mt. Everest
• Most memorable person: A friendly 75 year old lady that walked me 4 miles to find my hostel in Moscow, Russia
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: An iPad with games, music and a 10 hour battery life
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride: Food poisoning you received from a street vendor right before getting on!
• Best thing you packed: My Olu Kai flip flops
• Dumbest thing you packed: 2 computers (one netbook and one iPad)
• Funniest travel habit you have: Taking a picture of every place I stay
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer: Iceland – One week was not enough!

You can follow Rory online at TravelingRoundtheWorld.com and on Facebook.

Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There ^TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.  

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now: Rory? is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

In, where else, but Australia! Copyright ChangesinLongitude.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Michael and Larissa, who left to travel the world in their 50s! Yes, you read that right. We met in Italy in April at the Travel Bloggers Unite conference and got to travel around Umbria together for a few days. Larissa and I even went truffle hunting together, at least until the wind destroyed my umbrella and I had to go back to the farmhouse (where I found MIchael kicking back next to the fireplace). They blog their trip on Changes in Longitude and travel everywhere with Rocky (keep reading).

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

Right now we are staying in a flat in London, England.  We will be leaving for a cottage out in Devonshire in the English countryside in a few days. We want to finish this interview before then, since we will be going off the grid for two weeks-no phone or Internet!

2. What’s the story behind your site’s name? And why are you only changing longitude? Do I detect and anti-latitude bias?

In order to circumnavigate the globe we need to cross every line of longitude. The title also reflects the changes that are taking place in our lives as we make this break. Regarding latitude, there’s no bias; just some guy named Jimmy Buffett snagged the title before we could.

Ready for takeoff in New Zealand (with Rocky!). Copyright ChangesinLongitude.com

3. So, you are taking a statue of Rocky around the world with you and snapping photos of him at the monuments and with people (including Danny Devito!!). How is he received by the locals? Do people recognize him from the movies?

At first we just thought we’d snap photos at famous sights, then people started recognizing him and wanted to pose with him. We’ve been to over 25 countries on this trip and the only place he wasn’t recognized was North Korea.  He was particularly popular in Italy, which is to be expected from a guy nicknamed “The Italian Stallion”. He’s been a great ambassador for our hometown of Philadelphia.

4. What I didn’t know in Italy is that you are tasting donuts along the way (I knew I liked you) and you took one for the team by trying the world’s stinkiest donut. Can you explain why you didn’t finish it, Mr. Michael?

Have you ever tried Durian? There’s a reason it’s known as “the stinky fruit”. It smelled like my hiking sandals, and I certainly wouldn’t eat them.

In Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Copyright ChangesinLongitude.com

5. What are the factors that were different for you in deciding to take a career break in your 50s than would have been the case at the age of 40, or 30?

At this age you can’t just put all your stuff in your parent’s basement and hit the road. We had a lot of loose ends to tie up before we left: sell our house, cars, and most of our personal belongings; sort out health insurance, etc. The flip side to all of this is we have more savings than we did when we were 30. We’re not rich, but we don’t have to sleep on people’s floors either.

6. You went way off the path visiting North Korea, even posting Is it Morally Right to Visit North Korea? Now that you’ve been, how has it changed how you process news about what goes on inside the country or US-North Korean relations?

We realize that the people are warm, friendly and very naïve. We saw firsthand how the North Korean government spins information to suit their regime. They operate as if the political ideologies of the early 1950’s are still active today, and teach the populace that the US started the Korean War, and that North Korea is the center of the Universe. The citizenry would be devastated to know that the world has moved on immeasurably in the past 60 years, and views them as a backward little country. If it weren’t for their nuclear program, no one would pay them any attention. As a result, we have learned to take any news coming out of the Hermit Kingdom with a grain of salt. Everything that is reported is done so to support the myth of the regime.

In North Korea. Copyright ChangesinLongitude.com

7. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

We started this journey as a mid-life career break. We’ve been on the road 10 months now and somewhere along the way we realized we’re not taking a break, we’re making a break from our former life. We don’t know exactly what the future holds, but we’re excited at the prospect of inspiring others to take a similar step. On a more mundane level, we are not backpackers-we travel with wheeled suitcases. (Perhaps another difference from taking a trip at age 50 rather than 30!)

8. What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?

We rent flats instead of staying in hotels whenever we can. They are cheaper than hotels, and even cheaper than many hostels in expensive cities. We like having some extra space and having a kitchen enables us to save on food expenses by cooking our own meals. Plus when traveling long-term it’s nice to have a place to call “home”, even for a week or two.

9. What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

Kansas is the Sunflower State, and ironically our first foreign destination was Beijing, where the pollution was so bad when we landed we couldn’t even see the sun. We were definitely NOT in Kansas.

Rocky with the Buddhists. Copyright ChangesinLongitude.com

10. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

Getting lost in the backstreets of Old Saigon during the Tet holiday. We wound up in a Bhuddist Convent. A group of tiny nuns with shaved heads fed us a meal of fruit and rice and delightedly posed with Little Rocky. You can’t plan stuff like that.

11. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

We each have a toilet story. Michael inadvertently flushed a small tree frog down the toilet in the Australian Bush country.  It’s so dry out there apparently the frogs think of the toilets as ponds. This is the first time he’s “toad” anybody about it.

Larissa had an “I Love Lucy” moment in a toilet on a Malaysian train when water started pouring out all over the floor. After writing a blog post about it, she started getting a lot of odd spam to the site. It turns out there’s a dominatrix out there somewhere: a “Miss Larissa” who “toilet trains” adult men. Whoops.

Larissa and Rocky at the market in Dubai. Copyright ChangesinLongitude.com

12. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

Less is more. When traveling long term, you can’t possibly be on the go 100% of the time. We try to slow things down, take a day “off” and write or just relax. It enables us to absorb the unique rhythms of a place.

13. Finally, our lightening round.

• Best dish you’ve found so far: Michael:  Chili Crab in Singapore, Larissa:  Street food in Hoi An, Vietnam
• Most exotic food eaten: Michael:  Kokorec, the sheep intestine sandwich in Istanbul, Larissa:  Durian (the stinky fruit), fresh from the tree in Bali
• Most breathtaking moment: Michael: Open cockpit bi-plane ride over the Lord of the Rings battlefield in New Zealand, Larissa: Stepping onto the Circular Quay in Sydney and seeing the Harbour in all its glory
• Biggest disappointment: Michael: The pollution in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Larissa: The garbage-strewn Kuta Beach in Bali
• Most memorable place: Michael: Jerusalem Old City, Larissa: Istanbul
• Most memorable person: Michael: Roko Belic, director of the documentary “Happy”, Larissa: Not exactly a person, but I remember Bella, the motherless calf I took care of while we stayed on a ranch in the Australian Bush country.
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: Michael: my eyes, to look out the window, Larissa: a notebook to write in
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride: Michael: someone who won’t shut up, Larissa: someone who won’t let me talk
• Best thing you packed: Michael: whatever notebook I’m using at the time (I’ve been through several), Larissa: comfortable walking shoes
• Dumbest thing you packed: Michael: sport coat, Larissa: bathrobe
• Funniest travel habit the other has: Michael: Larissa rearranges the furniture in every single room we stay in. Larissa:  Michael tries to pick the fastest line at airport security, immigration, etc, and then overanalyzes his choice.
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer: Michael: Shanghai, Larissa: Istanbul

Larissa and I on our way to hunt for truffles in Italy. Copyright ChangesinLongitude.com

You can follow Larissa and Michael online at ChangesinLongitude.com on Facebook and on Twitter @Changes_Long.

Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There ^TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.  

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now: Larissa & Michael is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Surfing in Bali. Copyright AngieAway.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Angie, who I’ve known for a while from Twitter and finally had the chance to meet in Italy in April at the Travel Bloggers Unite Conference. She’s been all over the world hitting up almost all of the continents and blogging about it (with some pretty fab photos) at Angie Away.

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

Luxurious Middleburg, Fla., home of my family, my stuff and little else. I’m taking a break from travel for the summer to catch up on blog writing, work on a book proposal and do some social media & PR consulting.

2. You’ve got real, positive energy both in real life and in your writing. Are you just always hopped up on caffeine or is there something about travel that brings it out of you?

Travel is definitely a part of my positive outlook. Quitting my PR job and giving myself space to think and write and be creative has helped me get back to who I was made to be – a sunnier, smilier, less stressed version of me. And thinking about how vast and beautiful the world is, and how blessed I am to see so much of it and how much opportunity I’ve been given puts me in a pretty good place most days.

Want to know my deep, dark secret? I can’t drink caffeine – it gives me panic attacks!

In Auckland, New Zealand. Copyright AngieAway.com

3. Kenya seemed to have made a real impact on you. I don’t know if it was the near plane crash or your volunteer experience. But, it seemed to stick out in my mind. Am I wrong or was there something special there?

It was such a wild experience! I stayed with a family in a Nairobi suburb, spent time with kids and their parents in a slum and yes, I survived a little aviation scare in the Masai Mara. It’s always confronting to come face to face with heartbreaking poverty, and I was just in the process brainstorming a way to help the slum families when I literally saw my life flash before my eyes on that tiny Cessna. It was a reminder that I don’t know how much time I have on earth, and my biggest regret would be getting to the end of my life with nothing to show but beautiful pictures and some good stories.

After the Kenya trip, I founded Adopt-a-Slum, an effort devised to help 30 families start their own businesses. Shockingly, it only takes about $100 per family to give them everything they need to get started, and the goal is to help 30 families. So far I’ve raised about $1,100 and I hope to get back there in the next couple of years to see how an investment that’s so small from a Western perspective can change the course of so many lives.

Volunteering in Kenya. Copyright AngieAway.com

4. You’ve mixed up going to some more frequently visited countries like Spain to heading way off the path to places like Laos. Do you like the change or do you have a preference for one type of country over another?

I really don’t have a preference. Ultimately I want to go everywhere, so every dot on the map is fair game. As far as working from the road goes, I love the well-traveled path and its precious, speedy WiFi! But for the real down-and-dirty experiences and some of the best pictures, getting off the path is ideal.

5. I liked your Reflections From the Road section of your site. I read your first entry from 60 days in and your last from 16 months in to your trip. Knowing what you know now, would you travel differently in those initial countries (New Zealand, Australia, Fiji) you visited?

You know what they say, “If ‘ifs’ were ‘fifths,’ we’d all be drunk.” If I’d known then what I know now, I might have made a few changes. I have learned so much about myself in a year and a half, particularly about the pace and duration I like to travel. And I could have stretched my savings longer had I planned shorter 3-4 month adventures followed by concentrated 1-2 month working stints. It’s been a steep learning curve, and I marvel at how my perspective has evolved in such a short time.

6. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

What started as a career break has become a total lifestyle overhaul. I thought after a year of travel, I’d be ready to settle down and I’d figure out where exactly I wanted to do that… but now I’m happy to be a nomad for the foreseeable future. One thing I do know – I don’t want to be an office slave ever again! Even before I set out on this journey, I wouldn’t normally travel in just one category – backpacking, luxury, tours, solo – so I decided not to pigeonhole myself from a travel blogging perspective either. I love luxury hotels & spas. I loved staying with a family in Kenya because I learned heaps about their culture. I loved sleeping in a tent in Wadi Rum. I love traveling alone. I love traveling with my family. As long as there’s a story to tell, it doesn’t matter to me which bucket it comes from.

Hanging Out in Laos. Copyright AngieAway.com

7. What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?

Most of time, safety comes down to personal responsibility. My family was terrified when I said I was going to travel around the world by myself. Up until the day I left, they were trying to convince me to stay until I could find a travel companion. I heard so many times that “the girl next door” shouldn’t travel the world alone. But guess what? The world just isn’t as scary as Nancy Grace would have you believe. If I can do it, anyone can. Also, traveling is not as expensive as people think! I spend far less in a year seeing the world than I ever did living in Manhattan. Folks think I have a trust fund or that I’m in the CIA – seriously, I get that a lot – but honestly it all comes down to choices. I choose travel. Some choose to own a home, or 180 pairs of shoes, or an SUV. But for me, it’s always going to be plane tickets.

8. What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

About two days into my adventure, I was in Fiji on my very first tour of the island. I was the only person on the trip that day, so when my guide dropped me off for a hike to some mysterious waterfall, I was concerned about being in the rainforest alone with this one random village guy. It went against everything I ever saw on Nancy Grace! When we were about a mile in, well out of sight of the village, he whipped out a machete and I thought, “Mom was right. I’m lunch!” Turns out, he just wanted to chop up some fresh pineapple for us to snack on. I felt like a right idiot.

In Greece. Copyright AngieAway.com

9. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

So many come to mind! I definitely felt like a local in Mykonos. I stayed for three weeks and got to know just about everyone in town. In particular, I made friends at this one restaurant, Katerina’s, in Little Venice. I stumbled across it one afternoon and ended up sticking around like a little stray cat. The staff made me feel like I had a family waiting for me at dinner every night. It was really special.

When I was in Laos during the wet and wild new year celebrations they have in April, I went to a Chinese disco with three friends I’d met on my Stray Asia tour. On the way, some locals saw us walking down the street and invited us to drink homemade rice wine from a huge pot in their backyard. It was like the Laos version of a 4^th of July BBQ in the South and we had a blast trying to understand one another. God only knows what was in that pot!

10. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

That’s the best part of being a solo traveler. If no one else saw it, it didn’t happen. If I had to confess something, it would be the time I flipped out because I thought the barista had cheated me. I’m not great with exchange rates and I’d just gone to the ATM where I thought I took out $100 in rupiah. Turns out, I took out $10. But I was furious thinking I was charged $40 for a latte. Once I figured it out, I was furious that I spent $5 in fees to take $10 from the ATM. Ugh, why am I telling the Internet this?! So embarrassing.

Oh gosh, and then there was the time I got a seaweed wrap at a spa and had to walk from the treatment room to the shower butt-naked, wrapped in stinky green mush and plastic wrap. Ok, I’m just going to stop now…

In Fiji. Copyright AngieAway.com

11. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

Write it down! I take detailed notes every day I travel, and not just of big events. Colors, textures, tastes and smells. People I meet & people I watch. I have 109 notes in my iPhone and counting… that way, when I read the notes from home, I am transported in my memory back to that place. It keeps the journey fresher longer. Like Tupperware.

12. Finally, our lightning round. 

• Best dish you’ve found so far: Katerina’s Salmon Risotto – Mykonos
• Most exotic food eaten: Eel. Maybe kangaroo
• Most breathtaking moment: Sunrise on Mt. Sinai, Egypt, after an overnight hike up the mountain
• Biggest disappointment: Boys with accents. Thailand. Running with the Bulls
• Most memorable place: Greece, Laos, Egypt
• Most memorable person: Pam, my Dutch yoga-and-surf retreat buddy in Bali or Haytham, my guide in Egypt. And about 300 other amazing people
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: My handmade baby blanket
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride: A 65-year-old Turkish seatmate trying to convince you to become his 4th wife on a 12-hour overnight bus to Istanbul
• Best thing you packed: My Kindle w/ 3G
• Dumbest thing you packed: Travel mirror. It shattered before I got to my first stop
• Funniest travel habit you: I have to tidy hotel rooms before I check out
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer: Turkey. 10 days was not enough

You can follow Angie online at Angie Away, and on Facebook and on Twitter @AngieAway

Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There ^TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.  

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now? Angie is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

At Everest Base Camp in Tibet, China. Courtesy TrekkingthePlanet.net

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Darren and Sandy, who as their site’s name implies, are out Trekking the Planet. They are, in many ways, world traveler veterans having already taken a break to take their kids around the world in 2003. This time around, they’re focused on helping school kids learn more about geography.  I knew a bit about their journey, but prepping these questions gave me a chance to dig in deep. They are traveling to 50 countries on 6 continents over their 14-month journey. Check out their site – lots of photos, stories and videos to enjoy, even if you’re not a school kid!

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

We are currently in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in Central Asia (just north of Afghanistan in fact).  We have been on the road since the end of January, so almost five months now.

2. So, you’re out traveling around the world encouraging schools to integrate your adventures into their curriculum. What drove you to want to undertake this project?

We took our daughters around the world in 2003 for 4 ½ months when they were 10 and 12 years old. We actually took them out of school for a semester and home schooled them on the road.  We saw what an impression a trip like this made on them and also on their classmates back home (We were sending emails to their teachers each week which we later found were being read to the entire school!). When we decided to take this trip nine years later, we came across the results of a National Geographic study which found that 29% of 18-24 year olds couldn’t find the Pacific Ocean on an unlabeled map.  This statistic challenged us to get as many students as possible to follow along so that they could learn more about the world through our travels (We currently have 850 classrooms from 20 countries, representing 50,000 students following our expedition over the Internet.).

Sandy giving a lesson at a school in Northern Laos. Courtesy TrekkingthePlanet.net

3. How are the kids responding to your travels? What are some of the best/funniest/oddest questions you’ve been asked by them?

Here’s a question we got from the 4th and 5th graders at Byrd Elementary School on a navy base in Negishi, Japan.

Questions:

We were wondering if you packed mosquito nets or mosquito repellant. Also, did you pack any sort of tools, such as a Swiss Army knife? Do you have any sort of item to help you learn the local’s language? Is your backpack heavy with your laptop inside? What do you put in your daypack? We are VERY curious!  (One of the students is from Germany and recommends bringing climbing gear because there are lots of pretty mountains.

Answers:

Hi – great to hear from your classroom! We have both mosquito nets that you can wear over your face and repellant. We have two Swiss Army knives that come in very handy. We have a fold-out card that contains a set of pictures that we can use to communicate if need be. We carry our laptops in our daypacks and they can get heavy. Let us know if you have any other questions! Thanks for the suggestion about Germany!

4. You’ve done a big trip before. How was the planning and preparation different this time than the first time?

For the 4 ½ month trip in 2003, we planned about half of it and left half of it open. For this journey, because we are releasing educational materials each week, we needed to have a fairly precise itinerary. So we planned and booked the first 11 months of the trip before we left home. This meant that we had to make hotel / transportation arrangements for that time before we left.  We were able to split this work up between the two of us, so that helped. We are taking 12 overnight hikes or treks to remote places around the world as part of this trip, so had to spend time researching that and integrating it into our schedule.  That said, the last three months (South America) are in the planning stages right now because it was too far out to book before we left.

Hiking in Kyrgyzstan. Courtesy TrekkingthePlanet.net

5. A lot of people who want to take a career break worry about reentry and becoming employed again. Can you talk a little about your experience after your 2003 trip? What tips and tricks did you learn about talking about your career break to a potential employer?

In 2003, we operated under the assumption that we would have to quit our jobs since we would be gone for 4 ½ months.  So we saved money not only for the trip but to live some time afterwards. Exactly one month before we were scheduled to leave, we each went into our manager’s offices with resignation letters. When we explained why we would be leaving, both our managers said that they would rather us not quit but take a “leave of absence”, which we readily agreed to do. We think by going in with the worst case scenario and being confident about it helped our case.  In the end, we were able to take the leave and come right back to our jobs.  Everyone was super supportive.  Many people from work were following our trip through our emails!

6. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

Trekking adventure!  We are always on the lookout for the unusual, off-the-beaten-track experiences.  In this case, we have purposefully selected destinations and treks that are remote so that we can learn and share about these parts of the world.

Hiking in Tasmania, Australia. Courtesy TrekkingthePlanet.net

7. What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?

On our first trip with our kids in 2003, we discovered a mode of travel that we now call the Holiday Inn model. This name came to us at a Holiday Inn in Dar Es Salam (Tanzania).  We arrived there after a long stretch of living in hostels and picking up meals at the market.  Though it was only a Holiday Inn, we found it very nice.  It was a high rise with air conditioning (that worked) and a nice bathroom (that we didn’t need to share).  Breakfast was included — the food was great and it was served outside near a garden!  After a few days there, we felt recharged and ready to return to lower-cost accommodations.  Alternating between nice places and lower-cost ones is a sustainable way to travel and save money.

Another story: In 2009, we visited New Zealand (If you haven’t been there, you should go.  The place is packed with wonderful things to see and experience.) . Anyway, we only had two weeks and felt the need to see everything while we were there.  We started in Auckland (in the north) and ended up in Queenstown (in the south).  We stayed in a different place every night and completed two treks there – Abel Tasman and Milford.  We came home more exhausted than when we left.  Since that time, we have learned that pace and balance are important, no matter how long the trip. We can’t be on the go every minute of every day.  Now we build in down time and try not to go too fast even when we are taking a short trip.

8. What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

We had wanted to go to Nepal for years.  So, when we planned this trip, we made sure that we included it in our itinerary.  We selected a remote area called “Mustang” and booked a 12-day trek there.  Mustang is former kingdom.  It has only been open to foreigners since 1991.  Most of the people there practice Tibetan Buddhism.  Though things are changing there, they are changing slowly.  We spent each day, visiting monasteries and witnessing the daily life of the people there.  In our video for the week, we used the term “living history” – I mean, they still make some of their own clothes, carry loads on their back and travel on horseback.  The scenery there was “otherworldly” too – dry and desolate like the moon with 7,000 meter snowy peaks in the distance.

9. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

In Laos, we took a trek in the northern providence of Phongsali in which we spent the night in a hill tribe village.  We stayed in the home of the chief and were able to observe authentic village life.  The next morning we were able to speak to the local school (through an interpreter) about our journey, which was a great thrill!

Hiking in the Mustang Region of Nepal. Courtesy TrekkingthePlanet.net

10. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

We had a stretch about two weeks ago where we had a 48-hour stretch in which we took a 25-hour overnight train trip, followed by two flights, with an overnight between them, in order for us to get from Tibet to Kyrgyzstan.  Just before the second flight and after only 3 ½ hours of sleep, we were craving coffee.  We found a place at the Urumqi, China airport with some of the best coffee we had had in months but when we got the bill we were shocked to see that two cups of coffee cost us the equivalent of about $27!  Normally, we would have done more due diligence on the cost before we sat down but two days of nonstop travel does that to you sometimes!

11. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

We have come up with a concept of staying “close to the ground”.  Instead of flying everywhere, we try to use local public transportation whenever we can.  Sometimes it’s a bus, but other times it is a public ferry or train.  We have met so many local people this way and almost always come away with a memorable experience.  Once on a train in Central China, we were “adopted” by a Chinese family.  The patriarch offered us some of the food they had brought for the journey (it was a barbequed duck and really good). We had a laminated map of China which we showed them.  Over the next few hours, this map “made the rounds” through the entire train car.  Our fellow passengers were so curious to see a map of their country with all of the names in English instead of Chinese.

12. Finally, our lightening round.

• Best dish you’ve found so far: Anything Thai.  The food in Thailand was amazing, especially the mango with sticky rice at the Chiang Mai night market.
• Most exotic food eaten: Fermented horse milk in Kyrgyzstan. We were invited into a nomad’s yurt for a taste. Not the best thing we ever drank but great to meet the family and understand their way of life.
• Most breathtaking moment: Our first trek was the Overland Track in Tasmania, Australia. It was 50 miles of incredible scenery, ranging from alpine terrain to rainforests.
• Biggest disappointment: We were saddened to see so much development in northern Laos, which we thought would be more untouched.
• Most memorable place: Tibet was amazing! From seeing Mount Everest to visiting the monasteries, we had a real immersion into the culture and natural beauty there.
• Most memorable person: Having tea with Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, the former king of the Mustang kingdom in Nepal.
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: Newly purchased music!  Music can really help on long, uncomfortable rides. We both have downloaded the Kindle app on our phones as well so that we can buy books from time to time.
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride: Unpaved roads – we have certainly have had our share of that in multiple countries!
• Best thing you packed: Our smart phones. Darren has an unlocked Android and gets local SIM cards in each country. Sandy has an AT&T iPhone with an International Data Plan.  Between the two of us, we can always get a signal!
• Dumbest thing you packed: Reusable water bottles.  We were hoping to fill up and not have to purchase so much bottled water but that has not worked so far in Asia.
• Funniest travel habit the other has: We are the opposites when it comes to neatness.  Sandy has her luggage neatly organized and keeps it that way, even in the hotel room. Darren lets his stuff spread out and then makes a mad dash to put it all back together when it is time to move on to the next place.
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer: We both loved Singapore and felt that we had “just scratched the surface” in the three days that we were there.

You can follow Darren and Sandy online at TrekkingthePlanet.net on Facebook and on Twitter @TrekkingPlanet.

Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There ^TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.  

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now? Darren and Sandy is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

At Base Camp, Mount Everest. Copyright Global-Encounter.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Toby and David, who runs the travel site, Global-Encounter. After meeting on Twitter, I had these guys join us for the 2011 Austin Meet Plan Go event, and they were a hit. The next day I had the honor having coffee and pancakes with them. One’s an IT VP and the other is a Director of a kids summer camp. Together they are pushing the boundaries of what a career break can be. They are mixing travel and volunteering with hundreds of kids around the world, helping to educate a new generation about what the world is like. Check them out!

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

We’re in Bangkok, Thailand at the moment and will be heading to Nepal April 17.

2. You guys got the year off to a good start by hitting the road immediately to New Zealand. Do you feel cheated that by crossing the date line, you lost a day right off the bat?

Initially we definitely did! Our plane took off on December 31st and didn’t land until January 2nd, and spending New Year’s in the air with Fiji’s national airline was an experience. But after thinking it through further, we realized that we would slowly gain that lost day back one hour at a time as we headed westward. So it all works out in the end!

Hiking the Milford Track in New Zealand. Copyright Global-Encounter.com

3. Tell me more about your educational program and how you connect with the kids.

We call it the Global Encounter Experience, and right now there are more than 1,500 elementary kids following us from the States. Before we left, we put together a workbook that follows our itinerary; each of the 26 countries we’re planning to visit was given four pages of fun activities and questions, and we also have a special website that allows the kids to interact with us as we travel. Additionally, we have integrated an international treasure hunt as a part of the experience, requiring students to help solve clues and riddles that not only teach them about other countries but help us find the “Lost Treasure of Siam.” We’ve now had three live broadcasts and tons of positive feedback from the teachers involved.

4. What’s the funniest question you’ve received from the kids so far?

Before we left on the trip, we visited several of the elementary schools that were gong to be involved to meet the kids and get them excited about the journey. One little guy in sixth grade asked us with a perfectly straight face, “If you’re traveling for so long with only each other, what do you do when you get tired of the other person?” We had to laugh at the reality of such a question, and although traveling hasn’t been with out its occasional stresses, there have been no falling-outs so far.

Hiking Around New Zealand. Copyright Global-Encounter.com

5. You’ve been vlogging (video blogging) instead of writing about your adventure.

Yes, early on we agreed that video blogging would be a fun challenge for the trip. We’ve tried the blogging thing, but we really wanted people to feel like they were along on the journey with us from back home. It’s posed some interesting difficulties, like trying to find reliable internet for uploads, editing video on the go, and trying to keep up with a fair bit of equipment. But so far so good! We’re more than three months in, and now there’s more than 30 videos up on our site.

6. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

All of the above and more. Variety has been key to keeping the trip interesting–some legs of the trip we’ve focused on trekking (New Zealand, China, and next Nepal), others we’ve spent time on beaches (Australia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka), and now we’re wrapping up a month in Thailand visiting a friend from college. Plus, with the education component, there’s really no one way to characterize everything we’re trying to accomplish while we travel.

7. What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?

Well, if you haven’t already, you should tune in to the Global Encounter Facebook page (www.facebook.com/gencounter) and watch Travel Tips with Toby. In three videos he’s pointed out some pretty nifty tips for the un-savvy traveler, and they’re good for a few laughs too. However, for those traveling to Asia, we highly recommend traveling with bed bug spray (available on Amazon) or having a cheap silk “sleep sheet” made. The other tip we would mention is that it’s okay to travel without having every single thing planned out. We rarely book hotels more than a few days in advance, and finding rooms, buses, and activities nearly always takes care of itself. Plus, that way you’re not locked into something you no longer want to do when you arrive at a destination!

Volunteering in Nepal with Safety Bear! Copyright Global-Encounter.com

8. What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

New Zealand and Australia were pretty Western countries, so it wasn’t until we arrived in China that we had one of those moments. We were hiking across the Dragon’s Backbone Terraces in Guangxi Province and at one little guesthouse, we decided to be bold and ordered the most expensive dish on the menu: bamboo chicken for about ten dollars. We had no idea what to expect, but we were literally each served a large bamboo shoot that had been grilled. Inside the bamboo, the full body of a chicken had been chopped up into bits and cooked–head, feet, bones and all. At one point, Toby put his fork into the dish to eat a bite, and as he pressed on the piece, an eyeball popped out! It was the head and he didn’t even know it. To make things worse, the owners were so excited about serving it to us, they stood by and watched us eat every bite. There was no escape!

9. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

We actually gave Couchsurfing a try during our time in Australia and had some really great experiences. Both families we stayed with cooked for us, took us around to see local attractions, and gave us deep insight into local life. One great example is that we just happened to time our stay with Australia Day (the July 4th equivalent), and because we were with locals, we were treated to an amazing midnight fireworks show that we would have otherwise never known about.

Riding Around in a Tuk Tuk in Cambodia. Copyright Global-Encounter.com

10. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

As we’ve traveled through Asia, when people have asked where we are from, we’ve always said “Texas,” hoping to spark some excitement about our state. Inevitably, every time people respond with blank stares until we concede and tell them that Texas is in the USA and try to describe where. So, when we were visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia, one sweet Asian woman offered to take our picture at one of the sites. She spoke pretty good English, though with a fairly strong accent, and when she asked where we were from, David responded with Texas. Based on the aforementioned pattern, when we got a blank stare from her, David proceeded to explain that Texas was a state in the US. The lady cut him off, offended that he had assumed her ignorance, and said, “Oh I know where Texas is. I’ve been practicing medicine in Boston for fifteen years.” Her accent gone, she then chastised David for his sunburn noting that she was a dermatologist!

11. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey

• Get a good mix of traveling quickly and traveling slowly. Sometimes you just have to get to the sights and stay on the move, but don’t make that the entire trip.
• Know your limits. It’s ok to miss a few things and take it at an easy pace.
• Don’t be too luxurious on your travels. You miss out on local culture. Take the trains and eat at local spots.

Hiking around the Li River near Yangshao China. Copyright Global-Encounter.com

12. Finally, our lightening round. 

• Best dish you’ve found so far: We’ve been staying with South African friends in Bangkok, so the best dish was a South African one they prepared for us called: Babotie
• Most exotic food eaten: Definitely the bamboo chicken
• Most breathtaking moment: So far, McKinnon Pass on the Milford Track in New Zealand
• Biggest disappointment: China’s pollution and second-hand smoke
• Most memorable place: Perhaps Sri Lanka? Impossible to really say!
• Most memorable person: Our tour guide for the Great Wall. She thought we were the greatest people ever and ended our day with her declaring that we would “forever be in her heart.” We still quote some of her infamous one liners!
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: Noise-canceling headphones
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride:  A bad meal in you belly
• Funniest travel habit the other has:
• Best thing you packed: Our kindles

You can follow David and Toby online at Global-Encounter, on Facebook, and on Twitter @gencounter.
Every week (more or less), Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now? Toby & David is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

They're HERE (Machu Picchu). Copyright twoOregonians.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Ted and Bethany, a landscape architect and social worker who left it all behind just after the new year to see the world and capture their travels on their site, twoOregonians. As with many RTW travelers, I met them on Twitter and have been following their journey. I had the chance to finally meet them in Italy at a blogging conference. The only downside is that I didn’t have more time to hang out with them.

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions? 
We started the interview while we were on a ship, 12,000+ feet above the ocean floor in the middle of the Atlantic, and now we’re finishing on land from our final port of call, Barcelona, Spain.
2. You have a very unique and refreshing blogging style. Rather than long prose, you jot down a series of observations about what happened to you. And, you do it every day!!! That’s dedication. Why do you write that way?
Bethany: Thank you! I like the freedom of spilling random words on our Daily Travel Journal without pressure to piece together a “blog-worthy” post (whatever that truly is!). If I fool myself into waiting to write until each photo is uploaded and each story is polished, I’ll have forgotten the details and little favorites like “People to Remember.”  The format was inspired by travel blogging friends Matt and Erica at Living If; I came across their journal before we started our trip, and a lightbulb went off. The secret/public page, separate from our stream of blog posts, is easy to update without triggering bombardments of digital notifications to subscribers and followers. It’s also a roadmap back through our adventures, helpful for refreshing my memory of places, people, experiences, and timing when I’m writing full length posts. Plus, the page functions as a “Hey, we’re still alive!” feature for our moms and dads.

Biking Outside of Buenos Aires. Copyright twoOregonians.com

3. You jumped right into the trip tackling Machu Picchu, a stomach bug and high altitude right away. Do you plan to keep this pace up the whole trip? 
Ted: No, we’re not planning on hiking the entire trip
Bethany: We committed to our transatlantic cruise from Brazil to Spain before deciding on our RTW Trip departure date. Ultimately, when we chose to leave home on January 5th, we had two and a half months for the continent of South America, so we hit the ground running, putting all of our pent-up excitement and energy to good use. “Mr. Indoorsy” was a superhero during our high-speed, high-backpacker-grunge style adventures through Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. We hiked and trekked and tent camped and bused and wore ourselves a bit ragged, then we holed up in an apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a month to purposefully give ourselves a change of pace. We don’t regret any of the early adventures (well, maybe the 24 kilometer day of torture at Torres del Paine, though that’s a good story now), but we’re also happy to have hit a slower stride for the time being.

4.  It seems like you found a place in Bolivia to put your skills to good use. Can you tell me more about the project and how you got involved?
Bethany: Yes! In 2006, I was daydreaming about our future RTW travel plans, and I found www.workaway.info. International volunteering in exchange for room and board in all sorts of beautiful locations? Sign me up. Over the years of browsing through listings on lunch breaks and late into travel-planning nights, I couldn’t help but think about all the ways that Ted and I are equipped to be helpful. Workaway is a bit like online dating, including the cheesy bios: “Responsible oldest siblings from big families; raised on a farm and not afraid of hard work; love to cook and willing to help with cleaning…both enjoy long walks on the beach and generous pitchers of sangria.” (You get the gist.)  But seriously, I’m a landscape architect and Ted’s a social worker, and it’s terrific to have practical skill sets to offer. We joined the site, created our listings, contacted potential hosts, and sorted through the best options.

Our chosen Workaway hosts in Bolivia needed help with their rural property just outside La Paz, and we arranged to stay eight days with them, assisting with manual labor to combat some of the rainy season erosion damage and completing a Landscape Master Plan to guide them as they preserve their land and construct an ecologically sensitive yurt and tent camping facility. It was a win-win-win for all of us. We enjoyed meeting really terrific people, sharing delicious meals, learning about their lives and work in Bolivia; they received help with much-needed manpower and design and planning work; and we received free accommodations while I added to my professional experience and design portfolio.

In Patagonia. Copyright twoOregonians.com

5. You got to Europe via a very unconventional method, on a cruise ship. Looking back at it, what were some of the pros and cons of spending part of your time at a slower pace than you had up to that point?
Ted: Pro – you get spoiled with good food. Con – you lose your rhythm of exploration.
Bethany: Pros – sleeping in while making travel progress, experience unplugged life (no $.95/minute cruise ship internet for us!), stopping at unusual locations like the Canary Islands and Cape Verde (albeit briefly, and with the overwhelmingly cliched title of “cruise-ship-tourist” hovering overhead and sometimes slapped on our foreheads), having two and a half weeks of accommodations, meals, and transportation paid for in advance, feeling free from the travel budget spending and tracking, truly experiencing the grand size of the ocean without the aid of jet-engines, and having time to learn and play hand after hand of Canasta with newfound friends. Cons – feeling stir crazy without the ability to accomplish internet research and planning, getting less exercise and movement (the stationary bike just isn’t the same as hiking mountains), and every now and then running into bitter, spoiled, unkind travelers who have lost their sense of wonder and gratitude.

6. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?
Pressing the re-set button and meeting the world.

Somewhere over the Atlantic. Copyright twoOregonians.com

7.    What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?  
Ted: It’s not as scary as it sounds. Do it now while it’s cheaper; it’s going to get more expensive.
Bethany: Like marriage, travel doesn’t change who you are, it amplifies your best and worst qualities and gives you space to learn and grow.

8.    What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?
Ted: When we got off the first international flight in Lima, Peru and walked through hundreds and hundreds of taxi drivers.
Bethany: No texts, no phone calls, slow-to-no internet.

9. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?
Ted: Fishing with a Portuguese speaking local off the Pier in Natal, Brazil.
Bethany: Sharing a humble meal with a family living in the outskirts Lima, Peru.

10. What has been your most embarrassing moment?
Ted: Singing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” during Karaoke with a bunch of South Koreans in a water-less, electricity-less hovel in Bolivia.
Bethany: I try to forget them as soon as they happen.

On the salt flats in Bolivia. Copyright twoOregonians.com

11. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?
Ted: Bringing Bethany along. Asking questions and interviewing people when I have the chance.
Bethany: Bringing Ted along to break the ice and strike up conversations with interesting people. Too, this is a season of time unfettered by jobs and responsibilities of life at home. Making the most of it means taking time to write in a journal that never makes it to the blog, taking time to sit in one place and make sketches, taking time to pray and seek out wisdom about paths and decisions, and taking time to ask the deeper questions and acknowledge the blessings of this year of opportunity.

12. Finally, our lightening round.

• Best dish you’ve found so far. T: File com Fritas (beef, onions and fries cooked to perfection in Recife) B: Chicken curry and cassava and sweet potato chips with tomato, honey and ginger salsa at Zaza Bistro Tropical in Rio de Janeiro
• Most exotic food eaten. T: Ostrich on the cruise ship; cooked to perfection. B: Cape Verdian Wahoo (a fish dish – overcooked, but worth the experience just for the name).
• Most breathtaking moment. T: Iguazu Falls on the Argentina side – astounding. B: A window seat view of Patagonia from the air. On my birthday.
• Biggest disappointment. T: Bolivian busses. B: The cost of living in Argentina. But that may have had something to do with countless bakery visits.
• Most memorable place. T: The Sun Gate overlooking Machu Picchu. B: Cape Verde’s desolate landscape and aquamarine waters.
• f. Most memorable person. T: The Swedish cafe owner in Bolivia serving the best coffee I found in South America. B: Too hard to answer! Freddy, our guide on the Inca Trail? I think we’ll be quoting him for the rest of our life.
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride. T: Bose noise canceling headphones. B: My trusty eye-mask; good for shutting out the world and catching Zzz’s.
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride. T: A drunk driver. B: Leaking exhaust fumes, and a seat next to the downstairs bathroom stairway.
• Best thing you packed. T: Ear plugs and high quality shaving cream. B: An amazing little tube of hand lotion sent with me by my best friend. It’s like a hug from home every time I put it on.
• Dumbest thing you packed. T: Spare razor blades; for some reason, I didn’t think I’d find razor blades around the world. B: The super-heavy-duty combination lock that I’ve already ditched. The tiny one does just fine.
• Funniest travel habit you have. T: Checking for bedbugs. B: Zipping our sleeping bags together.
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer. T: La Escondida, Punta Arenas and the Canary Islands. B: The Chilean countryside.

Rio! Copyright twoOregonians.com

You can follow Bethany & Ted online at twoOregonians.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter @twoOregonians.
Every week (more or less), Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Who’s Out There Now: Ted and Bethany is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Out with the Gorillas in Rwanda. Copyright OneStep4ward.com

In this week’s ¨Who’s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Johnny, who’s been traveling the world since 2006 and blogging about it on OneStep4Ward.

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

I was in North Korea last week but I’m writing this from the comfort of a condo in Bangkok, Thailand (nursing a rather persistent hangover!)

2. You’ve got a pretty impressive list of countries that you’ve conquered including…Somalia? How did that come about?

I love to travel to places that I know are literally ‘off-the-beaten-track’, and not in a lonely planet sense. I mean I want to be the first Irish guy they’ve ever met! There aren’t too many places in the world that I can do that, so  I’ve got search long and hard. With Sudan, Somalia, East Timor, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and North Korea under my belt, it’s going well!

3. Not that you haven’t been busy traveling around, but how have you missed South America up until this point?

It stems from my love affair with Asia I guess, although I hope to rectify that huge void in my travels in 2013, in preparation for the World Cup in Brazil.

In North Korea. Copyright OneStep4Ward.com

4. You’ve got quite a following, people who are interested in what you do and how you are able to design your life around travel. What are your three key messages to people who want to make a change in their life for the better, but feel stuck in their day-to-day routine?

That’s a great question Jeff, I’d go with these:

1. Believe that it’s possible for yourself. Don’t look around the internet and see people living YOUR dreams, go and get them yourself. People like me are nothing special, we just did it – and so can you.
2. Carve out an online income. I know it’s easy to say, but within 6 months of choosing an online income method you could definitely be earn $500 per month, maybe much more. I know it sounds like some crazy scheme but it’s true, blogging is a great start.
3. Forget about social conformity. Keeping up with the Jones’ was a concept created by a consumer agenda, one which we are under no obligation to subscribe to. 50 hour weeks, Monday morning meetings and chasing a promotion are not a prerequisite of a successful life. Half the battle is just acknowledging that.

5. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trips?

Certainly not a career break. I guess I’m a lifestyle designer, for want of a better term, or perhaps a digital nomad. Although I’m certainly a backpacker at heart.

6. What are some of the secrets to travel that you’ve discovered that you think more people who aren’t traveling should know?

“How many countries have you been to” is not the way to judge how well traveled someone may be. There seems to be a new breed of passport stamp collectors. Traveling overland, and travel relatively slow – that’s the key to really living the dream in my opinion.

On top of Kilimanjaro. Copyright OneStep4Ward.com

7. What was your first ¨We’re not in Kansas anymore¨ moment on this trip?

Haha! Oh God, on a hitchhiked Chinese cargo boat up the Mekong River through Laos that I thought would take one day, but ended up with a 2 day illegal trip through Burma, getting accosted by the police in China and being dumped by the side of the river with no clue where I was! I had been traveling for less than a year at the point!

8. What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

Staying in the slums with an awesome dude I met in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His house was home to 8 people and it was probably the size of an average bedroom, but the hospitality was out of this world, and the food was amazing.

Rafting the Nile in Uganda. Copyright OneStep4Ward.com

9. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

It could be one of many! Getting summoned up on stage in both Malawi and South Korea due to being the only foreigner in the crowd and having to dance to their respective local music, to a highly amused crowd both times! At least I got a free t-shirt in Malawi from it though!

10. What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

Speed, all the way. Slow down and drink it in, one night here then an 8 hour bus, one night there and a 12 hour train. That schedule can kill you, slow it down and feel the place. Also, I travel cheap not because I have to but because I find it draws some much more authentic experiences. No air con tourist buses for me.

Hanging with the hyenas. Copyright OneStep4Ward.com

11. Finally, our lightening round. 

• Best dish you’ve found so far: tibs in Ethiopia. Sautéed meat in spicy sauce. Love it!
• Most exotic food eaten: lambs testicles and pigs penis in China.
• Most breathtaking moment: Paragliding over the Himalayas in india.
• Biggest disappointment: Johannesburg, South Africa or Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, China
• Most memorable place: Clichéd, but Thailand – it literally changed my life.
• Most memorable person: A one eyed, one legged dude in Calcutta India who wanted me to sleep in his blood-stained room. I’ll never forget that!
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride: Imodium
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride: The sh*ts!
• Best thing you packed: My macbook pro
• Dumbest thing you packed: Expensive shoes to party in – ridiculous.
• Funniest travel habit you have: I always try to scope out the best seat on any bus before I buy the ticket, it’s a compulsion. And I always seem to get screwed despite it!
• Place you wish you could’ve stayed longer: If I’ve ever wanted to stay longer, I’ve stayed longer.

You can follow Johnny online at OneStep4Ward.com, on Facebook and on Twitter @OneStep4ward.

Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There ^TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.  

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Who’s Out There Now: Johnny is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures