With only 1 month to go our departure date is getting closer and closer, and while we’ve been preparing this trip for quite some time now you haven’t received a lot of updates from us. In this post we’ll get you up to speed on where we’re at with all of our preparations for our round the world trip.
Work
Even though the legally required notice for quitting her job was only 3 weeks, Birthe decided to share our plans with her colleagues about 3 months ago, giving them plenty of time to find a replacement and making sure the transition went smoothly.
Birthe will be having her last day at work on Thursday 27, giving her about a week for final preparations, cleaning out the apartment and some last minute stressing over the big trip.
I haven’t been working for a boss for about 3 years now, so there was no need to give notice to anyone. My company, Bootstrapped Ventures, will continue to operate from all over the world as I really only need my laptop and internet access to work.
As we’ve basically doubled the employee count (Birthe will be helping out as well) it should definitely be possible to keep things running smoothly with plenty of free time to see the world.
Things we’re leaving behind
For the next year all of our possessions will have to fit in a single backpack each, so there are plenty of things we’re going to have to leave behind. Going over all that stuff we realised there were quite a few things that were just collecting dust anyway, so we decided to sell some of them.
During the past months we’ve sold an old Xbox and PlayStation, a few kitchen utilities we didn’t use anymore and some gadgets I even forgot I owned. Some of them sold for a lot more than I expected, so it’s a great idea to go through your stuff from time to time and just sell the things you don’t need anymore. It feels liberating!
We haven’t sold everything, of course, but we should be able to store the remaining stuff at our parents’ places (thanks!). The lease for our apartment will run out on August 31, so by then everything we won’t be taking with us should be sold or in storage.
Our gear for the trip
As mentioned above we’ll each be taking one backpack with us, so we’re quite constrained when it comes to the amount of stuff we can bring on the trip. It’s not like we’re going with huge 80 liter backpacks either. Both of our packs are around 40 liter and should be allowed as carry-on luggage.
We’ve been picking up some stuff here and there over the past few months so our packing list is starting to take shape. On this website you can find an overview of everything we’ll be taking with us including prices and photos in a nice visual grid.
Wether we’ve made the right choice with our small(ish) backpacks and the gear we bought will definitely be analysed in a future blog post, once we’ve been traveling with it for a while.
Essentials for going around the world
While you could actually leave on a trip like this without any gear at all (there are stores everywhere, right?), there are a few things you just can’t leave without.
One of those is a passport. Neither of us required one before, so we both got brand new passports, ready for some beautiful stamps from all over the world. This only took a few weeks to acquire and wasn’t too much of a hassle. We also got ourselves an international driver’s license, in case we decide to do some driving somewhere.
Depending on the countries you’re going to visit you’ll also need some vaccinations. There are things like Yellow Fever, Polio, Hepatitis, Rabies and some other nasty diseases you’d rather steer clear off. We just presented our itinerary to our doctor and about 1 month and 8 shots later we were good to go.
Even with those vaccinations you can still get sick though, or get in a traffic accident, get mugged or slip on a banana peel (or who knows what other slippery fruits exist out there). That’s why you just can’t leave without proper travel insurance. For €710 both us and our luggage are covered for nearly every bad thing that can happen to you for 1 year of traveling all over the world, so that’s definitely worth the peace of mind.
Planning
We have an itinerary in mind, a bunch of notes in Evernote and a few ideas on our bucket list, but we don’t want to constraint ourselves by planning too much in advance.
For now we do have a plane ticket from Brussels to Bangkok and we’ve booked 4 nights in Saphaipae Hostel. This gives us some time to get used to our new situation and we’ll see where we go from there.
As per Thailand’s visa requirements we do need proof of onward travel, so our next flight has also been booked and will be a short one from Koh Samui to Penang on October 1st.
We’ll be keeping note of our travel plans so feel free to check it out.
Before we can leave
We still have to sell a few things (anyone interested in buying our car?), put everything in storage, clean our apartment and finalise our gear. With about a month to go, there’s plenty of time to take care of these things though, so we’re not stressing (yet).
Definitely some exciting times ahead!