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Thanks again to wiki for this photo

When I was about 7, my dad bought me two books that had lots of words and no pictures. Real grown up books called The Coral Island and King Soloman's Mines. And I still have the books. It took me forever to read these adventure stories. But they're probably the reason I have such a travel bug. Every description I read exposed me to exotic places, people and animals I wanted to see for myself. And I was lucky that although my parents weren't world travellers they sent me on every school trip they could so I could feed the bug.

Fast forward about 25 years when Adrian and I were planning our trip to Peru. Thanks to the wonders of google and the recommend of fellow ThornTree posters I discovered two blogs: Conor's Mildly Thrilling Tales and The Global Trip. Both followed the adventures of two guys travelling solo around the world. From the first entries, I was immediately hooked and gave up more than a few hours sleep to catch up and follow along with their entries as they made their way around the planet.

Although both of their blogs made me feel like I was there with them, I wasn't. So the next step was finding a way to visit all these places myself. Thankfully, Adrian was fully onboard. And 3 years later it's getting close to being a reality.

As we've been planning, we've read alot of other blogs and books. So I thought other's might appreciate some of the inspiring reads we've found.

Of course, I'm a huge fan of <Lonely Planet guidebooks - even when they've led me astray as they did in Vancouver. I've got the complete Shoestring guides set and have been using them to plot our adventure. They are already horribly out of date in terms of pricing and contact info but a little google magic fixes that. 

Rough Guides has a great book called First Time Around the World. A must have and read and study for anyone thinking of taking off. It's rather straight but that's what you want in a guide book. 

I suggest reading it in tandem with Vagabonding. If the Rough Guide is all about getting the your physical world in order, Vagabonding is all about the mental. It's rather philosophical but in a good way - and I don't know how many times i'd stumble across a passage and think "that's exactly what I was thinking but I never had the words to describe it. It's like he's in my head". 

Admittedly sometimes the philosophical can be too much. Thankfully there are some great websites inspired by this book where a bunch of author's contributing a wide variety of articles to help you in your quest to become a Vagabond. 

Here's an annotated list of of other resources in a loose chronological order of when I came across them.

Michael Palin's stuff: Seeing Michael Palin on TVO was always a little treasure when I was a teenager as he followed the footsteps Hemmingway and Jules Vernes.  I have a couple of his coffee table books (always picked up for pennies from the clearance section over the decades) and while I can now recognize that many of his journeys are unattainable to the average backpacker, they were one of my first inspirations. Plus, he was in Monty Python and A Fish Called Wanda - what's not to love?

Lonely Planet/Globe Trekker/Pilot Guides TV: Ian Wright is my hero. While Michael Palin was always the observer, Ian is the participant. The way he interacts with people he encounters reminds me that travelling is about getting involved and not watching stuff from the sidelines. Interaction over observation. And he certainly makes it look fun. Adrian and I saw him speak at Convocation Hall a few years back and I he was so... so... normal. Just a kinda geeky and awkward guy who happens to travel to some pretty awesome places. He knows he's lucky and doesn't forget it. No wonder I've been a fan for 20 years. 

Chasing Che: Retracing Che's motorcycle journey across South America for your dissertation - why didn't I think of something fun this when I was writing mine? Regardless, it's a great travelogue as the author shares the trials and tribulations of travelling solo through many different cultures and countries adding in a thin Che political filter (Latin American politics light). It began Adrian and I's own accidental retracing of Che's steps. Hopefully we won't end up dead in Bolivia too. 

The Beach: when I read this in the mid nineties I was blown away by the idea of an individual taking off to far away Thailand. It seemed so seedy yet so decadent - exactly what 20-something I was attracted to. I read it again this year and was struck by how immature and annoying the characters were. Interesting how time and experience can completely change one's perspective. Oh yeah and the movie sucked. 

Bill Bryson: any of his books. His humour is so spot on. My first introduction to him was in 1999 during a raucous Hogmanny (New Year's Eve) in Edinburgh crashing on the floor of a friend's flat with 8 Brits. Caught in the crossfire of competing regional accents, I ducked and picked up the copy of Notes from A Small Island that was lying around and quickly devoured it. I don't know if it was my outsider status at the time  but everyone of Bryson's North American observations about Britain was dead on and hilarious and timeless.

me-go.net: A girl. Travelling solo. Through really odd countries. I'll take Obscuri-Stan for 200,  Alex. Megan's site is a great travelogue from a unique perspective. She shows that no country is off limits (within reason) if you want to go there. It's also a great reference. She shares all her financials - something few people are willing to do for some strange reason. Oh and she responds to emails promptly and thoroughly. She's pretty awesome.

Holidays in Hell: 80s memoir of travelling to some whacky places courtesy of P.J. O'Rourke. I loved the spirit of this book. In a weird way it's the travelogue I related to the most. Although a little warning some of the terms he uses later in the book are a little irking for my PC addled brain. Amazing how appropriate the politics are 20 some years later. 

Adventures of a Continental Drifter: series of short travelogues by one guy. Interesting for the perspective of a former American flight attendant travelling after 9-11 but also because he's black. The outsider in many cultures and just another face in the crowd in others. A great read because he doesn't try to make sense of anything that happens he just experiences it and shares it with us.

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism: This one isn't an inspiration but I feel the need to include it because I take it as a cautionary tale. The author's attitude and adventures are exactly what I want to avoid while travelling. All selfish and self important "what's in it for me" mentality. The guy has an ego the size of Greenland and like to think he's living on the edge and writing like Hunter S. Thompson. But his actual adventures and experiences are pretty tame, and lame. Perfect contrast to P.J. O'Rourke who downplays the real craziness happening all around him.

I have another hundred books and movies set in certain countries that I could add to my list of inspiration. Don't worry I won't. Every time Adrian and I come back from a trip, the one constant on our customs declaration has been books. (yes it means we have a lot of books waiting to be packed up before we go, don't remind me). Reading them is a great way to revisit the places for free. And on one occasion buying a book was an adventure itself. 

In the Cusco, Peru airport as we were waiting for our flight to the Amazon, Adrian was at a newspaper stand looking for NFL news (I know, don't get me started). Out of luck he was flipping through the rack of books on Macchu Picchu when another customer started talking to him about Macchu Picchu. This gentleman happened to be an author and the book Adrian happened to be leafing through was his. Adrian had a great conversation with the quirky man in the panama hat and when Adrian bought his book, he signed it for him. 

Reading can't replace the real thing but sometimes it can be an adventure in itself.

Let's start at the very beginning - wherever that is.

Excuse me, do you know the way to... to... wait where are we going? Good question and one we thought we'd answered.

However, circumstances intervened - Adrian found himself without work for a few months, our anniversary trip required an expensive detour, pre-trip expenses are adding up - and our savings haven't accumulated as fast as we hoped. But we're not too far away. In fact we're only a couple of months behind. But all these hiccups made us realize that we should probably over save - justincase (justincase of natural disaster, justincase of a tough returning job market, justincase we need to pay ransom to our kidnappers, etc) .

Unfortunately, this means redoing our itinerary. Now understand, I'm a closeted control freak (okay, maybe not so closeted), so I need the security blanket of a planned route. But I know that these itineraries are never set in stone. And thankfully, when we've had to deviate from past travel plans, Adrian has stepped in to take care of stuff while I sit rocking in a corner clutching my itinerary.

So here I sit, once again looking at a map of the world and wondering where to go. And there are so many options it's a little dizzying. In fact I just starting typing out a list of options and when I got to number 11, I deleted the list for fear of losing the few readers I have. So this post is far less informative than I hoped it would be.

I posted to Lonely Planet's Thorntree looking for advice, and only got one response, from Donna, my virtual travel friend. (thanks Donna! lots of great tips and I halfheartedly blame you for introducing options 6-11 ). But I'm realizing that Adrian and I are the ones that have to make the decision.

Our requirements are complicated.
The only must do things on our trip are South America (Adrian) and Africa (Liz). So these our priorities.
I've been learning Spanish and would hate to lose it before we can use it.
We want to fly on as many StarAlliance carriers as possible to capitalize on Aeroplan points.
We don't want to spend more than $1000 on any airfare leg.
Our savings will probably cover 500 days (at $100/per day)

And this is where we've ended up (mentally): either Central American to South America to Africa to ?, OR South America to Africa to ?, OR Africa to South America to Asia to ?. Each have their pros and cons and each time we think one is in the lead, something makes us change our mind.

Feel free to add your two cents. Literally (if you visit any of the google links on the righthand side). And figuratively (by adding a comment).

Oh and slightly good news. Adrian's contract has been extended for another 4 weeks so we have a bit more cash to look forward to. And I finally got a retroactive raise (only 6 months late).

So where are we now?

location: confused in Toronto
ETD: March 15, 2009
savings: $30,998 (but hoping for a big jump in the next month)

I know this priceless antique says 25¢ but how about a nickel

(not our car boot sale but close enough, thank you wiki)

People are cheap. That's all you need to know about garage/yard/lawn/church/car boot sales.

Oh and that they're a helluvalotta work. We spent two weeks of scouring the apartment for things to sell then polishing, scrubbing and cleaning the crap to make it look good, pricing it way below the 30% what we paid for it, and packing it all up to survive the trip to the sale in one piece. Then loaded up the van the night before for the trip out to a park in the almost burbs.

And this was just for stuff we couldn't be bothered to list on ebay or craigslist: vases, vhs, books, junk jewelry, children's toys, kitchen crap, assorted small appliances, as well as a couple of things we just wanted to get rid of, like mismatched speakers, an air conditioner, our 100lb tv with reception issues, and a box or two of magazines and comics.

Oh and did I mention we're on the third floor of the walkup. My body aches just thinking about it.

But sell we did. Not a lot and not the things we expected. VHS tapes and ugly jewelry were a hot commodity. While books and and any nice looking or valuable knickknacks weren't. I sold a dirty table cloth but not Royal Daulton crystal wine glasses (2 for $15). So I give up.

And after 4 hours of the sale we had made $245.

More than the $150 I wanted just to make it worth while but less than the $350 I was hoping for. And after the van rental, gas and parking ticket, our net was more like $175.

We dropped off the worthless stuff at goodwill as well as the heavy tv that we almost killed us to carry. We kept about 4 boxes of stuff to try again at a later date or keep.

So where are we now?

location: Toronto
savings: $30,175
ETD: March 15, 2009 (or earlier)

(and it's time to start thinking happy thoughts for Adrian - his current contract finishes Oct 3 and he'll need a new one)

The Storm Watch

To keep people in the loop while we were in New Orleans I posted some updates on facebook. This entry is a reposting of these entries with a few more details and pictures. 

Friday, August 29, 2008 - New Orleans:

After a way too early flight via Philadelphia, we've arrived safe and sound in New Orleans on the 3rd anniversary of Katrina and our 10th. It's sunny and about a bazillion degrees outside even before the 90% humidity. You'd never guess that a Hurricane is on it's way. Except for the convoy of army and national guard we passed on the highway. 

Our cadillac-driving cab owner told us that they are expecting the evacuation orders tomorrow. Great. But other folks are a little more laissez-faire following any talk of mandatory evacuations with a "we'll just wait and see" or occasionally a "f*ck that shit"

The W Hotel is great. Our room has a balony that overlooks the Court House. To celebrate our anniversary they gave us a free dinner at their restaurant. Good thing since, a handful of the businesses and museums have closed or started boarding up their windows, but there are a lot less people than I remember from 10 years ago. 

We walked around taking in the sights of the French Quarter, making a stop at St. Louis Cathedral to pray for no hurricane - but being a non-believer I don't count on it having much of an effect. So we decided to drown our sorrows at the Napoleon House instead. 

The French Quarter feels a little less seedy and a bit more well scrubbed than our last visit here - even Bourbon Street seems almost civilized. Bourbon Street is still filling up with sweaty half naked-men celebrating gay mardi gras. We'll stay as long as they do. 

But I have started looking into a contingency plan.

Saturday, August 30, 2008 - New Orleans: 

Woke up this morning to an official hotel notice slipped under the door of our room. It brings back fond memories of our trip to Tunisia at the start of the Gulf War. The hotel has given us a heads up that a mandatory evacuation is expected sometime in the next 24 hours. 

Time for plan b. 

I spent 2 hours on the phone last night organizing our contingency plan. Being part of an Expedia package, our tickets are non-refundable or changeable even in a natural disaster, and the insurance I thought we had on our visa has to be applied for before a trip. Grr. Lessons learned. So since our original flight home has us changing planes in Charlotte NC, I purchased new tickets to Charlotte for Sunday. 

The only hiccups will be if the flight on Sunday is cancelled or if the hotel has to evacuate us today. Which all seems so surreal since it's 96 degrees with 86 percent humidity and not a cloud in the sky. 

However, from our balcony we can see a line-up of emergency vehicles around the Court House and the pink building across from us has closed its shutters, padlocked its doors and lined sandbags up in front of the door. 

Rather than countdown to evacuation in the hotel, we took another walk around the French Quarter over to Canal Street. It's really empty now with even more closures, boarded up windows as well as empty bank machines and palm trees tethered down. As much as I wish we didn't have to leave, if we stayed we wouldn't have much to do in the city (with or without a hurricane). People are taking this hurricane seriously. 

By the time we got back to the hotel, the evacuation order had been issued. While Adrian headed to the store to buy some food and water for our planned overnight camp out in the airport, I headed upstairs to finish our packing. 

The awesome staff who all knew us by our names and had been checking in with us hourly gave us all the info we needed to get out safely. We got the last tourist shuttle to the airport. And we weren't the only ones getting out. The highway was miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic of cars piled high with everything people could take with them. Our shuttle also passed the bus and train station where thousands of poor folks carrying garbage bags and suitcases were lined up for their free evacuation shuttles. And the airport was surrounded by heavily armed police. They were only letting in folks with tickets. 

The airport itself was fairly dead. Just as the hotel staff predicted, the airline changed our (new) tickets to Charlotte for free having added a special evacuation flight for 9 pm that night. 

Inside the terminal, there were at least 5 emergency personel to every passenger. Many of the passengers were coming back from the big college football game and had coolers of food and beer that they shared with those of us who had none. The mood was more party than emergency except that everyone with a laptop was using the free airport wifi to follow Gustav on the National Hurricane Service homepage. 

We boarded the full flight and landed in Charlotte ready for part two of our anniversary trip. 

Monday, September 1, 2008 - Charlotte: 

After a day in North Carolina, I have only one thing to say.

Charlotte is lame. 

It's a ghost town just like evacuated New Orleans. Except there's no hurricane warning. New Orleans at least still had soul. Charlotte? None. We saw about 4 other people on the streets today. 

We walked from one end of the city to the other (excluding the vast suburbs) in about 30 minutes. It's all sparkly new skyscrapers with bank names on them. The hotel looks exactly like an office building from the outside and only markedly better on the inside. 

Finding something to do has been a challenge. After we spent a couple of hours in one of the few museums and then at a small gallery, one of the fewer other open places, there wasn't much left. 

Since we were staying downtown where everything was closed, I scoured chowhound to find a place to eat that was close but open. We still had to take a cab to get there. It was okay; our server at least appeared to be human and not another cookie cutter pageant queen. The tv over the bar was tuned into Gustav reminding us why we were in Charlotte in the first place. 

Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - Charlotte: 

Glad Gustav didn't kill New Orleans, I really would like to get back there so we can fully experience that city someday. 

Charlotte however, well, let's just leave it there. Because if you can't say anything nice, don't say it anything. 

We walked the length of the city again, looking for open stuff. Here are some highlights. 

• The Afro-American Cultural Centre was closed on Monday. And shocked we wanted to take a tour there on Tuesday.
  
• The McColl Center for the Art was closed on Monday. And then changing displays on Tuesday (i.e. essentially closed). Although they did allow us to poke around the stuff they were setting up and pointed us to us to another tiny gallery.
  
• The free tourist trolley was empty of any tourists save us. 
  
• All museums were closed on Monday. Almost all were closed on Sunday and then on Tuesday too. 
  
• The tourist information office was closed all long weekend. 
  

So I spent 3 hours online researching the city and marking up a free hotel map to create our own walking tour which lasted only 30 minutes due to Charlotte's tradition of knocking down anything old. 

Thanks to a homeless guy who befriended us and joined us on our walking tour of the city, we found out why Charlotte was as devoid of life as it was. 

About 20 years ago, the downtown was rundown and "the hood" (his word not mine). Some banks decided to rejuvenate the city by building their headquarters there. And by rejuvenation they meant kick out all the black people and levelling the city. And yes, they literally levelled the city. 

So now it looks like a giant shopping mall, with public art pieces that reference the proud heritage of Charlotte but without any of that proud heritage left standing. 

He also confirmed the very quiet but very clear racist undercurrent that we were feeling in the city. Ick ick ick ick. 

As we parted ways with "Baltimore", he told us "they can flush the rats down the tunnel, but the rats will swim right back up it. I guess that means he and many others weren't leaving Charlotte just yet. 

so much to do so little time and money

Before I post about our Storm Watch Tour 2008. I have a big change. 

I'm going to do this post backwards, starting with so where are we now?

location: Toronto

savings: $28,600

ETD: March 15, 2009 (although we may go earlier)

Yes, you'll notice a new date there. 

No, we're not getting cold feet.

Our trip to New Orleans and the resulting flight changes not only ate into the savings but also made me realize that emergencies can cost a lot more than you realize. And for The Big Trip™ that meant saving up for a bigger resettlement cushion and boosting the ever important just in case buffer.  

A later departure date also means a rejigging of our itinerary - either starting in South Africa and pushing South America to the end of the trip or adding Central America to the itinerary. But that's another post once we have a better idea of when we'll actually be leaving.

Storm Watch 2008

So in less than 12 hours we're taking off to New Orleans on Katrina's 3rd anniversary and our 10th. 

It also appears that soon-to-be Hurricane Gustav is on the way to NOLA as well. Oh dear. I have no idea what to do. It's not a hurricane yet, it's too soon to confirm the path and I'm never been in this situation before. We'll go and if things look bad we'll leave early. But in the meantime just keep wishing the Gustav west. Rain I can deal with. Hurricanes no.

Repeat after me...

West, West, West, West, 

It was 10 years and they were still very much in love

So 10 years ago on August 29, 1998, Adrian and I got married. We were young and terrified (as you can tell by the expression on our faces) and all we knew was that we were miserable apart. So we took a giant leap of faith and got married. I was trying to finish up my degree and Adrian wasn't allowed to work in the country. We were also incredibly poor. 

For our honeymoon, we went as far as we could go which was New Orleans. But had no money to do much when we actually got there. We stayed at a bed and breakfast - the cost of which I had to split between a fist full of US dollars and the little balance available on my one student credit card. We went to a time share pitch just so we could get the free dinner vouchers. Yes we were really that poor. But we had a great time.

10 years later times aren't so tough for us. In the bank we've got more money than we ever saw the first few years we were married and we're getting ready to see the world. 

10 years later New Orleans is recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Katrina hit us not just because it was hit the city we first travelled to but also because it occurred on our anniversary. We followed the drama unfold on the news with horror and sadness. We'd been to the Superdome to see a football game. We'd walked those flooded streets. In fact Tropical Storm Earl hit while we were there in 1998 and we'd seen how quickly the streets filled with water. Although in our case the streets emptied just as quick. 

10 years later we've decided to go back to New Orleans for our anniversary. Not just to experience the city with a few bucks in our pocket. But also to put some of those bucks back into the city.

We'll arrive on August 29 - our 10th anniversary and the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Happiness and sadness all at the same time. But I think it's only fitting that before the Big Trip™ we go back to the city where it all started.