Our Maximum Driving Times On The Big Trip

Posted on by | Leave a comment
Our Maximum Driving Times On The Big Trip

Photo Attributed to Thenix

When we first decided to go on this major undertaking of a trip, we decided to keep certain maximums in order to ensure we do not die of exhaustion. One of the major maximum that we were adamantly clear about was the driving times. We wanted to ensure that we weren’t spending days and days in a car with each other. That wouldn’t be good either for our relationship or for meeting and interacting with people from other cultures.

Being in a car too much has the possibility of isolating you. One of the reasons, we decided to do this trip is to experience new cultures and meet new people. You cannot do either if you are stuck in a car for 14 hours a day. We wished to keep the driving time to a maximum of 5 hours, so we can spend the rest of the time exploring new places, eating new foods, meeting new people, and doing a lot of people-watching.

It also ensures that we do not become jaded from the trip. A friend of Thenix’s made the comment that she wondered how we would feel after months of travelling like this. She did a month long road trip and she was already ready to come back home. But she also said that after a month of being back home, she was ready to leave again. That is where the key in our travels lasts. Balance between movement and rest will ensure that we do not get jaded on the trip.

If we ensure that we keep enough momentum going to keep us interesting, but get enough rest to ensure we do not burnout, we will have made it. Of course, doing it in reality is much harder. It is definitely an experiment we are running here. You will be with us on this journey and you shall see how we fare in this battle against the burnout. Maybe my hand would start twitching when Thenix would go close to the edge of a cliff – just one little push, I might think. Jk.

If you haven’t heard of the Big Trip yet, you are in for a treat. Boom and Thenix are travelling to the southern most tip of South America, through the West Cost of US, Mexico and parts of South America and back up the East Coast. We are planning on leaving on or around June 21st. We have made a detailed budget for the trip and we have included it here  for those of you who are curious about how much a trip like this would cost. We will travel for a total of 50,000 kms to around 22 countries. If you have any other questions about the trip please see our post on The Big Trip or check out our Archives Page.

Why Did We Decide Against A Satellite Phone On The Big Trip?

Posted on by | 3 Comments
Why Did We Decide Against A Satellite Phone On The Big Trip?

Photo Attributed to Thenix

Thenix thought that we should have a satellite phone when we are traveling South. We will have two phones that will have local SIM cards on them, and we will mostly be in areas where the population density will ensure we will never be isolated. But if we end up driving through stints of mountains and deserts which have one or two cars passing by every day, we wanted to have a satellite phone handy. Upon researching satellite phones, we realized that they are bloody expensive. I mean, this literally – we would be paying for them with our hard-earned, blood-adorned money.

The first quote we received was a staggering $2000 for buying a satellite phone with some 360 minutes. My heart stopped a bit at this – that is our budget for one person for a month. I would rather have enough provisions in the car for one day than spend $2000 on a phone that we will probably never use. But hindsight is 20/20 and I’m sure 6 months from now, you will see a post from me apologizing to Thenix for vetoing the satellite phone idea as we were stuck in the desert for 2 days without seeing anyone.

More than having phones and electronics, we needed some people back home whom we could call in case we had a certain dire need for something – either in terms of cash (if our bank cards didn’t work), or papers (in case our papers got stolen), or anything else. We decided our immediate family would definitely be called upon for this duty, but a few of our friends were asked to be our guardians as well. The main thing that we would inquire from them would be to call the cavalry in case we are stuck somewhere and we were only able to make one phone call.

If you haven’t heard of the Big Trip yet, you are in for a treat. Boom and Thenix are travelling to the southern most tip of South America, through the West Cost of US, Mexico and parts of South America and back up the East Coast. We are planning on leaving on or around June 21st. We have made a detailed budget for the trip and we have included it here  for those of you who are curious about how much a trip like this would cost. We will travel for a total of 50,000 kms to around 22 countries. If you have any other questions about the trip please see our post on The Big Trip.

Accounting For Bribes On The Big Trip

Posted on by | Leave a comment
Accounting For Bribes On The Big Trip

Photo Attributed to Thenix

Thenix and I have an issue with attention to detail, in that we are neither of us very good at it. We are big-picture thinkers. We like to imagine the stars in the sky and the galaxies in the universe. But when it comes down to it, life is all about the details. In planning this trip, we had to put aside our contentions with details, and get right down to the nitty-gritty.

The more we could plan the trip down to the tips of its shiny little shoes, the more we would be able to relax on the trip. We wouldn’t catch everything, but we weren’t expected to. Travel is also about dealing with the unexpected and one of those unexpected things is bribes.

We all know that bribes are a normal part of day-to-day life in developing countries. Padding your pockets when your monthly wage barely feeds your family is normal and to be expected. Padding your pockets because you are greedy and want more and more money is even more normal.

We knew that paying off officials at Customs, at borders, or just random police officers on the road would be quite common. The amounts of bribe pay-offs wouldn’t be significant in themselves, but when you count a year of bribing officials, it becomes a fairly significant number.

There was no way we could estimate the amounts that an official would ask us, or how many times a week we would pay a bribe. No matter what number we came up with – it would be wrong. We picked a number out of the sky and said, it would be $500 for the year. Of course, there is no way to know if it is right or wrong, until we do a summary of our year’s spending in July 2014.

But we did want to point out that planning for such a trip through such countries requires you to think outside the Western world box.

If you haven’t heard of the Big Trip yet, you are in for a treat. Boom and Thenix are travelling to the southern most tip of South America, through the West Cost of US, Mexico and parts of South America and back up the East Coast. We are planning on leaving on or around June 21st. We have made a detailed budget for the trip and we have included it here  for those of you who are curious about how much a trip like this would cost. We will travel for a total of 50,000 kms to around 22 countries. If you have any other questions about the trip please see our post on The Big Trip or check out our Archives Page.

Building A Support Network Back Home For The Big Trip

Posted on by | 1 Comment
Building A Support Network Back Home For The Big Trip

Photo Attributed to Thenix

When we first decided to go on the Big Trip, we realized it would be a major undertaking. When you decide to do a road trip in a 1998 Honda Civic all the way down to South America, you realize that you will need a support network back home, to ensure if anything happens on the journey, you can call upon someone. We knew that if we wish to travel for such a long period of time, we would need the support of our family and friends back. This is just in case our car gets stolen, or our belongings are raided.

Our support network consists of our family who care about us, but also a few friends who are excited for our trip and eager to help in anyway possible. How are we going to use our support network? There are a bunch of reasons we would need to call upon the cavalry:

1. We have both rented our our condos to some great tenants, in Thenix’s case a good friend. But emergencies will happen, and in that case, we will definitely call upon our tentative landlord to ensure our tenants are happy and healthy.

2. We have decided to use a dashcam to take a video of the road we go upon (more to come on this). But we will definitely need help editing and time-lapsing this video – which again is where our support network comes into play.

3. We will definitely have moments where we will miss home and need some loving – maybe a jar of maple syrup or some Indian sweets from mum will do the trick. In that case, we will need our parents to send us some love.

4. We will need the help of our support network in case we need to send stuff back home. We are planning to send SD cards, and such back home – we would need to ship it to a reliable source.

5. If our car or stuff gets stolen, we will definitely need the support of our network back home, to ensure we would be able to get some necessary items that are unavailable in South America, while we go on with our trip backpacking the traditional way.

6. Lastly, we are hoping our support network will watch for our blogs and videos, comment on them, and let us know what they think of our journey. If they think there’s something we should do that we are missing out, or something we should do less of. Your family and friends can be your best critic. We intend to use that.

If you haven’t heard of the Big Trip yet, you are in for a treat. Boom and Thenix are travelling to the southern most tip of South America, through the West Cost of US, Mexico and parts of South America and back up the East Coast. We are planning on leaving on or around June 21st. We have made a detailed budget for the trip and we have included it here  for those of you who are curious about how much a trip like this would cost. We will travel for a total of 50,000 kms to around 22 countries. If you have any other questions about the trip please see our post on The Big Trip.

The Scariest Moment Is Always Just Before You Start

Posted on by | 2 Comments
The Scariest Moment Is Always Just Before You Start

Photo Attributed to Thenix

(The name of this post is a quote by Stephen King – the master of creating fear in his readers).

Thenix and I are afraid – we are feeling the fear of the unknown. We are excited to be leaving for this adventure of a lifetime, but we are also feeling the fear that comes along with it. There are just so many unknown parameters that we are dealing with at the moment, and will be dealing with on the trip, that it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes. Why are we still going ahead with this even if it scares us beyond recognition?

Other people have told you what dreams you should have, but we have dreams of our own that we are going to pursue. That is why we are going on the trip, inspite of the fear. Our dreams are too strong, too empowering. They have a hold on us and our motivations, and they just don’t let go. We think about them every moment of every day.

Fear is something that will try to hold you back. That is just normal. You are going to feel afraid whenever you take something new on. You are going to try and prepare for all the unknowns, but you are always going to miss some random eventuality.

Wouldn’t it just be easier to stay at home, go to work and not worry about such a big undertaking? Wouldn’t it be easier to just dream about doing something like this, and never actually do it? Wouldn’t it be easier to live vicariously through our friends and family members who are doing something like this? There are a million different ways to live, but only two ways to go about it. Fearfully living your life – restricting everything you do because of that fear. Or, fearfully living your life – and doing everything anyway knowing that the outcome will make you stronger.

Fear is common. It is normal. It is the result of millions of years of evolution. It is the voice of reason in your head. The voice that wants you to think twice and make sure that what you are doing is worth it and that you are as prepared as you can be. The point of this blog post is to make everyone realize – we are as afraid as you are to go on and live our dreams. But we are going ahead with this even though we feel the fear. You have to. If you wish to have no regrets at your deathbed.

If you haven’t heard of the Big Trip yet, you are in for a treat. Boom and Thenix are travelling to the southern most tip of South America, through the West Cost of US, Mexico and parts of South America and back up the East Coast. We are planning on leaving on or around June 21st. We have made a detailed budget for the trip and we have included it here  for those of you who are curious about how much a trip like this would cost. We will travel for a total of 50,000 kms to around 22 countries. If you have any other questions about the trip please see our post on The Big Trip.

Live Your Dream Now!

Posted on by | 2 Comments
Quitting Our Jobs For The Big Trip

Photo Attributed to Thenix

Disclaimer: This post might trigger ideas and thoughts that might be dangerous for your job.

Thenix and I were discussing unemployment rates in Europe (57% in Spain for those under 25 and 27% unemployment rate overall) and that brought up our decision to go on this trip for a year. When I looked at all the people in the world who were suffering due to the recession or due to wrong decisions on the part of their governments; struggling because they themselves do have a job to support their families with, it made me feel guilty that we were able to go off and live our dream.

We both realize as do a lot of you, that the world is becoming a more unstable place as time goes on. Nothing can be relied upon. Neither the banks, nor the governments. Neither your job or your schools. Because of this instability, I know that we have to act now or forever hold our peace. Think about this – how many times has this scenario played out: a person decides he is going to live out his dream next year and next year never comes – due to war, famine, death, destruction, circumstance or whatever it might be.

The world needs people to be quiet, do their jobs and not rock the boat. The government needs that so they can have a peaceful economy that keeps on moving forward. The retailers need that so they have bored people purchasing their stock. The employers need that so they can keep on declaring profits on their statements.

NO ONE is looking out for you and your dreams. No one cares about your life and how you wish to live it. No one gives a damn about your hopes and aspirations. No one, but you. If you don’t do it now, if you do not start living your life right now, tomorrow might never come. You might be sitting here planning to start living your dream in 5 or 10 years, but that time never comes.

Eventually, you are sitting on your deathbed, and it is too late. I know this is dire thinking, but if you ask any person over the age of 60, they will all tell you one thing. Do not leave your life till too late. Live it now. Right now. This very second. Go start working on that dream that you’ve had since you were 10.

If you haven’t heard of the Big Trip yet, you are in for a treat. Boom and Thenix are travelling to the southern most tip of South America, through the West Cost of US, Mexico and parts of South America and back up the East Coast. We are planning on leaving on or around June 21st. We have made a detailed budget for the trip and we have included it here  for those of you who are curious about how much a trip like this would cost. We will travel for a total of 50,000 kms to around 22 countries. If you have any other questions about the trip please see our post on The Big Trip.

Separation Of Work and Play

Posted on by | 2 Comments
Separation Of Time On The Big Trip

Photo Attributed to Thenix

When I am living my regular life at home, I create a sort of separation between my ‘work’ time and my ‘home’ time. I work during my work hours and when I come home, I rest. I have created a fine balance between the two over the years of regulated scheduled work, and now I have a hard time, if I have to do work during hours that are supposed to be my rest hours. Thenix, on the other hand, has worked from home for the past few years. He is used to the co-mingling of work hours and rest hours – so that one really is indistinguishable from the other.

When we first started talking about the trip, this came up quite often. How would I deal with the mingling of work hours with rest hours while we travel? We are not going to be working 9-5 as I do right now. I will not be able to wake up and go to work for 9 hours. Whenever we get a chance to grab internet on the road, that will be the time when we are able to work on the road. The rest of the time could be spent doing whatever you wish.

This kind of scares me a bit. After having been trained by society for so long, I do not know how I will deal with this un-separation of time. I didn’t work on my last trip when I went to South-east Asia, but I know that this time around, I wish to work on my blog and some freelance work on the road.

Do you have an issue with the separation of our time into separate pockets? How do you deal with it?

If you haven’t heard of the Big Trip yet, you are in for a treat. Boom and Thenix are travelling to the southern most tip of South America, through the West Cost of US, Mexico and parts of South America and back up the East Coast. We are planning on leaving on or around June 21st. We have made a detailed budget for the trip and we have included it here  for those of you who are curious about how much a trip like this would cost. We will travel for a total of 50,000 kms to around 22 countries. If you have any other questions about the trip please see our post on The Big Trip.