Answering Our Own Questions
When John and I were preparing for this trip we were asking people who had made similar trips all sorts of questions. Today, exactly eleven months later, we are prepared to answer a lot of them ourselves.
Most of our questions were about health, safety and what to pack for a world trip. We asked everyone the all important question,"What would you do differently if you did it again?" We wanted to know what countries and places other travellers had liked best, which they liked least, which were hardest and why. We wanted to be prepared for anything. We've learned, of course, that being prepared for everything is impossible, rather you learn, through traveling, how to deal with everything given the resources at hand.
The primary lesson we learned is difficult to express. It is a feeling that the world is not as vast and untouchable as we had previously thought; that we needn't be intimidated by the unknown. Before we left, countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Nepal seemed frightening in a way, only for the most daring or adventuresome travelers (pages in travel books told us of diseases to be caught, theft rings to be on guard against). But these countries no longer feel remote. That's not to say that the feeling of disorientation doesn't hit us when our feet landed on new soil. But as we put more and more new places under our belts, disorientation gave way to a sense of 'I can handle this'. By the time we were heading to Nepal, although with only a vague idea of what we would do when we got there and where we would sleep that first night, we knew that we had the travel know-how to manage.
Paranoia Will Destroy Ya
One big lesson to be learned was that paranoia adds unnecessary stress. Afraid to try anything new - foods, customs, attitudes - we might as well have stayed home.
One Dutch couple we met on an Indonesian bus became so paranoid about rumors they'd heard that they didn't slept at night, afraid that they might let go of the money belts they had hidden under their pillows. They wouldn't let anyone touch their packs, much less loosen their own white knuckled grip from the straps. (The bus driver tried to move them over in the aisle and the Dutch man went ballistic). And they only nibbled at food for fear of getting sick. The last words we heard them say were that they were going home. Travel was too stressful.
Of course some amount of caution is necessary. With the thousands of new things facing travelers, common sense must prevail. We don't walk alone late at night at home, so we don't in other countries either. We don't accept food or drinks from strangers at home, so we didn't start to do so on this trip. At home we wouldn't drink water from the ponds; we wouldn't ride on the top of a city bus; we wouldn't get our noses pierced, so we didn't do these anywhere else (although lots of other people did). All those lessons our Mothers taught are still sound advice.
Some things, of course, are unavoidable. Bad things do happen even when you are cautious. A couple we met in Nepal both ended up in the hospital with food poisoning; a German got dange fever in Indonesia; one man lost his money belt; an American (me) ended up with a stomach bug. But bad things happen at home too.
What Would We Do Differently Next Time?
I'll have to admit, we did a lot of things right. We packed a lot of the right gear; we didn't buy an round-the-world air ticket which would have left little room for change of plans; we did some up front homework on places to go. But there are a few things, some trivial, some not, that we would do differently.
I will never take a red-eye flight again. We did this only once from L.A. to Hawaii and it wiped us out for two days. Of course that flight also involved a night sleeping (or trying to sleep) in a Hawaiian airport. I'll never do that again either. A German couple we met in Nepal had done a similar thing in Malaysia, arriving at 2:30 a.m.. There were no vacant rooms at the hotels they tried, so they slept in the lobby (free of charge). In the morning they were one pack short.
We would start with new boots and ones with soles that can be easily re-soled. John had already worn his boots for a year before we left (broken-in is good). But well broken-in meant worn out before we hit Malaysia. Asians don't typically have large feet, so finding new ones took some time. Southeast Asia, though famous for copy-cat brands, didn't seem to sell much of high quality. When we took his old Gortex, leather Vasque Sundowners to a "We buy anything" store in Thailand (the uppers were still in good condition) I got a shocked look. The man spread his arms wide ("the one that got away was this big") and exclaimed, "Huge!!"
We'd pack our own dye to test our water filter so that next time we wouldn't discover at 3000 meters into the mountains of Nepal that our filter had a crack. Whether to pack a water filter though is questionable. Our feeling, after having carried one and used it only in Nepal, is that it isn't necessary unless you are planning a lot of outback camping where bottled water isn't available. In every country we've visited bottled water was easy to get. The filter most of the time sat as extra weight in our packs. Of course filtering water is the more environmentally friendly way to go, so if pack weight isn't an issue, go for it.
Something that really wasn't a problem for us, but is worth noting, is that high-tech hiking and camping gear isn't as easy to find at reasonable prices in other countries as it is in America. It might be wise to purchase specialty items before you leave home.
Useful Things To Take
Our packing list was small considering we were tackling an 18 month trip. We found we could buy most anything we needed as we went along; clothes, toiletries, books. Guide books were especially easy to find. A lot of book stores and youth hostels would trade guide books, so carrying more than the one for the country we were visiting wasn't necessary. We met one girl in Indonesia who was lugging around eight Lonely Planets, one for each of the countries she planned to visit.
There are, however, a lot of items we did pack that we found particularly useful. I've listed these below.
What Place Did You Like The Best?
We still ask that of people we meet on the road, but we've learned that the answer is very subjective. I truly believe that the place someone considers the best has as much to do with when they went and who they met as with the place itself. The first country you visit that is unlike any you have ever been to before may become a favorite just because it IS the first. You may hate a place for the very same reason. How far into your trip you are has a lot to do with how you view the world and the life you left behind. One couple we know didn't like Malaysia. They traveled there after six months on the road. In a later conversation they told us that at about six months they felt burned-out and homesick. Had they visited the same places earlier, would they have felt the same way?
Also, if you rush through a country you may not care for it as much as one where you take your time exploring. Five weeks in New Zealand left one couple exhausted without fond memories. Some find spending too long in one place to be stifling. We began to feel worn out in Thailand, although we'd only been there ten days. Why? We were anxious to get to Nepal. And then everyone has different tastes and different expectations. One couple loved Vietnam, another gave us an "eh". So if you ask someone what place they enjoyed the most, it is wise to follow that questions up with another - Why?
How about us? Given all that I've said above, and knowing that it's hard to pinpoint one particular place, we would have to say that Nepal was the best. Why? It was different from anywhere else we had been; it was challenging; we were at the point in our travels where we'd become accustomed to certain sanitary conditions (or lack thereof) so we didn't feel uncomfortable. New Zealand also ranks up as one of the best. We couldn't wait to get there. New Zealand was the nucleus that got us thinking about a trip around the world. We had read all about it and, for months, had anticipated going.
Fiji, in contrast, was one of the hardest places for us for almost the exact opposite reasons. It was the first non-western place we'd been; we weren't accustomed to the conditions; we were overwhelmed. We hadn't adopted that do-what-you-can-do attitude; we felt a bit guilty for not doing it all. Also, Fiji had only made the cut because the plane stopped there anyway. Of course any place where you get sick might not get as many marks when you're asked to recall the highlights. In our case, John got a serious throat infection in Fiji and all he wanted to do was get to a cooler climate and see a doctor. A lot of travelers that we've talked to who ended their trips with Fiji loved it there. Relaxing on the beaches was a perfect way to finish their world travels.
After eleven months, traveling has become our way of life. It's hard to imagine going back to our old lives; I doubt that we will. We have been changed by our adventures; we have caught the bug. When this trip finally ends, we know we will be traveling again - adding new bests, new worsts and finding new answers to our questions.