Sidenote: How I caught the travel bug
August 22, 2024ā¢2,379 words
I have been wanting to write a post about the process that led to my world trip, including the resources that were very helpful and inspiring for me. My hope is that these will also be helpful for anyone else considering taking a similar kind of trip!
My first time āleaving homeā and venturing out on my own was when I left Utah to attend Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. I went not knowing anyone there, but I was excited for the new adventure and my four years at Lafayette were a great experience.
My next big leap was moving to Australia to pursue my PhD. This felt like a bigger decision. It was stressful because I would be leaving my engineering job and career in the U.S., breaking away from what might be seen as a normal, stable career path. Was I wrong to do that? Was I making a big mistake? But I was ready for something new, and having always thought Iād like to try living in Australia at some point, the opportunity to do a PhD in Perth was a great reason to make the move. It felt odd and strangely unreal in the time leading up to it, like it was a fake thing, like I was talking about it but it wouldnāt really happen in the end. The prospect of doing a PhD in offshore geotechnical engineering was exciting ā related to my previous education and work experience in geotechnical engineering but also totally new because of the offshore (ocean) aspect ā but was I actually capable of completing a PhD? I was unsure what the right time to tell people about it was, in case things didnāt go through. But I went for it, and looking back now I canāt imagine having done anything different! It has been such a huge part of my life, including the chance to live with my sister who joined me in Perth a couple years after I arrived, which was an experience we will both always cherish.
Perhaps I inherited the adventure gene from my parents. With my mom being from New Jersey, and my dad from Melbourne, Australia, they met each other while skiing in Val-d'IsĆØre, France. Clearly there is some adventurous spirit in our family! And even before that, my Oma and Opa (grandma and grandpa) both left Europe, independently setting out for Australia to make a new life there, where they met each other. So I think the inclination for travel is a big part of our family and was imparted to me even from a young age in our family trips to Australia. My parents have always encouraged me to go for new things and experiences, and they were entirely supportive of my decision to make the move to Australia.
Once settled in Australia and in the midst of my studies I had the space and time to reflect on my life and future and really think about what was important to me. While being busy in my career in the U.S., I felt like I didnāt really think about these things, maybe I was just not at that stage of life yet, maybe I was conditioned to stick to my stable career path and thinking outside of that felt wrong, or maybe I was just so focused on my full-time engineering job that my mental and physical energy was poured primarily into that. It just felt hard to separate my life from my career, itās like my career was what defined my life, and having the time and space to really think separately from this was difficult to do.
I started feeling strongly that Iād like to travel and see more of the world. Part of this came from a research visit to the University of Southampton in England (which was cut short due to the Covid pandemic requiring my immediate return to Perth). I remember walking down the street one day and it just hit me how much I love being in new places. The air smells different, the sounds are different, there are different buildings, and streets, and people to look at, everything is interesting and new. It makes me feel totally alive, like a natural high with my senses heightened, and I craved more of that.
After returning to Perth I settled back into my studies which were tough going at times. During the low points, I thought more and more about travel as it gave me something to think about that made me happy. I started making a list of world destinations I was interested in based on the New York Times 52 Places to Go series. It was fun to think about traveling to these places someday but it felt more like a distant dream than anything that could actually happen in the near future, for one I thought it must be prohibitively expensive and I would need to save for a long time before I was able to start. This was aligned with my thinking while in the U.S. that this kind of traveling is only practical once youāre retired. But I didnāt want to wait until I was retired, and I didnāt want to just take a typical one or two-week vacation, I wanted to travel for months or longer.
The idea of a gap year became more and more appealing to me. And I thought that after my PhD would be the perfect time to do it. So I thought well letās just find some resources and get an idea of the costs and other details involved. I wanted to find a good book about it. I came across the book A Year Off by Alexandra and David Brown. I bought the eBook and downloaded it to my tablet. As I read the first few pages I thought to myself this is exactly what I was looking for, and I avidly read the rest of the book over the next day or so. Alexandra and David were similar to me, similar age and at a similar point in their careers (living and working in San Francisco), it was really helpful to hear their story, including the emotions and challenges involved in making the decision to break away from their careers and take a gap year trip. Their book also includes very useful and practical advice, like how to decide on a world travel route (considering different seasons, etc.) and a list of things to pack for such a trip. And the real lightbulb moment was when they talked about their budget and the costs involved. The costs werenāt prohibitively expensive as I had assumed, in fact they were very reasonable and within my reach. This was a big moment in the realization of my dream to travel.
Another big impact for me was discovering the Zero To Travel podcast. From the moment I started listening to these podcasts they resonated very strongly with me. The host Jason Moore is a very positive and friendly guy and comes across as a genuinely kind and caring person who wants to help people achieve their travel dreams. In the podcast Jason shares tips from his own backpacking travel experiences as well as inviting guests to have interesting conversations about all different aspects of travel. Another theme of the podcast is that of a location independent lifestyle, which is something that also appeals to me. This meshes with my wider quest to figure out what type of work is the most meaningful and fulfilling for me ā thatās a whole other (but related) topic and something Iām very actively working on figuring out ā maybe a future post on that one!
A couple episodes of the Zero To Travel podcast that I listened to early on that really resonated with me were:
While listening to these podcasts it drove home that world travel was 100% for me. It was something that was in my heart to do and I needed to follow through with it.
In line with the budget estimates I had first discovered in A Year Off, the range discussed in the podcast for a year of solo backpacking travel was about $10,000ā30,000 USD. The low end of this range would be for staying in the cheapest hostels, eating cheap street food or preparing your own meals, and only visiting countries that are more affordable (mostly avoiding Western Europe for example). The higher you get in the range the more flexibility you have, staying in moderately priced accommodation with an occasional private room, eating some meals at nicer restaurants, paying for the occasional tour or excursion, etc. I do not wish to give the impression that this is a small amount of money. I am very thankful for having had the opportunity to work in the U.S. as an engineer for four years which allowed me to save a portion of my income, and make this cost range doable for me. I worked hard to make this possible for myself. It is not a small amount, but for me, the large expense was well worth it to spend on world travel experiences. I also saw it as an investment in my self-development and education, which would maybe also lead to unexpected opportunities.
I listened to many, many more Zero To Travel podcasts as I continued to plan my own trip. I amassed a lot of super useful information from these podcasts, taking lots of notes and accruing more and more information and inspiration. They are loaded with helpful links and good content suggestions. I looked up Jasonās guestsā websites, YouTube channels, blog pages, book suggestions, and anything else they recommended. My favorite time to listen to podcast episodes was on long drives or flights, while going for morning walks or jogs, and while working on jigsaw puzzles in the evenings!
Even though I was learning and planning my trip it still felt quite distant. I was anxious about it, I wanted to start right away! I also had the stress of finishing my thesis and PhD, but in a way it helped me because it gave me something exciting to work towards. It all became more real once I started telling my family and friends about it. I was hesitant at first because I didnāt know exactly how the trip would pan out, would I actually even go? I was also unsure and less than confident about how my PhD was going to end up, so it would be awkward to fail my PhD and then have this big trip planned, with the feeling that I didnāt deserve it. Also when I said how I was planning to visit 30+ countries around the world, it felt unrealistic and like a fantasy, and I also didnāt want to come across as being boastful or unmindful of the fact that not everyone has this kind of opportunity. Getting the vaccines was another concrete step that made the trip even more more real, that was a physical, preparatory action I took, that proved to myself Iām really doing this trip.
Along with being excited I also had my reservations. There are risks associated with such a trip, not just health and safety-wise but also financially ā temporarily leaving a steady career path, and having a time period without actively earning income was something I thought seriously about. I think these topics should certainly be carefully considered, but along with this, I really liked the point that Brooke Thayer makes in her conversation with Jason ā that yes there are risks associated with extended world travel, but what often isnāt considered is whatās the risk of NOT taking that trip? Think of all the experiences you wouldnāt otherwise have, the people youād never have the chance to meet, the opportunities you would never otherwise come across, your whole life trajectory could be different for not having taken that trip.
Another very helpful resource I came across through the Zero To Travel podcast was this gap year trip planning email series created by Sean Keener (this even includes Excel spreadsheet templates to help you plan and budget your trip):
And here is the podcast interview with Sean:
And some other useful things I learned aboutā¦
Worldpackers ā Iāve had three great volunteer experiences with Worldpackers (at an organic farm in Thailand, at a school in Tanzania, and at an Airbnb/boat rental company in Greece), hereās the founder Ricardo Lima talking about it:
Travel health ā This episode provides a good, comprehensive summary of practical travel health considerations from a doctor and travel health expert representing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
I recommend just scrolling through the podcast episode titles on Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts and find topics that appeal to you, such as travel photography, travel writing, language learning, trekking, alcohol-free travel, Ben Franklin, how to meet locals, and just general life things too, thereās so much good stuff!
For me it was also meaningful to recognize that a U.S. or Australian passport is like a golden ticket to the world, as world traveler Graham Hughes says at the end of this TEDx Talk. This is not the case for many others around the world whose passports are more limiting in where they can visit. I do not take this lightly, and am very thankful for the opportunity I have.
I think itās important to follow oneās heart, and I feel that is what I did in making this trip happen. And Iām so glad I did. I caught the travel bug and I still have it more than ever! This trip has been so incredibly amazing in so many ways, and I wish for anyone else considering taking a similar kind of trip, that they give themselves the chance to have these life-changing experiences too. ā¤ļø