Nowhere in Particular

When escaping from a normal life to become a traveller, you are excited that you will be moving away from the day-to-day drudge and are now entering a care-free existence. Then reality strikes in the form of visa applications. It can be enough to dampen any travel plans, especially as South African passport holders, as the places you can travel to without a visa are very limited. It is really complicated We are already welcome in some countries, but even this is not straightforward. We have a visa for the US but the visa appears in old passports that we will have to carry with us (as well as our marriage certificate as it was issued in Lauren's maiden name). Then we have a visa for Australia but it does not appear in our passport - we simply have a letter from the Australian government. Another difficult one to explain to a customs official who wants to see a visa for your end destination. A special kind of admin hell (Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/writing-write-pe

The great travel plan has been a little vague, and intentionally so. We want to have some level of spontaneity on our travels, but flights still need to be booked, and visas still need to be secured. Earlier this month we booked the flight to our first destination – Vietnam. The country has been on our bucket list for some time, mainly due to rave revues from other travellers. We were ready to click ‘buy now’ on Expedia but hesitated when we realised we knew very little about where we wanted to go and even where in Vietnam we wanted to start. The easiest way to get a quick overview of the must-see sights was to look at some of the package tours. Although we want to explore the paths less travelled on the trip, we certainly don’t want to miss the iconic sites. After researching al little, we have decided to start in Hanoi, explore the northern areas including the mountains and lakes, and slowly make our way south over a period of a month to Ho Chi Minh City. After Vietnam, we wa

The last six weeks have been a whirlwind of change in our lives. We have packed up our previous life by selling our house and are in a somewhat no man’s land state. Our new adventure is yet to begin and so much still needs to happen, including the ever looming goodbyes. Our adventure is a little different in that we are not only travelling for a few months, but our end destination is a new home in a new country – Australia. This has caused me to be emotionally torn. Embarking on a world tour is what most people dream of, but I keep thinking about the lovely people I have in my life and that I, unfortunately, can’t take them all with me. I know our world is super connected, and it’s easier than ever to stay in touch, but there is something special about clinking wines glasses and sitting next to each other on the couch laughing about the craziness of the week that has passed. Although, we are now seasoned travellers through short vacations , I have never lived more the 5

It is important to try to blend in as a tourist. When you stand out like a sore thumb, you become an easy target. Touts easily see you coming and can hike their prices. Scam artists could also easily take advantage. We recently joined some friends at a Halloween party and dressed as travel nerds. These get-ups are a great example of what not to do. Do we blend in? Schalk and Lauren (Travel Nerds), Halloween Party, 31 October 2015 It is worth remembering that when you are as tall as Schalk is and have the pale skin we both have, the places where you will look like a local are quite limited. I am also cautious to commit that we definitely won’t be captured on camera looking somewhat close to the above photo. It is going to be a long trip and practicality may quickly outweigh any fashion sense.

When you are planning to travel for a couple of months, you begin your preparations months in advance. Part of our groundwork was to do some maintenance on the house and put it on the market. We anticipated that the sale would take about three months if everything went smoothly. Our house was sold after only two weeks! And as an extra shock, it was sold on the condition that we also moved out within two weeks. For an incessant planner like myself, this turned my world upside down. We had to pack up a three-bedroom house that had been our home for six years in a matter of days – you accumulate a lot of junk over six years. Selling your house in preparation for your travels might happen much faster than you anticipate.  Here are the necessary steps to take to pack up your house in 14 days: 1. Build a list The first thing you need to do is put together a list of all the furniture and equipment and then price it. You’ll be surprised with how much you can quickly sell if you pr

Watching the airport baggage carousel empty out without your bag appearing is a nightmarish situation. No m atter what type of trip you are on, this is going to be a big inconvenience, to say the least. This four-minute video clip of comedian Rhod Gilbert on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow (2009) about losing your luggage is a classic piece of comedy that always gets me laughing.    My personal lost luggage nightmare was in February 2011, landing in Montreal, Canada for a week of temperatures of -10 °C lower. It is one thing if you need to buy a swimsuit and shorts for an island hop trip, but requiring full ski gear for extreme temperatures is something else. The biggest mistake I made was not to go shopping immediately and buying some necessities. Instead, we travelled to our remote ski village only with a tiny convenience store and a very pricey ski gear outlet. Luckily, I had packed a change of clothes in my partners luggag e  –  a great travel tip we learnt from

Each destination you visit has something wonderful and unique to offer. Although some places are more special than others, if you battle to find something memorable at each location you need to ask yourself why you are bothering to travel. If you wander off the traditional tourist paths, speak to the locals, or step back into a corner quietly observing all around you, you will easily find the treasures in this new terrain or culture. Having said that, there are always a few standout moments you often recall – especially when you are witnessing some corporate chaos in a difficult meeting during your nine to five job. Everyone else is arguing and pushing their agenda, and you can sit back and think about a different world, silently smiling about the experience – good, bad and just bizarre. Here is a list of five of our favourite things from our travels: 1. Sipping a pint in the local pub Regardless of your personal preference, from a Guinness to a cappuccino, slowly

The South African Rand is struggling. This month it reached an all-time high of 13.86 ZAR to $1. The weak currency is not good news for many South African individuals and businesses, but it is particularly bad news for someone saving for a round-the-world vacation. The strength of the currency is starting to be more of an influencing factor when planning our slow vacation. We are also starting to look at research on the cost of living in the different countries, as it is quite applicable for long-term stays. Colombia, India and Indonesia are now far more appealing as seen on this infographic  from on Matador Network. Cost of Living Infographic 2015 (Source: http://matadornetwork.com/life/the-cost-of-living-in-every-country-in-the-world-in-a-single-awesome-infographic/) A lot more investigation is required for us to see which locations are best for us to stretch our savings. These investigations will need to be intensified if the currency gets any weaker, and at this point t

A wedding can be stressful, but it normally allows you to plan a great holiday for a honeymoon. An even better approach, if travelling is your main priority, is to elope. In 2008, we eloped to Cancun, Mexico. Although this is probably a popular choice for Americans, it is a reasonably uncommon destination for South Africans. Mexico came up as an option when looking at websites for destination weddings, and we ended up selecting The Royal as our hotel (originally a Real Resort that is now a Hyatt ).   This hotel appealed to us as it was an all-inclusive resort and was for adults only — which is great for a honeymoon option when you don’t want screaming kids at the pool. The wedding package offered a free room upgrade, and a wedding co-ordinator to take care of all the arrangements. Our luxurious stay included a swim-up suite with an ocean view, a giant spa bath, Egyptian cotton linen, Bvlgari bath products and a Bose sound system. The resort also had five fine dining restau

When you are planning something as exciting as a round-the-world vacation time slows down to a debilitating grind. A ‘quit-your-job’ and ‘sell-up-everything’ plan aimed at freeing up time and funds for an extended vacation takes a while. We reckon six months. And now that we have made the decision to do this, six months seems like millenniums away. Once you have made the decision to go, life cannot possibly return to normal. You find yourself often day-dreaming of beaches, walking in the shadows of majestic mountains, and bargaining in markets. However, in some ways it can be freeing. We have found that we can get on with our work, achieving the desired results without worrying about the office politics and career ambitions. It is liberating to know that you are simply here to do a good job, making the most of your skill set. You don’t get stressed by a changing environment or challenging targets. We also look at goods in the shops in a very different way and think twice a

We don’t always travel to countries where we speak the local language, but Ireland proved to be a real treat. Although the Irish accent is sometimes so strong it might as well be a foreign language, we thoroughly enjoyed listening to the locals on a trip to this magical country in April 2015. There is something to be said about sipping a whiskey in a little Irish pub in Killarney and hearing the banter between the natives. Granted the banter is not always ideal for those who are too sensitive and politically correct, but if you can sit back and relax it can be very entertaining. The one-man-band in the high street pub asked if we had a request, shouting loudly ‘because no one else is Fookin listening’. When the lass came back from her smoke outside she enquired from the musician ‘you still Fookin here?’. And although it might seem like insults were been thrown around, it was all said with much love and affection. Not all nations may be as humorous as others, but it does he

One would think quitting your job and selling up to go travel the world is a pretty unique and special thing. Turns out, not so much! We don’t have any direct friends that have done this in the way we want to explore the world. We don’t know anyone else who has had a mid-career round-the-world crisis (or maybe you can see it as we do: mid-career clarity). However, as we started telling our friends about our travelling plans, they have been able to introduce us to someone who knows someone who has also been a nomad for an extended period. That was just the beginning, as we started-up online relationships with these friends of friends, and picked their brains about how they were able to take extended vacations. We started the blog to help document our preparations and our eventual travels. This action also led to the creation of a Facebook and twitter page/profile. Once we had an online presence, we started seeing how there is a massive community of long-term traveller