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Archive for March, 2010

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Running on Empty

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

I had another one of those weird moments this week when we finally finished the tube of toothpaste we had bought in Thailand.  It was a strange tasting, slightly minty green gel that had an indecipherable red and white Thai logo which looked suspiciously like “Colgate.”   Now I’m back to using the real thing… with tooth whiteners, plaque control, and all that. This event is pretty minor, but it does remind me that our travels are over. With each can of Portuguese hairspray or box of French “batonettes” (Qtips) that I’ve finished and replaced with the American version, I feel like we are getting further and further from that life.  I knew this time was coming, but it’s funny which things trigger the memories.

Shopping for toiletries in foreign lands brings me to some other travel advice.  Before we left, all the books, blogs, and discussion forums warn you not to pack too much stuff. I didn’t listen and brought all sorts of things with me. The reality is that you really can find anything you need anywhere in the world.  It really depends on how picky you are about brands, how much time you have to spend searching and shopping, and how much money you are willing to spend.  I’m a little particular about some things, like my facial moisturizer (Clinique is available in every country, but much more expensive in Europe), but much less about other products.  If you have an allergy to some fragrance or need a specific contact lens solution, by all means bring some with you.

However, it’s really impossible to carry around a year’s supply of everything, so sooner or later you’ll have to forage while you’re on the road.  We found that just on the outskirts of most big cities, there are big suburban shopping centers with a lot more selection of products and lower prices.  I know that a lot of people are against this “globalization”, but when you’ve run out of shampoo, socks, and aspirin, it’s really nice to be able to get everything in one stop.  Keep in mind that it still might take you all day to do it depending on how much of the local language you understand.

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Pod People

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

We’re still fixing up the house and unpacking (slowly), but have had some time to get together with a few friends.  It’s weird, in a good way, to see everyone again after so much time, but there are a few questions that everyone has.  One of them is “what did you do with all your stuff while you were gone?”

The explanation leads me to some travel advice as well, so I think it’s a good topic.  First off, we rented out our house, unfurnished, while we traveled. It was a big decision, but definitely the right thing to do.  We hired a management company to handle the rental  logistics and that was also a good decision.  They did everything from advertising the property, finding a renter and doing background checks, to collecting the rent.  They would also have handled evictions, but thankfully we didn’t have to put that to the test.  We never even met the person and basically just received a direct deposit every month from the company. Of course, they take a % of the rent, but they are also available to help the renter get a plumber or handyman if something goes wrong.  There’s no way I wanted to be worrying about whether the renter could reach us when we were 15 times zones away and the sprinkler system broke (which I’m told actually did happen and flooded the neighbors’ yard – better to find out after it’s all fixed).

In the end, the house survived pretty well with just a few nicks and our mortgage payments were covered while roamed around the world.  It was a huge weight off our minds and wallets.  If you plan to do this, consider the market conditions in your area though, and do some research on rent rates for similar properties.  You might be able to get enough to cover other home expenses you might have like taxes or insurance.  You’ll also need to think about whether you want to do a month-to-month agreement or a fixed time period.  Our renter signed for a year, so there literally was no place to come back to after we left.  A few months before the year was up, we decided to extend our travels for 3 more months.  The management company also worked it out with the renter to stay longer too.  Overall, the experience was good and one of the easier things we had to deal with before and after we traveled.

As I mentioned above, we rented the house unfurnished, which meant we had to find a place for our “stuff.”  While we tried to sell/donate/throw away a lot of things before we left, we knew we’d be back and would need some of the big items, like furniture and the big screen TV again.  The obvious choice is a storage garage, but we went with a “pod” instead.  It’s a huge container that they deliver it to your house, you load it up, and they take it away.  It’s stored in a climate controlled warehouse somewhere until you call and have it delivered again to unload.  The best part about it was that we didn’t have to move things very far… just out the front door into the pod, and then back in again a year later.  With a storage garage, you have an extra step of renting a truck and unloading/loading at the site.  The only downside is that once the pod is gone, you really can’t get access to your things. You need to be sure that you won’t need whatever is in there until after you are back. For us, it worked out really well and was probably a slightly cheaper option, too. 

We finished up moving boxes out of the pod and it was picked up today.  It’s seems trivial, but that action made our return feel very real and final.  Until then, I had the sense that maybe we could just send it back and hit the road again. 

Here’s the Pack Rat pod in front of our very full garage. 

blog-pod.JPG

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