BootsnAll Travel Network
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What's this all about?

We took off for a year (which turned into 15 months) to travel the world. This blog was started as a place to keep family and friends updated on our plans and where we were. Now, we are moving to Europe, so the blog will be about our new experiences, travels, and life as expats for the first time!

Taco Hell

April 2nd, 2010

Being back in California has confirmed a theory that we had on the road: There is no good Mexican food anywhere but here (and maybe parts of Mexico). No matter how good the menu looks or how much you are craving it, don’t bother to order it anywhere else in the world. Trust me, we tried. The best attempt was in Oz, covered with a slightly spicy, but mostly sweet salsa. The worst was a “fajita” in Ireland that tasted just like the beef and Guinness pie, which is what we should have ordered.

This experience led us to another travel rule. ALWAYS eat and drink the local the food/wine/beer/tea/etc. Even if Indian or Turkish food is not your favorite, I can almost guarantee that it will be better than any version of American food you could order there. I learned it the hard way. After weeks of great stir fry and curry in Asia, I was still craving something else. I broke the rule, and after the one bite of the most horrible chicken sandwich ever, I was back to the wok.

The reality is that every culture has had centuries to perfect the best way to use the ingredients they have. The result is that the best tasting dishes you’ll find are going to be made in the local style with fresh ingredients. It holds true for takeout places or white-table-cloth dining – stick with the specialty. The rule doesn’t just apply to food either. Nothing goes better with the local cuisine than the local drink. Irish stew washed down with a Guinness? Iberico ham tapas with a glass of Rioja? It doesn’t get any better.

The only caveat to the rule above is this: If your yogurt is bubbling, don’t eat it. (Another one learned the hard way.)

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Running on Empty

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

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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Rules to live by

February 24th, 2010

As I move into a new phase of life, I’m also moving the travel blog into a new phase as well. I’ve started to look back through our photos and journals (more about that in another blog) to come up with things to write about. As we traveled we learned a lot and also started to get into some good habits. I’ll be sharing some of these gems and hopefully someone out there will find them useful.

Our number one travel rule is pretty simple and trumps all others: Whenever you find a decent toilet, use it. You really never know when you’ll cross paths with the next available/clean/functioning/free restroom, so don’t take any chances. Even if you just went at the last stop, try again. Let’s just say that there are some pretty scary bathrooms out there, and if you travel for any length of time, you’ll eventually have to use one.

Since that one was pretty obvious, I’ll move on to another rule we lived by: Whenever you stay at a new hotel check out a few blocks in all directions. It seems silly, but it’s easy toquickly get into a routine of going one way. One direction inevitably leads to “downtown” or maybe a better lit, better looking neighborhood. I fell into this trap in London and only found out after 2 years of staying at the same hotel for business that there was a 24 hour market just one block in the opposite direction. Doh!

If you never leave your “ant trail”, you’ll never know what great restaurant or park or shop might literally be just around the corner. So, rule number two is always take a short walk in the opposite direction. Of course, sometimes there’s nothing there but empty storefronts or dodgy people, but you might get a great travel story out of that too.

About the photo: We found a free shuttle bus to the train station just behind our hotel in Hong Kong. The concierge must have forgotten to tell us about that one.

blog-hk-street.jpg

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Did I Say Home or Home Depot?

February 13th, 2010

To quote a little old school LL, “ I’m going back to Cali.”   Our renter moved out and we are spending a few weeks cleaning, painting, and generally fixing up the place before we have new carpet installed.  It’s a lot of work and so strange to be doing it after just arriving back in the OC.  It’s been a week of trying to re-connect with our former life and see what has changed and what hasn’t.  The paint aisle at HD is still in the same place, by the way.

Most of our stuff is in a long term storage pod.  It won’t be delivered to our house until after we’re ready with the flooring.  In the meantime, we had left a few last minute things in a closet at one of those public storage garages.  I remember putting a few clothes, our bikes, an air mattress and a some dishes and pans in there just before we left.  It now seems like ages ago, but it was fun to rediscover it all.  After living for the last 15 months out of just one bag with a few T-shirts, it was weirdly exciting to find my wardrobe doubled in one day.  And I have a washing machine again!

Aside from shock that it’s over, which I haven‘t really thought about yet, there are little things that I need to get used to. I keep going to my bag to get my toothbrush, forgetting that it’s got a home now setting on the bathroom sink and I don’t have to re-pack it every morning.

Even though my blogs won’t be coming to you from exotic destinations anymore, I hope you’ll all keep reading.  While I reintegrate back into normal society, I intend to keep writing.  I have some thoughts about travel, “rules” that we learned along the way, as well some advice and “product reviews” of things we took with us.  That should keep me busy while I wait for the next coat of “Swiss Coffee” to dry.

One thing that has changed…  the tree we planted before we left now has limes!  Seems like a little guacamole and Pacifico are in our future.

blog-lime.jpg

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