Round The World

At first place you struggle with a problem – where to begin with?
The idea of the trip has been created, but how and where you go to???
I think I started from… Google! (of course!) I totally didn’t know which of all these beautiful places in the world I should go to…cause I cannot visit all of them :( And I have to choose only these which I can afford. So first criteria of searching the web looked like this:

– wonders of the world
– seven wonders of the world
– seven wonders of … (name of a country)
– 10 the best hikes/treks
– 10 the most beautiful places in he world
– must go places in the world

A lot of digging, grubbing around and even more reading. After a time I realized that the best source of information are www.tripadvisor.com, www.lonelyplanet.com, www.virtualtourist.com and www.bootsnall.com. Less useful but still:
http://www.worldtravelguide.net/
http://www.iexplore.com/
http://www.backpacker.com/
http://www.gobackpacking.com
http://www.budgettravel.com/
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/

When finally the rout was more less planned I started to drag myself into reading travel blogs written by people who already did RTW trip or haven’t finished yet. I quickly noticed that this is the best way to find out about the most important things. Starting from recommend by these people places worth visiting, through the best and the cheapest ways of getting there, ending on the most reliable accommodation. You can really learn about many very interesting places, not those the most commercial, which you can google typing “10 the most beautiful places in he world”. You can e-mail these people and get even better help. They have been there, they’ve seen, they’ve experienced – they know the best.

Money, money
Planning this type trip is connected with some kind of sacrifice and scrupulous saving. I have to admit that it wasn’t that bad experience to me. For sure my body is grateful for this break in partying every weekend. The fact is that this almost a year long asceticism will be recompensed to us in a beautiful style :)
I started my saving in January ’09. 10 months is not that long, but a rise in my job helped a lot. Cannot say that I’m rich right now so the character of this trip is going to be in a backpacker style. The most important thing about traveling cheap is being hosted by other people. Personally, I have never liked this way of interfering with people, but we have no choice :] We will have to manage our saved money to prevent a situation that in Thailand we wake up with no money and it’s time to go back home.

As a matter of fact I have always liked to travel. I have alway enjoyed spending time in nature, watching trees, mountains, oceans and deserts. New sounds, views, tastes and smells change us, expand our horizons. Everyone must agree that there is something exciting in what is unknown to us, right? :)
The idea came to my head don’t remember when and don’t remember how. Whatever the case might be it was more then 2 years ago, I guess. It’s quite possible that I already spoke about it with my very good friend Maciej Pinkowski when we were on our way to Ukraine for the New Years Eve ’08. Subsequent trip to Alaska aimed, inter alia, to save some money, which unfortunately didn’t work (because of trip to Mexico and NYC), however some of the earning I invested in a gear that I’m taking with me.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, there was more eager to go. I think that 4-ppl crew is an optimum. For sure it would be funnier, safer, and even if while hitchhiking we could separate into twos.When there is a group of 3 the situation is still good, but it could be a problem with finding accommodation amend people from the Hospitality Club/CouchSurfing
Whatever the case Tom and I will manage without any bigger incidents…we will have to :)

Some people may think that this kind if trip is a madness. Actually I’ve already faced with this opinion. The fact is that among Aussies, Kiwis, Canucks or Yankees ‘gap year’ or other is pretty popular form of spending holidays…long holidays.
Since several months I’ve been getting into the swing of reading many travel blogs. It is unbelievable how many people travel the world. At least I haven’t realized until now. The number of visitors to Huayna Picchu is limited to 400 per day – that means something. Moreover, China wants to restrict the number of climbers on Mount Everest (Article 1, Article 2). The highest mountain in the world is not challenging anymore, everyone can do it…

The decision about going around the world is made, proper actions has been taken. We won’t regret :)

…how shall I begin…

who?where?how?
About an year ago me and my very best friend Tom made a decision about going for a trip of our life. At the beginning it was 4 of us, but for the other 2 life has chosen different path…what a pity…
The year has passed very quickly. A lot of planning, wheeling and dealing plus a bit of arranging and we’re almost sorted. 1,5 month left to go so we are feeling more and more excited … :)
With impatience and even bigger happiness I’m really looking forward to the day we leave this beautiful Ireland (that is 31st of Oct)…

We will spend 2 weeks in Poland on moping-up operations. Also I’m going to try arrange first few meetings with people from the Hospitality Club/CouchSurfing, who (I hope) will host us in some of the places we are going to.
We are planning a going away party too :)

This is where we are going to: Venezuela-Brazil-Peru-Bolivia-Argentina-Chile-New Zealand-Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand-Cambodia-(Laos)-Vietnam-Nepal-India

peace!