Travel With Us

We bought our tickets

Fishstick — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:05:04 +0000

Holy shit we are actually going. Well at least we’re going to Thailand for awhile!

Two tickets to Thailand $665.00 a person. We leave 10/26 at 1:17 AM (so really 10/27) arrive on 10/27 at 12:30 in the afternoon.

I feel really at peace with this right now. I’m very calm about it. The pieces of this puzzle just keep falling into place.

I’m 99% sure I will vomit before we board the plane but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Schedule

Fishstick — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:25:41 +0000

The account manager in me went to work this morning and I began creating this schedule that will inevitably be very much of an evolution but it helps me to get this all on paper at one time.

So I’ve posted it here to remind myself of all the wonderful things we need to do before we leave.

rtw-schedule1

Itinerary

Fishstick — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:33:16 +0000

Well we’ve FINALLY made some decisions!!

Here is our “itinerary”:

Thailand/Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam/maybe China (SE)/Maybe Indonesia (like Bali!!)/Maybe Malaysia

4 months (Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb)

India

2 months (March/April)

Jordan/Israel/Egypt

2 months (May/June)

Turkey

1 month (July)

Then the wedding is in Greece in August/September so we’ll be in the right location.

Then we will go up through Eastern Europe then back through to Spain into Morocco and probably leave from Spain.

Wow we are all buttoned up. Right…..

Now all we have to do is save tons and tons and tons of money. Ready, set, go.

26

Fishstick — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:13:11 +0000

I have 26 weekends of working at Jillians. Looking at it in terms on weekends makes it easier for me to handle. No need to point out that its really 2 – 3 times that much because I actually work more then once during those weekends. I’ll just count them as complete chunks to make me feel better.

On another note we’ve saved over $10,000!!

Crazy-Town-USA

Fishstick — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:44:35 +0000

So I just realized that I will have saved by tomorrow almost $4,000….which in my mind is a TON of money. That is the most amount of money I have ever saved up at one time! I’m not sure what that says about me…..? But the bad news is that I am still $2,750 short. Not to mention the fact that I know our first ticket will cost over $1000, damn NZ.

But it is so gratifying to set your mind on something and watch it happen. I truly am amazed with myself, its very fulfilling.

Considerations

Fishstick — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:54:17 +0000

Should we start in Thailand or New Zealand?

New Zealand is very expensive to get to and very expensive when you are there. Thailand is not either one of those things.

Things are the things that I think about on a daily basis. My brain is whirring.

Chug chug chugging along….

Fishstick — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:24:24 +0000

I will tell you that I run the numbers on a daily basis. The task of saving $2,000 dollars a month for the next 7 months is daunting – to say the least.

I just tallied up the amount of money I spent on food this week alone and it was over $86 dollars! That to me is ridiculous. So I’m having to cut back, here are some ways that I am trimming (well, lets be honest, SLASHING) my expenditures.

1. NO EATING OUT. This is really hard for me. Ben is great at it. Give him some rice and beans and a little Tapatio and he will be golden, me on the other hand, I crave good food. So this entails planning my lunches (and having simple lunches because expensive grocery trips are not good either) and planning dinners. Time to get creative.

2. Take the bus at least three times a week. This is easier said then done, because I hate the bus route from here to work. It is awful.

That is all I have time to write because I have to run off to my second job!! I hate this right now.

I guess it is really happening…..

Fishstick — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:32:59 +0000

I finally (after almost a month of looking) landed a part time job. I need this job in order to earn the extra $2K a month to finance the trip, but dam this is going to be hard. Yesterday I got to work at 8:15 left at 5:45 went to Jillian’s (my new gig) and trained as a host until 1AM. That is 17 hours of work….I think, I’m bad at math. But holy shit, are you kidding me??

Positives about Jillian’s:

People are fun, work is super easy (watched American Idol and the Office last night), will make me the money that I need.

Basically I need to look at it as if I work these two jobs I will be able to take a year off and travel. I think I can make it work.

On another note I found a really great service offered by Safeway that for a small fee it will get a physician to recommend vaccinations and prescriptions for your trip, and they can administer them to you at their pharmacy. Also found a fun looking tour company in New Zealand called Magic Backpackers (thanks Cynthia!) I requested more info from them.