March/April/May
Rapidly, I’ve found that this type of trip is unlikely anything else I’ve ever planned and prepared for (ummmm hello Jen! Travelling for 14 months might be a bit different than your average 8-week summer trip…).
There is something inherently terrifying exciting about actually endless possibilities. This was the first time I hadn’t bought a return ticket (still haven’t!), and I knew, that, while I did want to have a route planned, it was increasingly obvious that I wouldn’t have days or even all my weeks planned as much as I usually did.
I love planning for a trip almost as much as the actual travelling, and aside from giving up a bit of spontaneity, the rewards of planning have never led me wrong; so I continue to plan most of my travels pretty thoroughly.
Major Purchases
I kept my eyes open for flight deals, and actually managed to grab a great flight for one that I’d been expecting to be quite expensive. I managed to get a transatlantic flight from São Paulo to Portugal for late February, for less than 400$! Major travel win!
It helped to make my definitely more expensive flight around Christmas time getting to Argentina from Australia – that one came in at 1300$ one way…
Finally, I made a reservation for a train trip that I’d been postponing on the off-chance it would go down in price. No such luck. So I ended up booking my trans-Australian train for just over 1100$.
All together, these purchases were 2800$ Canadian.
Not booking too much….?
The problem with booking such a long trip, is that it’s really not possible to book it all before going. As someone who likes to have everything planned out, this was a bit of a challenge for me to not do. I like to know where I’m going and where I’m spending the night.
I made a goal of having up until my Antarctic trip booked with those details, so the rest of the time was spent with hostel booking and route planning.
Day-Trip Research
No matter how great your solo-travel intentions are, there are some activities that are just better done in a group.
I researched some day tours for Ha Long Bay, the Great Barrier Reef, a sailing on Lake Nasser, and a trip to Chernobyl.
By no means complete, but definitely lots of hours of reading reviews and researching companies.
Group Tour Bookings
Despite my love of solo travel, there are a few places that I really wanted to go this year, and the only way to get there is with a group tour. For my trips to North Korea and Iran, I needed to be with a tour. I ended up going with Lupine Tours for my travels into NK, and Key2Persia for my adventures into Iran.
What I read
I’ve made it a goal to read a book based in, or written by someone from one of the countries that I will be going to.
The Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda is based between the US and India. It follows the story of two families, joined by the adoption of a daughter from India. Increasingly, the book spends more time in India as the daughter accepts an internship and goes to live with relatives. It showed the growing contrast between the rich and poor in some of India’s massive metropolises, and how different their experiences can be. The writing was beautiful, especially in scenes with the daughters birth mother in India, who gave her daughter up for adoption due to poverty. Definitely highly recommend!
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. Despite knowing the ending, this one relayed the adventures of Shackleton’s last voyage towards Antarctica. The absolutely insane adventures, trekking across glaciers, sailing through dramatic seas and their single-minded goal of exploring the South Atlantic created a thrilling read. And made me equally happy that my expected voyage will be a lot less dramatic, but equally incredible (with a happier ending!)
Stay tuned for the last pre-trip update of June!
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