Living
on the road is very different from the two to three week holiday that
we've been accustomed to taking. We are often asked about what it's
like to be on "permanent vacation" for over a year. The question
causes us to reflect on how differently we approach each day, week and
month now, as opposed to our old way of traveling.
Myth: We're on a 14 month vacation.
Reality:
Vacations are a well financed couple weeks away from the work grind
where we treat ourselves to nice eco-accommodations, good meals and
leisure and adventure activities we've saved up money for a one-time
splurge. We're not on a vacation.
Reality: We're on a 14 month working adventure, that's a different type of work than we are used to in corporate America.
We
have budgets to meet, bills to pay, taxes to file, property to manage,
plans and strategies to be mapped out and acted upon, along with the
daily chores of finding accommodation without too many roaches, meals
that won't ruin our health, transportation where we won't be in
excessive danger or pain, dirty laundry to be washed in sinks and hung
to dry in damp moldy rooms, and always being aware and mindful of being
robbed, mugged, ripped off or scammed. A hot shower is a luxury, as is
a private bathroom and running water, a toilet and a seat a bonus, and
try to find soap and deodorant in remote areas- sometimes they just
don't exist. We awake to roosters, cows and other farm animals that
make their way by our bedside accommodations in the rural areas, or the
screaming sirens, horns, food-wallah wails, communist propaganda
loudspeakers or loud staggering drunkard in the city backpacker area.
The air we breathe is not environmentally friendly, and our lungs have
a fresh coat of black when we return from a day out, and our skin is
filthy dirty from the outdoor elements (and you thought it was a good
tan) and in fact I think our lungs are permanently covered with
cigarette tar from all the second hand smoke in Europe. Our bodies
ache from poorly maintained transportation where we often have had a
half or no seat at all, and busses and vans with shock absorption -
doesn't exist. Our bodies are swollen from too much sodium intake, and
not having the 4 food groups readily available to eat from each day,
not to mention the inability to work out in most of the developing
countries we've traveled through - given the cultural dress
expectations for females, along with the extreme heat and humidity. We
are exhausted and dehydrated from being constantly on the go, taking
overnight transport to save on accommodation cost... A choice we made
specifically to see more places versus sitting idle in one place for
too long. We pour over blog articles and photos, to codify our
observations, learnings and tribulations, hoping that they reflect a
bit of what we see to those who are so passionately following along
with us.
This
type of travel in our minds is not vacation, but a sabbatical, a quest
for knowledge, growth and experience through daily adventure. To
extract the most learning and growth for ourselves, the more we put
into it, the more we get out of it, and it's often through hardship on
the road that we learn the most - therefore, we opt to take the
challenging route, stay in the challenging places, and put ourselves in
situations that challenge and stretch us each day. And while it's not
vacation - it's certainly not as bad as it may sound - we love the
challenge, the struggles and the different kind of stresses we find
ourselves in daily. We're far beyond our comfort zones and learning
and living each minute.
Reflecting
over the past 7 months, it's taken us a little while to learn how to
"live on the road" instead of vacationing. When we used to vacation
for a couple of weeks, we always wanted to make sure we made the most
of every minute away from home, traveling far distances to "really get
away" and packing each day and night full of sight seeing and
activities. We didn't want to waste a precious minute of time away
from work sleeping, or seemingly wasting the time relaxing. After our
first few weeks on the road, in January, we were literally exhausted,
trying to do and see way too much. We would never make it 14 months
keeping that pace, nor would we meet our budget goals. While we still
have an aggressive plan to see a lot of places, we're significantly
slowed our pace and tailored our expectations. We now enjoy waking up
mid-morning and having a nice coffee, or awaking to those early morning
roosters and watching the sun rise, and observing local life whiz by on
the streets in front of us. We maybe take in a sight here or there,
but no longer seek the tourist path, or feel the need to pack every day
with activities. Just living in itself is now an activity for us.
This allows us to enjoy, learn and experience it slowly through the
eyes of locals around us. We take time to sit and chat with those
living around us, and sometimes it may mean chatting with the few
English and local language words we can all exchange and understand,
and sometimes it's more complex English discussions about culture,
politics, economics and society. We take naps when we're tired. We
take the longer route on local transportation instead of quickly flying
from city to city. We take the extra time to walk the distance through
town streets, exploring alleyways and going off grid, instead of seeing
how quickly we can get from point A to point B. We wander from spot to
spot. We show up with no reservations and no strict time frames on how
long we'll stay.
Those
who come to visit us while we're living on the road will most likely
note the drastic difference in our behaviors. As Deanna noted the
other day, you guys seem to really nap a lot... especially when she was
familiar with the person I was back at home - always wired and active
7x24, the excessive type A, always needing to be productive and
achieving. Having just come off whirlwind from Vietnam to Bangkok, to
Helsinki, Egypt and now into Barcelona, we've hit a wall, and need to
refuel and catch our bodies up on sleep and well balanced meals. We
actually do take in sights in Barcelona, but not like we would have "on
vacation." On vacation, Deanna would have known me to have a plan,
destinations, hot spots and an adventurous wish list mapped out to
ensure we saw everything in the limited time we have. It must really
be a shock for her to see us in such a different mode. I told her to
bring her work out gear, thinking finally I have a workout partner and
a great environment to get out and reenergize my body... But nearly a
week and I'm still buggered and needing to still rest, but have had to
do some intense research to reroute our next 7 months, and plan out a
lower cost travel plan for the remainder of our month in Europe.
Needless to say, I have not been the ideal vacation workout partner,
nor tour guide. Reality hits: this is life on the road, and not a
vacation.
