Go where you are celebrated, not where you are tolerated.
– Author Unknown
Thursday, November 7, 2013 (DAYS 612 & 613)
Talking with my new friend Ara, a Korean local that is also extremely camera shy (thus the reason for no photos of us), we have shared a few discussions regarding travel, especially since she is getting ready for her first big two-month backpacking trip that begins in India and ends in Eastern or Western Europe. From our discussions, I’ve helped provide her with a bit of insight, possibly what to expect, and thought I would share some of the travel advice I gave to her. The one thing I’ve constantly reminded people is that I didn’t just wake up one day and decide I’m going to sell all my belongings, quit my job, and travel without any idea of where I’m going to begin, but took the time to do some pre-travel planning and preparation and this has seriously made a world of difference in comparison to the problems I’ve both seen and heard from others on the road. While this may go against the backpacking spirit of never planning an itinerary–maybe lack of committing to plans–these are just a very few issues to consider prior to leaving for a extended traveling:
Talking with my new friend Ara, a Korean local that is also extremely camera shy (thus the reason for no photos of us), we have shared a few discussions regarding travel, especially since she is getting ready for her first big two-month backpacking trip that begins in India and ends in Eastern or Western Europe. From our discussions, I’ve helped provide her with a bit of insight, possibly what to expect, and thought I would share some of the travel advice I gave to her. The one thing I’ve constantly reminded people is that I didn’t just wake up one day and decide I’m going to sell all my belongings, quit my job, and travel without any idea of where I’m going to begin, but took the time to do some pre-travel planning and preparation and this has seriously made a world of difference in comparison to the problems I’ve both seen and heard from others on the road. While this may go against the backpacking spirit of never planning an itinerary–maybe lack of committing to plans–these are just a very few issues to consider prior to leaving for a extended traveling:
| |  HAVE A GOOD BANK TO BACK YOU UP: I have met too many travelers that have ended up having either their accounts compromised or bank cards stolen and I’ve always said one of the largest problems is having money in an account that you have no way to access in a foreign country. Take the time to make sure the bank you have is prepared to handle things such as; How long it will take to receive a new bankcard in some of the hardest locations on the globe? Will you transfer funds via Western Union until this card arrives and who covers the fees? Is it possible to obtain multiple ATM or debit cards WITH different 16-digit card numbers that are INACTIVE? Lastly, I would suggest a personal banker that fully understands your travels needs because you are outside of the realm of what the average bank customer’s needs are, regardless of time traveling (or time traveling…awe yeah see there) and be in solid communication with them (i.e. where they are available via email and phone calls). I cannot thank my personal banker, Anna, enough for all of the emails and inquires I’ve had throughout all of the countries I’ve been to, because there have been some interesting situations fo sho. Fo sho! BUDGET BASED UPON REGION AND REASON: Traveling Europe versus Southeast Asia versus Central America versus South America, all of these regions of the world have entirely different types of budget expectations, and traveling from one to another after becoming accustom to a certain level of price for value can certainly be an adjustment, to say the least. I’m not one for living and dying by guide books as quite a efw backpackers tend to do, but what I do use them for are things that tend not to change over the years, which is distance between cities when under a more restrictive time limitation for your travels as well as the overall maps of important landmarks such as bus terminals, airports, etc. From one of my previous blogs, two things that will not only save you money, and help you from getting ripped off will be a currency exchange app that allows for updating from time to time via WiFi so you understand the exchange rates clearly and speaking with other backpackers or resarching online to get an overall idea of the suggested daily budget, because Singapore or Japan are certainly not Thailand or Malaysia.  SEASONAL CONSIDERATIONS: This can be everything from the climates to consider during the time of year you are planning to travel to a particular region (packing a coat or bikini – space in your pack) to local or regional holidays that can affect and over-stretch your budget very quickly (even weekend prices in some areas increase their prices for Friday and Saturday night stays, such as Seoul) to how this affect transportation costs and availability. One quick example, in Nicaragua, there is no public transportation services running on January 1st and the 2nd is the busies travel day in all of Central America so expect overcrowded buses and extremely long lines at overland borders. Experiencing a 3-hour or 12-hour day at the border is no picnic, and trust me, I love picnics! MENTAL PREPARATION: This is one of the most important I feel, because while most people see the photos of us traveling and having a great time at beautiful locations, what they don’t see is the exhaustion of strapping on a 40lb bag and walking 6km at 4:30am as stray dogs are barking at you in the dark, sleeping in rooms with snoring monsters or rude Frenchmen smoking away in the bunk next to you while playing awful dub step, getting sick (it's bad enough when you have the comforts in being at home in your own bed, now imagine it at a hostel and it's exponentially 100 times worse), being shoved in vehicles that would horrify any State Patrol as there is no maximum occupancy, seat belts, yeah what are those, and finding a balance of being able to handle all of the physical and mental fatigue of backpacking, because as most of my colleagues would agree, backpackers are an entirely different category as other leisure travelers, vacationers, tourists, etc. |
MY RTW PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
Wide-awake at 4am, I continue to struggle and fight to get back to sleep but give up on this battle after nearly 2-hours, and decide if sleep is going to elude me well at least some writing will not. Blogging has been a great outlet, both in preserving memories while they are still fresh and providing me with an early morning activity when Skyping is out of the question, because even though we’re backpackers there is still an order of etiquette to maintain living in hostels. You certainly do not want to be the guy that steals precious sleep from others–automatic outcast. The morning writing session is productive and a new blog is posted to the already oversaturated market of travel bloggers, c’mon man, I’m realistic and understand that this is an incredibly tough niche market to attempt to break in to as a monetary means to optimize extended travel, but I am always hopeful. Big money, big money, big money….click click click click, or being in Asia I should be saying, crick crick crick crick crick. For some hilarious reason, the topic of American game shows was where a typical nightly conversation led us and we started talking about the infamous Bob Barker and his associates. Hiarious indeed.
Completing forgetting about the fact that today is the notorious College Scholastic Ability Test or Suneung (수능) for high school seniors–the annual test that puts a 20-minute no fly zone over Korea during the verbal section of the exam and sadly is associated with an increased number of suicides, because of the amount of pressure and stress that is placed upon the scores for both graduation and university acceptance–I receive a message from my friend Ray, who teaches Middle School, as he has the day off because it is too close in proximity to the High School, and asks if I would like to meet up for lunch. Feeling the onset of exhaustion hitting me like a wave, I’ve chosen an afternoon nap instead and want to slap Jacob for keeping me up talking about his travel plans to Thailand until 2:30am the previous night, ok maybe just a small punch instead. I suppose I still find it humorous when people ask where I’m heading to next and when my answer is, “no idea,” but rattle off a list of surrounding countries that may be a possibility, they tend to be unsure of how to respond to my initial response, and even I can appreciate the sense of adventure this answer, to what should be a pretty simple question, has conjured in their thoughts.
Wide-awake at 4am, I continue to struggle and fight to get back to sleep but give up on this battle after nearly 2-hours, and decide if sleep is going to elude me well at least some writing will not. Blogging has been a great outlet, both in preserving memories while they are still fresh and providing me with an early morning activity when Skyping is out of the question, because even though we’re backpackers there is still an order of etiquette to maintain living in hostels. You certainly do not want to be the guy that steals precious sleep from others–automatic outcast. The morning writing session is productive and a new blog is posted to the already oversaturated market of travel bloggers, c’mon man, I’m realistic and understand that this is an incredibly tough niche market to attempt to break in to as a monetary means to optimize extended travel, but I am always hopeful. Big money, big money, big money….click click click click, or being in Asia I should be saying, crick crick crick crick crick. For some hilarious reason, the topic of American game shows was where a typical nightly conversation led us and we started talking about the infamous Bob Barker and his associates. Hiarious indeed.
Completing forgetting about the fact that today is the notorious College Scholastic Ability Test or Suneung (수능) for high school seniors–the annual test that puts a 20-minute no fly zone over Korea during the verbal section of the exam and sadly is associated with an increased number of suicides, because of the amount of pressure and stress that is placed upon the scores for both graduation and university acceptance–I receive a message from my friend Ray, who teaches Middle School, as he has the day off because it is too close in proximity to the High School, and asks if I would like to meet up for lunch. Feeling the onset of exhaustion hitting me like a wave, I’ve chosen an afternoon nap instead and want to slap Jacob for keeping me up talking about his travel plans to Thailand until 2:30am the previous night, ok maybe just a small punch instead. I suppose I still find it humorous when people ask where I’m heading to next and when my answer is, “no idea,” but rattle off a list of surrounding countries that may be a possibility, they tend to be unsure of how to respond to my initial response, and even I can appreciate the sense of adventure this answer, to what should be a pretty simple question, has conjured in their thoughts.
Friday morning the forecast looks great, sunshine with blue skies, the ideal weather for hiking a mountain. Returning from another glorious hot shower just after 8:45am, I’ve noticed that my friend Ara has Kakao’d me back with today’s game plan: meet her at Seoul National University subway station #3 at 12pm. Perfect, I think to myself, as this will give me plenty of time to throw in some laundry to let hang dry for the day, have some brekkie, and do a little bit of writing before meeting up. Arriving a few minutes before noon, it’s a short wait until she arrives and next thing I know we are screeching through the city on a local bus headed for Samseon (삼성산) Mountain. Thinking that this will be a version of urban hiking within the city limits of Seoul, I was unprepared for the numerous Mount Everest–bound elderly people dressed head-to-toe in GORE-TEX® covered gear with their fashionable ski poles, even though I had been warned about the extremities of this humorous bunch. Our selected trail is 3.8km (2.36 miles) each-way and is reminiscent of the hikes I’ve done in Boulder, minus the fact that every rock is specifically placed to make up a trail. When we reach the end of our destination there is a spacious Buddhists’ temple has an incredible panoramic view of the capital. Growing up in Colorado, we are only at a laughable altitude of 440m (1,443 ft), a nice hill, as we would put it, but still the view is amazing and it feels good to be outdoors enjoying the crisp Autumn weather. All in all, when we return to the base it’s just after 3:45pm and we’ve hiked just over 8km with the additional peaks around the temple area we took the time to explore, and I’ve invited Ara to come over to the guesthouse for dinner. When I first began meeting people in Seoul and realized that the average commute was between 45 and 90-minutes, I thought, how terrible, but after realizing that riding their extremely efficient subway system 30-minutes can be a matter of five of six stops away, which in consideration of the fact that this is city of more than 25 million people, transportation and duration are quite good. The evening is an early one after a hearty meal of pasta, since tomorrow my birth mom is arriving in the morning from Iksan, and I’m already beginning to feel the ‘itis’ creeping in. I thank Ara for an awesome time before giving her directions back to the subway and scurry, yes scurry, off to bed before I pass out on the couch downstairs.
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