Many of the frequently asked questions revolve around our world trip, but we have covered other general travel topics as well. If you have a question to ask us please feel free to contact us.
What is the most favorite place you have traveled to?
This is a difficult question to answer. You like different places for different reasons. Overall though, there is one place that seemed to capture the heart of both my husband and myself. That would be Tibet. I had dreamed of going to Tibet for as long as I can remember. I never thought it would actually happen. I’m glad we made it there just after the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, as it will, and probably already has changed Tibet forever. The landscape of Tibet is full of breathtaking scenery, but the people are what we fell in love with. They were full of smiles, genuine and kind. We found ourselves in awe at the devotion to their religious beliefs. It is a place that we think of often and it will have a long lasting effect on us.
How much did your world trip cost?
We have posted a detailed account of our world trip expenses that you can read here.
Around The World Trip Expenses
Did you purchase one of those (RTW) Round the World tickets?
No we did not use an RTW ticket. We did some research on different options of RTW tickets, but they did not appeal to us. We purchased a one year open return ticket from Vancouver, Canada to London, England. This avoided any issues with flying into London and not having a return ticket to show them. Although they still asked us several questions about what we were doing. It also gave us piece of mind that we had a paid ticket for up to one year later that would get us back home. (As long as we got back to London of course.
RTW tickets have certain rules and regulations that have to be followed. They can be restrictive in how they allow you to travel and can be a headache to make changes to. Why would we want to pick out all our destinations ahead of time and follow any kind of schedule? We will write an more detailed post about this later.
How did you stay in touch with family and friends while you were gone?
We were in contact with immediate family usually every couple of days over the internet. Even the most remote places seem to have internet connection now. We would use the computers in hostels we were staying in or find internet cafes. We called home a few times using Skype on the computer as well. Half way through our year of travel we purchased a small laptop. We were able to get free wireless internet on many occasions.
Sometimes we purchased local calling cards, but they could be difficult to figure out how to use. They often didn’t give the amount of talk time indicated on the card. An occasional postcard was sent by snailmail. By far the best way everyone kept up with us was with a free travelblog site we used called Travelpod. There are many sites like this now. It allows you to create your own online travel blog for free. You can write about what you have been doing and post pictures.
What kind of accommodation do you usually stay in?
We stay in all types of places. On our world trip it ranged from hostels, guest houses, budget hotels, and a few treats at more luxurious bed and breakfasts or hotels. Our choice of accommodation depends on why or what we are traveling for. What kind of mood we are in, what our budget is at the time, and how late in the day we are looking for a place to sleep all determine where we end up for the night. Generally if it is clean and comfortable it is good enough for us.
How did you deal with getting visas for countries that required them?
We can not be of much assistance to other travelers in this regard. We were basically lazy travelers. If a country had to have a visa where you needed to apply beforehand and wait for approval, we just didn’t travel there. We only went to countries that did not require a visa ahead of time or allowed it to be purchased right at the point of entry. I can’t say we missed out on anywhere we wanted to go, with the exception of Vietnam. We would have liked to do some traveling there. While we were on our trip we came across travelers waiting in one destination longer than anticipated while they waited for a visa. It just wasn’t something we wanted to deal with.
How did you manage traveling as vegetarians?
Whether we are considered vegetarians is a matter of opinion, we do eat fish and eggs, so it wasn’t as difficult to find things to eat. We eat a huge variety of food, much more than a lot of people we know who are meat eaters. We usually have no issues finding meals anywhere we go.
The only place we can honestly say we had issues was in China. It got very difficult to get a variety of food in some parts of the country. You can only eat so much rice and noodles. Beijing was easy, they have a wide selection of different ethnic restaurants and even chain places like Pizza Hut. Some countries were better than others, places like Portugal were very meat based, but there are always options. During our travels in Africa we could find fish in most places and a good variety of vegetable and legume dishes. Thailand was a vegetarian dream.
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