What to pack: all about shoes

That's right, you knew it was coming. How could we name the blog E-shoe without a few words about our footwear selections? Well, we're going with two choices: some lightweight trail running shoes and a pair of flip-flops each. Here's the deal.

First, looking around, the consensus seems to be that boots are just too much weight to lug around with too little payoff. I'm sure we'll do some walking, but not enough mountainous hiking to warrant full-blown boots, and as with the sleeping bag, I'm sure we could find something locally if the need does arise.

So if not boots then what? Well, we both like sandals, so flip-flops sounded great: they're light, small, easy to replace and inconspicuous. I can easily walk around town in a good pair with little issue. We will do some longer hikes though, I'm sure, and it's nice to have some foot coverage in places where mosquitoes are a worry. Trail runners will cover us there.

What we went with in the end were a pair of New Balance for me and some Merrells for her. These are both dubbed "barefoot running shoes," a paradox in terminology that I am still reeling from. Still, at a mere 170 grams for his and 140 grams for hers, they're damn light. They also both have a Vibram sole to hopefully last up against the elements. Light, comfortable, rugged, and not too flashy. Coupled with a pair of Havianas for each of us, and we're good to go.

Of course, these aren't the only options; we did look at some others. I tried on a couple pairs of the toe shoes, but just wasn't feeling them. I do know a few people who love them, but even they admit it takes some getting used to.

Then, there's the backpacker's staple: the Teva. Now I'm sure they're damn comfortable, but to me they just scream "tourist." Anything I can do not to draw attention and become a target is good in my book.

Lastly, not to be overlooked are socks, your first line of defense against blisters. Ideally, you want something that will wick moisture and provide enough cushion. I've been wearing Thorlos now for years, so I'm set. Akemi picked up a few pairs of running socks made of wicking material as well. If you want something a bit thicker, many people like wool, nature's wicking material (Smartwool is a good alternative for those who are allergic). Another option is to just double up.

And there you have it! Keep your feet happy on the road—you'll certainly get enough use out of them!

Meeting an old friend

The other day, I met up with an old friend from my days at Chiba University that I hadn't seen in something like 6-7 years. He was the one that first introduced me to the world of capoeira, and I am eternally thankful for that. Catching up after all that time was great; hopefully we'll get the chance to meet up again next year in Brazil as well.

Having been on an extended trip himself, he had a few interesting things to say when the conversation shifted to our trip. He mentioned how traveling changes your priorities in life—something that I'm already experiencing somewhat in getting rid of most of our worldly possessions before setting off.

Many of the things we consider essential to modern life—cars, cell phones, internet access—are really just conveniences. Giving up certain conveniences can be hard, but a simpler life can make for a less stressful one. I can imagine that there are some luxuries that I'll happily welcome back into my life after the trip, but going without certain things for a year offers a chance to re-evaluate how important they really are.

There's also the external influence from the people we'll see along the way, both other travelers and locals. With destinations like Nepal and Zambia on our list, we're bound to see plenty of poverty.

The thing is though, plenty of these poor people are happy—sometimes even happier than the rich. In Egypt, we met one guy that lived in a house with no roof, but he couldn't have been happier. He had his family, friends, and a few donkeys, and that's all he needed. Money does not equal happiness.

I don't plan on foregoing electricity or a roof over my head any time soon, but my travels thus far have already pointed out some of the basic things we take for granted in rich countries. I could see some aspects of the simple life rubbing off on my lifestyle after a year.

Living abroad for seven years now has definitely changed my view of the world already. I look forward to seeing how the next year will affect things.

How has traveling affected your view of things? What kind of things had the biggest impact?

What to pack: some choice travel gear

As our departure date draws closer, we've just about got everything that we want to take with us together now. Here's a quick rundown of a few things we bought after researching things online. Everything is pictured above—for scale, the money belt (top left) is roughly the size of a wallet.

Money belt

• Money belt. Bought for a few hundred yen at Tokyu Hands, a local store in Tokyo. Those ones that go all the way around your waist aren't very comfortable and get pretty hot if worn all day, so I went with this clip model. It clips inside your pants to keep important items like our passports and larger sums of money out of site.

Platypus water bottle

• Platypus soft bottle. Water is essential, especially on long hikes. A standard water bottle takes up all kinds of space when not loaded with water though. Meanwhile, this guy folds flat and will take up next to no space at all. Found at your favorite outdoors retailer. But is local water safe to drink, you ask? That leads us to our next purchase...

Steripen

• Steripen. Full disclosure: I have no experience using this thing yet. From the reviews I've read, however, it's a wonder that more people don't decide to tote one of these along. One wave of this wand in your drink for a few seconds, and it automagically neutralizes the bacteria. Bye-bye Delhi Belly! Adios Montezuma's Revenge! Or so the story goes, at least. It won't help with less than hygienic chefs, but it will mean a better solution than iodine for drinking whatever water is available. I'll be trying this out in Thailand before Akemi will trust the thing. Review to come.

• Travel towel (left). Another couple items that I've heard lots about and can't wait to try out for myself. The first is a travel towel, made from a quick-drying microfiber. Besides the obvious, we might try wetting and wrapping these around our necks to stay cool in obnoxiously hot weather. I've also heard of some people draping these over themselves in hot rooms with no AC to stay cool while sleeping.
  
  

  

  Travel towel and sleeping liner

• Sleeping bag liner (right). The sleeping bag liner is basically like a one-man silk pair of sheets that you take with. As you can see, it takes up much less space than a sleeping bag. No sleeping bags for us; we're not really planning on doing much camping and expect there to be equipment for rent on the rare occasions that we do. You can't always expect the bedding provided or conditions on the road to be of the best quality though, so this should help make sleeping in squalor a little more palatable. 

Most of these items were pretty inexpensive and shouldn't take up much space at all in our packs. At the end of the trip, we'll revisit this and see which of these actually were essential and which we could have done without. Oh, and not pictured (mainly because it was taking the picture in this case) was the iPhone, but that'll have to wait for another post.

Is the Steripen truly the greatest thing since sliced bread? Have an opinion on any of the other stuff we're taking? Are there any items you consider essential on your trips?

My backpack is here!

His and hers backpacks

They're here! Akemi picked up her pack locally, but I wasn't really feeling the selection here in Japan. My backpack finally arrived in the mail today, so we now have the bulk of our ducks in their proverbial rows. I'll hopefully write up more on these again later, but in short, our goal was to maximize how much we can take without having to check our bags. Akemi tried loading hers up, so I've given the packed weight for hers as well. I don't think she'd want much more weight than that on her back!

Specs for my bag:

• MEI Voyageur
• Dimensions: 22" x 14" x 9" (35.6 cm x 22.9 cm x 55.9 cm)
• Liters: 43L + 5
• Weight: 3.75 lbs. (1.7 kg)
• Maximizes carry on requirements for airlines

Specs for her bag:

• Karrimor Cloud 30
• Dimensions: 24" x 10" x 9.8" (63 cm x 25 cm x 24.5 cm)
• Liters: 30L
• Weight: 2.2 lbs. (1.0 kg)
• Weight loaded: 17 lbs. (7.8 kg)

We are totally embracing this "less is more" way of thinking. Lovin' it! 

Traveling Tricks of the Trade

Wunderbar!

Every now and then you stumble upon something truly excellent—this is one of those moments. I've found some travel tricks that really look like they'll come in handy. Some are simpler and intuitive; others are downright MacGuyver-esque. Here's a list of some of the ones I found most useful:

• Talcum Powder - Toss a little under your arms on feet or anywhere else (*ahem*) to prevent sweating and the resulting smell/blisters/rashes, or use for brushing off sand from beach. Gold Bond Medicated Powder is supposedly the best, but different people also used St. Luke's, baby powder, or just plain talcum powder. Baking soda can work as a good antiperspirant as well. Someone else reports a little pale yellow plastic tub she found in Thailand that is the "absolute bomb-shiznat", so if you're in the area you could look for some. Speaking of Thailand...
• Tiger Balm - Must be the Asian kind. Great for stopping the itch of nasty insect bites. 
• Trash bag liner - Use these inside your backpack as a liner—if you pack two, you can use them to separate clothing as well. Added benefits: 1) keeps the contents of your backpack nice and dry and 2) you can pull everything out in a cinch. Of course, if your pack opens from the front this might actually get in the way, so YMMV.
• Empty pillow case - When looking to take a nap, you can easily stuff clothes in these to act as a pillow, and if yours has a zipper it can double as a safe for your money/money belt while you're sleeping. While on the move, these can also be used as a bag to separate dirty clothes.
• Safety pins - People list all kinds of uses for these. One of the more useful ones was using one to attach your money belt to the corner of your towel when you go to the communal showers in hostels so you don't forget it afterward. Another ingenious use was to close off your pockets to prevent pick-pocketing. Some other possible uses are hanging laundry or making minor repairs.
• Iodine - Besides its disinfecting properties, many use a few drops of iodine in sketchy water for purification. A few drops in water also apparently works as a remedy for food poisoning. Who knew!
• 100% Aloe vera - Use this little slice of magic to heal sunburns overnight to with no peeling, close deep cuts overnight with no scarring, get rid of rashes, or kill athlete's foot. 
• Makeshift contact cases - Lost your contact case? A shot glass apparently works pretty well, and the plastic caps from a soda/water bottle are a perfect fit!
• Duct tape - Ah yes, the tape with 1,000 uses. You're bound to run across one in your travels. The whole roll takes up space though, so many suggest wrapping some around your flashlight or water bottle. 
• Drain plugs - No drain plug? No problem! Try the top of a milk carton, or just stuff a sock in there to slow things down long enough for you to wash your clothes. I would not suggest putting that sock on immediately afterward though.
• Taping your camera - Speaking of tape, one person taped up their camera to make it less attractive to thieves.
• Scanned passport copy - Scan your passport and e-mail yourself a copy that can be easily shown or printed anywhere in addition to the copy you should already have in your bag/money belt.
• Pickpocket protection - When leaving your pack behind, leave a few bucks and an expired or cancelled credit card in an obvious place. Some would-be thieves will stop looking once they find your "stash". Those worried about getting robbed can also keep a dummy money clip with a small amount and an unusable card in your pocket to hand off to would-be crooks. Another idea was to carry a few cheap wallets to use as dummies, either in your bag or on your person. Personally though, I like another person's suggestion of sewing a pocket onto the inside of your pants somewhere. Sneaky!
• For heat - Drink hot tea, take a shower as hot as you can stand it, or wear MORE clothing for extreme heat. The explanation was surprisingly logical here on the clothing: up until the outside temperature reaches your body temperature you want to wear less clothing to keep the air flow going, but above your body temperature you want to use clothing to insulate yourself from the extra heat and keep the (relative) coolness around your body. Also remember that lighter colors reflect.
• Floral essences - Try sticking some kind of fragrance—say incense, smelling herbs or dried flowers—inside your bag to keep everything smelling fresh. Some apparently use dryer sheets for this as well; one person even stuck one in her money belt as it was the only thing that never got washed and was starting to get funky.
• For seasickness -  Glad I don't have this problem! If you do, put a freshly cut slice of ginger between your cheek and teeth. 
• Shoestrings / nylon string - Have a spare shoestring? Try hanging it from a leaking faucet in the exact position that's dripping. This is another item that could have 101 uses.
• Blister prevention - Tons of advice on this—you're bound to hike long distances on the road, after all. Besides the talcum powder tip listed above, there were also recommendations on cutting off women's stockings to shove in your boots, double-socking it, lubing up your boots with vaseline or simply wearing wool/moisture wicking socks. Many mentioned moleskin as well. Cotton socks are a no-no.

Next time I'll have to post a roundup of useful traveling gear we've bought for the trip.

Is MacGuyver your middle name? Do you have any traveling tips of your own? Let us know in the comments.

Trip Preparations: Round-the-World Tickets

So it's now official—after ironing out a few payment issues, the tickets have been booked! Which makes it a good time to talk about one of the biggest preparations to be made for any round-the-world trip: the tickets.

In our case, we decided to just go with RTW tickets, but this isn't the only option available. I have a friend who spent a year traveling who made it a point not to buy one plane ticket, and did so all the way from Japan through Africa and Antarctica and onto the Americas before running out of money and having to fly back. Also, many nowadays are opting out of going for the full-blown RTW ticket due to its limitations: 1) RTW tickets are only good for one year, and 2) while you can change dates for flights, you are a little more set into a schedule. With all the budget airlines popping up these days, just buying the cheapest ticket point to point can be a viable and even sometimes cheaper option, but only if you have the flexibility to wait for the best offers along the way. Other people have written more on alternative options.

There are, of course, certain advantages to RTW tickets which make them worthwhile. First, even with the budget airline option, it is still cheaper than buying all your tickets separately on the major airlines. This is doubly true for the more exotic locations, like most places in Africa or Easter Island. You also get the freedom to change your dates as mentioned above, and even your itinerary for a fee. And with buying things up front, it lets you know one of the biggest costs up front without having to hassle with looking up flights as much while you're on the road. This is especially big if you're trying to see a bunch of destinations spread across the globe like we are. And finally, you keep all the frequent flyer miles! We'll have a couple free international flights waiting for us once this is all over.

Ok, so we decided for the RTW ticket. Outside of some minor players, there are two major options: Star Alliance and One World, both of which have their strengths and weaknesses. You are encouraged to play with both before making your decision, and believe me, you will. Checking out your big map is fun! We went with Star Alliance as it had more options through Africa and still allowed us to go through South America. One World is supposed to be better for South America, offering flights to Easter Island and Galapagos for some fun legs to add. It also doesn't count the miles, so you can do longer legs for your 16 allotted segments. Maybe next time?

So how does it work? Well, there are a few rules. First you have to pick a direction: east or west. We chose to go west, starting from Tokyo. In general, you don't want to backtrack with Star Alliance as it uses up miles. The One World ticket is based on continents and segments, not miles, so it won't let you go back to a continent once you enter a new one. No going from Europe/Middle East to Africa, then back to Europe/Middle East, for example.

Our Star Alliance Itinerary

How much does it cost? In general, expect to pay somewhere between $3,000 - $10,000 depending on the ticket class, mileage (for Star Alliance), and starting point. Star Alliance offers three classes (Economy, Business and First Class) tiered at 26,000 miles, 29,000 miles, 34,000 miles and 39,000 miles. To get the most bang for the buck (or yen, in our case), you want to get as close as you can to one of these numbers without going over. Our itinerary came to about 33,500 miles or so, departing from Narita. Our total before taxes came to 444,534 yen per person (currently $5,579), up to 490,350 yen ($6,154) after taxes. We did mess around with different starting points, but once you factor in the ticket just to get to that starting point from where we are, just starting from Narita was the cheapest option.

I touched on this above, but the One World system charges you based on how many continents you visit, with the Middle East falling in with Europe. It doesn't matter how many miles the trip takes, which is good for scoring more frequent flyer miles, but if you're visiting a lot of continents the price can add up. With the Middle East being counted in Europe, our trip hits 5 continents out of the 6 available even if we cut out Turkey. Ouch. Besides that, One World wouldn't allow us to fly through Ethiopia.

So that's about all I have to say. Really, the best thing you can do to find out more is visit the Star Alliance and One World pages, but I also found this page to be quite informative.

Are you thinking about a RTW trip and looking for advice or have more questions? Did we miss something that would've saved us money? Let us know in the comments.

The Punk Rock World Traveler

Henry Rollins—remember that guy? There's been an interesting quote from an interview of his floating around lately that I wanted to share. It goes a little something like this:

I think that’s a lot of people’s experience. I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about; I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people—Americans and Europeans—come back and go, Ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on.

Couldn't agree more—traveling definitely changes you. Reading on, he's really developed some interesting views in his travels. Give the whole thing a read if you have 5-10 minutes. He's also come out with a book of his travels stories and photography that might prove to be interesting.

[original article on www.WorldHum.com]

Material Liberation

So here we are about four weeks from our departure date. We've been slowly trying to get rid of all the stuff we don't need: essentially everything. I must say, this liberation from earthly possessions is a most welcome side effect of the trip; the more time passes, the more I want to get rid of! Both the US and Japan are highly materialistic societies—we let stuff rule our lives entirely too much.

Also, in the US especially debt is almost taken as a given, whether it be credit cards, student loans, car loans or house loans. But they don't have to be—having none of those is a big factor in what gave us the financial freedom to take this trip in the first place. I finished paying off my last (student) loan about a year ago. It was at this point I could finally start saving money in earnest, first for our wedding and then for this trip.

The whole point of traveling is that all that is essential to you will fit in one bag that goes on your back. It weighs maybe 7-8 kgs (roughly 15 lbs. for the metrically-challenged). The few things I am holding onto are: my iPhone, one of the traveler's best friends; my newly purchased camera to record memories; and a laptop, my source of income. Those, a few pairs of clothes and my wife are all I need to survive. Okay, so maybe my wife won't fit in the bag, but you get my drift. ;)

If you're planning a trip or just moving across town, I urge you to take it as an opportunity to reassess your material priorities. Don't let your stuff own you! Go ahead, throw away all that unneeded stuff weighing you down. While you're at it, get rid of that debt and only live within your means. Try it some time, it's liberating.

Do you have too much stuff or debt weighing you down? Worried about it keeping you from traveling? Have any other thoughts on this topic? Let us know.

Trip Preparations: Money

There are a few things that are absolutely essential on a trip, and money is one of them. You're not going to get very far without it.

First off, how much do you save? Well ideally, you should figure that based on your plane ticket(s) and expenses plus how much you budget yourself for a day times how many days you'll be gone. I've seen that some people can get by in Europe for $25 a day, but that was by a guy that got by camping and hitchhiking and saw food as more of a necessary evil than a gastronomic experience. After some research I'm seeing that $45/day seems more realistic for one person on average, but advantage couple: we get to share lodging costs! How much will that help? Time will tell, but anything below the $45 mark will be gravy... wonderful, delicious gravy. I'm sure the savings will go straight to our bellies.

And down to brass tacks, how much did we save? Living in Japan, our goal was 2 million yen each for a shared total of 4 million, which should hopefully be more than enough to last us a year considering the favorable exchange rates. I've seen others guesstimate that $20,000 USD should be enough for a solo traveler, depending on your choice of destination, of course.

So next question: how to take money with us? This was one question that was much easier to answer on the American side than the Japanese side as most any major town will have an ATM that accepts a CIRRUS/Allpoint card, and most banks will be on one network or the other. That and a whopping $1 fee per transaction for my US bank mean I'm set on that front.

The Japanese card was a different story. Japanese banks have this strange aversion to making their ATM cards usable overseas, but then we are talking about the country where banks actually close their ATMs at a certain hour and for days over New Year's break. Choosing a bank offering such cards limits you to a handful of options: Risona, Rakuten, Suruga, Shinsei and Citibank. If you can get a credit card then it opens a few more doors, but that's about it as far as banks. To top it off, these aren't always the default card options, so they'll basically make you pass a credit check just to get an international ATM card. This is not necessarily a trivial task for a foreigner here on a working visa listing himself as self-employed, which doesn't exactly scream stability to them despite my stable (for now) income. Go figure.

Long story short: if you're a foreigner earning yen, just go with Shinsei Bank. Not only does Shinsei make it easy to set up an account, they are known for having quality online banking and don't make you jump through any hoops to get a card you can use anywhere in the world. On the Japanese side of things, she did the math and Risona came out the winner as far as minimizing fees (2.5% over the going exchange rate with no additional fees). For those interested, Shinsei charges 4% on withdrawals with no additional fees, while I believe Citibank charges 3% and a 210 yen fee for each withdrawal.

For more on money concerns, check out the following:

• Travel Independent - Daily travel costs and how to take funds
• Art of Backpacking - How Far Could you Get with 10,000USD?

What did you do for money on your trip? Have any questions on money in Japan? Drop a comment.

Last updated: 8/1/2012

Trip Preparations: Where To Go?

So once we decided to take our trip, the first question was where to go. Being a couple, it was important to involve both of us in every single step of the planning.

We started out by separately listing up all the countries or places in the world that we'd like to go at some point. With only one year and a limited budget we didn't expect to see it all, but we felt this a good place to start. Once we had our lists, we shared and talked about all the choices, noting any overlap.

It was a lot of fun telling each other why we wanted to go where, especially for the places only on one list or the other. India and Brazil were at the top of my list, and she wanted to get back to Africa and do a safari. These three thus form the base of our course. We are purposefully avoiding places like Europe, Australia and the US to maximize our budget, and living in Japan, we've both already seen a bunch of SE Asia already.

From here, we started researching RTW (Round The World) tickets and planning a route. Putting in a basic route on the Star Alliance planner, we looked at countries around our basic route that were of interest to both of us and added a few extra places. I found Travel Independent to be a great resource for checking out countries.

Next, we made a few more adjustments after we started researching the timing and seasons for each location. Given the weather, we decided India in August wasn't a good idea, so we front-loaded the trip with a short stint in Thailand and Cambodia to give things time to mellow. Not only does this let us see Angkor Wat, but it also will help us save a few yen by not getting immunizations in Japan.

So, that's it! Things may change along the way, but that's part of the fun. Here's our list of possibilities for now, in order:

• Thailand
• Cambodia
• India
• Nepal
• Turkey
• Jordan
• Israel
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Tanzania
• Rwanda
• Zambia
• Mozambique
• South Africa
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Bolivia
• Peru
• US (for a stop back at my home before...)
• Return to Japan

Looking for places to go yourself? Here are a few sites that could help you get started.

Been somewhere that not everyone thinks about and have to tell us? Or do you have any info on any of the places on our list, good or bad?

Blog introduction

A trip around the world is something many of us dream about but few ever get the chance to fulfill—it requires a balance of time and money that can be hard to achieve for most.

This blog has two authors: Doug and Akemi. Recently married, we're starting things off with a round the world trip. While traveling as a couple promises to offer certain tangible benefits, it is sure to present a unique set of challenges as well. Join us on our travels, wherever they may take us. Along the way, we'll also try to give a few details on trip planning and give any tidbits of general knowledge that we think other travelers and traveling couples might find interesting or useful.

Besides traveling with a partner, two other possible themes are photography and food. My D-SLR will be coming with us on the trip, and making food a huge part of the traveling experience is one carryover from living in Japan that I have no problem with whatsoever.

Our departure is a mere month away, and we can't wait!