You have to be rich to travel for so long!

Alot of people have been saying that to us ever since we got back. It really pissed me off sometime. Its just seems to most people that we were on a luxury trip, staying in good hotels, eating out at restaurants... But Hello??? We were really on a very tight budget, trying to scrimp and save what ever amount of money we have, so as to prolong our trip as long as possible. Prior to the trip, we decided on a daily budget of 50 Euro per person, which include accommodation, sight, food and transport. At the end of the trip, we averaged about 30-35 Euro per pax daily. And its in Europe and not some cheap countries.

Well how did we managed to do it?

1. Everyday we will allocate 50 Euro each person, by hook or by crook, this is the only $ we have for the day itself. Whatever is left for the day, will go back to the weekly allowance that I will draw from the atm and kept in my money belt. This really kept us disciplined and lasted us so long.

2. Initially, we were staying in hostels. But we switched over to staying at pensions and BnB, as they were alot more affordable and offer more privacy compared to hostel.

3. Breakfast is usually cornflakes or bread bought from the supermarket. Lunch is always self made sandwich, with maybe a banana or nectarine. Dinner is normally our better meal, mostly kebabs, or MacDonald. Why kebabs? Its the cheapest food you can find in almost everywhere you go, range from 2.50 Euro. In the end, we developed a real phobia for kebabs! We had Mac because they have a 1 Euro promotion chicken or cheese burger. We will take away and have it with coke that we bought from the supermarket. Most of the time we had our meals in the park like the locals; that's what I really missed from the trip.

4. Initially at the beginning of the trip, we were visiting lots of museums and sights. Guess we were too excited, seeing all the famous monuments. Then we realize we have to prioritize on the various sights as it was getting too costly visiting all of them.


Tips

1. Set your budget and work within your budget.
2. Discipline yourself, it is always tempting to splurge on something. For example, souvenirs, drinks and restaurants.
3. Do what the locals do, eat what the locals eat.
4. Prioritise the places that you will like to visit.
   

Our Travel Route

After lots of reading, planning and discussion we finally decide that we will head up to Europe and travel our way down to Asia. We didn't really had a plan as to how we will actually go around, time was not a factor as we have both submitted our resignation.

 

At the end of the trip these are the countries that we went:

1. England 
2. France 
3. Switzerland
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. Austria
7. Germany
8. Belgium
   
9. Netherlands
   
10. Turkey
11. Greece
12. Egypt
13. Thailand
14. Laos
15. Vietnam

And in details of our route:

London- Paris- Lauterbrunnen- Murren- Interlaken- Nice-VilleFranche- Monaco- Avignon- Arles- Barcelona- Valencia-Madrid- San Sebastian- Bordeaux- Cussac- Tours- Paris- Bern- Luzern- Rome- Firenze- Siena- Pisa- La Spezia- Monterosso al Mare- Vernazza- Corniglia- Manarola- Riomaggiore- Venice- Vienna- Salzburg- Fussen- Munich- Rothenburg- Hamburg- Berlin- Bacharach- Bruges- Haarlem- Amsterdam- Istanbul- Olympos- Fethiye- Rhodes Island- Santorini- Mykonos- Athens- Cairo- Aswan- Luxor- Hurghada- Cairo- Changmai- Luang Prabang- Hanoi- Singapore

The Preparation

Although, we were really excited that we were on our way to fulfill our dream but there were several things  that we needed to do to prepare ourselves for the trip. Many questions and doubts needed to be answer, for example:

1. Which country should we fly to first?
2. How are we going to travel between the countries?
3. Which route should we take?
4. Which events, fairs or exhibition do we want to catch?
5. How should we manage our money?
6. Which insurance should we get?
7. What is our budget?
8. Visa Requirements

Aside from these, we had to make sure that things at home are taken care of, for example bills.

To get us started:

We have been visiting various travel forums, like lonely planet, bootsnall and eurotrip for informations and advices.  Gathered lots of ideas and help planning for the trip.  We also invested on 2 guide books; Rick steve's Best of Europe  and Let's Go Western Europe. 

Why did we choose the 2 guidebooks:

• Rick steve's guide was really good although it was not meant for backpackers. Loads of useful informations as well as recommendations on sites to visit, walking tours and hotels to stay. It was our travel bible for the trip, we depended alot on it. Most importantly the places recommend are not too touristy.
• We needed a budget traveler guidebook to recommend us budget accommodations as well as cheap eats and some additional write up on places that we wanted to go but not cover by Rick Steve. It was also cheaper than Lonely Planet.

Tips:

1. Along the trip, we realize that most backpacker rely on Lonely Planet's Europe on a shoe string. Its not that it is not good but most travelers seems to follow closely to the guidebook hence most of the recommended place seems to be a little crowded. We sometimes use it as guide for places to avoid.
2. Guide books in Singapore are generally cheaper, even more so if you get it in borders during their sale at 20% off.
3. This is not a new tip but in order to reduce your load you can tear off the pages of the countries that you have completed.

The Plunge

After months of procrastination we finally took up the courage and submitted our resignation letters in May 2007. Our bosses were shocked, colleagues were asking why we left. Most of them couldn't understand why on earth are we doing something like that. Guess it is the Asians' mentality, most people just can't accept the idea of having a career break.

So what were the main reasons that really motivated us on going on such a long trip?

1. Burn out from work
2. Love to travel which was a very obvious reason
3. A challenge on one self being out of the comfort zone
4. Travel companies were expensive and offers rigid itinerary 
5. That if i don't do it now, i might never get to do it once i start having more commitments like loans and family
6. Age was catching up on us. You get perks when you travel below a certain age. Eg. free admission,discount fares and accommodations
7. Getting  to learn and understand the different culture in the world
8. To see all the great wonders of the world
9. To explore at our own pace
10. To experience it as a traveller

There you go, it was a piece of cake to come up with reasons to do it !

   

Defination of Wanderlust: very strong or irresistible impulse to travel

The reason that i am setting up this blog is to share my experience and to encourage more people, especially Singaporean to travel on a backpack.

There seems to be always a need to have more money but wealth is not measured entirely by what you owned or consume. There seems to be always a misconception that we need alot of money to travel, or probably we are just afraid to venture out of this tiny island, thinking that we can't afford the time and perhaps how the society will look at us for disappearing. Guess, it's the constant fear that we have about how we will be viewed and how we are going to blend back into the society that prevents many of us from travelling for long period of time. I, too have the same fear and procrastinations before i finally took the courage and plunge into a world of wonder in june 2007. I didn't do it alone, i had the support of my girlfriend and we embarked together on a 8 months trip across Western Europe and Asia, covering 15 countries and more than 50 cities.