9 Month Update – 9 Things I’m Glad I Did Before I Left To Travel

Last month I talked about the 8 things I wish I had done before I set off. Now it’s time to forget regret and move on to the positive with the 9 things I’m glad I did before I set off!

Got LASIK

One of the best decisions I ever made was to get Lasik. I certainly wasn’t blind but I was a all day contacts wearer – basically I couldn’t function without them. I had dailies so traveling with those would have been completely impracticable as they weigh too much and take up too much room. Also, with my history of losing sunglasses, regular glasses would have been a poor alternative and not cost effective.

That’s where LASIK came in.

I had been wanting it for years but waited until I was a bit older to see how my eyes progressed. Finally, when I had a job that paid the bills I maxed out my FSA and took advantage of every benefit my company offered. The procedure cost around $5k but $1k or so was contributed by my company and the rest was FSA, which is untaxed, so it was a good deal. It was painless and recovering time was quick – I went to work the next day. Over a year later and I haven’t had any problems.

Told My Bosses I Was Leaving (A Year In Advance)

Vicky and I decided that we wanted to do our RTW trip about a year or so before we actually set off. Once I knew for sure that we were going to go, I pretty much told my bosses and colleagues right away. A lot of people told me this was a dumb move.

“Now they won’t promote you” – “Now you’ll get all the bad projects”

But I knew my company and the people I worked and I knew I’d be rewarded for my honesty in the long run.

Everyone’s worries were bogus, as I got promoted with everyone else and had fine projects. My manager often praised me for being candid, and later on I was able to stay in a position instead of having to transfer to one I didn’t want to because they knew I was going to be leaving soon anyways. The company benefited because they had time to find a backfill later that year and I had a month to train them so I wasn’t hanging anyone out to dry. If you’ve ever been on the recipient end of extra work on account of someone else in the company leaving with only two weeks notice you know it really sucks. I’m glad I was able to spare someone that hardship.

All and all you have to know your company, I realize not everyone would be so ecstatic about that, but on the other hand most people are going to put two and two together and know that you didn’t come up with this RTW trip two weeks ago and probably have wished for a bit more notice.

Brought Two Computers: One Netbook

Vicky and I were unsure about what electronics we should bring with us and went back and forth between bringing one or two computers, but inevitably we decided to bring two (one being a netbook) and that’s been a great decision for us. Often we meet couples on the road who have only one or none. Granted, many of them are not blogging full time but I know I use my computer for a lot of other things (such as reading) as does Vicky, and it would be a real pain to have to be sharing. The extra 3 pounds for the netbook is not that excessive. Besides, there are probably a few pounds of things you definitely don’t need as well.

Opened Up A Bunch Of Credit Cards

Once we knew the plan was a go we were on the look out for credit card deals. We opened up several new credit cards between us to get rewards in the form of miles or simply cash back. I can’t remember how many we opened total, 5 maybe? As far as I know my credit is fine and has always been fine but we were able to easily make a few hundred bucks in cash and thousands of miles that helped us get several plane flights for free. The few months before your trip your spending tends to skyrocket because you’re buying supplies in addition to everything else you normally spend money on so it’s a great time to have some credit cards with bonuses. Overall we probably benefited $1k without much hassle.

Started Planning 6 Months Before

Actually I wish we started planning a year in advance but I’m glad we did 6 months in advance at the very least. A lot of people told us that there isn’t much point in planning too much because everything changes, etc. To some degree this is true but it’s also been great for Vicky to have her original plans to fall back on. Even if we don’t get to Laos exactly when we expected, that doesn’t mean the itinerary is out the window. It’s still the same place – just the dates change. Now that we’re in Europe Vicky is planning constantly and it’s partly due to the fact that we just didn’t make it this far in the planning stage at home and everything needs to be figured out now. Starting a full year earlier would not have been a bad idea.

Got Travel Insurance

Some people might try to go without this but naturally I’m glad to have a bit of insurance behind me. Recently Vicky and I decided to get some check ups in Bangkok. General check ups like this aren’t covered, but I did end up getting an MRI of my ankle because there was a weird lump on it. That cost $500, and I believe insurance will cover it (submitted the claim just a few days ago). If they do, it’s pretty close to break even for me. I know that if I didn’t have insurance I probably would have just ignored it but then been stressing out as to what it could be. I feel a lot better being able to have it looked at and when they tell me it’s nothing I don’t mind that I just “dropped” $500 on it.

On a slightly related note all and all it’s just great to get your health in order before you leave. Get last minute check ups such as dentali and physical. Get medicine from the pharmacy so that you don’t have to go out to get cold medicine in Laos and try to communicate what you’re looking for by sneezing on the person.

Packed Light

I travel with one sweatshirt, a few t shirts, one pair of pants, a bathing suit, and some socks and underwear. I’m glad I kept it simple, though some days it would be nice to have pajamas or some jeans to walk around in something different for a change. Realistically though, or practically speaking I should say, it’s been great not having that much to lug around and make room for other things.

Started A Travel Blog

This one is an obvious one. We’ve benefited a lot from having this blog both personally and financially. At this point it’s funded all of our travels and we should still be good for five or so  months before we break into our savings even if everything went kaput tomorrow – that’s over half our trip! We’ve also been able to meet up with some interesting people along the way, which is a result of being part of the community and taking advantage of peoples’ offers. It has been a decent amount of work though and sometimes Vicky and I do envy the people who walk around a bit less tethered than we do as I sometimes feel like we’re “always on” with the blogging. Still, the positives outweigh the negatives by far.

 Bought A Kindle And Downloaded A Bunch Of Books And Travel Guides

I know that some people like to have a real book to leaf through the pages but if you’re traveling to 50 different countries it’s not really practical or economical to get a book for each of them. I’d much rather have access to Lonely Planets as a PDF on my kindle so we can reference them when we need to. Moreover, just regular books can be hard to come by abroad in certain areas, and having the kindle is a less of a hassle than trying to bring your computer around to read. We keep it simple with a black and white non touch screen, which doesn’t attract a lot of attention is was only $30-$40 so if we lose or break it, it isn’t the end of the world. We can be really resourceful with it because essentially anything can be made into a PDF, such as google maps, photographs, word documents, etc. It was really clutch in China as a way to show phrases to people in Chinese.