Thoughts to Reality

My post today is going to be a little different. I had a comment from one of my readers about something I said in my last post. this is what he said,

 I read you blog.

The part about the pre trip anxiety was quite poignant for me.

It is exactly those feelings that prevented me from doing much traveling of late.

Your solution, to just do it despite the fear factor is the truth.

I think Id like to talk about getting over that hump of daydreaming and actually doing. First off it doesn't take anyone special to want to explore the world. what it does take is pushing yourself just a little bit to get the ball rolling. if your thinking you would like to get out into the big beautiful world the very first step is to decide on a place you would like to see. easy right! take some time to research the place you want to go, find out what kind of things there are to do, what type of transportation is common and cheap, look at pictures from other peoples trips, I would highly recommend getting a good guide book. the guide book is a good starting point in my opinion, there is usually a ton of information inside of it, everything from things to do, places to stay, what those places are like and usually a brief description of all the cities. the guide book can really give you a feel for a place, keep in mind though that the people that write guide books are usually well traveled,  their idea of good accommodations and yours could be very different. so I also suggest checking out what some other people have to say about where you plan to go, try the thorn tree forum http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa. 

Okay so you have picked an adventure but its still just what you dream about instead of doing your job. my next recommendation is make a little financial commitment to this journey. maybe go out buy a backpack, money belt, travel towel, something anything that you might need if you were to take an extended trip from home. if you buy a backpack make sure you get a decent one, you will be living out of it and carrying it with you a lot. I would say no more then 60 liters is good, my next bag will be 40 most likely, you always need way less then you think lol. 

So you bought a backpack ! congratulations ! you are on the road to being a free citizen. at this point I would hope you have gotten a rough idea about how much money your going to need to make this happen, in some places you can live on $15.00 cdn a day while others its easy to spend $50.00 cdn so make a budget that fits where your going. for example if your planning to travel Canada $15.00 cdn isn't much for one day, but in India you can get by quite nicely. a budget is very important, again do some RESEARCH!! its easy to find this type of information. after you figure out a budget you can figure out how long it will take you to save the money to go. now its time to go out and make the big commitment, BUY YOUR TICKET, this is the most important step in all of this. once you have your ticket its real, you will start cutting down on your regular expenses,  because you know you have to leave in X amount of days. this is when dreams become reality. you start focusing on leaving and don't worry about regular life as much. 


~Continued~


I highly recommend you start a list of everything you need to do before you leave, then priorities it. also when you go to buy your ticket you can ask the travel agent about what kind of visas you will need for the places your intend to go. I recommend calling around and finding an agent that will do some work for you, they are on commission so see who gives you the lowest price, but also make sure they are knowledgeable about traveling. I cant tell you how many times Iv been in a pinch needing help and my agent really went to bat for me. when your so far form home it can be hard to get online sometimes the people at the airline don't speak English very well, or just don't really care to help you.


If your planning to visit a lot of countries make sure your passport had lots of pages left, some countries wont let you in if you don't. another thing to find out is if you will need to provide an ongoing ticket to another country to be approved for a visa on arrival. I have had to purchase an ongoing ticket at the airport before boarding my flight. which brings me to another point, when you run into a problem like this don't become angry at the staff at the airline or the airport, people will help you for the most part if you remain calm and polite for the most part, I have had the staff let me use the executive rooms in the airport free of charge to print tickets, find information, or just check my email. always keep in mind you represent every traveler, don't leave a bad taste in the mouth of the people that have to deal with us. it just makes it harder for those who come after you.   


At this point I would say you are past the point of no return, enjoy your adventure :)

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