Sometime between July and September 2009, Anjel and I are putting all business on hold, selling or storing all our possessions and fleeing the country to travel the globe for a year (*UPDATE*: The departure date has been changed to early August. We’ll be starting the trip with a partial trip across the country: Bonneville Speed Week, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Chicago). We’re putting out a call to every family member, friend and client that we can think of, looking for help! (For an explanation of what actually lead to this decision, please read our “about us” page)
Our goal is to plan enough of the trip that we don’t show up to a border crossing only to find that we really needed to sign up for a Visa 6 months ago – but besides a rough plan, we are leaving ourselves 100% open to detours and side trips. We’re also planning on signing up for several volunteer opportunities on our trip. Anjel has already lined up a project working with rescue elephants in Thailand for 3 weeks. With any luck with will have one or two more stops along the way.
In order to stretch our travel dollar as far as possible, we’ll be backpacking most of the way, leaning towards budget travel and accommodation (with the occasional splurge). What we’re looking for at this point is… pretty much any help people are able to provide! Places to stay and people to visit are definitely at the top of that list. Whenever possible we’re going to be staying with friends and friends-of-friends to not only save money, but hopefully get a more genuine and immersive experience.
Where are we going?
Our kitchen-sink list of possible destinations is:
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- Vietnam
- Cambodia
- Thailand
- Burma
- India
- Nepal
- Tibet
- China
- South Korea
- Japan
- Mongolia
- Russia
- Czech Republic
- Germany
- Amsterdam
- France
- United Kingdom
- Ireland
- Italy
- Greece
- Turkey
- Tunisia
- Algeria
- Morocco
Some of these are definite stops for us where we may stay for days or weeks, others we may miss or simply travel through. In all likelihood there will be other stops we didn’t plan on. In anycase we would love the following:
Places to stay / People to visit: This is really the biggie for us. We’d like to think that we’re responsible and trustworthy enough to stay in someone’s family vacation home and flexible enough to just crash on someone’s couch for a night. Even if lodging isn’t part of the equation, a friend we might hit it off with or someone you know who’s a great local guide would be just as good. You probably know us well enough to know what kind of guests we’d be (the answer is “great ones”), but incase you wanted to refer us to your own friends or family, we’ll be creating a page with a little about us as potential lodgers (short answer: we’re clean, responsible, happy to help out & anjel loves to cook).
Places to visit: There are a million guide books out there, and we’re doing plenty of research, but any suggestions of secret spots, great tours, epic train rides. etc… are welcome.
Tips: Any lessons you learned the hard way? We’re more than happy to learn from your mistakes. 
Finally, if you do have any suggestions, please send us an email to:
connal {at} adangerousbusiness {dot} com
or
anjel {at} adangerousbusiness {dot} com
(don’t use the comment section below – unless you just want to leave a note).
Thanks!
Connal + Anjel
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
OMG, so awesome! i heard about this a little but had no idea you two are going BTTWall. i should have known. where aren’t you going?! soooo exciting. a few responses for the moment:
1. what no malaria pills? they made me really ill every time i took them for about a day in indonesia, but at least you only have to take them once a week.
2. philippines. yes! mike has family in the country but you’ll have to ask him about it. i know a bunch of artists in manila/quezon city. if you want to meet a bunch of contemporary artists let me know. stop by marikena shoe mart, it’s a little arty-design-indie shop area in quezon city, i think? as far as places to stay, you might be able to apply(?) to a little informal, affordable residency for artists run by carlos celdran. i’ll FB recommend you. he’s got a place in malate, right by the water and next to the famous Aristocrat restaurant = yum! if not, i’ve heard good things about friendly’s, also in malate. sort of a westerner’s backpacker’s place, comfortable and cheap. friendly’s could also recommend vegetarian food, which is not so common in PI.
3. you should definitely go on one of carlos’ tours.
http://celdrantours.blogspot.com/
they’re unbeatable, critical, totally off the beaten path, you’ll come away with a lot more history and critical consciousness than with any other tour. i went on the church/cathedral one in manila, and it was really good, and have heard amazing things about the intramuros one.
4. links to manila/q.c. art galleries here:
http://papayapost.blogspot.com/
green papaya is run by peewee, one of the coolest people in the world. one of very few artist-run spaces in PI.
http://www.magnetgalleries.com/
the magnet gallery in high street in makati is super posh, the katipunan one is more collegey. both good for cocktails, chic food and live bands.
5. ayala museum. in posh makati, if i remember right, but really worth it for the historical dioramas. rooms and rooms of them telling centuries of PI history. also the restaurant is very good, if you want to splurge, go for brunch.
6. china: can you be more specific?
7. re: outer PI, i’ll FB recommend you with ezra, who just got back, and my jenifer, who’s travelled to a lot of beachy places and might know of service orgs to contact…
a lot of the folks and places i know are gonna be art related/relatively urban. if that’s not your bag lemme know.
i’ll post more about uk in a bit.
That is great! Good luck! My one tip would be to see if you can find online feedback about any organization you plan to volunteer with from former volunteers because I have heard some stories about people feeling frustrated with those situations — not always true, I am sure, but worth looking into. I agree about not taking malaria pills — most people didn’t seem to take them in the places I have been where they are suggested — Thailand and the Amazon — and they made me feel not so good(hair loss, nightmares, and naseau). And, in Thailand, this was one of my favorite parts of our trip: http://www.cavelodge.com/. Oh, and, it may sound cheesy, but we took a cooking class in Chaing Mai, and it was super fun. Highly recommended. A friend was going to give me a list of places to go in Calabria and Sicily for my own travel planning, and I will forward that to you too!
First off, bravo. Have a blast.
The best advice on the round-the-world trip I have ever heard is the following -
1. concentrate on areas where the dollar is strongest, so you can get the most from your money
2. don’t get caught up in number of countries visited, and skip entire regions that just aren’t practical to see. You can hopefully do this again in 30 years or so to fill in the blanks.
Based on that list, it looks like South and Southest Asia are big focus areas. That is probably a good place to stretch your dollar and see some amazing stuff.
I can strongly recommend Southern Africa, where travel is cheap and the sights are amazing. The World Cup will be in South Africa next year. Something to consider.
South America is also a great value. Never been.
As for Europe, Turkey is a great choice. Just as nice as Greece, but cheaper (and better food). I spent 3 weeks there once and left feeling like I had so much more to see. As for Western Europe, I might suggest doing this region last, so you know how much cash you have to work with. Try to time a visit in the Spring of Fall. All the summer tourists really make it uncomfortable.
North Africa would be a trip. Don’t go in the summer.
I’m sad you’ll be gone for so long, but this should be fucking awesome.
Good luck.
I recently spent 5 months in Russia… mainly moscow, but also Perm and Berezniki. I’d be happy to offer some tips and words of wisdom as well as some contacts of places to stay! I’m very jealous of your adventure! I hope to do something similar some day!
Good luck and email me if you’re in need of Russian info!
HELLOW. This morning in a fit of i-don’t-kn0w-what I emailed my Swedish classical guitarist friend Anders and my Moroccan/Spanish/Catalan friend Aws and asked them to take a look at your site. Who knows what this will mean for your planning, but I thought it might make you happy to know at least one of your siblings cares enough to put in some effort into your globe-trotting (globe-galloping? globe-cantoring?) crazy-go-round plan.
GOOD LUCK AND STUFF. My Spanish skills will be useless in 95% of the countries you want to visit or I would offer my services.
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