A ‘Bon Voyage’ card from my cousin Zoey, Age 4

June 13th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Note the complex “heart-within-a-heart” imagery; the orange curly-clouds evoke our impending flight, and the center circle can only be a compass rose, as Tay and I board our plane and head toward the sunrise.

(Posted from Gate 62, Newark International Airport, Air India Flight 144 to Paris.)

What to take and what to leave behind

June 13th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

As counter-intuitive as it seems, the length and scope of our trip actually simplifies this age-old conundrum—11 months, mostly on the move, we’ve got to keep things light. However, not knowing how isolated or rural our assignments in India and Thailand are going to be somewhat complicates the matter. What will be available? What will we really need?

This is different from packing for a 2-year Peace Corps tour; and it is different from packing for a wilderness trip. Yet there are elements of both in this, as we examine and question each item that makes it into our bags.
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La Despidida

June 8th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Actually, “Bon Voyage” would be more appropriate for our post-wedding-slash-going-away rager at my parents’ last weekend, seeing as how Paris is our first stop (this Monday night!). Huuuuge big-up to the Meg Johnson Band for providing the stone-groove backbone behind so many happy booties! Another shout-out for the cake-bakers:

(The writing on the side quotes yonder fortune cookie: “YOU WILL SOON BE CROSSING THE GREAT WATERS.”)

Got Plane Tickets?

June 8th, 2005 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

“Treat your tickets like cash,” said our Airtreks agent.

Pre-trip Prep

June 1st, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

New York City, capital of the world, the perfect place to prepare for such a global venture as ours. On our way to the Pakistani Consulate (in a posh upper east side neighborhood), I had a 10-minute conversation in Spanish with our Salvadoran cab driver who offered concerned advice as we got out of the car: “Take care of yourself, my brother. Happy travels.”

Then, we were packed into a confusing crowd of pressing Pakistanis, not understanding the language, sticking out like sore, white thumbs, offering paperwork, receipts, passport photos, cash . . . while just outside, it was a crisp, spring day in Central Park. Five hours later, on our way back to Penn Station, our Bangladeshi cabby told us about the monsoons and the summer months. “It is very hot,” he said. “Very, very hot.”

Good Fortune

May 26th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Eighteen days till blast off. In between departure errands (faxing passports, copying documents, etc.), Tay and I met my parents at Empire Szechuan on Jericho Turnpike. We found this:

The last prophetic cookie I got was this one, on my way to Belize.

Where in the world is Dubai?

May 25th, 2005 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Is it safe to travel to Islamabad? What language do they speak in Pakistan? How about going overland from Lahore to Delhi? I found the answers to these questions, but only after buying the plane tickets.

Choosing our own adventure? Or allowing adventure to choose us? I think keeping both possibilities open is the backbone of this thing called Tranquilo Travel.

In Outward Bound-speak, it’s called “stepping outside your comfort zone.” I experienced it vividly as a Peace Corps Trainee in Nicaragua; faced with a so many hot, brightly-colored stimuli every day, I was forced to react (speak, listen, behave, and move) in ways I never had before. The process created new parts of me, enlarged my mind — I grew.
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O, The Places We’ll Go

May 20th, 2005 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

It was not without some anxiety that we signed the money transfer this morning and watched a relatively large chunk of our wedding cash disappear over the Rockies to our travel agent in San Francisco (round-the-world specialists, airtreks.com).

In the next few weeks before departure, paper plane tickets will arrive in the mail, bearing the following airport and city names:

NEWARK NJ
CHARLES DE GAU, PARIS
DUBAI, EMIRATES
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
INDIRA GANDHI, DELHI
BANGKOK INTL
SINGAPORE
DENPASAR BALI
SYDNEY AU
AUCKLAND
LOS ANGELES CA
SAN FRANCIS CA
JFK, NY

The Practical Nomad: World Travel is Sexy…

May 17th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Our primary pre-trip resource is Travel Guru Edward Hasbrouck’s The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World.

If, during the next year, we forget why we’re doing it, we can always refer back to this Practical Nomad reminder: “World travel is sexy. World travel is the ultimate trip. Independent world travel is the world’s best learning experience. It’s the best possible investment of time and money you can make in your own career or your children’s education. World travel will change you, and change your life, for the better.”

Seemingly obvious, but easy to forget, these bullets. I like the affirmation in Edward’s words, and that they oppose the myth of extended travel as “time off.”

Crested Butte, CO: Gone West, Looking East

May 12th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

The journey from Baltimore to Bollywood has begun, but not in any direct or linear fashion. That would be too easy and end too quickly. Rather, my vagabondage has started with a log-cabin Rocky Mountain tangent—a high-alpine, Colorado launching pad to the world, as it were.

At 9,000 feet above sea level, it is still quite brisk in Crested Butte, although much of the remaining snow is heavy and damp from so much wannabe spring sunshine. Generous familial ties of shared loved for the mountains have brought me to a veritable chateau on the hill outside town, a description of which would exhaust my superlative quota for the day and is thus beyond the scope of this report.
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