I’ve started making small plans for a possible working vacation for a few months. I originally was going to go sometime this fall, but I was starting to feel more and more like it was a bit too rushed. I also wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with Christmas: spending $1,500 on a plane ticket to get somewhere doesn’t make a lot of sense if you’re just going to get on a plane and head back home again a month or so later for Christmas.
With that in mind, I’m now targeting January as the month when I’d leave. Over the next few months I’m going to be slowly selling off the things I don’t really need anymore, and possibly even a few things that I probably do. With regards to the latter, I have a pretty expensive stereo set yet I rarely listen to music on anything other than my iPod these days. So I may sell some of that stuff off and simply buy a cheaper set (i.e. normal set) when I return.
The only items around my house I really care about are the items I recently purchased. That includes my bedroom suite, dining room set, coffee table, and of course all the kitchen stuff I’ve been accumulating.
This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and the reality is some day I won’t have a chance to do it again. Once kids enter the equation, or even a steady relationship, picking up and seeing some of the world becomes hard to do. Not impossible per se, since I know some families that do lots of traveling and everyone goes along. But life definitely becomes a bit less flexible, at least for a while.
I have a short list of places I want to visit: Costa Rica, Buenos Aries, Santo Domingo, possibly Europe. All I need is an internet connection and I’m good to go wherever I land.
When I moved to the Yukon when I was 20, I got on a plane with just a few clothes and landed without much money. The company I was working at up there paid for a hotel for two nights, and after that left me to fend for myself. I found accommodation staying with this crazy German lady in a trailer home in the North part of town, and spent the first week sleeping on a makeshift bed with my jacket as a pillow and the clothes I wasn’t wearing as a blanket. My mom sent my duvet blanket and a few small things to me via Greyhound, which I got about a week after, and finally had a real bed again.
So, traveling light doesn’t worry me in the slightest, nor does downgrading my living conditions. For the most part I’m just as comfortable sleeping on a couch or a futon as I am a nice bed, so I can make due wherever I end up. But seeing a bit more of the world is appealing to me, as is meeting other people that are possibly doing the same. As I’ve told people around me, Chilliwack is still home and I’ll definitely end up back here, but I’d like to expand my horizons and see a bit more of the world.
That’s the plan, at least for now.
Dibs on the Klipsch. Good luck on the trip dude.
If you check out Costa Rica, definitely the East (Caribbean) Coast is better. Really enjoyed our time there and if we could, we would have stayed! lol
What about getting one of those around-the-world plane tickets? Sorta like a flexi-pass where you can hit up 5 or so major cities around the world for a good rate?
I might hit Europe, but I’d like to have some overlap with Dale everyday when we’re doing BraveNewCode stuff, even if it’s just a few hours where we can iChat and sync up. So that limits the the time zones I want to travel to, at least until I prove the system out and see how everything is going to work.
I spent time in Tamarindo, CR before, and it was pretty awesome. But I didn’t really get a chance to do much exploring, so I’d like to do a bit more this time if I go back. The main constraint of any place I end up is reliable internet.
I’m not sure I could part with those speakers 🙁 But I’ll let you know.
Best of luck Duane! Take chances and GFI (go for it)! There will never be a better time. Look forward to travel posts and tweets…..
I’m sure you probably already know about it, but in case you don’t, definitely check out http://www.couchsurfing.org/
Great way to find a place to sleep and to meet new people.
iChat? FaceTime!!!
As a first step to see how working vacations fit with you, you might think about a cruise ship. They can be surprisingly cheap per day if you look around the discounter websites, particularly repositioning trips at end of season like when they all leave the Alaska run here, and since you’re in a big floating hotel with free food and 24 hour wifi there will be no practical issue with staying in contact and doing as much work as you feel like.
The downside of course is that doing any actual exploring as opposed to a few hours in port is impractical. Possible, yes, but you risk getting stories like this.
http://thetroll.livejournal.com/228350.html
Well, maybe not exactly like that one. We particularly recommend checking into visa requirements carefully, as attempting illegal exit in a drug-ridden Latin American nation is even more of a bad idea than free jumping across the giant blender which is the water foaming around a cast off cruise ship getting underway is. Luckily, things work out for trolls.