Inspired by Swiss couple bicycling around the world
I have finally met some celebrities in my travels. They are not Hollywood celebrities but rather travel celebrities. At my modest guesthouse in Kaza are a Swiss couple who are bicycling around the world. They have spent two years traveling from Switzerland to India, via Syria, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, and India.
I do not have their names and website yet but when I do I will post.
They gave me a boost of inspiration. Especially at the beginning of this travel I would occasionally have doubts about this project: why was I travelling? what did I hope to accomplish? I think there is also the potential for feeling guilty, that it is a selfish enterprise, that I should be earning a salary in the States.
On the flip side, I knew that this had been a goal of mine for many years and I had been saving money and giving up other things in order to be able to do it. So I think my view has been balanced.
This couple is a few years older than me. In just this area of the Spiti Valley, they have climbed all of the side valleys. These are beautiful places, but not easy either. So in this way they have been inspiring as well.
When I was planning my travel I followed a couple of blogs. One is http://HoboTraveler.com. HoboTraveler is an American who has been travelling for eight years and has created a very popular website that now finances his travels. HoboTraveler helped me understand that long-term budget travelling was cheap, enjoyable, and feasible, and also gave me a lot of tips about how to do it.
I also followed http://DownTheRoad.org. This is a couple from San Francisco who decided to take five years to bicycle around the world. Their website helped me understand financially what was involved with preparing to go. Especially, they talked about the benefits of renting out the house that they owned while they were gone. I did not opt to do this, but I had the sense that they were realistically discussing finances.
Both of these people brought laptops which helped me decide to take one myself. I'm very happy with that decision.
There are many other websites of people who are doing short-term travel, or have decided to travel around the world by certain unusual means, or for a philanthropic cause.
It was exciting to meet this couple today who are doing the same thing. It makes me realize how many people are out there seeing the world. And that it's good to go out and see it.
