The Trip
A couple of weeks ago I played around with STA's around the world trip planner tool while suffering from extreme boredom. Here's the dream trip that I planned out:
JFK -> Lima -> Buenos Aires -> Cape Town -> Johannesburg -> Cairo -> Athens -> Moscow -> Mumbai -> Bangkok -> Sydney -> JFK
Airfare: $3340 (exluding taxes and surchages)
I'm guessing that the total price would be closer to $4500.
I've discussed the itinerary with friends, all of whom think it would be a super awesome trip, but doubt that anyone could actually pull it off in 6 months to a year and spend under $25000. Even if I had the money and the time, they reasoned, I would probably be toally miserable because of the culture shock, the traveling and loneliness.
Despite my excitement at the prospect of embarking on such a life-altering journey, I have to agree with their bleak assessments. It requires an enormous amount of planning that I am just in no mood to do now. I will need to quit my job, convince my parents and more importantly myself that I will actually get something out of this trip, learn a bunch of different languages (since the whole point is to stay at each city for an extended period of time to really explore), and figure out all the travel/financial arrangements. I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it.
The impulsive part of me is screaming fuck it, just do it! It will be such an incredible experience while the rational, mature, logical part of me asks silly questions like what if I get horribly sick in Africa, what will I do after I come back from the trip with no money, no home and no job, am I copping out by running away to all these exotic places?
JFK -> Lima -> Buenos Aires -> Cape Town -> Johannesburg -> Cairo -> Athens -> Moscow -> Mumbai -> Bangkok -> Sydney -> JFK
Airfare: $3340 (exluding taxes and surchages)
I'm guessing that the total price would be closer to $4500.
I've discussed the itinerary with friends, all of whom think it would be a super awesome trip, but doubt that anyone could actually pull it off in 6 months to a year and spend under $25000. Even if I had the money and the time, they reasoned, I would probably be toally miserable because of the culture shock, the traveling and loneliness.
Despite my excitement at the prospect of embarking on such a life-altering journey, I have to agree with their bleak assessments. It requires an enormous amount of planning that I am just in no mood to do now. I will need to quit my job, convince my parents and more importantly myself that I will actually get something out of this trip, learn a bunch of different languages (since the whole point is to stay at each city for an extended period of time to really explore), and figure out all the travel/financial arrangements. I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it.
The impulsive part of me is screaming fuck it, just do it! It will be such an incredible experience while the rational, mature, logical part of me asks silly questions like what if I get horribly sick in Africa, what will I do after I come back from the trip with no money, no home and no job, am I copping out by running away to all these exotic places?
posted by Gary at
11:33 PM
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