My first travel tech was a pen flashlight and a Walkman. That allowed me to read the massive copy of Let’s Go Europe in the hostel dorms without bothering anyone too much while listening to one of the mix tapes that I had with me. This was way back in 1987 on my first real adventure between high school and university. A 6 month backpacking trip in 1987 around Europe and Morocco.

We quit! Yep, we quit our jobs! February 9th, 2017 is our last day. Paul gave notice just before Christmas and I told my boss on Friday the 13th! The humour of that, while lost on some people, was not lost on me and I will admit to a giggle about it. Luckily our coworkers are very excited for us and have been great. For both of us the build up to quitting was bigger than the reality.

We use different cards in Canada than when travelling. At home we’ve churned cards for Aeroplan points and used different cash back cards. This has saved us money on purchases and allowed us to build up a big pot of Aeroplan points. These will allow us to fly with points between the major regions of our upcoming RTW trip. When we are on the road though we are more concerned about the banking fees.

Decision Made! What? When did this happen? I know it’s been a while since I took the time to write out something about our plans. Partially because we have been super busy and some things took much longer then expected so we weren’t sure what was happening. We also had some changes in the family that had us questioning our decisions. The quick catch up: June – accepted offer on the house, Paul ruptured his Achilles.

So far we’ve come up with this list of countries we’d like to see. I’m sure it will morph over time but it’s a good starting point. Planning our RTW route started out as what seemed like a massively important and overwhelming decision. After much research and brain racking we came to the conclusion that for us, it really didn’t need to be. We decided to start in Thailand, in SE Asia as we’ve been there many times and it’d let us get our traveling legs.

Expect The Unexpected Choosing a travel pack is a major decision when traveling. The wrong choice can have a big impact on a trip. Dragging a roller through sand to your beach side bungalow, carrying a duffel bag by its single carry strap for half an hour through a city or seeing your backpack come up the luggage carousel ramp with one of its shoulder straps torn off is no fun.

Airline carry on rules can vary wildly. They each have their own specific guidelines for items that you can bring on-board a flight. Some even allow for a secondary “personal item” like a purse or laptop bag. If you do your research you’ll find lots of people saying a 45L pack is good for carry on. As you’ll find out, this is not always the case. If you aren’t exactly within an airline’s requirements it’ll come down to the whim of the staff working on the day of your flight.

What’s the definition of home? It sounds simple doesn’t it but I’m not sure that it is. I was born in Liverpool, England, Helen was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We both moved to Canada with our families. Helen at the young age of 4 and myself at 13. Years later we met in Saskatchewan in 1991 and since then have spent our last 23 years living our adult lives together in Calgary, Alberta.

28 days later and we are back! It wasn’t years on the road but it was a good test of living out of our new Gregory 38 L and 40 L bags (J38 and Z40). The traveling with carry on only experiment was definitely a success. It sure was liberating being able to walk off the plane with all our possessions on our backs. We flew Air Canada, Thai Airways International and the regional Thai Smile.