A Plan to See the World

I've always wanted to travel, to see the world and explore the places I've never seen. The only thing I've felt holding me back are the responsibilities that I am already committed to; basically work and the houses I own. I realized that a way to make my dream come true may be to take one month out of each year, and spend it traveling to a new place. Scotland one year, Japan, Australia, China, Jamaica, Romania (this picture triggered this idea), Brazil, Indonesia, India, or Vietnam another year, and so on. I think a whole month exploring each place would be sufficient. For the bigger places that require more time, I could revisit them another year.

I had thought of taking four smaller trips, every three months, but that would be more difficult to plan and making arrangements for when I'm gone would be more of a hassle. If I know I'll be gone for one month, each year, then I can plan ahead; pay bills ahead of time, notify work ahead of time, etc. I figured about $4000 per trip should be enough for all expenses. Obviously, I would keep things simple and conserve money wherever possible. $4000 for a one month trip each year would mean I'd need to set aside $360 a month, or $90 per week.

Since I'm still working on fixing my current financial position, I'd probably start this plan next year, or start saving for it towards the end of this year. As a side thought, I could have a little voting area on my blog that allows my visitors to vote on my next trip's destination. You get to choose where I go. Then I'd keep a daily journal, complete with pictures and maybe even a few video clips, and post them on my blog whenever I get a chance.

I took the boxes of books out of my shed and stacked them on my new bookcase. This is only half of all the books I own; the rest are on a bookshelf in my office. The books you see laying down are actually flatting the pages of a couple of books that were bent in storage.