Helloooo Steemit. This has been a post I've been looking forward to writing for quite some time.
In seven days' time, on the 12th January, I'll be leaving (almost) everything behind in England and jetting off on a trip across the world for at least 6-7 months.
In a world of full-time travel bloggers, influencers, digital nomads and web entrepreneurs, a 6 or 7 month trip is hardly significant, for many people. Take the vlogger NasDaily, for example, who today completed his 1,000th daily video in a row of his on the road. An incredible feat, representing over 2 and a half years of travel.
Closer to home, I was blown away by the number of Steemians I met at #Steemfest3 who travel full-time (or at least 6 months of the year), making a life for themselves on the road. I admire them greatly for it.
For me, however, taking the time off to travel for 6 months is a big deal.
I've put my career in Marketing on hold, moved out of my rented apartment and stored a few things with my parents.
All this to live out of a rucksack for the foreseeable future and explore the world. Until my money runs out, at least!
In fact, I've not been travelling like this in over NINE YEARS, when I took 9 months off in 2010 before university, visiting four countries. The difference back then was that it was more of a 'slow travel,' where I stayed longer in certain places (such as teaching English in Thailand for 3 months).
Why am I going?
At the age of 28, I'm surrounded by friends who are becoming engaged, buying properties, and climbing up in their various careers.
I'm looking forward to all of those things in the future, but for now I'm looking for adventure and to see as much of the world as I can. Besides, I won't always have this opportunity to travel without huge financial commitments like a mortgage, so the time feels right to grab this opportunity with both hands.
One of my personal ambitions has always been to visit 50 countries by the time I'm 30. At the last count, I had visited 39 countries, so if all goes to plan I should achieve this goal before my 30th birthday (in September 2020).
So, what's the plan?
WELL. There is and there isn't a plan.
Some parts of the trip are already fully sorted, such as a tour in Mongolia in May and a second tour across Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in June.
Other parts are completely unplanned, as I want to listen to your advice and take inspiration from my readers on where in Asia to visit.
The first month or so is planned, and will be spent in New Zealand, the Cook Islands and the Philippines:
As for the rest of the trip? When I provisionally put together a map of all the places I reckoned I might visit, it resembled this:
Extremely ambitious, I know.
It's extremely unlikely I will follow this exact plan, but the point was to map out areas of interest and look at what was geographically realistic, within the time frame. As I say, I'm keen not to actually have everything planned out beforehand, so let's see what the end trip actually ends up resembling.
Will you meet up with fellow Steemians?
I certainly hope so!
If you read any of my upcoming posts and know of any Steemians in a particular location, give me a shout.
I'd love to see the authentic side of each country and region I visit, so any top tips or local people to meet would be warmly welcomed.
What else is happening?
I've mentioned a few times my plan to blog and vlog throughout the trip, here on Steemit and D.Tube, giving away 50% of ALL Steem earnings earnt during 2019. These earnings will be donated to good causes chosen by the Steemit community, in a series of votes.
I'll be posting a video explaining this tomorrow, so stay tuned for more in the coming days, weeks and months!
Please do follow, upvote and resteem to join the journey and help a good cause.
Peace
Franck / @goodwithtravels