We’re doing something a little different today. Normally on Thursdays we interview a well-seasoned traveller who has an interesting perspective or unique trip to tell us about. Today we’re chatting with Kevin and Zhou, who haven’t had their life-altering experience yet. But they’ve got an interesting 11-month
itinerary that covers most of the bases and I’m confident this will be the best 11-months of their life (so far).
Please wish Kevin & Zhou the best with your comments, and if you have any tips or suggestions for them, just drop those down in the comments too.
So why don’t we start by you introducing yourselves.
Kevin: I am originally from the great state of Ohio and Zhou (pronounced ‘Jo’) grew up in New Jersey. We met five years ago while I slept through her favorite economics course in college. I was instantly drawn to her intelligence and good looks, but still haven’t figured out why Zhou ever noticed me.
Zhou: It was the small ears. I’m a sucker for small ears.
Kevin: Anyway, after graduating, we both moved to North Carolina and started working. For me, the idea for our round-the-world trip took life as I slaved away at a job I enjoyed less and less by the minute. I have never traveled outside of North America, and realized that if I got too bogged down in work, I might never really get the chance to see the world.
We got engaged last fall, and then really began to dig into the logistics of our upcoming adventure. Zhou has definitely spearheaded the planning, and I have helped out by staying out of the way. Our main motivation for the trip is not only to see the world, but also to share all the upcoming new experiences with each other.
We will be keeping track of our travels on our blog – our goal is to write a post every day on our trip and update the site whenever we have access to the internet. We’ve been posting our (mostly) travel-related thoughts throughout the year, in large part to keep ourselves entertained as we count down the days until we leave.
Andy’s Note: Good luck writing every day. It’s hard doing that even when you’re sitting in your living room. 
How did you come up with your itinerary?
Zhou: Once we decided that our round-the-world trip was going to be more than just a dream, we sat down with a big book of countries and made a list of all the ones we wanted to visit. Sadly, since we don’t have unlimited funds, we had to pare down this list to an actual conceivable itinerary. So after we decided on the Oneworld Explorer Round-the-World (RTW) ticket and a travel direction (west to east), I spent a lot of time playing around with Oneworld’s booking tool (extremely helpful), making up a bunch of different itineraries. We also asked seasoned travelers which regions they enjoyed the most, and that influenced us to include Patagonia and Nepal, which wouldn’t have crossed our minds otherwise. So though we started with an idea of where we wanted to go, our itinerary has slowly evolved as we’ve done more research and talked to other people.
Our RTW ticket cities are now set in stone, but since we’ll be doing quite a bit of overlanding and flying outside of the RTW ticket, our itinerary is still somewhat fluid. I think we actually made some changes to it as recently as a few weeks ago.
Kevin: I really just wanted to throw darts at a map, but we didn’t have any darts. Or a map.
Andy’s Note: Personally, I like Kevin’s approach. But I can see some value in actually doing some planning too. Whatever works.
Which place(s) are you most looking forward to visiting and why?
Kevin: For me this is easy. I can’t wait to skydive in New Zealand. I know that you could skydive over a field by your house and get a similar thrill, but I’ve decided if I’m ever going to step this far out of my comfort zone, it might as well be 10,000 feet above where they filmed Lord of the Rings.
Zhou: Definitely Thailand, where my main goal is to drown in a big vat of mango sticky rice. Yummy.
Kevin: I also think it would be fun to search for eggs on Easter Island, just so ten years from now we can brag to our kids that we’ve done a “real” Easter egg hunt.
Andy’s Note: New Zealand is fab. No matter what adventure sport you do, you’ll love it. Be sure to check out my favourite spots on the south island.
Picture of *someone else* skydiving in New Zealand. You wouldn’t catch me up there!
The internet is full of advice on packing tips and tricks. What key principles are you implementing?
Zhou: Kevin’s one big rule, which I have somewhat reluctantly adopted, is to take only as much as we can comfortably carry. I can see the wisdom in this, because a) I am pretty small at 5’2” and won’t be able to carry around 50 pounds of gear and b) this means we’ll never have to check our bags at the airport! But in practice this is a lot more difficult for me, because I can see the value of having a pair of ballet flats in Buenos Aires or a cute sundress for the beach, while Kevin doesn’t even know what ballet flats are. So in terms of clothes, we’re going to take the absolute bare minimum.
We’re using Onebag and Travel Independent to figure out what gear we need to buy and to make up our packing lists. We’re taking stuff that is lightweight, dries quickly and won’t smell when worn many days in a row (this is an important one!). While Kevin will probably stick pretty closely to the lists in the two websites mentioned above, I think I’ll end up packing a bit more. In my mind it’s justifiable because my clothes are a lot smaller than his.
Kevin: The splurge item that we’re taking with us is our travel Scrabble game. One of the ways that we’re making our trip unique is to play Scrabble in front of as many famous landmarks and scenic locations as we can. We’re both giant nerds at heart, so this just made logical sense.
What sort of feedback did you get when you announced your trip?
Kevin: Just about everyone I’ve talked to has given the same, “Wow, I’m jealous, can I come with you?” response. Some of the smaller people have even asked if we can pack them in our suitcases. I do remember the first time I told my parents though. They were both very supportive until I mentioned the 11-month length of the trip. I think my mom would have been nervous about an 11-day trip. But then I reminded them that Zhou will be able to protect me in case of danger, and they’re both getting more comfortable with everything.
Andy’s Note: Oh I’m sure everything will be fine!!
Thanks Kevin & Zhou for sharing your story. We look forward to following your travels, and we’ll see you back here on Sharing Experiences in 11 months for a follow-up debrief on how it went. Don’t forget to take lots of pictures!
Skydive photo courtesy of Rob & Jules, Scrabble by patrickeaster
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Enjoyed reading about your plans and good luck with your trip – look forward to reading your reports en route.