Last Post in US

Well, it's 3am here in Denver, and I'm still not quite ready yet. I leave in 4 hours. I'll be alright though. I just saw NIN at Red Rocks and it pretty much blew my freakin mind away. Trent Reznor is pretty much the coolest person alive. Anyway, it was nice to be able to take in the site of my hometown from up there in the mountains and enjoy the smell of clean, refreshing air....mixed in with random wafts of reefer smoke, beer, and occasonally puke. I have some pretty cool photo's of it, so maybe you all will be able to see it later. How do I feel right now? Well, I guess I feel kind of moot. I have gone through so many waves of being excited and ready to nervous and worried. But now I've just accepted it. I've said all my goodbye's and am now standing at the edge of one massive life time experience. I don't know where it will take me, but I am 100% ready for it. Bring it on....(finally Mike and I can move into the actual trip blog instead of this pre-trip stuff that no one is interested in...)

Good bye America. I'll miss you.

Time for an update!

Most of you haven't heard from me in a while. I've been working my ass off to get as much cash as I can before I leave. But at least it has been a good time, the jobs I'm at are really fun and I'm working with a lot of cool people. I'll miss all of them when I leave.

Anyway, Mike and I take off in about 13 days! Wow, even writing that sent a shiver down my spine. I have been getting some great advise from my friends, Don and Linda Wagner, about our planned trip to Morroco. I think we have a pretty good idea of where to go...probably Marrakesh, Fez, and Essouira. I also have a friend who is a cook at the restaurant I serve at, Romano's Italian Pizzaria, who is from Albania. He has been an awesome help hooking us up with his relatives in Athens, Crete, and Milano. He also taught me how to speak a little Albanian, so I can swear at him in the kitchen and no one has any idea what we're saying.

So, I'm really enjoying and living up the days here in good 'ol USA. Now it's time to crunch. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a bunch of sales. One in particular was an adventure sports store in Boulder, CO called GoLite. They had a clearance sale where everything in the store was 50-75% OFF! Freakin amazing. I also have some inside hook ups from Pam Simich and Brian Metzler, who used to work for Ski Racing Magazine and Adventure Sports Magazine. Since these mags feature a lot of top quality adventure brands, they receive a ton of free product promotions and demos. So they hooked me up with some great stuff. Here's an update on all the things I've recently bought.

•Chaco Sandals (incredibly comfortable, really hug your feet)

•Born Shoes, Prophet (Another incredible shoe. Nice smooth Leather, unrivaled comfort, durable, sports shoe yet can easily pass for a nice dress shoe)

•2 Quick dry pant. 1 zip off at the knees to convert to shorts. The other is a solid khaki color Prana Safari brand, common amoung rock climbers, and the pant legs can roll up at the ankles for some extra flow.

•An Eagle Creek money belt. Literally a belt that goes through your belt loops in your pants. On the inside of the belt there is a zipper to fold up money and tuck in. No one can tell you have it stashed away. The only downer is that my Quick dry's already have a belt attached to them so there are no loops. I don't know if I'll be able to bring this but we'll see.

•4 T-shirts from Urban Outfitters. This store rocks. They have these really cool soft solid color t's that make you look great yet doesn't place you out of the crowd. They are only $12 a piece too.

•Some new aviators, a little more stylish but still inexpensive.

•A GoLite waterproof lightweight rainjacket (thanks Brian,) some Spyder spandex gloves, a cool new camelback waterbottle.

•An awesome 60L GoLite Intuition backpack (this deal was amazing, retail = $220, got it for $80!!!! Brand new!)
•for a security measure, I had 6 metal gromits...metal holes...installed into the sides of my bag so I can weave a metal retractable wire lock through the bag and lock it.

•A Tail Feather Hydration Pack, can hold a 3L water bladder with room to spare. (I'll use this as my daypack)

•A few Nylon Stuff sacks and 2 Compression Bags.

•Canon PowerShot A620 Digital Camera, 7.5 megapixel.
•tripod, battery recharger and battery case, a 1GB SD memory card, and an IPOD photo card reader to transfer my photos and store them on my IPOD.

•A 120 GB external travel Hard Drive.

•All kinds of medical first aid stuff.

•shower/toiletries case, travel quick dry towel (it's kinda tiny though...could run into some embarrassing situations), and rubber flip-flops.

•A cheap, but decent looking wristwatch.

•A 8"x8" sketchbook, a pencil pouch with 4 black conte crayons, 3 double tipped sharpies, graphite pencils, colored pencils, pencil sharpener, eraser.

•A pocket size diary/sketchbook/thought collector (someday a great idea will come from inside this book)

Anyway this list is getting a little long. I'll let you all know if I forgot anything. I still have to scan all my important documents and load them up on my FTP website, get an international drivers license, assort all my music and computer programs/files...load them onto my external HD, and create a project brief for my design project.

So I'm out...until the next update!

Brandle

The last pretrip post

So to be quite honest I thought the last couple of days before I left would be a slow, agonising time of counting the seconds until I left. I was wrong. I had been running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but I believe I got everything taken care of and all my stuff packed up. I am currently writing this in Chicago and still haven't found anything I am missing/have left, so that should count for something. Like Aaron, the severity of this trip still has not sunk in, nor do I think I will realize how long a year of traveling is until a few weeks into the trip (I'll let you all know.) So rather than going into what I'm thinking and feeling right now, I will make a vow to keep this website as up to date as possible. If possible I will also try to make small little 5 minutes movies for people to watch, I don't know the storage space on this website, so that may or may not actually happen. However, I will miss everyone so make sure to keep checking the website and I will make sure to post pictures and say what's up. Well, Liz and I are off to China town (here in Chicago) so I best be off. Talk to you all soon... from over seas (play dramatic music).

4 Days

By Nithin Coca

Sitting here in the rain/snow/cold, the reality is starting to sink in. I'm leaving in four days for a trip around the world.

Last night, we conducted the first day of filming for our future documentary. Pre-Interviews, about our predictions for the trip. We thought that it would be really interesting to see how our predictions correlalate with what actually happens during the trip. But we also added a twist - we had a mutual friend, Todd (Ryan) Rochford, conduct the interviews in private. And then we sealed them.

So we will not know what each other predicted until after we come back. This allowed everything (except drunk Mike) to be honest because we knew no one would see these for a year, and that Todd would be true (or just forget everything). I can't tell you my predictions, i'm actually also writing extensive pre-trip predictions for my possible book project.

My backpack is packed, I have almost everything I need for the trip, minus a jacket and dehydration salts. I've booked some hostels for my 3 weeks solo voyage. My brother is making us reservations to get into the best places in Italy. Everything is set, and in three days, I will stop posting here on the pre-trip portion and move onto Portion #1, where I will dominate the posts until Ryan and Aaron come over in April. Also, from looking at the lack of posts from my fellow travelers, this section will become desolate.

So come on over to Portion 1, as the real journal's finally begin!

16 days - Update

Only 16 days till I leave!

Quick update. I've moved back to Kansas City and have been spending the last week and a half getting logistics prepared. It's been a pretty eventful time, and I've gotton the following accomplished.

1. Renewed my drivers license.
2. Got an international drivers license.
3. Got my ISIC card.
4. Bought a silk sleeping sheet and a money wallet.
5. Organized all my crap from Washington DC.
6. Closed my bank account.
7. Applied for a Capitol One Credit Card (which has the best international exchange rates!)
8. Opened a new checking account that refunds my foreign ATM fee's.
9. Ordered a backpack!

My backpack is the most exciting thing I've done, without a doubt. I went with the Eagle Creek TransContinental Explorer, a 2005 version. Here is a picture.

I choose this backpack for a few reasons. The reasonable size appealed to me (5200 cubic inches), as well the larger than average daypack, which I think will be very useful. Eagle Creek got a lot of great reviews from other backpackers, and from the many stores that I went to. Oh yeah, and the price was great - less than $110 shipped because it was on clearance (regular price $200, and the price in a local store here in Kansas)

I was debating between this pack and the Kelty RedCloud 5600. Aaron got a Kelty RedCloud 6600, a humongous pack. We will see who made the better choice.

Soon, I will start up a travel gear review section and submit reviews for all the travel gear that we have puchased thus far. But first, we need to get out abroad and use some of the gear! Only then will we know how good it is. I still gotta a lot of stuff to buy and do before leaving - but, in 16 days, I will become the first tripper to move our of the phase system (I am currently on phase 7 - immunizations) and into the portion system.

Yeah! Nithin.

How To? Part 2: The Different Schools of Planning

This is part 2 of my five part How To? series. In this article I will go into more depth about the initial planning process. Ideally, you should try to do initial planning anywhere from 6 months to one year before you planned date of departure.

There are three main schools of though when it comes to planning a long term trip. The first school, which comprises the majority of people, is the “I hate planning” school. These are the types of people I talked about earlier, who love to talk about the fantasies and fun or traveling, but are turned off by the amount of effort that must go into planning. Even minimal planning, which can lead to a fantastic voyage, are too much for these people. Either they won't go on a trip at all, or will do the “lets just go and see” voyages, which are a bit too risky for my part.

The second school is the “I'm too scared to leave anything to chance,” the other extreme. While rare, these individuals will plan every detail of the trip, from where you're going to exactly which cafes in Rome you will be frequenting for breakfast every single day. At their extreme, these individuals can take the joy out of traveling. Often, the “scared” types will opt for packaged tours which take care of all the details.

True veteran travelers belong to the third school, the “planning is half the fun,” school. We (yes, I'm a card carrying member) love to research travel destinations, read books about the history of places, learn the language before we go, and more. Some in this school no no greater joy than finding the cheapest airfare or best hostel deal – even if it takes hours of research. Yet we like to leave a lot open – information is the main planning goal, not setting a strict itinerary. “How can we do?”, rather than what are we doing?” is our motto.

All three schools have their benefits and faults. If you naturally have a hard time leaving too much to chance, then maybe a packaged tour is right for you. Some of the best travelers I know fall into the first school; they never plan, nor do they research, yet they always have a fantastic time and learn the tools of the trade while abroad, not at home. They look at us “planning” folk as strange folk, because they believe that you can never research traveling, so why even try?

Since I am in the 3rd school, and find that learning and reading about not only destinations, but also hostels, hotels, and airlines, can be nearly as much fun as the actual trip, I believe that adequate, but not obsessive, planning can only make a trip more enjoyable. You can never (nor should you try) to plan for every contingency that occurs during your trip. When I was in Southern India in December of 2006, I carried a Lonely Planet Guide with me, and made a point to check out the historic attractions of the region. Nothing I read prepared me for what happened on December 26th, when the Tsunami slammed into the coastline only miles away from where I was. The devastation completely changed my plan, historic and cultural sights seemed insignificant compared to sheer loss of life and livelihood that had occurred. The next few days were spent reassuring my friends and family that I was alright, and aiding as best as I could not knowing the local language, the aid efforts.

There is not best way to plan. Success rates vary within all 3 schools, but the real determinant is will. If you have the will and drive to take a tour, no matter how you go about planning, in due time, you will be enjoying the experience of a lifetime.

A momentous day

I have finally figured out how to post on this blog. After months of torment and anguish of not being able to figure it out...I've realized that it was all there with the click of a button. Anyway, I have taken my shots and my typhoid pills. The shot's were completely painless, so don't freak out when you're getting them. DON'T FREEZE YOUR TYPHOID PILLS, only refridgerate them. I went through a whole cycle of pills before i realized they didn't work because they were all killed by the cold. I have a friend that Mike and I are going to meet in Ireland and we'll probably hang with him in Cork for a day or so. His name is Jimmy, and he's a really cool guy. I'm at work and can't get caught typing this, so I'll post again later with my new found posting power!!!

-brandle...over and out.