World Trippers' - Pre-Trip!

Last Post in US

2006-05-31T02:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Less than 24 hours until liftoff!!!!

2006-05-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

Well ladies and gents, with less than 24 hours until lift off I have finally packed everything into my bag and luckily, it all fits with room to spare. However, at this point I don't know whether it’s good or bad that I still have all kinds of room. Either way, at this point this is what I have and thus this is what I'm going with. Tomorrow the plan is to leave the home around 1:00, then I get to deal with airports and airplanes for quite awhile until June 1 when we arrive in Ireland.

As for an update of our overall plans for the next year... we have kind of made a loose plan for the next few months. The most interesting part of this planning phase has been planning on being in certain places so that our friends and relatives who are going to be in the area can find us. Plus it's been a slight struggle to coordinate how we are going to do this because the kids who are already there are on such a different time schedule than us. However, I do think we have figured it out for the most part and I’m sure we'll post it online here once we get it all finalized. I don't have much left to say at this point other than say later boys and girls, have a good year in the USA.

Time for an update!

2006-05-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

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

Are you even reading this???

2006-05-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

I'm going to go ahead and figure nobody reads this section of the website at this point because of our status still in the states. Because of this i've decided to place a funny picture up that everyone should enjoy... so here it is. Also I'll be doing the graduation dance here in a few weeks so you know that's kind of exciting. Other than that, I figure this part of the site will seem as though it's on a defibrillator until we get real close to the departure time which is like 28 days or something crazy close like that.

The last pretrip post

2006-04-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

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).

D-Day

2006-04-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well boys and girls this is it. I am sitting in my Mother's house after having unloaded the last of my stuff to store. I leave Kansas in about 5 hours and you know what? It hasn't hit me yet.

I am going to be away from family, friends, and familiarity for over a year and as of now I feel as if I am just going on a short vacation. My backpack is packed, my cell phone unlocked, bills have been paid, and goodbyes have almost all been said. This is it. This is the beginning. This is where the adventure starts. I'll be seeing ya.

Quick Backpack update

2006-04-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

Quick update on the backpack real fast... today my package from moosejaw.com came. It was the wrong color bag. Because of this they offered to send me a new one for wholesale value. Just in case if you weren't aware wholesale is what the manufacturer (osprey) charges the retailer (moosejaw, altec, etc)... Anyway, it'll end up i get my backpack for 140ish... Hell fucking ya!!!!

Getting Antsy

2006-04-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hooray, for some reason i have taken it upon myself to go on a crazy spending spree and I have finally purchased a bunch of equipment for the trip. As Nithin has stated, the most important and exciting purchase for this trip is the backpack and I finally decided to go ahead and snatch one up... However due to unforeseen circumstances it actually got 2.

This morning I figure I'd make the purchase at Altrec.com for a 230ish (about $30 0ff suggested retail price) . Then 4 hours later I started looking at prices of other items that I will need for the trip. By luck I made my way over to a site I've been to a few times before called moosehead.com. Once I got there I found that they are having a 20% off 1 item sale (until monday 4/10) and I decided to check it out. It turns out that through mooshead.com I got the backpack at 207 and I even got it in the color that I wanted. So here it is the Osprey M80:

Anyway, it seems that Altrec.com was super on the ball and already sent out the first pack. Thus now I have to refuse their UPS shipment so that they will refund my money. I would have just gotten a price match with them but I figure the blue version is much better than the black version and it would have only save me an extra 4 bucks if i did the price match

Well I'm getting bored of typing this stuff... so here is the rest of the shit that I have purchased so far for the trip.

Backpack - Osprey Way point M80
Unlocked Cell Phone - Motorola (L6) - i wanted a nice small reliable phone.
Swiss Army Knife - Deluxe Tinker -
Digital Camera - Canon SD400 w/ extra battery and 1 gig memory card.
Zen Touch Mp3 Player - 40 gb hd & 24hour battery life.
mini maglite
mini binoculars
space saver bags
a few other small boring things

Things seem to be so close at this point... almost 2 weeks for Mr Ryan and Aaron and less than 2 months for me and Brandle... I'm getting pretty excited here.

~ Mike out

4 Days

2006-03-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

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.

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

Phase ??? Completed

2006-03-01T22:17:00.000-08:00

After a few hours of researching flights, hostels, bus routes, subway tickets and more Ryan Brandle and I have finally entered stage ???. What is this mysterious stage you ask.... Well I really have no idea. I figure I'll just wait until Nithin or Mr. Ryan takes the effort to find that kind of thing out. In the mean time, I'll just throw down a quick explanation of what the last few hours of planning have accomplished. As you might know, Ryan Brandle and I are not leaving at the same time as the other cool cats. In fact, we are actually the last of the bunch to exit the Americas. Because of this, we have been a little more relaxed, and as of earlier in the day we had not purchased any flights except the one to Ireland. However, this has now all changed. Here is the story...

The original plan for Sir Brandle and me was to stay in Dublin for a few days and then shoot over to Malaga (Spain) to meet up with the boys. However, the flight from Dublin to Spain in early June jumps up to about 80 euro, which ends up being a bit more costly than a budget traveler would like to spend. So, for the last few months we decided wait for the flight to go on sale. Unfortunately for us, this never happened. However, I decided to consider a kind of crazy idea of getting into Spain through another country. To make a boring and long story short it ends up that if we fly from Dublin to London and then from London to Spain we save about $45.00 USD. Thus after looking at multiple options of what to do in Dublin and London this is the official original itinerary that we came up with.

Ryan and Mikes Itinerary

May 31st ----- Fly from Chicago to Dublin, Ireland
June 1st ------- Land in Dublin at 8:30 am: check into hostel and recover/whatever
June 2nd ------ Dublin: tour Dublin/whatever
June 3rd ------ Bus to Cork, Ireland: stay with Ryan’s Friend
June 4th ------ Cork: continued adventure in Cork
June 5th ------ early bus back to Dublin catch a flight from Dublin to London around 1:00 pm. Land in London around 3:00 and wait around until 6:00pm for out flight to Granada, Spain. Arrive in Granada around 10:00 pm and find a place to stay.

As you can see, the plans changed a bit and now we are flying into Granada instead of Malaga. No biggie, Granada is supposed to be a happening place anyway. That’s all I have for now because “I’m not a talker”

How To? Part 2: The Different Schools of Planning

2006-03-01T15:48:00.000-08:00

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.

Take that diseases!!!

2006-02-27T14:48:00.000-08:00

I don't recall which stage exactly this puts me at, but as of today I am all immunized up and ready to start rolling in the crazy diseases the world has to offer. Of course I'll stay away from birds farms cause those places are crazy nasty. Also, anyone with a yeast infection is discouraged from speaking to me because I might just slap you in the face. That is all for now.

A momentous day

2006-02-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

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.

Another member of Phase 6

2006-02-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

Almost everything seems to be in order as far as pre-departure arrangements are concerned. Today I purchased my backpack - it is the Eagle Creek Ultimate Explorer, a discontinued model which was replaced by a pack with the same design, but lighter weight fabric. However, since it was on clearance I saved almost $100 off what the new model costs.

I also purchased the video camera I plan on using during the trip (Panasonic PV-GS400). Ironically, I decided to purchase this camera now, because the model was being discontinued and replaced by the GS500, which is cheaper, and looses many of the features which drew me to the 400 in the first place. I have finally picked out all of the equipment I need to shoot my documentary, more on that in the documentary section. So with my two new, antiquated, pieces of equipment for the trip I am more excited that ever in the planning process. In fact, I started a day count-down (71 days to go for Aaron and I). So, almost all the predeparture costs have been paid - hostels are booked (the ones we are booking here) and I have almost everything I plan on bringing with me. It just comes down to the long 2+ month before I go...

Ryan

Our First Itinerary

2006-02-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

Alright folks. This is official. This is our first week of traveling that has already been booked and paid for. This applies for myself and Ryan.

April 21, 2006 Depart KCI at 5 pm and arrive in Chicago at around 6:20 pm
April 23, 2006 Depart Chicago at 7 pm for Dublin, Ireland
April 24-26, 2006 Stay in a hostel in Dublin
April 26, 2006 Depart Dublin at 3 pm for Madrid, Spain
April 26-28, 2006 Stay in a hostel in Madrid
April 28, 2006 Meet up with Nithin and begin touring Spain looking for a place to live for the next 2 months

That is how things stand at this point and we will update soon with more dates as we get them.

This trip is on!

Aaron

How To? Part 1: Motivation for a World Tour

2006-02-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

By Nithin Coca

This is part one a five part series on how to plan a trip around the world. This part will focus on the early stages - figuring out why you want to travel, the good reasons and bad reasons, and how to kick the trip out of "its sounds cool" to "whoa, maybe we can actually do this!"

So you want to travel the world, eh? Let me tell you my story - for someone who was an avid traveler, doing a world tour seemed, at first, overdoing it. I was graduating soon, and really had no idea what I was going to do after graduation. I looked at various ideas, such as volunteering abroad, joining the Peace Corps, going to grad school - everything except "get a job", basically.

When my friend, Ryan, called me with the idea of a group of us leaving and taking a grand tour of the world, I was immediately enthralled. The idea was so obvious, yet, it was not something I had even considered. As so began the "fantasy" phase, where we just talked about how great the trip would be, how much fun it would be, without actually considering the logistics or "how the hell are we going to do this trip?"

90% of potential trips around the world end there.

Why do so many people fail to take that dream, that fantasy adventure and make it a reality adventure? Why do so many trips get stuck in the hazy dreamworld, or die a quick death in the dark seas of actual planning? How can I prevent my trip from because a lost cause, a regret?

Below I list the top reasons, in my personal experience, that most potential travel adventures fail in the early stages. Most of these reflect my own personal experiences.

1. Bad Motivation - Take a deep look inside yourself and ask - why do I want to travel the world? Unfortunately, too many people see traveling as nothing more than a non-stop party, of sex, booze, and worse. Quite frankly, you don't need to go to Europe if that's the only reason you can think of for wanting to travel. Others want to travel to experience the world, to learn a language, to explore their heritage, or to go on a quest of self-exploration, or to get away from the doldrums of American life - those motivations lead to a deeper understanding of what a trip around the world might mean and make the trip seem more like an inevitability on the path of life rather than a long vacation.

2. The World is Big. Very Big - If you began traveling the day you were born, and did not stop until the day you died, you still would only see a fraction of the immense cultural, historical, and natural wonders that there are in the World. It is impossible to see everything, most likely, you won't even see 1/2 of what you want to. On my trip, we are purposely going slow, to enjoy the culture and immerse ourselves. This led to some tough decisions about where we wanted to go. Some people can't handle being realistic about what to see, and that leads to total meltdown of the planning process.

3. Financial - Oh yeah, money. For many, this is a legit reason not to travel. But too many rule out even considering a large-scale trip on financial grounds without even exploring economic feasibility. As the great quote goes, "if their is a will, their is a way." For many, the lack of will rather than the lack of money is what kills a trip. I recommend you do some research, read a good budget travel book like Rolf Pott's Vagabonding, talk to other travelers on travel forums like Travelpunks. More often than not, financial issues can be overcome - traveling is not the luxury item that many take it to be.

4. Dreamers, not Schemers - It's a sad fact of life that many people only like to talk about doing things, but never actually doing them. In high school, I tried to ramp up support for a road trip down to Mexico. Everyone thought it was a great idea, and we had long discussions on the all the great, fun things we would do during the trip. But then, when I tried to push them to book hotels/figure out cars and other logistics, the conversations disappeared. I never understood it, but some people are just naturally turned off to planning. If your travel partners are like this, you may be better off going solo.

So, lets say you do have the right motivation, you've figured out your financial situation, and you're dedicated to making this trip happen. Ready to begin planning and taking this trip into high gear?

Get everyone together (if it's just you, get yourself) and discuss the trip seriously. Bring out all the negatives - a great way to weed out those who are truly dedicated those who are just there for the booze and sex. Come to an agreement that planning will not be easy, and require effort on everyone's part. Make sure everyone understands what a trip around the world means.

The next thing to do is set a realistic schedule, agreed upon with everyone who is traveling. This way, you know when you are departing, and how much time you have to plan. Instill a sense of urgency - you may have 6 months, but that doesn't mean put everything off till later. Begin to chart a plan of where you want to go - this plan doesn't have to be stuck in stone (ours isn't) but it should be comprehensive enough to give you a good idea of where you'll be and when, generally.

After that, you'll be ready, as the World Tripper's say, to move into phase II - hardcore planning. Check the next segment of How to? for more!

The Incongruisly Complex Phase System

2006-01-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

By Nithin Coca

Yes, a new phase. I believe this is phase 5 that Aaron has entered. Quick review of the phases.

Phase 1 - Seriously considering trip, Jan 2005
Phase 2 - I go to KS for President's Day Weekend, Trip planning moves in serious stage, Mar 2005
Phase 3 - Ryan and Aaron books tickets to Europe, July 2005, Mike and Brandle follow suit, late Sept 2005. I follow suit, in November 2005.
3.5 - Book tickets all the way to Spain - Ryan and Aaron.
Phase 4 - The five of us book our first hotel, for Spain, Sept 2005. 2nd hotel yet to be booked (something we really should look into)
Phase 5 - Website Launched, October of this year. All five members posted and thus are in this phase.
Phase 6 - Aaron gets a backpack.

So you see why its so confusing. Everyone is in different phases. Like me, I'm in phases 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but not 3.5 or 6. Ryan is in phases 1, 2, 3, 3.5, 4, 5, but not six. For you passive web surfers, ignore all this and click here for some relevant information about travelling.

I wonder what Phase 7 will be?

In other news, I am nearing the two month markdown period, and let me tell you, time is moving so damn slow now that the departure date is nearing. Like today. It's only 11:24AM!!! Less than 70 days till I depart! A big HA HA to you late departers.

Phase (Not Sure)

2006-01-17T14:56:00.000-08:00

So I just got back from lunch with my mom and came back with a huge step in this trip. I officially have my backpack for our adventures. Not only that but I am in the process of renewing my passport as well as getting an international drivers liscense. Since I can not recall the outline of our phases I don't know into which one I fall. But at any rate we are about 3 months out and am just counting the days.

Oh the Shame!!!! (Maybe)

2006-01-15T11:25:00.000-08:00

Oh the woahs of being a 22-year-old, preparing to depart for a trip around the world. It seems that once again our eyes were bigger than our wallets. (A common symptom I have). Naturally when you plan to span the globe for a modest $15,000 USD, you have to sacrifice a few things on your trip. For shame - no daily spa treatments, or dining on fine caviar for us. But now our plans to go to the World Cup are in jeopardy.

As you may or may not know, the World Cup will take place this summer in Germany, roughly around the time we will be in Spain. And in our very-American way of thinking, we thought, "Hey Germany-Spain, they're pretty close, that'll be like making a Thursday night beer-run to Missouri." Truth be told, it's a little more costly than that. Most of the matches (at least USA's matches) take place in smaller German towns, which don't have a lot of hotels/hostels (at least not available on-line). To aggravate the situation further, most of the cheaper airlines (RyanAir, Germanwings, Air Berlin) offer, at best 100 euro roundtrip flights, and most of those fly into cities which are at best 100 km from where we will be staying/departing from. Combining all the expenses to travel to the airport to take the expensive flight, just to take another bus/train to the city where the match is, to check into your over-booked, expensive hotel to watch your +$50 match, to go back home and pay all those same travel expenses again would easily cost each of us 300 euros.

So for obvious reasons, flying to the World Cup is out. But there another option. The two best words in the English language for 5 boys to hear. "ROAD TRIP." This was a recommendation made by Nithin long ago, and it still may be plausible. It seems that Europcar has reasonable rental rates (when renting for a week and split between 5 people). To rent a van (or large car) and drive to our shut-in little town of Kaiserslautern, Germany, watch our match, sleep in our van (I promise to be safe mom), have a blast for a week and save some money. Now this option would still be expensive ($150-$200, for tickets and travel). But it would be for a longer period of time, a lot more fun, and would allow us to see more of France, which has very little time on our itinerary.

Obviously we need to be very thrifty with our spending, but now and again we also need to splurge and create some stories we can still tell when we're 80! This is merely the first of many such decisions - shall we be practical, realistic, wise with our money and not go to Germany? Or shall we devote ourselves to the sense of adventure, be smelly, uncomfortable, and risk having an incredible time going to an event we will probably never get to see for the rest of our lives, and take any short cut we see to get there!?

This trip is going to be awesome!

Photos from Washington DC

2006-01-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

By Nithin Coca

I've just finished the last of my pre-World Tour traveling, taking a trip up to NYC to visit a lot of friends from back in California. Great guys, had a blast, the funnest part not being that we were in NYC, but that I got to hang out with these guys again. I'll post some photos later.

But, for those in the "know", I've been biding my time in Washington DC, the nation's capitol (for you idiots). I'm a SoCal/Midwesterner at heart, so the East coast is more foreign to me than France. DC even more so, the pinnacle of heirarchial power of the world. I like power, so I came, and here I am.

<--Me and my good friend Kohei Natsume (who visited all the way from Japan) at the National Mall.

Hanging out with the Pandas at the National Zoo. They didn't have any Koala bears :-(

My UCI (anteater statue) and USC (red t-shirt) pride together. Zot! Fight On! (PS...i hate Texas)

Italy Advice, anyone?

2005-12-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

By Nithin Coca

Quiet around here. Currently looking into hotels in Rome, Milan, and Florence for when I go with my family (AKA - the only portion of the trip where I'll stay in nice accomadations!) I've never done Italy before, minus a day in Genoa, so if anyone has any advice about hotels to stay at, hotels to avoid, cool things to see (remember, I'll be with parents!) in Rome, Florence, or Milan, pass them my way, or leave a comment below. Thanks!

Only 3 2/3rd Months!

2005-12-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

By Nithin Coca

Boy, does it feel good to have a date. And boy, does it feel good to be in Phase 5! I've been in Phase 5 for over a month, and I didn't even know it. I'm now Phase 1,2,3,4, and 5 certified, though not 3.5 (booking a ticket to Madrid), as Ryan and Aaron are. But soon!

I made the first edits to the finance section including my ticket purchase last week. Hopefully this journal will be edited one to two times a weekup until we go abroad, with the frequency growing logrithmically the closer we get to departure. After departure, expect more frequent updates from us. Ryan told me that both his parents and Mike's parents stumbled on the site completely on accident. If any more of our friends, family, or stalkers come upon the site, email us and give us a holla!

In two weeks I will return home for Christmas, when I will force Aaron to get out of his bed and start posting. Until then, a busy week here in Washington DC, so don't expect too much.

3 2/3rds months! YEAH!

So is this phase 5 or what!?

2005-12-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

I love the phase system! I am a fan of all things lacking rules and regulations, much like our very own "phase system." In fact, none of us really know how many phases we'll end up with, once we finish this crazy adventure of ours... So I am unilaterally going to mark this momentous occasion (where Mike, Nithin and myself are writing on blogger.com) as the start of phase 5. We now have a website where people can come to check the progress of our trip, or use this as a reference to meet up with us during the trip. Some of our families and even fellow travelers have found this website without us talking about it! I hope we can continue to use this as a platform to keep our friends and families updated on the progress of our trip and to encourage anyone who has dreamed of traveling to go do it, and send us an e-mail so we can meet up with you on the road.

However progressive a jump into phase 5 may sound like, I still have so much to do before we actually depart, including GETTING MY IMMUNIZATIONS!! (Sorry, that was more of a note to myself).

Well I hope to see Aaron and Ryan in phase 5 soon, and perhaps we can design a new, more flashy, more organized website in the future (I'm looking to you Brandle) where we can also promote this ambitious, mythical documentary I keep talking about... More info on that later!

Ryan

Phase 3!

2005-11-30T08:41:00.000-08:00

By Nithin Coca

Finally!

Months after Ryan, Mike, Ryan, and Aaron, I have also finally solidified my initial itinerary. I booked my ticket to Europe, to begin the first leg of our trip.

Details (also check out Budget - my first read trip purchase!)

March 23rd, 2006 (one month before Ryan and Aaron, 2 months before Mike and Brandle)
MCI - ORD - Frankfurt Germany, to Rome Italy on Lufthansa.

Why Rome? Well, my brother, Ashvin, is going to be spending a semester in Florence, Italy, this coming Spring. So me and my parents are going to visit him. We will be going first to Rome, then to Florence, and then to Milan, where they will fly home and I will continue to explore Italy for another three weeks before hopping on a cheap flight to Madrid. My parents booked their tickets using Frequent Flyer Miles, while I booked a concurrent flight from StudentUniverse (still pretending to be a student). I could have flown for cheaper on Aer Lingus or Scandinavian Airlines, but, my parents were willing to foot the extra cost to have me on the same flight as them. That is factored into the budget.

It's good to finally have a date. Today is Nov 30th, 2005. That means, in less than 4 months, I will be in Europe!