It all started as a promise to Lisa written on the back of a receipt on New Years Day 2001. "I will quit my job and travel around the world with you" -Chris. It was the deal closer to get her to marry me.

It took us 22 months to plan and prepare and we deferred major life decisions like buying a house and getting a dog. Inspired by our friends, Jen and Mike, who did a similar trip, we quit our jobs, gave away alot of our stuff, packed the rest in storage, stayed with Chris' mom for a few months, gave our Jeep to Lisa's mom and got on the plane.

We instinctively knew that the experience would stretch our minds and change us in ways we could never imagine. Research and planning alone was quite an adventure. Strange looks from the staff at local book stores as we digested tall stacks of travel books. We bought a large map of the world and started putting pins on the countries to which we wanted to travel.

Why did we decide to do it? Read a book about adventure in Africa or taste the muddy waters of the Zambezi River? Wonder why people in foreign countries would choose to live in deplorable poverty or witness first hand the consequences of a brutally oppressive government? Wonder why the rainforests are disappearing or go visit them before they are gone?

Quite honestly, Chris felt like he was on the slow boat to corporate obscurity. While the getting was good we had more than our fair share of good fortune within the dotcom bubble. It was a case of transitioning life events making it perfect timing for us to pack up and hit the road. We're both wired for adventure and, to us, this was the ultimate.

So we stopped dreaming about it and did it.

Oh we missed the luxury of hotels. Rarely would we stay in hotels (Asian cities being the exception but always less than $25/night). Most of our time in "expensive" developed countries (Aus, NZ, South Africa, Europe) was accommodated in hostels or camping. We would have missed out on having kangaroos scare the #$*% out of us at 4:00 AM in Australia if we had not been sleeping in our tent along side the road. Tent camping in Botswana and Namibia pushed the limits of our comfort-zone at times but it made the trip affordable.

Round-the-world airfare (limited to 16 stops and no more than 28,000 flight miles) cost us $3,100 each (including tax). It took some serious shopping to find this. For our route a Star-Alliance round-the-world ticket made the most sense. But don't try to book it directly with the airlines. www.circletheplanet.com had the best (by far) rates for multiple-destination travel.

As for living expenses we found that we could live quite comfortably with occasional splurges on $3,000 a month in most developing countries. We passed up adrenaline activities like bungy-jumping, skydiving and expensive tours for more self-guided tours and local bus journeys to save money.

Rarely did it make sense to camp in developing countries, as accommodation could be found for both of us for $6 - 18 a night. Africa was the exception, where we made the best use of the travel dollar by joining a participatory camping safari for three weeks. Europe, New Zealand, and Australia were generally more expensive, especially in big cities, and we found our expenses to average around $4,000 per month.

We quickly learned to travel with young backpackers to find the least expensive options. We didn't always take the least expensive path but it was our baseline.

Cost of the entire trip?.......you do the math.

No suitcases. Modern internal frame backpacks with most of the load supported on the hips is what we used. A duffle bag for overflow and a daypack for valuables. After the first month of travel Chris' pack averaged about 35 pounds and Lisa's pack weighed in at under 32 pounds.

We packed fewer clothes and did laundry more often. We tried to wear things until they were dirty sometimes for days on end. Our motto: wear it out and then throw it out. Items unused for weeks at a time were soon abandoned or mailed home on the slow boat with souvenirs. Another critical lesson: In the tropics, cotton is king and synthetics are dead weight. But in New Zealand our fleece sweaters were our best friends. Nothing escaped the jungle humidity and mildew of Borneo so we returned to Bangkok to resupply on inexpensive and less than name brand quality items after abandoning many of our heavily worn out clothes.

Because we brought so few clothes laundry day seemed to arrive two or three times a week. Sometimes we sent it out and we were truly impressed in Bali when our underwear returned to us ironed and folded. Sometimes traveling with clothes for multiple climates created problems. We learned the hard way not to send out fleece items for laundering in tropical climates. Few people see fleece in the tropics and it melts when they try to do you a favor and iron it.

Real easily...We quit our jobs. Not only did it make it easier to get on the plane to start our adventure but it opened up our minds to how the other 99.999 % of the people on this planet live.

In spite of what even we guessed we found spending 24-7 together to work out well. Of course we had quarrels and even the occasional meltdown but we learned to draw the distinction between the other person and the situation. We always reserved the right to play the "alone-time" card but more often than not we would crave sharing new experiences together and found that we did not need much "alone-time". Having the same interests and tolerances helped alot and it hasn't been too difficult finding compromises. Sometimes it was nice just to tag along and let the person with the most interest in the place or site make all the decisions.

Before we left we heard it all. Someone's friend had a friend who had been gassed on an overnight train, drugged in a bar, mugged, or poisoned. We met lots of people on the road who had one or two stories of misfortune but most travelers wore their stories like merit badges commanding awe and respect from fellow travelers.

Attack? Of course we were concerned. We'd be fools not to be. But paranoia can cripple you. Lisa's decision to dye her hair a darker color for travel in Africa was motivated by a bit of fear, but Chris goofed and did too good of a job leaving her hair jet black. Was it really necessary? Tough to say. It certainly helped, in some situations, diminish the amount of attention she drew but there are less extreme ways of obtaining the same result. In hindsight a headscarf or dark (not light) hat probably would have been adequate. Sometimes it just bought peace of mind. A few times we were fearful of our safety: muslim extremists in Zanzibar, desperate criminals in parts of Kenya and South Africa (not everywhere) and of thugs on Lombok Island, Indonesia. Rarely was it warranted and more often than not it was just our imaginations. Only once were we verbally harassed for being American. People were surprisingly helpful and respectful and generally took no for an answer.

Injury? We were very afraid of some of the aggressive animals we encountered in Kenya, the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, landmines in Laos and Cambodia the possibility of an unexpected eruption of several of the active volcanoes we were climbed and, of course, the mosquitoes during the 140 days we traveled in malarial areas.

Ripped-off? Valuables always stayed with us. We bought clothes we wouldn't be heart-broken for losing if our packs were lost or stolen. If we found a clothing item we really liked along the road we bought two and mailed one home. It immediately diminished the fear of loss. We carried a throw-down wallet , a decoy gladly given up during the unlikely event of being mugged. Sometimes I carried two travel wallets (can't disclose where the second was concealed) and were never stupid enough to retrieve money from a money belt in public.

Yes, but with some common sense and a killer first aid kit our fear was minimized. We maintained a paranoia about malaria but there's not much more you can do than use a mossie net, repellent and anti-malarial medication. SARS gave us quite a scare when Chris came down with a fever in Viet Nam but it was most likely Dengue fever. Lisa's recurring low grade stomach issues turned out to be parasites but antibiotics cured that up. Chris had a severe allergic reaction to bad fish in Indonesia. We did our best to keep our hands clean and stay away from bad food but sometimes you get sick anyways. We frequently ate street vendor food because we could see the ingredients before cooking and watched it being prepared. It tended to be less expensive anyways.

Days on the road seemed to fall into one of four categories: travel days, housekeeping and preparation days, activity days and down-days.

The hours of a travel day were consumed by packing up, transport to airports, rail stations, and car rental places then the actual travel time followed by local transport to accommodation and food. Much of travel days are spent hurrying-up in order to wait, especially airport days.

Arriving in new cities or countries required that we relearn the basics. The first 48 hours tended to be most stressful. We couldn't auto-pilot to food, a bed or entertainment. We had to learn the layout of areas and forage for our basic needs. After the first ten countries we just started showing up in the next country with only basic plans. In Zimbabwe and Myanmar purchasing money on the black market took several hours. We walked out of many restaurants and onto the next in Vietnam after a peek into the kitchen. But in Burma a huge plate of inexpensive fried rice was rarely more than a ten minute bicycle ride away.

Preparation days included visits to the market for food for an upcoming hike or overnight trip, maybe a trip to a tour company office or a travel agent to get advice. Preparing to transition climates or big cultural shifts required several days of reprovisioning. Most of our travel in Borneo involved a trip to the market to purchase several days meal supplies for trips into the National Parks. Car camping in New Zealand required trips to the camping store for stove fuel and a weeks supply of food.

Activities required that we be separated from valuables and we would have to make arrangements for their safekeeping. Activity days were usually planned well in advance with least expensive options identified and a plan of attack. We rented a motorbike, packed snacks and sent laundry to be done in advance so we could spend the next three days from predawn to well after dark exploring the Lost City of Angkor in Cambodia. Activity days were pure action with little distraction from the task at hand like rafting the Zambezi, tracking lions, caving, exploring ruins, climbing volcanos, jungle trekking, mountain hiking, and scuba diving.

Even down days where the plan was to just wander around aimlessly or purposely get lost had their challenges. Things we take for granted at home sometimes take 3-4 times as long to do in a foreign city/country. A trip to the fridge takes 10 seconds at home. Sometimes the restaurant selection process could take an hour or more not including travel time. Upon Lisa's return from a peek into many kitchens she'd deliver a stern, "We're Outta Here!"

There really is nothing typical about a typical day on the road and you never know when things will turn atypical on you. This is what truly makes it an adventure. Sometimes after a pleasant day of no surprises we would lower our heads onto our pillows just in time to hear the guy in the next room snoring so loud it would shake the thin guesthouse walls. Even worse, when we shared rooms with travelers the snorer might be in one of the bunks next to us. Surprises became the norm and we caught what sleep we could and hoped that the next day would be a little more gentle on us. Of course this an over simplification of typical days.

Three immediate things come to mind. We learned to ask better questions and that the quality of your adventure is directly proportionate to the quality of questions you ask, both in planning and execution. Secondly, we learned to live with less...a lot less. It remains to be seen how this will affect the way we live upon our return home. Third, we learned to better evaluate and take risks. In all, we won't really see the big picture until years after we've returned home and have the benefit of hindsight. The eyes through which we view the world have changed but not until we view things familiar and common will we truly see how our attitudes, values and opinions have changed.

We have learned to "go with the flow". By not planning too much we found that we were rarely disappointed when things didn't go "our way" because we hadn't defined "our way". It seems obvious but we had never really "lived" it to the degree of traveling to a foreign country with very different customs with no real plan. Just show up and see what happens.

Oh you betcha! At times it was downright painful. A combination of factors made it painful at times. 1) Not feeling well 2) A long bus or plane ride 3) Being bored out of our minds and having too much time to think about our "old" lives. Sometimes we'd torture each other by playing this game we called "the food game". As we'd be hiking through the humid jungles of Borneo, stopping to pick off the leaches every few km, one of us would start naming off favorite restaurants and foods to the other. "Taco Delight at Taco Bravo, smoked turkey crepe at Sweat Peas, steerburger at Burger Pit, or french onion soup at Perry's. Of course we only had ramen noodles and nuts to eat. It was so cruel especially when the other person was hungry. When camping and with little night entertainment we would think about home quite a bit or rehash the same stories about friends and family. Homesickness had a weird way of sneaking up on us. When hiking in the rain in New Zealand the muddy puddles in the forest looked like bowls of raisin bran soggy with milk and this would make us think about and miss home. The mind is a strange powerful thing. The most frustrating part of the trip was getting excited about starting a project at home but not being able to do anything about it on the road. Homesickness usually faded within a few days or was pushed out of our minds by activities.

Chris - Ear plugs

Lisa - Good hair conditioner, sun block, facial cleanser...just your basic products you use everyday. They can be hard to find so when you have them, they are like gold!

That's a tough one. I know its sounds cliche but some things just cannot be compared.
Rafting the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe and volunteering with Earthwatch in Kenya were tops in Africa. Exploring the lost Khmer civilization and ruins of Angkor Wat and the hundreds of temples of Bagan, Burma were tops for Southeast Asia. Bali and traveling by boat to islands in East Indonesia along with our visit to the jungles of Borneo were tops for that part of the planet. Trekking in the mountains of New Zealand and scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef were very impressive and memorable. The best experience was the entire adventure, including the adversity and being able to share it with my beautiful wife and best friend, Lisa.

Without hesitation: Exploring the lost civilization of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was by far, second to none, the most impressive, awe inspiring, mind bending, adventure. Other top contenders: Bagan, Burma and Gunung Mulu, Borneo. Six hours and eight kilometers of caving in Gunung Mulu National Park is Sarawak, Borneo. Watching the blood red sunsets for five nights from atop temples sprinkled across the plains of Bagan, Burma.
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