Trip Planning/my life is done

Off-topic
1

This thread is about Trip Planning methodology, things you do when preparing for a trip and then how you execute them along the way.

Here is a writeup of my experiences over the last few months, this trip I planned is my life long goal I never thought I would achieve so its bloody long and I don’t expect anyone to read the whole thing.

Right now I’m just finishing off my planning for the biggest trip of my life and what will probably never be repeated, I’m probably going to see upwards of around 3-4000 dollars of dept and have a pretty rediculous time along the way.

So here is how I have started planning the trip.

I’ve wanted to go around to a few places in Asia for years, so over the last two or three years I have gotten a list of where I wanted to go.

Originally it was Taiwan (home of the toilet restaurant that I never found), Thailand, Hong Kong, Beijing, Somewhere else in China, and Japan. After meeting and becoming really close to some Korean people I added Korea to that list about two years ago. This planning was done around grade eleven and twelve of high school.

Then I kind of sat on the idea of traveling figuring it would happen some day. In January of 07 I started working for a Japanese restaurant called Genji. This was the first time I was making enough money to start planning for real. Right away I worked out that by the summer of 08 (now) I would have close to 28 000 dollars if I didn’t spend any of my earnings. Of course I knew this wouldn’t happen so I just started saving as much of my money as I could, which didn’t work that well either.

A couple months in I restarted my budget and started to think of how much I would need to travel. I decided that about 20 000 would be about right.

Shortly after this I learned of Uninam, I just couldn’t pass up the chance so I cut my trip a bit shorter and decided to tack Taiwan onto that so that I would avoid any political issues. This trip took about 5000 dollars plus money spent on unicycles. It was more than I had budgeted for but it was a good way to learn about planning. I booked all the hostels I needed as I went. I booked my hostel in Taiwan about a month before I left and then when I was in Taiwan I booked the ones needed in Vietnam.

In July was when I signed up for Uninam and I then realised it was time to get serious about planning. I had been talking since I was about 17 with my friends about going to Europe in the summer of 08, and I decided I should just combine all of my travels to save money, this would also mean I could go to Unicon.

First thing I did was work out a basic idea of when I would be where. I based most of this around Unicon as it was fixed and there wasn’t much I could do about it. I told my friends (who at this point were quickly making excuses not to do the trip) that at the end of Unicon was when I wanted to meet them in Europe.

I decided that I should work through Asia from one side to the other so as to save money on flights and stuff and it made sense at the time to go from West to East as it would be cheapest to most expensive. It was now too that I needed to finalize all of the countries.

I talked to my friend in Seoul and she agreed to put me up for two weeks so that was one place down, then I just worked through my list. Thailand, Hongkong, Shenzhen (good access point to Mainland China and it seems interesting enough), Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo.

Tokyo seemed like the best place to go in Japan because although it doesn’t really represent Japan accurately, its a good place to go as its own destination and I didn’t have the money to travel around Japan, so I figured I would just go to one cool place and do it all out, plus there are a couple of bands that play regularly in Shibuya that I want to see.

At this point I figured it was time to tell my parents what I had been planning. They knew I wanted to travel but I don’t think I told them how serious I was and it was a bit of a shock to them.

After I had decided where I was going I figured out a good time to leave and where a decent estimation of how long I could afford to travel for (which as it turns out I did a poor job on because its going to be more than I thought). I decided to leave near the end of May and from Tokyo go to Copenhagen.

During this time I talked to the last of my friends who was still down for the trip in Europe. We decided to meet up in Munich the day after Unicon ended and I would travel around with him until mid to late August. When we figured out where we were going we decided I would leave back home on the 19th.

With my end date figured out I needed a start date, this was sketchy, and I really didn’t have much to go on. I knew OUI was going to be in May and I decided that I really wanted to help out planning it as well as compete in it. So when it was announced that it would be the 24th and 25th I quickly made the decision to leave on the 27th. Enough time to get my things together and get out of the country.

Now that I knew when I was going to be in Asia and when in Europe, as well as where I wanted to go in Asia and in what order I could start figuring out dates. I decided that my major focus in Asia would be unicycling and meeting more unicyclists. This was when the Evolution of Balance award popped up and so I decided to plan my trip according to that and it was a good way to push myself to get it all planned out.

My Birthday is the 14th of July and I decided that since it would work out not too badly I wanted to spend it with my friends, and since I had a friend in Seoul I decided that the two weeks would be spend near my birthday. This was my base point of my planning as well as when I needed to be in Europe and when I was leaving. The rest was just fill in the blanks, and I was quickly able to book my flights.

With my flights booked I then sat on my ass until about a week ago when I realized o crap this is actually happening, I’m about to leave on my lifelong goal of a trip! So I’ve been spending the last few weeks researching Hostels/budget hotels.

Now almost everything is set. I need to book two flights within China (I was planning on doing it when I got to China because its supposed to be cheaper to book them when you are at the airport than online but with the new VISA rules I will have to book them now), a hostel in Hong Kong (I can’t find a place right on the island and I don’t know if I want to be on Kowloon or not, so I’m going to talk to people at work from Hong Kong and get their opinion), a hostel in Shenzhen and a Hostel in Shanghai (I avoided Beijing because of the Olympics.

This whole process has been pretty mish mashed and my budget has been re-worked so many times its ridiculous, but I’ve set up a line of credit so I don’t die in interest and I’m ready to go into debt for it. I wish I had a better setup for luggage and that I had started planning out what I’m bringing and what I need more than I have but I’m pretty confident that it will work out. I also fudged a couple and left out a couple details in the writeup because it was already too long.

My name is Nathan Tappin and by age 20 I will have accomplished everything I have ever dreamed of.

O and expect a video of my travels at the Unicon video competition.

2

And huge congratulations on that, Nathan. That’s really an amazing achievement, and you will have traveled more in a year than most people do in a long lifetime. Glad I was able to share a few miles of those travels. But hopefully in accomplishing everything you’ve ever dreamed of, you’ll tack on enough life experience to start dreaming even bigger for the future. You’re hardly ready to rest on your laurels.

Here is something to think about relative to your finances on trips: Guest Chef. One thing I found when I was cooking–at a level below your formal culinary training–was that if I was willing to ask, I could find really short-term cooking jobs that would pay cash. My friend Kevin taught me this one, and I’m not the only one that’s seen it work. Might be tougher in a foreign land, but you know how to engage people so it would be worth a try. Get a list of the “hot” restaurants in town, and do a little research to find a few that are relatively close together. Then start visiting them late afternoon…go in the kitchen door not the front door, and find the guy in charge of the kitchen or close to it. Introduce yourself, and say just enough to establish your cred, then shift to “I’m traveling the continent, and just trying to rustle up some extra cash. Is there anything I can do for you guys tonight? I can peel shrimp, chop onions, make dressing…anything you need, including giving the guys on the broiler station a break. I know medium rare from medium without slicing open the meat.”

You know how help is in the restaurant biz…totally unreliable. Chances are fair that someone has called in sick and they’re short. Willingness to peel shrimp is good. Know how much you want in cash for the night. If it doesn’t work, try the same at the next place (that’s why you want to find the groupings). If none of them work, try again about three hours later when the place is packed and all hell is breaking loose. They may have a different point of view. If everyone’s on the line except the prep cook, all the better. Tell him you’re here to talk to the chef and ask him how you can help in the meantime. Then jump in. You can walk away a few hours later with some new friends, a cold beer, a meal you made yourself with their ingredients, and some tax-free local currency in your pocket.

$.02,

TB

3

Thats some good advice Tom I will look into it. It would also be a great way to get some good info and learn a thing or two. I think it would be good to to get a free meal, walk in and say I want to learn from you and work for you for a day in exchange all I ask is some good food. It would definately be a good idea to get to eat in a restaurant I normally wouldn’t be able to afford.

4

That sounds like a fantastic trip, Nathan. Yes, I read every word. How much unicycling are you planning on doing on this trip? Are you going to take a unicycle? Are you going to meet up with unicyclists in various countries? I hope you get a chance to ride in every country and to meet riders from all over the world.

Where do we send donations to support your goodwill uni-tour?

5

That is so awesome dude, I wish you the best of luck.

-miles

6

Thanks for the support guys, I’d be interested in what similar stories some other people have.

If anyone wants to help support me you can email me for my address and send cash, money order, whatever, my parents will deposit it into my account for me. Or you can buy me a meal or a beer in Unicon. It would also be cool if you just did something good for unicyclists like donating to the Evolution of balance award or starting some kind of fund to support trips like this, or you can always just help me with mine :P.

I will have two unicycles with me (hopefully, although I’m getting a bit worried about the 24"). My biggest goal is to ride as much as possible and meet as many new unicyclists as possible.

I should be riding every day and getting a decent amount of filming done as well. I will have my Mac book with me to edit video and communicate with people.

7

Awesome.

haha, if I see you around at Unicon I might be able to get you some food :wink:

My summer trip will be: France, Denmark, Vancouver.

8

Thats awesome, France is the only place I’m not going to that I wish I was.

Vancouver would be pretty cool to. My brother lives in Calgary and we went to BC once on the chair lift that crossed the Alberta/BC border!

9

My summer is going to consist of a lot of small trips. To Portland, California, Canada, NAUCC, and hopefully a uni ride, coast-to-coast.

Besides all the cool stuff planned in this thread, something that will probably relate to only you and me, is that we have the same birthday.

:slight_smile:

10

Really?! Thats awesome. I have never known anyone with the same birthday as me before. Where are you going to be for your birthday? Mine will actually happen before yours though :p.

Where in Canada are you going? Its a pretty big place :p.

11

I was thinking Nanaimo, BC. I was up there once before to go bungee jumping. Fun place. Im not too sure though. Lots of good places to visit, and lots of good unicyclist id like to meet with as well.

For my birthday, ill be just getting back from NAUCC, but I plan to go skydiving. I found a place only 30miles from where I live, but they havent responded to my e-mail yet.

12

If you know any french and you want to go to a more urban place, I would highly recomend Montreal. Its a great city with some great riders that are all great guys, but knowing some french is really really helpful.

13

What countries in Europe will you be visiting? I may be in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and then who knows this summer.

14

Sounds like a great trip. I would love to travel the world someday. Unicon will defently be an amazing experience, and you are going to meet so many cool people.

Are you going to university? It seems like you have a lot of time on your hands.

15

I will be going to Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam, London, and Copenhagen in Europe.

I’m not in University and I have been working full time since January 06.

I did a semester of a Cooking apprenticeship course and I’m probably going back to do my last semester of it in January.

16

Oh awesome, I’ll be flying in to Brussels when I go to France (I’m visiting Lille for a couple weeks, then Paris for a few days, then somewhere else.)

17

when you know when you’re going to be in London talk to Sponge on here and he may be able to arrange a london trials ride, last time we had about 35 riders doing a tour of the great spots on the south bank.

18

I’m definately hoping to meet some of the London riders, but I think Sponge is going to be in China or Korea then.