Around the World with a cheapskate

OK here is, as promised, how I planned my trip. Pretty much since I left Australia at the end of 1999 I have wanted to go back. Since I was in South Africa in 2001 I have wanted to go back. Feeling that a two week trip to Thailand was a bit short, I have wanted to go back. I have family and friends in America, I want to go there. New Zealand looks kinda pretty, I want to go there.

And that is the way that the trip starts. A list of everywhere that you want to go. It helps if there is a map of the World on the classroom wall- helps with planning a trip and really doesn't help with the teaching, with the students yelling 'teacher, teacher!' and all there is going on in my head is 'ah, so that is where Uzbekistan is...'.

I knew that I was reaching the end of my contract and also knew that I needed to go home for a while. I haven't been home since March 2003, people have got married, given birth, been sick, recovered and generally just got on with their lives since I left. And I have missed them. I knew that things were bad when I burst into tears one night when Big Ben appeared on the TV. But, much as I wanted to go home, I knew that I didn't want to stay there. So I started thinking about my dream trip- into Africa, onto Asia, Oceania, America and home.

Thinking led onto exploring the idea through the internet. I started with STA Travel and even coped with having to tick the 'Not a student, totally the wrong side of 26' box to get a rough quote. The same with Trailfinders. But they didn't seem willing to sell me a ticket or really have any contact through the internet. Then I came across this

MY DREAM TRIP!

on the Round the World Flights website. They seemed only to eager to sell me a ticket through the internet. I did a bit more research- that is to say that I counted the money I had and got out a calendar. Now I am the ultimate cheap traveller (if you can ignore a little bit of souvenir shopping). I embrace backpackers hostels- I lived in them basically for a year in Australia and two years in Ireland. I have cleaned them, managed them and hung around in them to the point where I can be a bit confused that I can change the channel on my TV without having to ask 50 other people if it is OK. So if I am going to stay anywhere on my travels it is in a backpackers.

So I went onto my two favourite hostel websites- VIP Backpackers and Hostelworld. They both offer internet booking and if you buy a VIP card you get discount on the hostels as well as a range of other things, such as buses. Hostelworld tends to have more budget options as well as purely backpackers. From these websites I got an idea of how much money I would need to budget for a night in Oz, NZ, Fiji, America, Tahiti and the Cook Islands. Having been to Cambodia last year I knew that accommodation was as cheap as chips there.

Then I factor in how much money I might need to spend on transport- based on Greyhound buses or any other large bus company- and the knowledge that I picked up in Cambodia about travelling around South East Asia.

I put these two numbers together with the money I had counted to see how long I could reasonably afford to stay in each country.

Then I danced around the room yelling 'I'm going on my jollies, I'm going on my jollies!!!' to the irritation of all of my neighbours.

I really wanted to go to South Africa but the transport was more than I could really justify. After all there was a lot of exploring to be done over there. So I decided to cut it out of the trip in the end. I think that it will be a trip of its own one day. The travel agent that I was dealing was quick at responding to my emails and they sent me a quote. Unfortunately I had to book the trip within five days.

I panicked.

And then stopped and thought 'why not'- what was to stop me booking the trip. Yes, something might go wrong between now and then but I had already checked that the dates were easily changeable. I knew that I would be happier to go home with a plan in my head and a ticket in my pocket. So, taking a deep breath, I told them to book it. They needed dates to book each flight so I sat down with a calendar and a highlighter pen to mark out how long I would be in each country. I sent the dates and they booked the flights.

Now all I had to do was pay. The price was more than reasonable for what I was getting. Having travelled at peak times in Korea for the last two years it felt good to not be paying through the nose- and for people not to tell me how much less they had paid for the same trip! But I felt like this was a big deal for me and I didn't want to sit alone in my house to make the final phone call. So I went to Rory's house and chatted to him and Ben for a while until the time difference caught up with us and the travel agent in London opened.

I dialled the number - thankful that my phone was working for once- it really is not a big fan of the cold- fingers trembling.... and spent ten minutes on hold..... finally they answered, took my debit card details (yes, I am planning this whole trip without the sniff of owning a credit card, I must be crazy) and it was done.

Stunned silence for a second then hugs and kisses all round. I have bought the ticket but not seen it yet- must get Mum to wave it in front of the webcam at some point. I go through phases where it is all I want to talk about but I know from experience that the closer the time comes the less I will want to talk about it and the panic hits in and the reality of leaving Korea becomes more solid. Home first and then out into the World

My nominal budget is 80 quid (pounds, damn this machine not recognising a pound sign). I hope that I will spend less some weeks in the hope that this will leave me more to spend others. I decided to spend longer in Fiji than I had originally planned when I saw how cheap the hostels were. I am concerned about the prices in Tahiti so have booked to stay there for the minimum time. I did think about cutting it out altogether until I looked at some photos. I spend a lot of time on the Lonely Planet website, looking at their art galleries and reading all the message boards. I also use the Rough Guides travel journal section- where my Mokpo writings are also saved- for pieces written by travellers.

And I think that is all there is to it.

At least I hope that I haven't forgotten anything!