How to travel the world for 273 days

As of this moment, we have 28 days before our journey, or odyssey, begins.

The idea first found me many, MANY years ago, safe to say;  this is something I always wanted to do. I have tried to make this trip many times, but circumstances has always come in the way. But now, finally, the time has come.

Exactly one year ago today August went to do an internship with an organisation called Green Pop in Cape Town, South Africa. Around this time I also wanted to go to South Africa, but again, cicumstanses prevented me from going. Thats when this plan was set in motion. I got a really nice job instead in the city we live in, Växjö, in the south of sweden. First, of course I saved money to go to Cape Town, but as soon as August came back (in December 2017) we started planning our next journey, THIS journey.

August is right now about to finish his degree in Peace and Development, and we said that when he does, we go.

I asked my boss if they’d have me until the October 1st. They would so after we had that confirmed we cancelled the contract on our appartement, and this month we will cancel all other expenses like mobile plan, donations to NGOs etc (except for Spotify).

So we started saving money in January, approximatley 9000 SEK or 850 euros a month. I had saved around 20 000 from before and August had about 30 000.

Now we have saved up around 120 000 SEK or 11 352 EURO (including money we’ve already spent on visas to Pakistan and the plane ticket) and we have one more salary to cash in.

But first things first.

We will visit

• Pakistan
• India
• Nepal
• Myanmar
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Indonesia

I made the map below myself (:

Applying for Visa to Pakistan was the first thing we did. And it was way complicated.

We needed a letter of invitation from our friend in Pakistan, signed and with a photocopy of his ID. We also needed a signed proof of residency in Sweden from the Tax Authority. They also wanted to know our blood group and a bunch of other info, like occupation of parents and such. I was in contact with the embassy several times and I got really good service :). The whole process after we sent our passports and the application went fast, like a week, but in total, applying for the visa took us approx. a month.

We bought the planetickets from Arlanda in Stockholm to the airport in Islamabad from Quatar Airways. They cost us 9500 SEK or 898 Euros (which is alot compared to going to other places equal in distance).

Apart from the vaccinations we already have (Hepatitus A + B and tenanus) we have gotten rabies vaccin and Japanese encefalit which is  meningitis. It was expensive, 5000SEK/ person (473 EUR) but our parents piched in.

We have bought new backpacks which are specifically designed for backpackers, they are soooo smart! Here you can check them out Osprey Europe

We also have bought micro fibre towls, and silk sheets. We bought the silk sheets from    Siden Selma  (in swedish) (approx 1200 SEK or 115EUR). I will make an other post equipment when we know exactly what we’ll bring 🙂

Aaaaand thats where we are at!