A question I hear from nearly everybody is, how the heck did you save up enough money to travel for ten months? My salary was decent but little more than that. I have no secret stash of money to cushion my fall. The truth is, I have neither Croesusian wealth nor a particularly Spartan travel style. The only way I can travel for this long is by budgeting carefully, and enduring the incredible stress that goes along with it.

Yes, that’s right, to travel the world you must deal with relentless budgetary stress. There is a constant tension between the desire to see sights, experience things, make the most of your trip, and the conflicting obligation to maximize value, cut corners, make spot decisions with salesmen breathing down your neck, and avoid indulging yourself needlessly. Budget travel is a matter of turning down familiar comforts whenever they appear without compromising your spirits. Every opening of the money purse is preceded by hesitation, and followed either by relief or shame. And your lapses in discipline add up quickly.

For example, right now I am sipping a coffee while sitting in the hostel courtyard. The coffee ıs sucky Nescafe, but cost about one dollar CAD. But as the words I’ll have a coffee left my lips, I began to doubt whether it was the coffee I wanted, or just the familiar comfort of coffee, of sittıng beneath an awning on a breezy day with a coffee which I otherwise had no desire for. I upbraided myself a little. The expense was nearly nothing, but what sort of habits would this fiduciary laxity beget? And furthermore, if I’m to stay on budget, I’ll have to make up for this purchase by saving an equivalent amount somewhere else, won’t I? Oh lord, what am I to do? My bank account will be bone-dry in months at this rate! And so on. This is how the cheapskate mind churns, and for the next nine months, I am wholly of his ilk, the skinflint, the killjoy, subsisting on bread and water and wagging a dirty finger at money-wasters.

I keep a detailed log of every cent that leaves my pocket. This is pretty much required for long-term travel unless you’ve got enough padding in your bank account not to worry about it. Doing this lets you see not only how much you’re spending, but whether you could cut down on some recurring thıngs. There are a lot of ‘Beer’ entries. I haven’t decided what to do about those. More worrisome are the food costs, easily the most frustrating aspect of budget travel. You simply must eat three meals (or really two and a half) a day, and sometimes you’ve got little choice but to absorb the sting of that $12 tourist-trap dinner. Conversely it’s quite rare to find food that is all three of: cheap, good, and convenient, as most of those get spotted by Lonely Planet and up up up goes the price. These are the stresses of the day, of scrounging for food and beds and cheap attractions so that you don’t just spend your time walking around the park all day. Quite a bit different from the stresses of meetings and project schedules, eh?

I should talk a little about this trip and how it came about. First of all, I quit my job to go on this trip, and when I return home I’ll have absolutely nothing left but the shirt on my back. This is how it is, and how it ought to be. For me, traveling around the world is a one-shot deal. Endless travel does not need to become your “lifestyle”, nor do I care for erecting a philosophy around it (though I did enjoy Vagabonding). I do not aim to globetrot perpetually and forever, stopping off at home every three years when my parents call me home for some family function, only to head back out. For most people, travel is leisure, and a life of nothing but leisure soon wears you down. I’m well aware that after a certain length of time I will grow tired of travel, and when that happens, I will come home.

Fortunately, that time is a long way off.

My itinerary is roughly as follows:

• Eastern Europe (Munich) - 2 months
• India (Delhi) - 1 month
• Southeast Asia (Bangkok) - 7 months

The cities in (parentheses) are the destinations given by my Round-The-World ticket, purchased at the lovely Travel Overland agency of Munich (hence the designation of Munich as “Eastern Europe”, which clearly, it is not).

The way the ticket works is, I fly from Montreal to Munich and then two months later there is a flight waiting for me to Delhi, and a month after that, to Bangkok. Then, seven months later, a ticket home. The destinations are fixed but the dates can be changed for a fee, and the ticket is valid for a maximum of one year.

By “Eastern Europe”, I’m referring to some, if not all, of the following places: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Turkey.

There are certainly others I’d like to see, nor will I necessarily see all of those (I’m already past Slovakia, e.g.).

My travels in India will be restricted to that country, for I don’t have the nerve for Pakistan or Sri Lanka, nor the patience for Bhutan.

In Southeast Asia, I’m hoping to get through: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Phillipines, various Indonesian islands, Hong Kong, and if I have time, parts of China.

Having no fixed itinerary gives great flexibility, but also induces a kind of travel paralysis. For example, last week I was in Prague, and utterly torn between three possible destinations: Krakow, Poland; Bratislava, Slovakia; and, Vienna Austria. Here are some factors complicating the decision:

• Krakow is about 11 hours by train, and the others are 4. Furthermore, it’s another 7 or 8 hours to leave Krakow towards the south (Budapest)
• bus tickets to Bratislava are in short supply, and I’d have to wait a few more days before I could leave. Vienna, I could leave for anytime.
• Vienna is far more expensive than the others.
• exceedingly cute Czech hostel bartender who is interested in travelling to China herself….

A dilemma to drive you to the madhouse! I chose Vienna, but only because a decision had to be made. Which was a mistake, since Prague was good, cheap, and fun, and Vienna was expensive, bland, and… well, fun. Still, I’ve learned a lesson: as long as you are enjoying yourself in some place, and not fretting over the cost, just stay there.