Sisters Astray

Why are you doing this?

 We talked about some of our reasoning on the ‘About Us’ page, but each have our own motivations as well. 

Kelly: 

My motivation is simple: I love to travel.  There are so many places in the world that I would like to experience and have only one lifetime to do it!  There is nothing holding me back at the moment – no house payment, no boyfriend, no children (except my wonderful dog, Izzy, which I remind everyday that I’ll ‘be right back!!’)  I want to celebrate this time in my life by doing some extensive traveling before the time comes to ‘settle down’ and have a family.  I am also interested in exploring the option of living abroad long-term some day and I feel like this trip will help me decide where I may want to reside in the future.  With a degree in international business, this adventure could also open up some career opportunities for me as well…who knows?

 And finally, I want to travel with one of the most amazing women in the world…my sister!  I can’t think of anyone else I would want to embark on this journey with and think we are a perfect pair to make this one of the most amazing experiences of our lives! 

Kim: 

There are so many reasons why I want to take this trip.  I’d like to take a year off of work (shocker!).  I want to trek the Annapurna circuit, take a cooking class in Thailand, see Patagonia, visit my old ‘flatmates’ in New Zealand, learn how to surf in Costa Rica, eat dim sum in Hong Kong…this list goes on and on.  

But most importantly, I want to use this experience to challenge myself – physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Over the last several years, I’ve become complacent with my day-to-day life in Austin and I’m ready to shake things up. It will be extremely difficult to leave my job (I’m a sucker for stability), parents, friends, and amazing boyfriend, but I know that there is nothing more exhilarating (and terrifying!) than stepping outside of my comfort zone and plunging into the unknown.  

I’ve found that long-term travel forces me to deal with challenges that I typically wouldn’t face in my daily life at home.  It is during these times that I am able to truly understand myself and what I am capable of – I have no one to depend on but myself (well, except my sister)!  I know that this experience will change and shape me for the better. 

How did you decide where to go? 

When we first started planning this trip, our list of ‘must-see’ destinations was pages long.  However, after some consideration, we both realized that we would rather visit fewer countries in order to really get to know the people, sights, sounds, and smells of a place rather than to just cross cities off of a ‘been there, done that’ list.  We picked countries that we are not only excited to experience, but that we felt we probably would not have another opportunity to visit. 

Cost also played a huge role in deciding where to go, as well as the desire to visit places where we have friends.  Luckily, we have friends in the more expensive countries of Western Europe and hope that sleeping on a friend’s couch will help offset the daily costs in these pricy regions. We plan to spend more time in South America and Southeast Asia since we can live for a whole month there on what we would spend in a week or two in Europe.  

How much is it going to cost? 

There is no easy answer to this question.  The cost of an around the world trip depends entirely on the type of traveler you are.  If you want to spend most of your time in Europe, staying in hotels, and eating at nice restaurants, you are obviously going to spend a lot more money than if you visit developing countries, stay in hostels and eat cheaply.  We plan on taking the less expensive route and hope that our total budget of $30,000 (per person) will keep us on the road for a year. 

How can you afford to do this? 

We had a rich, long-lost relative pass away and leave us a gigantic fortune.  (Yeah, right!) 

The bottom line is that we both made travel a priority in our lives…anyone can do this if they choose to do it.  Some people save for a down payment on a house or a car…we saved for this trip.  

Kim has been planning this journey for a long time.  She first got the idea around 2003 and has been diligently saving a portion of her monthly paycheck ever since.  Instead of getting her own apartment, she split rent and bills with roommates.  Instead of buying a new car, she continued to drive her banged up Honda with 200K+ miles in order to avoid a car payment.  Since Kim started saving years ago, her day-to-day lifestyle didn’t have to change all that much.  She still was able to enjoy dinners out, the occasional shopping splurge, and weekend vacations with friends. 

Kelly went about it a little differently.  After making the decision to join Kim on this adventure, she had about two and a half years to save around $30,000 and catch up to her sister financially.  This meant no cable TV, no new clothes, no vacations, and no new car.  It also meant that she would have to take on a second job in order to meet her savings goal.  For 9 months, Kelly worked 40 hours a week at her daytime sales job and spent night’s waitressing at an upscale restaurant.  That’s sacrafice, ya’ll!  Not only did she give up material luxuries, but Kelly also gave up the majority of her social life to make this dream a reality.  Kim could not be prouder of what her little sister has accomplished in such a short amount of time! 

In order to stretch our hard-earned dollars over the course of a year, we will be on a pretty strict budget.  No fancy hotels or restaurants for us…we will be staying in hostels, cooking our own meals whenever we can, and eating cheap street food.  Good thing we love mystery meat on a stick!

Won’t you kill each other?

We get this question a lot.  Our family and long-time friends are probably thinking of the baton beat-downs we used to have with one another after school or the screaming matches over which one of us got to keep Dad’s hand-me-down couch.  

We’re sisters…we’re going to get on each other’s nerves and argue, especially being together 24/7.  Fortunately, as we’ve become adults, our arguments have turned into constructive, communicative discussions.  After 27+ years, we know what each others hot buttons are and when NOT to push them.  When we feel like one of us is becoming aggravated, the other will take a step back and give that person some space.  We’ll have ‘alone time’ and each do our own thing for a day or two.  

As those close to both of us know, Kim is more reserved and cautious; Kelly is more outgoing and carefree.  We believe our different personalities will balance one another out and actually work to our advantage during our adventures. 

Most importantly, we like to think that nothing we could argue about is worth jeopardizing the trip.  This has been a dream of ours for years and we’re not about to throw it away over petty bickering.  Even if we do get into some knock-down-drag-out fight, we both know we’ll have to kiss and make up eventually…we’re family.  So why delay the inevitable? 

What do your family and friends think? 

We are fortunate to have extremely supportive family and friends.  Our parents and a handful of friends even plan to meet us at different spots along the way! 

 What about your jobs? 

Although we both appreciate our companies and what we do, neither of us wants to make a life-long career of our current positions.  Our jobs do not define us and we have both long viewed them as a ‘means to an end’. 

Yes, it is somewhat nerve wracking to leave a stable job in a slow economy, but we hope that more opportunities are available upon our return.  Besides, this trip may inspire us to choose a career path that is nothing like what we had been doing before we left! 

What about all of your stuff? 

All of our junk is going into a storage unit.  The folks will baby-sit Kelly’s car and Kim’s boyfriend will take hers.  A friend is going to keep Kelly’s sweet dog, Izzy. 

Is it safe? 

Yes.  No.  Sort of.  The countries we plan to visit are no less safe than the U.S.  We can get mugged or hit by a car in Austin, TX just as easily as we can in Bangkok, Thailand.  Most travel horror stories that people hear are the exception, not the norm.  As long as we make smart decisions (i.e. not venturing out alone after dark) and are conscious of our surroundings, we’ll be fine.

Anything else that you would like to know?

Bring on the questions!