the adventure begins...

We are writing this on the plane an hour out of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The last week has been an absolute whirlwind. We managed to shove Rutvik’s life into his little car (yes, he is a minimalist) and made our way from Atlanta to Omaha with an overnight stop at our old stomping grounds in the Lou. (We couldn’t believe how much things had changed since we left - Wash U looked pretty darn impressive!).

In Omaha, we spent time organizing and packing, finishing up some of Rutvik’s MBA applications, and hanging out with Kelli’s friends and family. We also took a photography class at the zoo with our awesome new Canon (thanks to Rutvik’s co-workers at KeyBank). Hopefully, our new and improved photography skills will come in handy on our travels. Check out a few of our favorite pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kelliblum/ZooPhotoClass

At the end of our photography class, we left ourselves with only one day to get everything done and were still packing the hour before we left the house. As some of you know, our track record for catching flights has been less than stellar, and this time proved no different. En route to NYC, we found ourselves unpacking and repacking our bags to reduce United’s ridiculous baggage fees (weren’t in the budget!). When we got to security, Kelli realized that she had packed some perfume as a gift and ended up having to go back out through security. The airline called out our names over the loudspeaker and Kelli’s family watched us make a run for the gate. Really, it wouldn’t be us any other way :)

When we landed in NY, we discovered that United’s expensive baggage service had lost Rutvik’s backpack, and, after a stressful evening of calls to United, we had to make an early morning stop at LaGuardia before catching our international flight out of JFK. (Katherine, you are a lifesaver!) We managed to be at the gate a full 2 hrs early, a first for us! So far, the flight’s been uneventful and we’re hoping that customs proves the same given Rutvik’s “business” visa…

where in the heck?

The beauty of a backpacker's itinerary is that there is no real itinerary. However, because of our nature, we couldn't help but plan a tad! We started with a map of the world and a book of cool things going on around the globe (We highly recommend Rough Guide's Making the Most of Your Time on Earth). We had a hard time crossing any countries off the list but eventually settled on India, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

India was a natural choice as Kelli had always wanted to go there and Rutvik hadn't been back to see the fam in awhile. Africa fascinated both of us and we thought it was the type of place best to check out while we were still young. We decided to round it out with some time in Southeast Asia since we were going to be in the vicinity and it's a backpacker hotspot.

At least that's the plan for now but it's subject to change depending on what happens along the way.

Here is our rough plan:

Omaha, USA (Departing October 18, 2008)
New York City, USA (October 18-19, 2008)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (October 20-22, 2008)
Bombay, India (October 22-October 29, 2008) - Diwali!!
Kodaikanal, India (October 30-November 2, 2008)
Southern India (November 3-20, 2008)
Southeast Asia (November 20, 2008-February 12, 2009)
Ahmedabad, India (February 2009) - Anish's Wedding
Northern India (March and April 2009)
Southern and Western Africa (May and June 2009)
Egypt (July and August 2009)
Bombay (August 2009)
???, USA (August 2009)

Definitely let us know if you'll be nearby at any point!

why in the heck?!

I think the best answer to this question is "why in the heck NOT?!" There is so much world out there to explore and life is short when you get down to it. Both of us have always loved to travel, and since we met in college, we had always tossed around the idea of traveling together, though definitely not on such a grand scale. For many years, we couldn’t even convince each other to visit the other one’s city or meet anywhere in the US. Then Kelli ended up in Atlanta for work (yay KPMG!) last June and Rutvik ended up meeting her in Europe for ten days later last summer. We visited Paris and Munich (OKTOBERFEST!) and spent the nights in a hotel, airport, tent, train station, and 18-bunk hostel room. It was a blast (well, except for the camping where we nearly froze to death) but we realized that we definitely hadn't satisfied our travel bugs with that trip. There was still way too much world left to experience. After we got back, we'd casually joke about jumping ship and running around the world for awhile when we had a rough day, but deep down it was something we both really hoped to do someday. Finally, one night, we said "you know, what if?" After several rather lengthy discussions and plenty of cold feet, we decided that if we were going to do it, there was no time like the present. And so we're off...

how in the heck?

People often ask us how in the heck we can do this. The two things people seem to worry about most are money and jobs. This kind of trip certainly doesn't come free and without risk, but we decided to take a chance and chase our dreams.

While we won't be funding our retirement accounts anytime soon, it's not nearly as expensive as most people seem to think. Here's why:

• Fortunately, the countries we're planning to visit have a lower cost of living than the US. According to Lonely Planet, a day in Thailand (including food, a place to stay, local transport, maybe a camel ride, and a few beers) costs about $30. Contrast that to a typical Saturday night out in the US.
• We don't plan to stay in swanky hotels or have a travel agent plot out our every move. Hostels, train stations, and airports will be our domain. However, if you plan to join us, we would be more than happy to sleep on your hotel couch!
• Our hobo lifestyle won't require things we typically need to pay for like: new clothes, dry cleaning, gas, car insurance, utilities, etc.
• We plan to mooch as much as possible! :)

As for the job question, it's definitely a leap of faith for both of us, but we really believe that the experiences we'll have and the skills we'll learn along the way will make us more attractive to employers in the future. We'll let you know how this all works out when we get back! (At least we'll be used to life on the streets by that point.)