What Am I Doing
My name is Mark Dawson, and I am a "retired" engineer traveling the world for an indefinite amount of time. The first time I traveled internationally was in 2010 to study abroad in Lyon, France for five weeks, and immediately after my studies, I obviously took advantage of the rest of my summer off by traveling through nine countries in Western Europe with a one month Rail Europe train pass. For quite some time, I foolishly thought like many other Americans that Europe was the only region easy enough to backpack on a budget because it has an easy and efficient transportation system, several diverse countries bordering each other in a a relatively small area, and hundreds of cheap hostels all over the place.
I took quite a long break from traveling because of a lack of either finances or vacation time until I did a random one week trip to Morocco/Portugal in 2015 with my friend, Paul. I quickly started to learn that traveling to other parts of the world is just as popular as Europe for young travelers because there are several other regions with efficient transportation routes and tons of hostels providing cheap accommodation. After Morocco, I did short vacations to Ireland/Denmark/Netherlands, Thailand, Peru, and finally Panama/Costa Rica. All of these trips were with friends and family, but I met so many other travelers on every trip that were utterly shocked I was only on a one week trip. I would meet countless people from Europe, Australia, and many other countries traveling for about 2-6 months or sometimes for about a year or more on a gap year, sabbatical or just an extended vacation.
I slowly started to get the idea that I could do something like this despite being from the United States where such a thing is unheard of; however, I feared the concept of traveling alone because I thought I would get lonely, anxious, or bored after traveling for a long time with no actual place to call home. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing job with great pay and benefits for a few years that allowed me to save up some cash and make this all possible. During the automotive July shut down week of 2018, I decided to book my first solo trip to Panama and discover if traveling solo was something I would actually enjoy. I had an amazing time, and I actually preferred it because of the freedom it provides and the way it forces you to meet other people. I immediately knew that I would be able to do some extended solo traveling, so after months of debate I decided I was going to quit my job and live out of a two backpacks for several months to explore the world. I knew that I was going to delay my retirement, but my opinion is that enjoying life experiences while you are young is far better than saving up money for retirement at on old age when you might not be able to enjoy doing the things you love to do.
I have created this blog to document my travels for family and friends to see what I have done instead of me constantly trying to send everyone photos of where I have been. I also see it as a great way for me to look back at what I did several years from now. I realize that sometimes my writing gets a little lengthy for all audiences, but I want to try and capture the memorable experiences in a unique manner. If you only have limited time to review a post then simply skimming the slideshows might be good enough for you because "a picture speaks a thousand words".
I took quite a long break from traveling because of a lack of either finances or vacation time until I did a random one week trip to Morocco/Portugal in 2015 with my friend, Paul. I quickly started to learn that traveling to other parts of the world is just as popular as Europe for young travelers because there are several other regions with efficient transportation routes and tons of hostels providing cheap accommodation. After Morocco, I did short vacations to Ireland/Denmark/Netherlands, Thailand, Peru, and finally Panama/Costa Rica. All of these trips were with friends and family, but I met so many other travelers on every trip that were utterly shocked I was only on a one week trip. I would meet countless people from Europe, Australia, and many other countries traveling for about 2-6 months or sometimes for about a year or more on a gap year, sabbatical or just an extended vacation.
I slowly started to get the idea that I could do something like this despite being from the United States where such a thing is unheard of; however, I feared the concept of traveling alone because I thought I would get lonely, anxious, or bored after traveling for a long time with no actual place to call home. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing job with great pay and benefits for a few years that allowed me to save up some cash and make this all possible. During the automotive July shut down week of 2018, I decided to book my first solo trip to Panama and discover if traveling solo was something I would actually enjoy. I had an amazing time, and I actually preferred it because of the freedom it provides and the way it forces you to meet other people. I immediately knew that I would be able to do some extended solo traveling, so after months of debate I decided I was going to quit my job and live out of a two backpacks for several months to explore the world. I knew that I was going to delay my retirement, but my opinion is that enjoying life experiences while you are young is far better than saving up money for retirement at on old age when you might not be able to enjoy doing the things you love to do.
I have created this blog to document my travels for family and friends to see what I have done instead of me constantly trying to send everyone photos of where I have been. I also see it as a great way for me to look back at what I did several years from now. I realize that sometimes my writing gets a little lengthy for all audiences, but I want to try and capture the memorable experiences in a unique manner. If you only have limited time to review a post then simply skimming the slideshows might be good enough for you because "a picture speaks a thousand words".
Itinerary
Here is the general, initial itinerary that I have come up with earlier this year. I have based my travels mainly around Central America and Southeast Asia. I wanted to avoid the dangerous tsunami season of South East Asia as well as the expensive peak tourism months of Patagonia, Australia and New Zealand. I had to settle for being in Central America during the rainy season, but honestly it has not negatively affected my trip at all because it rains randomly for maybe about one hour each day. I randomly selected one year because it sounded like a good number, so there is a chance I could end up traveling for longer. My travel plans have changed a lot as time has gone on so I have included a timeline of what I actually did to compare.
Original Itinerary...
April 2019 - Chile & Argentina for Patagonia May 2019 - Mexico June 2019 - Guatemala and Nicaragua July 2019 - Costa Rica & Panama August 2019 - Colombia September 2019 - Ecuador, Hawaii or Sri Lanka October 2019 - New Zealand November 2019 - Australia December 2019 - Southeast Asia January 2020 - Southeast Asia February 2020 - Southeast Asia March 2020 - Southeast Asia |
What I actually did...
(delay) May 2019 - Guatemala June 2019 - Belize & Honduras & Guatemala July 2019 - El Salvador & Nicaragua August 2019 - Nicaragua & Costa Rica September 2019 - Panama & Colombia October 2019 - Colombia November 2019 - Thailand & Cambodia December 2019 - Cambodia & Vietnam January 2020 - Vietnam & Laos February 2020 - Laos & Thailand March 2020 - Thailand & Phillipines |