We get a lot of questions about how we manage different aspects of full-time travel. To answer them, we’ve put together a special Resources page on the website that will hopefully help people find out if they can Abandon their Cubicles, how to do it, where to get the things they need to do it successfully, and just some general information on traveling. We’re not claiming to be any authority on the topic, we’re just hoping to help! here’s what the new page covers:

Is It Feasible. The ‘should you?’ the ‘could you?’ and the ‘how to do’ of abandoning your cubicle. Whether you are thinking of a leave of absence to travel for a few weeks or months, or a full out Jerry Maguire storm out,t hen this will help you assess if now is the best time, and some of the things to consider before you flick off your boss.

Insurance. Lots of people need this to travel. Although we don’t personally have any travel insurance (yet) we’ve checked out some of the options and we have a few links posted that could maybe provide you with what you are looking for. Coverage for a short-term trip shouldn’t run you more than $250, so be wary of people who charge by the month or who promise you year-long coverage for less.

Visas. These little stamps can cost you big bucks, and be a royal pain. But thankfully there are some easy ways to tackle visas like nifty visa services. For some countries (Russia) you’ll have to use a service if you want it done right, fast and without hassle. For others you’re better off doing it alone. We give you some tips on the resources page, as well as at the bottom of every destination page.

Guides. Seasoned travelers always have their favorite guide books, and hardly ever deviate from those. We use a mix of our favorite guide book (which we won’t give a free promo here) and online sites like travel blogs for the area, or wikitravel. We have more info to be found about guides on the resources page!

Languages. The number one thing people ask us about is how we get around without speaking native languages. The answer is that we try really, really hard to learn. We do that with language guide books, i-touch programs, online sites and a lot more. Its important to us to try to talk to people in their native tongue, and we use a lot of different resources to try to achieve that aim.

Equipment. People get really excited about the equipment we use. We’ll meet someone on a camping trail and spend the first fifteen minutes talking supplies before we even get around to introductions. A good tent can make or break the whole trip, and everyone who travels full time has very strong, very serious views about cook stoves.

Expat and Teaching. Many people go overseas for a change of pace to look for an expat-style job or to teach English while they enjoy the local culture. We have some resources for you to do both, including how you can get your teaching certificate (which we did last year, just in case!).

Social Media & Staying Connected. We also listed some nifty travel websites, travel tools online, and ways to stay connected with your loved ones while on the road.

So, to see all that info and more, check out the new Resources page!

So much has happened in such little time, and yet so much remains undone! With the Mongol Rally launch date fast approaching we’re quickly losing sleep over the amount of work needing to be completed before our piddly rally car can promenade out of London.

Remaining to be done:

• Visas. We literally have none. Although, by the time you read this we’ll be well on our way to filling out the gruesome paperwork required for all of these lovely entrance tickets. We’ll need visas for 5 countries along our route, so we’re hoping no one turns us down!
• Car. Yes, that’s right. We don’t have a rally car yet. Would you like to donate one? If so, we gladly accept provided it has an engine. We’re working on finding a car in the UK and dealing with the issue of where to store it until our arrival and how to start the registration process from afar.
• A method of arrival. We are hoping to take a boat from the East Coast, USA to Europe, and we’re busy searching the internet for cruise deals, freighter travel that is affordable or even a rickety dinky that we can paddle across the big pond.
• Money. Yup, we still don’t have a whole lot of that green stuff. However, we’re hoping someone extremely wealthy and wonderful will donate a bunch of that right before we leave. Its for a good cause, and Mercy Mongolia would be as happy as we would if a huge sponsor stepped in!

Already done:

• Team mates. On the up side, we are ecstatic to have Bill on the team, and we have every reason to believe a 4th team member will be joining us soon.
• Equipment. We also have almost all the supplies we need for the 10,000 mile journey, which is great news because without the car we might be hiking the 10,00 miles (and we’re well equipped to do so with all the survival stuff we have!)
• Route. We’ve ironed out our exact route and we have even put together a decent time line of where we will be and when! Nifty what information you can find online, as well as all the cool tools available for trip planning on a massive scale. You can find some of these tools listed on the Resources page.
• Communication. Lauren is busy learning Russian as quickly as a brain can hold that knowledge. We also have all the language apps one i-touch can hold, as well as a few PC programs for language acquisition and a nifty phrase book for Russian. When all else fails, we’ll do as the Italians do and gesture!

That’s where we are, folks! Wish us luck on the insanity that is about to ensue as we get our butts to the UK and get this rally underway!

REI -Recreational Equipment Incorporated- started out as a club of like-minded outdoorsman who wanted equipment that was not being provided in any other location. They wanted climbing, hiking, survival and camping equipment, and there were no specialty stores at the time selling that type of outdoor stuff with any validity or certainty.

Now, REI has stores all over America as well as a vast online catalogue. The stores are usually fun and adventurous, with climbing walls, rough-terrain indoor hills to test your boots on, and plenty of interactive displays so you can find the piece of equipment that will suit your needs, like a pond full of water filtration devices so you can find the style you adore. Its easy to spend several hours in REI without noticing time has gone by. They even stock clothing now, including the much-coveted quick-dry, rip-stop fabric that outdoorsmen find so valuable.

While REI stocks only the best brands, we’ve experienced a few REI brand products and have come away very happy. My women’s frontloader backpack is beyond ideal, and the frame is designed with women in mind, so it rides atop my hips. The frontloader means I’m packed and ready in under 5 minutes, and the high-quality fabric means it just might be Lauren-proof (we’ll see! I’ve ruined 4 bags so far, this is the only one to last this long!) I also have several pairs of REI hiking socks, and at any given time you have a 50/50 chance of catching me in them because they are so comfortable, breathable and versatile than I hardly wear any other type of sock. My silk inserts when hiking for long durations make for a wonderful combo.

I’m in the market for a water purifier. Anyone have any great recommendations? I’m fond of the lever pump designs myself, but with the costs so high, I’m wondering if boiling and iodizing isn’t just faster. Ideas?

A god? Yes!

Bear Gryllls’ show, Man vs. Wild (Born Survivor in the UK) – Man vs. Wild – Season 1 - is a rare TV hit. What I like most about this show, despite the fact that some of his stunts are staged, is that he demonstrates how to survive in life-threatening situations across all types of terrain. This week has been productive for me in that sense, I learned how to make rope out of roots, how to wrestle an alligator, how to make a water purifier out of natural elements, how to skin a sheep then use the skin as a boat, etc. He is like a real life Macgyver!

Having spent time outdoors and traveling in places where you are literally always in danger of being stranded from civilization, this show has been a real breath of fresh, information-filled air, and he reaffirmed some of my thoughts while on the road last year.

Anyone who spends any amount of time outdoors knows that what kind of travel gear and clothing you have is essential. I had to buy two *&#*!%$ cheap bags before I finally spent the money on a nice REI backpack that will withstand rough use, varied terrain and temperatures, and 70+ pounds of rip and tear 24 hours a day. Lesson learned: don’t skimp on essential equipment! In that vain, its easy to see how Bear carefully chooses his clothing and equipment before heading into the wild. He has all quick-dry clothing and a multiple temperature jacket of gore tex. I had no jacket on the last trip (big mistake) and what was worse, I had flimsy shoes I bought at a market in China before leaving. I did have a few other items, but was missing a great deal, including a water purifier, on this last adventure. Lesson learned again: don’t skimp on essential clothing! Before the next trip (Mongol Rally 2010) I’ll be buying expedition-level shoes that breathe and can stand rough wear and tear, a multi-season jacket and more quick-dry clothing. Ah, a girl’s wish list has no end!

Final thought: on the show Bear has a special knife he had built for himself which retails at $700+ dollars. While I think it is an essential element for life on the road, I’m not about to drop close to a grand on a knife! I’ll stick with my little Cold Steel Voyager, which was a gift from my Kuk Sol Wan coach in 2006. I have only sharpened it twice and it is in amazing condition, plus the 2″ blade means its legal to cross borders with. You could literally back a truck over it and it would be fine! Also, Bear goes out into the wild without a flashlight, I keep my Smith & Wesson LED Flashlight on me at all times (no joke, its in my purse). Paranoid- no. Prepared- hopefully.

Mongol Rally Logo

Planing for the 2010 Mongol Rally is in full swing at Abandon the Cube. We’ve set up a page on our website: Mongol Rally to enlighten folks on our team’s progress, how to donate online, and more about Mercy Mongolia, our official charity. We have also created a nifty Sponsorship Proposal to help y’all donate with ease. While our primary aim is to find and secure corporate sponsors, we are always looking for friends of ATC to help in the form of assistance in marketing and fund-raising as well as donating their time and talent.

Below is a more information on the specifics for the team’s needs this summer. For more information, check out the website for the latest news and updates.

________________________

Our budget has been calculated at the following costs:

For charity: $1,580 USD

2 cars, fully decked out: $2,500 USD

Equipment for 40 days, 8 people: $2,000 USD

Visas for 8 team members: $1,500 USD

Registration fees for cars and members: $1,500 USD

Food and Gas allowance: $2,000 USD

Emergency fund: $1,000 USD

Total:$12,080 USD

____________________________

Meanwhile, we have set up a list of needed supplies and equipment, as follows:

• Car
• Collapsable, compact grill
• Small cooler
• Car rack
• Sat phone *
• Extra Tires
• Oil
• Gas cans
• Flashlights*
• Cooking Equipment
• Cleaning supplies
• Tents
• Sleeping bags
• GPS*
• Sleeping pads
• Emergency gear
• Medicine
• Shovel/ hatchet*
• Uniforms
• Car registrations and legal documentation
• Boots*
• Road maps
• Border tolls or fees
• Water purifier
• Storage equipment
• Travel Insurance
• Spare car parts
• Gas allowance
• Food allowance
• Auto Insurance
• Visa costs
• Travel allowance
• accommodation allowance

___________________________

If you think of a corporation that might be interested in sponsoring ATC, please let us know or send them our official Sponsorship Proposal and direct them to our website.

Thanks,

Abandon the Cube

Sponsor me?

The Apple i-touch, like many other Apple inventions, is an amazing piece of hardware. I’m borrowing one for the next twenty days and have become an apple accessory convert in the five days I’ve had an i-touch on the road. Here is why it is the ideal travel accessory:

1. Lightweight and compact, yet versatile. For a traveler, the biggest constraints are weight and space. The Apple i-touch weighs less than a pound and fits in the palm of your hand. Meanwhile, it can access wireless when available, and has all of the major applications of a regular computer.

Unit converter. This makes traveling through multiple countries and handling several currencies much easier. Meanwhile, this helps when talking with people who do not know the conversions for metric to imperial measurements or Celsius and Fahrenheit.

Programmable world clock. With friends and family all over the world, this handy tool tells me what time it is in every major city where I have contacts. I’ll never wake up grandma at 2:00am again!

Notepad. For the travel blogger, the notepad on the i-touch helps me organize and retain quick thoughts for blog posts or other ideas. I also use it as a reminder for things. Reminder- do not drink local water.

Weather. This is useful in the morning when deciding what to wear for the day, its also just fun to watch in the desert as it escalates into the hundreds (Fahrenheit).

Games. For the by-ground traveler the game applications (downloadable) on the i-touch are an amazing way to pass time. I’m especially fond of ‘Brick 3D’ and the ‘Flags’ applications. I’ve learned every flag from every country in the world on this trip thanks to the later game, beware bar trivia, here I come!

Organization. The i-touch also had a calendar, for planning your next move or keeping track of when each visa expires. It can also store upcoming birthdays, holidays and other events so the far-wandering traveler isn’t missing little Timmy’s birthday back home or planning to visit a mosque on a Muslim holiday.

Music and Pictures. While these two drain the battery quickly, its nice to have music in the palm of your hand as well as pictures of family and friends to browse through when feeling homesick.

Calculator. Traveling through multiple countries means multiple languages. When buying things its essential to have a calculator if you are not fluent. The calculator on the i-touch is quick to launch and easy to use, on the down side if you flash hardware as nifty as this people will assume you have cash to burn.

Email. With its wireless capabilities, the i-touch can access your email as soon as it detects a connection. This is quicker and easier than logging into a computer or waiting, god forbid, for Vista to start just to see if you have any high-priority emails.

In all, this handy little gadget rates a 9.5 on my electronics scale, of which everything else ranks about a 6.0. The only down side is that the battery drains quickly, which is not great for a traveler who often has long stretches between outlets. However, the fact that it can charge from the laptop is a nice bonus.

I have decided to acquire an i-touch. If anyone at Apple is reading this and wants to sponsor me with an i-touch for blogging, I’d be happy to accept! I’d also like an apple laptop someday, but that’s another story all together.

Top Five Things I Wish We’d Brought

Almaty

• More carabineers. So far, carabineers and rope have been two of the most useful items in my pack. On the 48 hour train we needed the rope to secure the guitar to my travel pack, I locked it in place with two of the carabineers. I used a third carabineer to lock the food bag to my pack. All of the carabineers are also lockable, so everything is secure and safe. If we had another rope and a few more carabineers I would have used the rope on the top bunk to construct a mini table to preserve space and to set the laptop on. Laugh all you want, but when you are confined to a bed that is only one foot wide adding a tiny rope table to put your bag on would make you smile from ear to ear!
• Face-soap. One of the most irritating things about getting ready for bed on a moving train is that it is hard to get out soap and wash your face because there is no where to put the soap down without losing it via slippage or getting it filthy. I wish I had brought some of those individually wrapped, pre-moistened face washing cloths that you can toss afterwards.
• Video-recorder. While this is bulky and we are already traveling with an excess of electronics, it would be nice to capture the absolute silence of Lake Karakul, or the breathtaking majesty of the Tian Shan Mountains.
• Lens-cleaner. Dust storms, sand storms, rain, hail, smoke and smog have all induced my camera lens into looking like a streaky, splotchy mess. The same goes for my glasses and sunglasses, and for Mike’s laptop screen.
• Less stuff. Our bags are too heavy and there are items in our bags we don’t actually need. We’ll be leaving a large portion of our stuff in Turkmenistan once we arrive.
Top five most useful things we brought
• Pillow. I am so happy I brought my pillow. I store it, when moving, in a compression bag so that it takes up very little space. Its made me so much more comfortable.
• Head scarf. Every woman on the train who isn’t Chinese is wearing one. I put mine on and it feels amazing, it holds my hair out of my face and keeps it untangled. Its also nice because it has stopped some of the staring.
• Laptop. While it adds extra weight, it is a real luxury to have a laptop along to get work done and also keep blogging and journaling. I discovered that I write very slowly by hand.
• Compression bags. While it makes for more space (and hence more weight in the bag) its great to be able to break down one weeks of clothing into a bag the size of a shoe box.
• Vitamins. We packed at least 1/8th of our bags with vitamins and medicine and already I’m glad we have the vitamins as the only food on the train is unhealthy and oily.

We ventured to every travel gear store in Shanghai. For those seeking camping, climbing, trekking or other outdoor wear and gear we fully recommend Decathlon. This store has literally everything an outdoor enthusiast could want and expect to find in Shanghai. Since we’ve been to every outdoor store in the city we can safely say this is the cheapest, with the best quality goods, the widest selection (by far) and the friendliest staff. Other outdoor stores in Shanghai have been found lacking. They are usually one-room shops with overpriced fake North Face packs and a few flashlights. Check out Decathlon if you’re in town. We ended up spending around $100USD there and walked away with several quick-dry clothing sets, compression bags, quick-dry towels and other necessities for a backpacker on the road. We’re heading back this weekend to buy a two-man tent (400RMB) and two sleeping bags. With modern technology, these combined could fit into a small backpack and be assembled in less than 5 minutes.

Our packing list (for each person):

• 2 pairs quick-dry khakis
  

  Compresion bag

• 1 pair sweatpants/work-out clothes
• 4 shirts (all quick-dry, anti-wrinkle, one dressier)
• 1 pair shower shoes/ sandals
• 1 paid hiking shoes/boots
• 1 fleece
• 1 windbreaker
• 1 swimsuit
• Undergarments and hiking socks
• Small medical kit, including first aid and medicine for various on-road ailments
• Books and writing materials
• I-pods
• Laptop
• Plastic bags (for dirty clothes, separating wet things, etc)
• 1 two-man tent
• 2 sleeping bags

We packed everything in one large backpack using one compression bag each (black back shown above in left of image). The compression bags collapse everything to manageable size. In one small backpack we will carry the medicine and laptop in a heat controlled bag (as we’re going into the desert and don’t want a giant paper weight made out of the laptop if it gets too hot).  This way we’ll be able to travel with one small bag and one large backpacking ruscksack in case one of us gets injured or is sore from hiking, etc. We will add the sleeping bags and tent as well as the additional small bag and my camera and we’ll be off on our trip in less than a week!