Jack and Jill Travel The World

We are Ryan and Dina from Vagabond Quest. Ryan is originally from Ontario, Canada, and I am (Dina) from Java Island, Indonesia. We met in Tokyo during an exchange student program for university students. He took me to a “Free Market” as our first date! (And they misspelled flea market).

Ryan: We are currently visiting our family back in Ontario for 1-2 months, sleeping in their house since our apartment is long gone. In late February, we will head south to the Caribbean and then Mexico.

Dina: Oh! I don’t know we are going to Mexico, yay!

We’ve been on the road since April 2009, and since than we’ve been to about 25 countries. 29 is the current count if we include our journeys together prior to our backpacking era.

Early on our relationship, we talked about going to various places, but not in the term of backpacking, just short holidays.

About 1-2 years prior to the backpacking, our daily life started going down in quality.
Career and education shooting up, which was great, but we felt something lacking. With so many sacrifices for job and school, we didn’t have quality time with each other.

We started having this crazy idea about traveling around the world. After we read up on what other people are doing (Bootsnall’s forum was our main source), slowly we realized that this was not that crazy of a dream. It’s achievable. So we set our minds to it, and now here we are!

Ryan’s family gave us skeptical look. But it was more difficult to make my Indonesian family understands. Traveling means delaying my career in Chemistry, having kids, etc. Traveling means we don’t have a “serious” or “normal” life. It’s difficult for them to relate to that (lifestyle).

Now I think they are excited about us being on the road, but I suspect they still want grandkids to come ASAP.

We slack off a lot,

Finding good price for accommodations and transportation: Ryan, the master!

Finding next destination country: Ryan, based on the cheap transportation

Finding out what to do in the destination country: Dina

Take care of paperwork and banking: Ryan

Driving: Ryan (Dina can’t drive)

Reading maps: Dina (Ryan can’t read maps)

Packing up: Dina

Messing things up: Dina

Cooking, grocery, doing laundry and dishes (all the “house” chores): Dina

Working: Ryan

Biggest fights usually are around eating. Ryan doesn’t need to eat, a can of coke a day is enough while I need to eat 2-3 times a day. And I need more than just flavored liquid.

So I will want to stop to eat, Ryan will think we can’t afford it (money wise or timewise). I’m left in hunger, and I don’t do well in hunger. The quarrel will build up from that.

Resolution? Hmm… Don’t ask, I guess, when I’m hungry. It doesn’t usually work though, as I carry this Indonesian habit to always announce what I’m going to do in the form of polite request, and he will answer “no”.

What do I learn? Ryan is a camel.

Ryan about Dina: For her size, she can carry a surprising amount of stuff on her back.

Dina about Ryan: He doesn’t mind not changing clothes for more than a week if it’s not stinky yet.

- Ryan speaks Japanese quite fluently.

- Dina fell into animal poop at least twice: donkey poop in Santorini, and sheep poop in Southland of New Zealand. We wonder what’s next!

- Ryan’s normal first reaction when Dina falls into poop or goes face first into stalactite is enjoying the moment, instead of saving Dina from it!

Yes we are. We don’t have home/fixed address anymore, and we’ve been on the road for almost 2 years. Most of the time in Western Europe, Mediterranean, and Oceania. To support this lifestyle, Ryan is still working from the road. Dina is practicing writing, hopefully someday she can write books and make money that way, finger crossed.

Until recently, Ryan was working with his company in Canada or with their clients, so he has to work every week day. We have fun the rest of the time. Sometimes he can push his week-long work into 2-3 days, so we can have fun the rest of the week. If we want a longer time for exploring without being connected to the internet (that is necessary for his work), he can ask for an unpaid holiday. But if we can help it, if we can find the a connection to the dang internet, he will work several hours a day.

Now he’s trying his luck in working with his brother, something that can be maintained through internet with more flexible schedule.

A town called Kato Stalos, near Chania, in the Island of Crete, Greece. The beach, the sunset and the food is great. Greek music in the background, moussaka on my plate, honey raki served at the end of dinners, walking up the staircase with 100 steps to the hotel that we stayed every night, this is perfect!

Various beaches that we visited that were supposed to be romantic. Ended up that everybody goes there for romance and it’s jam packed. Nothing romantic about a beach crammed with people!

Larry David and Cheryl from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Ryan is so Larry (without all the money)!

Long-term travelers are rich. In reality, it was just several years ago our money was negative (we were on student loans).

Or that it’ll be a strain on the relationship. For some people it might be, but we’ve found the shared experiences have made us even closer.

Ryan says: Indonesia (Dina’s comment: Ryan only said that because he loves the Indonesian deep fried fish)

Dina says: Canada (Ryan’s comment: Must be all the hockey players…)

Ryan: Laptop, definitely.
Dina: Oh wow, Ryan, I was going to say nothing that we need other than each other!

If your family and friends discouraging you of going, seek for support in the traveling community, where you will feel like a normal person.