As we set out on our adventure, there's a handful of questions that always seem to be asked.
If you're new around these parts, or we didn't have a chance to spend some time with you before we left,
you might be wondering the same things. To get everyone up to speed, here are the answers.
After spending close to four years living in Portland, OR, we have packed up our belongs, stored them away and will be departing from Seattle, WA to Southeast Asia. We will be traveling through Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Staying in each country as long as our tourist visa allows, we will be international nomads for around six months. While we have a pretty solid trajectory of which order we will go to each country, we leaving a lot of breathing room within that schedule. We can't plan for everything and want to make sure that we are both open to the experiences that life on the road will offer us.
For more information on our itinerary, including an estimated timeline of how long we will be in each country, click here.
Short answer: Yes, we both quit our jobs.
Longer answer: Colin is a graphic designer, having spent the last six years working in advertising in both Minneapolis and Portland. While we travel, he will focus on work with Swag Brewery and other freelance design work. After our wedding earlier this year, Jazmyne left her job in title and escrow to focus on her dream of owning a creative small business. Glam Gram Paper Co is just one incarnation of that dream. The art and handmade paper goods company was up and running for a few months, before being put on hold while we travel.
Several reasons but mainly because it's incredibly affordable, the food is fantastic, and honestly, why the heck not SE Asia?? There are so many places on this planet that we want to see and experience. This is just the beginning.
Hello, my name is Jay and I am an un-official travel agent. At least when it comes to SE Asian backpacking. Since I had the chance to leave my day job earlier than Colin, I took the opportunity to really dive head first into planning this trip. I read (nearly) every travel blog, US and Australian embassy travel website, TripAdvisor review, monthly weather reports, and Airbnb listing, as well as watching hours upon hours of YouTube videos from backpackers around the world. This gave me a good tool set to determine where we wanted to start and which order we wanted to go to each country. For example, the rainy season ends in late September in Indonesia but is still going on in Thailand, so by starting further South and traveling North over the course of the first couple months, we are able to avoid the days of heavy rain.
Being someone with sometimes crippling anxiety, the planning of the trip was incredibly important to me. So while i know that I can't prepare for every scenario on this adventure and things are bound to get a little stressful at times, equipping myself with as much knowledge and information as possible was key to keeping my mind in check.
$50 per person, per day. This is actually pretty high for SE Asia, as food and lodging are incredibly cheap compared to the US, but when you factor in plane tickets and a couple of pricier excursions, we will even out pretty well.
Colin: "Food. Seriously though."
Jay: "I'm really excited to see what life is like outside of my comfort zone. Having spent the last 10+ years of my life healing my mind and gaining control of my mental health (I have bipolar II, as well as generalized anxiety disorder), this trip feels very liberating for me. Definitely the start of a new chapter. My illness used to stop me from being able to really experience the life that I wanted and now through constant tough introspective work, lifestyle changes, and Eastern medicine, I've evolved into a strong, self-aware woman. This adventure will be my first real chance to prove my own strength to myself. On a less heavy note, I'm most looking forward to our time in Cambodia. Angkor Wat is definitely at the top of my list. I can't wait to channel my inner Lara Croft!
We got married January 14, 2017. The story of how we met and got together is cinematic but essentially we've been together for a long time now :)
