Making the old life die before traveling the world

February the 1st. I just can't believe it. I'm almost done and in 9 days I will be flying to India and start this travel around the world.

I've packed my backpack, set every future bills to be automatically paid, transfered my money to various saving accounts, opened a new bank account, sent today a letter to my former bank so that my account there is closed, have paid a 2000€ bill today, sent a check for another 33€ bill as well, set up my notebook so that all my passwords are registered allowing me to keep signing in to all the websites I have an account with, downloaded many apps on my smartphone so that it turns into a Swiss digital army knife, printed my flight tickets, scheduled my last appointments when I go to Paris a day prior leaving, made some sales on Amazon.com making me earn some extra cash, and have done surely some others things that I can't remember for now. Oh yeah, I still go to the gym every two days so that I stay fit !

Deciding to travel around the world is not going on vacation. When you go on holidays, you don't quit your life, you just put it on hold. Things that have to be done can wait, at least most of them, and you get back to them when you return. When you leave for a world travel, your 'old life' isn't put on hold, it just stops. It comes to an end. And to be stopped properly you have to do a **** load of work because once you've left there will be nothing you can do anymore. And to be honest, there's nothing you want to deal with about it neither. Do you think that I will have some time to handle some issues here when I'm in Rajasthan or in the country side of Australia ? When I leave, I'll be done with my life here so I'd better make sure that everything has been properly cleare up before I leave.

This might be one of the reason people are scared to travel for an extended period of time. Because this is like a little death. You have to make your old life, your old habits, your old duties die. This is a part of yourself which is dying, and we all know how death can be scary, right ?

I knew that it would need some time but I was far from being aware that it would need so much work. Leaving for a world travel isn't just booking a flight ticket and leaving. It is working hard to make sure that you CAN leave with a peaceful mind, and this requires a lot of prep. Speaking of which, I've prepared this world travel in only 3 months. I've been very busy with all that I had to do after my father passed away so that I didn't have that much of a time to prepare my journey. I've read that some people have been preparing their world trip for 1 year before they could leave. I didn't have this luxury. I had to be quick and to make everything be all right in a very short lenght of time. At least, it proves that this is doable and if someone tells you that you need 6 months to a full year to prepare a world trip, just walk away. As with everything in life, there are not set rules. You make the rules, period.

Everytime I've been told that something wasn't possible, I was able to prove the guy that he was wrong. No exception here. People - at least some of them - are calling me fool or telling me that I will go back within a month or that I can't prepare such a big journey with so little time, and they've been wrong so far.

Stop listening to others is one of the best thing, one of the best gift that I could offer to myself. I leave because I feel like doing it, and if I come back it will be because I'd have decided to do so.

For the moment, I'm still setting up everything so that my actual life - and in a short time my old life - will be put to sleep. If things are running during my travel, they will be like ghost shades, nothing more.

So, 9 days to keep on giving attention to my life here. After those 9 days, my life will be dead, and a new one will arise.

Much wisdom in this post, but having 500k in the bank really does help leaving with a peaceful mind

People telling you that you need no prepare such a big journey are fool. You don't prepare that kind of thing, you go with the flow. Be spontanious, follow your hearth.

Thanks !

You wouldn't believe how having 500k can be an issue when you're leaving and I have learned that having money (aka quite a lot of money even if 500k for some milionnaire is piece of crap) IS a problem. A "rich man" problem but still a problem.

I'll quit my life with around 50K CAD to travel, I need to keep some of that money for when I'll get back to reality. I guess we can call that a ''poor man'' problem.

Money is an "item". The more items you have in life, the more you are enslaved and the more they own you. Something I learned during those past 4 months.

Besides, you dont need 500k to travel the world.

No, but it helps.

If you have any problems with it, I'll look after it for you.

@chopstick : if you ask me whether I prefer to be rich or poor the answer is obvious. But it wasn't the topic of the last article of my blog, Lonelybox brought it on the table.

@fid : I'll keep that in mind, haha

Do you have any plans about how you're gonna spend your days? Just doing touristy stuff and sightseeing might get boring after a while. Do you plan on getting a job in every country?

That is a great question.

I'm not gonna do all the tourist sights and to be honest - and I might get killed saying this - even going to see the Taj Mahal is not something which thrills me a lot. I might be very happy afterwards, but for the moment it's more like "ok, I HAVE to see it since I go to India so let's go and see it, pff".

I had decided to visit the Rajasthan but after giving it some thoughts I don't think I'm gonna do ALL the forts and castles of this region. I'm not a tourist, I'm a world traveler. What I'm looking for is not to see all the UNESCO sights of the planet, it's to live in many areas of the world. If I want to see this or that then I will do it but this is not the goal of my journey. My journey is to live another life abroad, where everything can happen because of the total freedom I'm gonna enjoy. Just chasing the tourist sights will get boring. This trip is not a long vacation, this is a life journey.

I'm thinking about digital marketting to sustain me while I'm on the road.

yeah you could get a job at a call center

[x] done already
[ ] oh yeah let's do that !
[ ] call center what ??

Attends, tu peux m'expliquer un peu la?

?

a call center is a building where hundreds of people use phones to do business. they pay a couple bucks an hour and it's probably like a million times better than france

I didn't slept for the past 35 hours, just made the link between India and Call Center. Nice one SA lol.

I don't like call centers

With all respect, follow your instincts, make a child or two. GL in your journey. 5*

Not sure to follow the 2nd advice here (hehe) but thanks !

Bye friends, I’m traveling the world

Yesterday morning I drove for about 5 hours to go and see my very best friend Loic, and his wife Myriam.

We've been knowing each others for more than 30 years and he lives in a gorgeous house in a "state" (in france we call it "région") called Bretagne.

I love him, he's my buddy, a very kind and sensitive person like you don't meet anymore. I arrived at his house at 4pm and we enjoyed this precious time until 1:30am. I couldn't stay awake anymore after such a long drive trip and needed to sleep. During the evening, we went eating on a gorgeous and quite good restaurant near the Port (lovely place) and then ended the evening back home drinking a very good Cognac before finishing the night around a good Irish Coffee that he and his wife made for the occasion. All this in front of a beautiful fireplace. It was really neat.

This morning I woke up at 8am and left at 9:30 for another 4,5 hours drive to get back home.

When we said goodbye to each other I felt moved. I'm leaving in 5 days for some undefined time and who knows when we will see each other again ? Maybe in 1 year, maybe never if something happens to me (I don't think about that at all but we never know with Life, right ?).

I will miss them, they are so kind. In fact, I already miss them.

Before leaving next week I will call my other best friend Charles. With Loic we all three grew up together. Unfortunately I will not see him before leaving since he's too far from my house. I will make call him from the airport. Of course, I will also call Loic again just before the plane takes off.

At last I will call my other buddy Aymeric who has been of a tremendous help in my preparation to this world travel. A very smart guy who traveled quite a lot and knows so many things about travels ! Besides, he's been to Varanassi so he gave me a couple of contacts and I'm very grateful for both his kindness and his help. Aymeric, if you read this, thanks a lot my friend !

At last, when going to Paris next wednesday I will also go and see my other very good friend Simon. A 45 years old married man, DVD seller, who is someone I love very much as well. His plan is to leave France as well and since he's jew he's planning to settle down in Israel with his familly (wife&little girl).

I love all these people and although I'm happy quitting my country and starting this world travel, I do realize how friends are important in our life. I don't have that many but the few that I know are genuine and truthworthy people. I understand now the reason why so many world travelers talk about how it can be tough to travel the world being so far away and for a long time from familly and friends. I almost don't have any familly anymore now - my mother died in 2008 and my father passed away 6 months ago) but I have those friends and for sure it will be tough not to see them again.

Thanks god nowadays we can keep in touch with various means : Skype, Whatssap, emails. Better than nothing but nothings beat an evening like the one that I had yesterday, face to face with a friend.

I do realize that even when you think that you can live all by yourself, you're still bound to things or people. In my case people. Not many of them, but they are important to me and knowing that I will not see them if I wish makes me feel sad.

But hey, that's my journey, this is what I want, so this is how it has to be.

Five days. Yep, no more than five days to wait, I just can't believe it. How am I feeling ? Honestly, I don't know. I think that I just can't realize that I'm really gonna leave and travel around the world. Something I've been used to talk about and now it is becoming something real.

I'll try to keep in touch as much as I can with my friends. They have their life and I have mine, but these are important people to me and I feel lucky to have all them as friends.

I will try to rest tonight. 9 hours driving since yesterday so I'm feeling so exhausted right now and I still have so many things to do. Gosh, I feel like I'll never make it.

(Psychoworldnication)

you have online poker messageboard friends now. prepare for your life to get 1000x better

That was a very moving post psycho. I can't help but to think that when you get old you'll look back and feel good about the way you've lived your life.

It is super easy to stay in touch with your friends these days, don't worry too much about that. Very few places don't have internet.

He's a DVD seller in 2016? Really?

@Screamin Asian : thanks a lot pal, you're very kind

@BiggerBoat : thanks a lot for your words as well. I try to live a "good life" indeed, not an effort or something I doing counsciously, this is just who I am. It caused me troubles when I grew up from a kid to an adult cause I couldnt understand why the world was so mean (if that makes sense)

@Chopstick : of course, but as I said nothing beats a face to face moment spent with friends.

@Lonely : yup and you would be surprised he could earn his living that way - he sold his shop 10 days ago -

Traveling around the world in 2 days

This is it. In 2 days I will be traveling around the world.

Tomorrow I will leave my house here in the country side and go to Paris. I will spend this last day and evening with my gran mother (from my mother's side). We love each other so much.

I hope that I will not die while being on the road. Everything can happen when you're traveling that long. The world is not a sweet place full of sunshines and rainbows and even if I'm gonna be cautious, everything can happen. Besides, when your time has come, there isn't much that you can do.

I know that I will be very sad when I say good bye to my gran mother. I will even start crying, I'm almost 100% percent positive about it. When as a child my mother had to spend some times at the hospital, my gran mother raised me. She is like a second mother to me. Knowing that I will leave her for so long gives me a lot of sorrow. I will miss her voice, her face, her presence. And again, even if I'll do my best to be cautious, maybe this will be the very last time we see each other.

Then will come wednesday. The big day. The day everything can finally start, and I thank you readers for your patience. I've opened this blog 2 months before I leave and I'm very grateful you're still here reading this blog because if you found any interest in it whereas I was still here in France, for sure you will enjoy the ride now that I'm taking my first plane to travel the world.

Time has been so long but I had so much to do ! Now that everything has been cleared up, I can finally leave. Thought that this moment would never come.

How am I feeling ? Hard to say. Oddly, I don't feel any joyful emotion. When you watch some videos about people about to travel the world they're usually very happy. This is not my case. Not saying that I'm sad because I'm not, but I feel emotionless which is quite strange. Can't figure out why. Maybe because from the moment my father died 6 months ago I didn't have a single moment to rest. I had to fight, struggle and hold on tight. Couldn't take some time for me and my grief, I had to remain strong.

I'm exhausted, I'm drained, there is no more energy in both my body and mind and this is in such a state that I'm gonna start this world travel. Maybe I should have sticked with my first idea to start this journey with Goa so that I could have a break and relax, I don't know. Anyway, now things are scheduled and I'm gonna start with Bénarès. Not the most peaceful place to chill for sure.

Two days. Just two days and I'll be in that plane. This is unreal, I still can't believe it.

Hopefully in a short future I'll tell you how happy I am and how all this was the best decision that I had ever made. For now I'm too tired to feel anything. I'm not scared, I'm not sad, I'm not especially happy, as I told you I'm emotionless.

May the gods and my ancestors be with me and protect me during this adventure. I don't know where I go, what to expect, how things will go, how I'm gonna feel. Only thing that I know is that in two days now I will be in India.