Do You Enjoy Travel Stories?

This website chronicles our trip around the world in 2006. It has lots of photos, videos and stories. We invite you to come in, relax and enjoy the scenery.

~Lee and Sachi LeFever


To see what we're up to now, check LeeLeFever.com or CommonCraft.com

Our Recent Dispatches Are Below. RSS

A Dispatch is a report from our trip. Browse via keywords or global map.

How Much to Pay for One-Way Plane Tickets

By: leelefever on August 13, 2005 - 11:25am
Andy at HoboTraveler.com is one of the folks like Rolf Potts that I look to for real-world travel advice.

Andy recently posted an entry about knowing how much to pay for plane tickets. A couple nuggets that I liked:

He says that he can fly anywhere in the world for $750 US, as a smart buyer.

Also, he offers this calculation:

You figure the miles you'll travel in the air, and multiply the miles times 7 cents. Then try to get that price and never more than double that price.


Mark Twain Quote on Travel

By: leelefever on August 12, 2005 - 1:45pm

When we were at the UW Travel clinic, I saw a little plaque that means a lot to me:

Travel is fatal to bigotry, prejudice and narrow-mindedness.  Broad wholesomeness and charitable views cannot be acquired by vegetating  in one tiny corner of the globe.

                                                    ~Mark Twain

I'd say that point of view is one of the major reasons we're embarking on the trip.


Constant Trek- Walking From London to Cape Town

By: leelefever on August 11, 2005 - 10:57am

Wow, this Australian couple (Paula and Gary) have their work cut out for them. They are WALKING from London to the Southern tip of Africa- thats walking- with feet.


Their blogging it all and building a nice audience of people cheering them on. I enjoy their descriptions of their trials and tribulation. I thought this was funny from an entry in Morrocco:
-------------------------------------
WHY ARE YOU WALKING?

The first hundred times those questions are asked, it's not so bad. By the time they have been asked five hundred times in the course of one day, it gets a little tiring, particularly when it is over thirty degrees and there is forty kilometres to go to get out of the city.
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New Zealand CamperVan (4 months to go)

By: leelefever on August 9, 2005 - 5:03pm

As I've mentioned before, we're making plans like crazy for New Zealand because it is the high season there in January-March, which means things get sold out easily.

We decided a while ago that we'd rent a campervan for the month that we're there. We were faced with a choice- a campervan with a toilet/shower or one without.  The difference in cost was about $1000 over a month, which is significant.

During our own research, we figured that we'd get one without a toilet to save money. Then, we talked to a travel agent who was able to get us a deal thanks to bulk buying power.  The deal we got made our estimates work (close enough) to go with the toileted version.  So, we've got that going for us for about $155 a day or $4300 for 28 days.


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The UW Travel Clinic (4 months to go)

By: leelefever on August 9, 2005 - 4:54pm

Today we went to the much heralded and lauded University of Washington Travel Clinic. It deserves it's reputation.

In undertaking a trip like this, I don't think I'd want to do it without visiting something like the travel clinic. You tell them where you're going and they give you all the information and vaccines and prescriptions you need.

We both had 4 shots today: Tetanus-Diptheria, Polio, Typhoid and Hepatitus A and B. We got the run-down on malaria and a bunch of other bugs like Rabies and Japanese Encephalitis. Scary stuff.


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The Magic of Google Earth

By: leelefever on August 8, 2005 - 9:38am
Wow.  This is one of the cooler things ever.  Watch this Google Earth video highlight video bloggers around the world. So cool.

TwinF.com

By: leelefever on August 7, 2005 - 4:00pm

The acronym of the name of this site is something that I think may get used much more than the site name itself, which is "The World Is Not Flat" which makes the handy acronym TwinF.

Once we start trying to build some buzz of the site and get a lot of contributions, I think it'll be important to have a short name that works for tagging. 

To make sure our bases are covered, I just registered the domain TwinF.com for this site, so that anyone who only knows the TwinF name can use it...

It'll be a few days till it's active...  I registered the domain with Dreamhost for about $76 for 5 years.


TSA Locks

By: leelefever on August 6, 2005 - 4:55pm

We went to REI today to start looking at some of the things we'll need.  We got Sachi some shoes as she has foot problems and we need to special insoles made, etc.

Something we learned about is TSA locks.  In traveling, you want to have a way to lock you bag's zipper. However, in the US and other developed places, there is often a need to search bags. Previously, the TSA would cut locks to be able to get into bags.

Now though, there is a standard type of lock that only the TSA can get into- and they don't have to cut the lock.


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For the Monetorium

By: leelefever on August 6, 2005 - 9:53am

So this is all about themonetorium.  Just think about all the money I'll save in haircuts and shampoo!  I'm just doing  my part really.


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Plane Tickets First Two Months

By: leelefever on August 6, 2005 - 8:37am

Big things have happened recently. We learned that it is the high season in New Zealand and Australia when we are ariving- and that tickets are going fast.

We decided to talk to a local travel agent that specializes in New Zealand /Australia. His name is Tim and he is an Aussie with bleach blonde hair. Apparently, we needed to get the NZ/Aus tix soon or risk doing without.


Tim wasn't much help with the plane tickets, but he recommended using a ticket broker, namely Air Brokers. We had looked at Air Brokers before and took a last look. We looked at the Star Alliance and the One World Alliance for round the world ticket opportunities (both recommended by Tim).


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