Selling both cars and both sports bikes 25/30 K, already brought the travel bikes and 80% of kit so by August the house should be well and truely rented and we'll be off. When we get back if we need cars for work we'll buy a couple of old knackers until we have enough for something better and then the five year cycle will start all over again

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Vietnam, Cambodia & Thailand 2016
Buenos Aires to NYC 2012-2013: www.facebook.com/curryhunt
India and back 2009-2010:

Spent ages reading this thread and its really good to heard how all of you guys have done it. I feel I have some what of a different situation that i am in.

Im currently 23, just finished 4 years of uni a year ago and have been working for a year now as a Structural Engineer. My wage im on isnt much above minimum as i live in a small town and still have 2 years part time uni to complete before ive finished most my training to become professional, so that is priority in my life just now.

I also treated myself to a brand new bike on finance in april last year (before the credit crunch struck hard) and so im paying for that for the next year and a half. Ive reached a point in my life where i realise that if i want to do a big bike trip im gonna have to do it in the next 3 or 4 years as me and the better half will most likely want to start a family (no rushing ofcourse hehe) in 5 or so years.

So....With minimal money coming in...too much going out on student debt, rent, bills, keeping the gf happy and silly bike payments i simply dont have much cash to save. But....light at the end of the tunnel...once the bike is payed off i will have a decent machine for a trip, and if i dont want to use it i can sell it and get something cheaper and have some cash in the fund. I will save little and often just now and start saving more in a year and half when i have less going out.

So fingers crossed i can get the money together and do it, otherwise it may well be a long long while away. I can see myself in a couple years being fed up of the 9 to 5 as im an impatient bugger at the best of times so my determination will, hopefully, get this thing DONE!!!

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6 weeks to go and we fly into Heathrow from Oz. Bike is already on it's way over by ship and our big reunion is on the 5th May in Felixstowe.

Life takes on a whole new dimension when you sell everything. What we own now has to fit in the two panniers, 1 top box and a tankbag on the Triumph Tiger. This includes a good set of clothes, a dagy set of clothes, wet weather gear, a few basic tools for bike, computer (acer aspire one netbook) canon dslr and lenses+ lumix compact, required power pack/chargers and a few other bits and peices.

If it dosn't fit in them then we don't need it. We travel, we stay with friends and family, I'm handy with repairs and building things, Di is a fantastic cook so while we are staying with people we pay our way, I build and repair and Di cooks and takes over the house work and people never want us to leave.

Life is now amazingly simple. If we need to we pick up some part time work, Di waitressing, me mowing lawns or doing some handyman stuff. We now live by the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid.

It works for us and works wonderfully well.

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We've taken a vow of poverty. To annoy us, send money.

Fascinating stuff!
I did something else. I sold all the crap, rented my house and.....moved to Asia!

Here, I can earn very good money, relatively!, live cheaply and save. I am immersing myself in a different culture, learning languages and making great friends. When my contract is over, I am free and SE Asia is on the doorstep.
Of course, every weekend there is somewhere new to explore.

I fell in love with the place back in 2003 and thought to myself, how can I finance this? I'm a bike mechanic by trade but so is every Tom, Dick and Hoang here so that's not an option. What can I do, I thought? I went to University, got a degree, did a CELTA and now I teach English.

It's not an impossible dream. I think flexibility is the key. I thought the landmine clearing idea was fantastic. An honest day's pay for a worthwhile job. The locals here in Vietnam do this for scrap money like the pikeys lifting scrap cars back home, but the return is much less and infinitely more risky. I think there is more UXO here than anywhere else on the planet.

What about the NGO's? Someone mentioned that too, my apologies for not remembering your name. A third world country is not a 'nanny state'. If you are blind, you starve, if you have learning difficulties, you starve. If you stepped on something that shouldn't be there, you starve. Working for an NGO, you won't be able to drink champagne or buy new games for your X box but you will make a difference and....you won't starve. Best of all you'll be there, where you want to be. You'll have plenty of time to prep your bike, pore over maps, get accustomed to the culture and climate....time is so precious I have found.

I suppose there are two 'camps' of thought, of which I subscribe to the latter, and both are remarkable:
There are those who wish to see as much as they can in the time afforded them and those who make the time to see as much as they can.
I suggest that savings and bank loans are handy but not a necessity to travel. I mentioned that I rented my house but I don't really call that an income, more of a retirement plan! Who knows what may be around the corner.

Everyone has skills and most don't appreciate them. If you can ride a bike, you can navigate your way through a toolbox or have computer literacy then you'll have a job. I quickly appreciated that in a third world country even the most basic of skills are highly valued. Hey, you're a native speaker, you can teach English!

I hope folks find this as written. It's not a lecture but an attempt at encouragement and an effort to fight procrastination!
There are always ways and means and if you want it badly enough, you'll find them.