***** Sorry for the long span of radio silence. There was a bit of real life in the middle of the trip leading to a return to the states for a few weeks. If there is a positive to note it was that we had a chance to stay in a few more hotels like Andaz Scottsdale and the Park Hyatt Thames which I’ll add to this report in the hopefully near future. ******

No strings and no nets.

After 36 years of working, raising a family and buying/fixing a house, we decided to try something different. In this case, that was to retire from our jobs, sell the house, the cars and all of our belongings save for 4 pieces of luggage, and “slomad” our way around the world. The luggage in our case consists of 2 carryons (at least in the US market), a backpack and a full size suitcase. In one day, I completed my retirement paperwork, we closed on the sale of our house, and dropped my car at the train station. Once in the garage, I tossed the keys in the trunk (a friend had bought it and would collect it later), and we hopped a train.

Jobless, homeless and car-less in one day.



As you can imagine, getting to this point was quite a bit of work. My wife ruthlessly sold or gave away everything save for some important papers and some probably not (couldn’t quite bring ourselves to dispose of our diplomas) that could be held by family members. We digitized photos, we put things by the curb, listed things on FB marketplace, and found a few friends and co-workers interested in buying some things. I completed a few long deferred home projects and we cleaned everything else. The day before we turned up at the train station I had rented a truck to deliver a sectional sofa, a bike and a grill to those folks and to drop off one used shower door at the transfer station. The couple buying our house would be taking the rest including a collection of tools for gardening, woodworking and maintaining a house that we had acquired over almost three decades - a new home starter pack.

We got physicals and vaccinations, talked with our GPs, and purchased international health insurance. We met with a financial advisor and a lawyer. We also said goodbye, or more optimistically so long, to the friends we made along the way. After all, we need to come back periodically to see family and for me to see my doctor.

The travel plan is a bit of a mix of fast and slow travel, points bookings, and a probably excessive number of stays at hotels bookable through Hyatt. Prior to pulling the plug, I had started to book our December 2024 vacation including flights and a few hotel stays that I wanted to preserve. So, I gradually filled in the almost 2 months from that train ride in October to a Qatar Airways flight from London to Singapore with Hyatt hotel stays in Germany, Greece, Turkey and somewhere in Europe not otherwise specified at the moment. After Singapore, we head to Kuala Lumpur, Phu Quoc, Siagon and Bangkok before starting the actual slomad bits (back to Vietnam, again in Bangkok, and then onto Sydney and Cape Town) for roughly one month stays. From Cape Town we fly to CDG in early May.

Previous trip reports:

2024: Victory Lap in a Porsche

Index to posts:

Hyatt Regency JFK
Soho Lounge JFK
JFK-CLT-MUC
Hyatt Andaz Munich
MUC-KGS (Kos, Greece) on Discover Airlines
Lango Design Hotel and Spa
Casa Cook Rhodes
Port of Rhodes
Hyatt Regency Izmir
Hyatt Regency Istanbul Atakoy
Hyatt Regency Sofia
Park Hyatt London River Thames
Qatar Airlines LHR-DOH-SIN

So, why are we doing this? It comes down to life being short and the usual time-money-health math. It was also a feeling that after living relatively normal lives for 58 years, we both wanted an adventure. We were lucky enough to have traveled a fair bit already and think we know what we’re getting into. But, who knows? If we decide it’s not for us after a year, then we’ll call it a gap year. A gray gap year in my case. Until then, we’ll have 4 bags and no certain address for an indefinite period of time.