Planning for a long trip around Europe from Singapore
About 12 months ago, I approached my wife with a really absurd idea. I wanted to do a long trip around Europe. 6 to 9 months actually. The reasons for this, at that time, were actually just to spend time with my family. Of course, at that time, it was just a crazy idea. Especially because I was deep in discussions with my now partners for a new company we were setting up. The idea started growing on my though and soon, with the support of my partners, colleagues and family, I started to plan it with more confidence.
To be honest, it all made sense – I would be able to spend more time with my kids, teach them at home, allow them to experience a whole new culture, show them some new places. At the same time, my partners and I were after all starting a company that would not require any of us to be bogged down at any place forever. I have brilliant partners and colleagues by the way. To be honest, it is them who gave me the most confidence. They are a super bunch.
Things we had to tackle included:
- Kid’s education in Singapore
- Work commitments to ensure the company was not affected
- Finances – we are not rich so we had to figure out what we were looking at.
We did all the tasks side by side. Details of each of these will be provided in detailed posts later.
As we started figuring things out, everything seemed to come to place. Also, to ensure this was not just a dream that would not materialise, we started to actually find out facts and tell some really close friends, initially, about this idea. Most of them were supportive, although a bit skeptical. We would mention it at the dinner table to my parents and as I often come up with crazy ideas, my family and friends would just brush it off. But we started to talk about more and more facts and that gave us more confidence as well.
We started to tell more friends about this and everyone would of course encourage us and also tell us about some of the possible problems we could face. Things were looking uncertain at some point in the middle of the year as suddenly things were not going too well in all 3 areas above. Amidst all this, our new company, Rhad was formed and that was the beginning of things turning around for us. By September, things started to go well again. Best part is, a new airlines was flying to London for a super great fare J I will write about that too.
As we came closer to the date, people started asking us if the trip was still going to happen. We were confident it would but really unsure of how and where. Even until today. I am not sure of the exact dates and locations beyond 6 days 🙂 !!!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/y38BclDaiomzgszE3
I would like to express my thanks again to all my colleagues, partners, family and friends who have been so supportive. I hope that this inspires all of you to do something similar and I most certainly wish I can hear about it from you too.
This is our planned itinerary
Eventually, the trip became a reality and I am typing this onboard Norwegian airlines DI 7408 on Thursday, 16th November 2017. This trip is happening J
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