In the latest Travel Tuesday Interview, I chat with Rachel and Steve Pyle who just wrapped up a five-month honeymoon trip around the world! I met Rachel in 2013 when she was living in Japan and was able to meet up with them three times during their trip! Rachel shares all the details about their trip including highlights, struggles, costs and how she managed her type-1 diabetes!
Name: Rachel and Steve Pyle
Age: 32, 37
Hometown: Greensburg, PA
Country Count: Rachel – 30; Steve – 38
Instagram: Rayray5013
1. How did you start traveling?
While living in Japan for five years, flights to surrounding countries were pretty cheap so I took advantage of that and booked trips during Japanese holidays. Steve started traveling on a whim about seven years ago. He quit his job and traveled around the world for about eight months.
Steve and I started talking online while I was still living in Japan. [They met through family friends!] We soon found out that we both had a love for travel. Once I moved back to the States, Steve and I met in person, and a month later, we took our first trip together to Germany and the Czech Republic.
2. Tell us about your honeymoon!
A few months before we were married, we took a trip to South America to visit Peru and Chile (Easter Island). We had always wanted to go to Africa, but since we had just traveled right before the wedding, we decided to wait until the following year to take a belated honeymoon. We had been eyeing a two-month overland trip through Africa. Since we knew we couldn’t take extended vacations from work, we had to leave our jobs. We also wanted to move from Ohio back to our roots of Pittsburgh so the timing just seemed right. Since we were already going to be traveling for two months, we decided to extend our trip to go to Asia.
We did a two-month overland trip through Africa, starting in Nairobi, Kenya and ending in Cape Town, South Africa. We rode in a giant yellow truck and camped our way through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. From there, we made our way over to Asia. Steve had never visited Japan so we made that our first Asian destination so he could see its charm first-hand. We, then, ventured to Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. We had originally planned to be in Asia for about two months, but we soon realized that that was not enough time to explore everything we wanted to see We ended up spending a full three months in Asia, making our trip a total of five months. [Their trip ended just before Thanksgiving in November 2019.]
3. How far in advance did you start planning the trip/saving money?
With our trip beginning in mid-June, we started planning in January. Once we had our overland [Africa] trip booked, we came up with a general schedule of where we wanted to go and for how long. After Africa, we planned a lot of our trip on-the-go. By doing this, we could easily make changes based on recommendations. For example, we didn’t realize that the Lantern Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand was going to happen while we were in Asia. Since our schedule wasn’t locked down, we were able to re-work our schedule to accommodate the festival dates and check this off of our bucket list.
We didn’t necessarily have a separate budget for this trip. We knew we would need around $8,000/person for Africa. For the Asia portion of our trip, we just pulled from money we had saved over time.
We knew what we wanted to splurge on (such as the adrenaline activities in Africa and hot air ballooning in Myanmar), while we tried to save money in other areas (see question #7 for more details).
4. Share some of your favorite adventures from your trip.
While we were in Africa, we did a lot of adrenaline activities. I knew going into this trip that I wanted to push myself to try activities out of my comfort zone! We sky-dived, bungee jumped, sat on the edge of a waterfall, and went white water rafting. While white water rafting down the Zambezi, we faced a handful of Class V rapids. Steve and I both agree that this was probably one of the scariest things we have ever done. There’s nothing scarier than being thrown off of a raft and not knowing when you will resurface out of the rapids!
Africa also provided us the opportunity to see and interact with so many different animals. Walking with lions was probably one of the coolest (or scariest?) interactions we had. They are such beautiful animals, but we couldn’t ignore their sheer size when the handlers let them out of the cage! We also were able to cage-dive with great white sharks, walk with elephants, and visit with some tame cheetahs.
While we were in Tokyo, we toured the city the best way we knew how…Mario Kart style! They provide you with costumes to wear during the three-hour tour, and the tour guide takes you through the highlights of the city. There’s nothing like seeing the busy Shibuya crossing as you’re waiting at a red light!
For me, it was surreal to see the Great Wall of China and Angkor Wat in person. You read about them in books and see them on TV, but it was absolutely incredible to see these sites in person! We were also in awe of Zhangjiajie National Park, notorious for its Avatar-inspired landscapes! It’s a must-see for anyone visiting China!
Finally, hot air ballooning in Myanmar for our one-year wedding anniversary was absolutely incredible! It’s one thing to see the pagodas up close and personal, but it was magical to see them from up above in the balloon.
5. What was your biggest struggle during the trip and how did you overcome it?
While in Africa, our credit card was hacked. We rely on our credit card when booking flights and hostels, and since we still had three months of travel ahead of us, we had to find a way to secure a new card. After contacting our bank to have a new card issued, the next problem was where to have the card sent. Luckily, we have a friend who lives in Hong Kong. Since we were planning to visit there in a few weeks, we knew this would give the card sufficient time to make it there before our arrival.
6. Rachel, how did you manage your type-1 diabetes during your trip?
Diabetes management during our trip was an adventure in itself. Before even leaving for our trip, I had to work with my doctors and my insurance company to make sure I could obtain enough supplies (insulin pump supplies, medications, etc.) to last through our entire trip. I also had to make sure I had a doctor’s note explaining why I was carrying such a large supply of everything I needed. The biggest challenge was finding a way to keep my insulin cold since reliable refrigerators were not easy to come by. We ordered a “Frio Pack” that was a life saver! By placing the pack in water every few days, the pack stayed cool and kept my insulin at the right temperature.
Packing was also a hassle because both of our bags were consumed by diabetic supplies and medications. I give Steve so much credit for helping me carry everything I needed to take!
It was also a challenge to control my roller-coaster blood sugars during the trip. As an insulin-pump user, I have to count carbs in order to give myself insulin. Because I was unfamiliar with a lot of the foods we were eating and how many carbs they contained, my blood sugars tended to spike or drop more than normal. It was definitely a headache keeping my diabetes in check, but was it worth it? Most definitely!
7. Can you share a few budget tips for keeping costs low?
In Africa, we camped in tents for the majority of the trip. Although there were options to upgrade to a dorm, we saved some cash by opting to stay in the tent. We purchased a quality air mattress before we left to ensure that we were camping in comfort for those two months!
Once we arrived in Asia, we planned our trip on-the-go. By doing this, we were able to monitor flights to find the cheapest routes available. We also relied on other modes of transportation such as overnight buses and trains. Spending $22/person for an overnight bus versus a $180/person flight helps to keep your budget in check. In addition, we stayed in hostels. We mixed our hostel stays with private rooms and dorm rooms. Dorm rooms are significantly cheaper and a great way to meet new people! Eating local food also tends to be relatively cheaper and can help with your budget. The hardest budget challenge for me personally was saying “no” to souvenirs. The cost of souvenirs adds up quickly, plus you have to carry the extra weight in your pack for the entirety of your trip!
8. How did traveling nonstop for five months affect your relationship?
When you travel together for that long, you don’t have the normal breaks from each other like work, outings with friends or the gym. You definitely see the good, bad, and ugly of each other, and you really start to learn the limits of both yourself and your partner. Steve brags that he now knows the ins-and-outs of when I’m hangry, hot, cold, tired… There was a lot of give and take during the trip, but it definitely made our relationship stronger because of it!
9. What advice would you have for a couple or solo traveler contemplating a long-term trip?
Don’t be afraid to leave your job because there will always be work out there! Sometimes I think we are so stuck in our everyday routine that we are afraid to take a chance on something new. I was hesitant at first about going on this trip (worrying about leaving our jobs, did we budget correctly?, etc.), but now that we are back, I wouldn’t change a thing! If you have the desire to go, don’t hesitate. Do your research, plan your budget and book the trip! [Rachel started applying for jobs near the end of their trip, interviewed two days after she got back and was hired! Steve is a carpenter so finding work for him was never an issue since his trade is always in demand in the housing market.]
10. What are the three most useful things you packed for this trip?
- Packing Cubes/Compression Bags – The cubes helped to keep all of our clothes organized and easy to find, while we used the compression bags to store our dirty laundry. Both of these helped save so much space in our bags! [They liked the Travelon brand!]
- Bungee Laundry Line – We used this when camping in Africa, as well as in hostels when we wanted to wash under garments (but not spend money yet on washing our whole wardrobe).
- Unlocked Mobile Phone – With an unlocked phone, you can use SIM cards, which are super cheap in Asia. We paid anywhere from $5-$15 per SIM card, and each card gave us plenty of data for that portion of our trip. It’s convenient to have a local phone number, as well as access to the internet, maps, and local ride-shares while you are out and about.
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