The Journey Begins: Our Story

Travelling has opened up so many life opportunities for us that we never thought were possible. Seeing these online influencers around the world, living their best lives really makes you think, how do they do it? This is the story of why we chose to travel and why we're not planning to stop anytime soon!

I didn't know where to start, there is so much information online about how to start travelling, it was a mind field. I had all the questions running through my head - do i have enough money? Will i be safe? How do i live somewhere else / a different country with no one around that i know? These are all valid questions but are also questions that were stopping me from just taking that leap to do something i could enjoy. I loved going abroad on holiday, seeing new places and enjoying what the world had to offer, so why wouldn't i enjoy travelling?

Maybe there was this expectation on the word 'Travelling' or 'Backpacking', like i had to be doing it in a certain way to mean something. Maybe that was the reason why i couldn't just do it. Travelling meant i had to see a lot of places in a short time or if i was going for a long time, i couldn't leave any stone unturned. Backpacking meant i had to live out of a small bag, go to hot countries, sleep in questionable places and then eventually come back "home". Both of those meanings didn't suit me. I wanted to see the world at my own pace, actually spend time in one place and get to know the people, the culture, the less touristy things. I wanted to travel light, yes a backpack is what i chose but if i spent the night in a hotel it was because i wanted to. I wanted to do what felt right to me and if that meant i went and tried this thing for a few weeks and didn't like it so i came back, then so be it. On the other hand if i loved it, why do i need to come "home"?

To put faces to the people asking these questions, here we are. Hi, i'm Ashley (Left) and this is Charley (Right) my fiance. Both living in England, tired of living the same life day after day, in jobs that are not fulfilling. Finding ourselves constantly looking for something and not finding it, not knowing what 'it' is.

We both have always loved going abroad on holidays, even before we met. Unfortunately, holidays have to end and you have to go back to what you were doing before. That's what we didn't want. The trip that put that in concrete for us was our trip to Thailand.

All it took was a 2 week holiday to Chiang Mai to flick a switch and that was it, we wanted this feeling of freedom, being your authentic self, taking control of your life, to never come to an end. So with that, we moved back in with parents, sold most of our belongings, quit our jobs and left the country. And no, it wasn't quite that straightforward, but that's the gist of it.

There were a lot of moving parts to get to where we were ready to leave. This is going to be different for everyone but these parts for us were essential so we had a starting structure to our travel. Going back to the questions from the start: Do i have enough money? Unless you are rich or already have a passive income, no , you probably don't. But that didn't matter. Making those necessary steps meant we could save money before our travel and give us a good base. Enough to book flights and keep us going for a few months. Always remembering to have a 'emergency fund' which was enough to get us flights back to England. From there we didn't know how much things were going to cost to live in another country. I can go into more detail about costs and how we have managed to support our travel life in other posts.

The second thing I wondered about was whether I'd be safe. I realized that if you're careful and think through what you do, you'll be as safe as you can be. You can't predict everything, but you can try your best to stay safe. I would always ensure i have a contact who knows where i would be, even if that person is on the other side of the world, they would be able to have an idea of my location. Safety is subjective, even if you feel safe, someone else might not. Having that contact that i check in with regularly is something that made me feel safe.

Lastly, how do you move somewhere new, maybe even to a different country where you don't know a soul? You just go for it. I felt lucky to have someone by my side during the whole thing, which helped me tackle the fear. Even though I didn't know anyone else, i had them. Now that I've taken the leap to travel and support myself, I feel like I could totally do it solo next time. The reason for this is that i have met so many lovely people, most of them are in the same mindset and situation so you all support one another. The travel community is just amazing and they make it feel like you are never alone. "Home" is where you make it.

At the end of the day, i didn't know what i was getting into when i booked that 1 way flight. I was just going to follow my heart and try and enjoy every minute of it. We have been travelling now for 10 months, seeing 3 different countries and we are not stopping there. So if you are reading this and still thinking, how do those influencers do it? They just took that one leap of faith to do something they wanted to do. We are not influencers but we are living proof that it can work if you want it to.