7 Questions with Traveling 9 to 5

In our continued quest in introduce you to some of the best traveling couples, this week’s installment is one of the best.  Meet Caroline and Josh of   www.traveling9to5.com.   This duo, after working in the corporate world decided to sell (almost) everything they owned and travel the world for a year.  Their fun blog captures the ins and outs of travel as a couple.   One interesting fact about Caroline, she is a professional “cart wheeler”.  Check out her cart wheeling board on pinterest!

Give them a follow:

couple traveling1) How many countries visited between the two of you?

We have been to 18 countries between the two of us and have at least 7 left to visit this year. All of our international travel has been together. We are that cheesy couple that met in high school and got married right after college traveling together since we both had passports.

2) If you had to travel with someone else besides your travel partner, who would it be?  (this person can be living, historical or mythical?.)

He Said: I would travel with Chris Guillebeau from the Art of Non-Conformity. I’d probably still be at my old job if it wasn’t for his blog and inspiration.

She Said: I would travel with Matt… the dancing one. I love to dance, more specifically I love to dance badly. His videos still make me laugh and inspire me to keep traveling. I haven’t met him yet, but he seems as if he has a good time traveling, adventures to new locations and has some wicked dance moves.

couple at cooking school3)What has been your favorite destination in your wanderings?  Why?

He said: Thailand. Especially Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It’s the only country on our trip that we’ve been to  more than once. I absolutely loved the people, the food, the noise and the energy of these cities. We met so many great people and enjoyed so much good FOOD.  I can’t wait to return.
She said: Botswana. I have never fallen in love with the sky and the stars as much as I did in Botswana. Camping in the middle of nowhere lends a certain peace while at the same time is scary as &@*% considering there are wild animals creeping in every shadow. The colors of the sunset and sunrise are incredible, the terrain is constantly changing, the people you meet are so unique… I could go on forever!

4)  If you had to eat one last meal, what/where would you eat?

He said: I’d have Vietnamese pho ga (chicken soup), fresh french bread and butter, my mom’s buffalo chicken mac & cheese, a fillet mignon with sauteed mushrooms and finally, some homemade chocolate chip cookies. I’d make sure to have some Thai desserts too, so Care could eat off my plate. :)

She said: Do I have to limit the number of courses in the meal?
I would start by jumping on the first flight to Thailand .
I would pick up a fresh coconut smoothie from Pa’s stand at the Chiang Mai Gate night market.
Next, red curry from the small shack in Chiang Mai
Finally I would end with my three favorite Thai Desserts:
Mango Sticky Rice – a BIG serving of it with lots of coconut milk and fresh mangos.
Mochi Balls covered in coconut with brown sugar and more coconut in the middle
Coconut pudding balls from the street
HEAVENLY!

5)Seriously, on your site there is a tab titled: Exercise!  What’s up with that?

He said: You’ll have to ask her. :)
She said: This one is my fault. I was a personal trainer with Equinox back in Chicago. I promised my clients that I would keep up with my own workouts and document them along the way. I am a bit of a health/fitness junkie. So most of our adventures are hiking, walking, cycling, anything to get the extra exercise in!  Traveling and exercising isn’t easy, so I carry a jump rope everywhere I go and focus on a lot of body weight exercises. Many more travel workouts are on the way!

woman doing cart wheel

Caroline-The Cart Wheel Queen!

6) Josh, loved your post on “retiring” at a young age.  Tell us about
how and why you made this decision.

He said: (Caroline actually wrote this post!) Americans make a big deal out of retirement. It is seen as a phase of life that is to be feared and endlessly prepared for. That you should sacrifice everything now so you can hopefully enjoy your life when you are old. Instead I think it should be embraced as a positive change of direction. You can experience a “mini-retirement” way before your 60s. For us, it isn’t retirement in the traditional sense. It’s opting out of the rat race and choosing to live a life that fulfills us. We will still work, and we’ll still work hard, but we plan on working for ourselves and writing our own life story instead of having someone else write it for us.

couple wearing slicker7)You knew it was coming….What has been your greatest travel fight/disagreement?

She said: Our most recent argument was over Josh’s top notch driving abilities. We recently drove ourselves through Botswana and Namibia in a 4×4 Toyota Hilux. Prior to arriving in Africa, Josh hadn’t driven anything in a long time bigger than a motorbike. We got in our new home, a HUGE diesel 4×4 truck and he suddenly is Mario Andretti. He is driving over tree trunks, whizzing around cars and plowing through 3 feet of sand. I am terrified, and do what any strong-minded wife would do…I become the backseat driver that no one wants to have. I yelled out when it looked like we were going to hit trees or were plowing through thorn bushes and insisted he slow down as he tried to jump the potholes on the endless gravel roads in Namibia.
He said: It was awesome. I’m just trying to keep us from crashing into elephants, and Care keeps yelling, “Left…LEFT!” … I have no idea what this means. We both got pretty fired up over how we should warn each other to watch out for something in the road, which is a pretty dumb argument, but we were so mad. It was just a stressful drive with animals coming from every direction, but I was an awesome driver.
She said: LEFT means “look to the left, we are going to crash into a tree”. We had a $2,000 deductible, we shouldn’t be driving the huge truck like we are on a race track!He said: I had to drive fast enough to not get stuck in the sand, unless we wanted the added adventure of digging ourselves out of the sand while looking for hungry wild animals.

She said: This is why we left this argument in Namibia. :)

1000Fights:  We love it!  I think that this is the very first time we have had a fight in the post!  Impressive!
Seriously aren’t these two a kick?!

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3 Responses to 7 Questions with Traveling 9 to 5

  1. Josh July 26, 2012 at 1:26 am #

    Thanks for the interview guys! It was a lot of fun answering the questions.

  2. Tony from LandingStanding July 29, 2012 at 4:29 am #

    Cartwheel professional? Who knew!?!?! So glad to hear you two liked Bangkok… we’re less than a week away from finally getting there! Some people say it’s too busy, but it’s great to hear that that some people can love it.

  3. Traveling 9 to 5 July 30, 2012 at 1:59 am #

    You will find the most amazing food in Bangkok – we mostly just walked around and ate for 2 weeks straight and it was incredible!