2024 Review: final year of world tour
2023 was very cool, 2024 was oneof the best years of our life.
Last year, if you could read between the lines, you understood that traveling non-stop has become very tiring for us. Maybe it’s age, or burnout, or both. After 8 and a half years of traveling, we’ve visited our favorite places, sometimes several times, achieved our wildest dreams. For a while now, we’ve felt the need to settle down a bit. Also, after fifteen years doing the same job, JB and I feel the urge for change and to explore other fields. If for me it’s a blur, for JB it’s crystal clear: he wants to retrain in cybersecurity, the most promising field in the next 20 years, behind AI.
Thus, a plan was set from mid-2023 for his career switch. With the goal of finding a job early 2025 for JB, somewhere in the world, in cybersecurity. The deadline is end of June 2025, after which, if he doesn’t succeed, we’ll have to move on to other things. So if you notice we’re absolutely not denying ourselves ANYTHING in 2024, traveling at a frantic pace, and if you notice I’m buying a few too many leatherworking tools in 2024, now you know why. 2024 is our last year of world tour, and the prospect of settling down is approaching.
Compared to 2023, we’ve made progress on one important point: the freedom of our schedule. While we already had great geographic freedom all these years, JB had significant time constraints, with several meetings a week. That was no longer the case throughout 2024.
January – March
We start the year auspiciously in Cusco, the navel of the world according to the Incas, and there’s such an extraordinary vibe in this city that the year can only be very very good. We then spend a few days in Ollantaytambo, my favorite city in Peru (and maybe the world) and where I see myself living for several months. The good news is that high-speed internet has reached Peru, digital nomads can settle there without a problem.
Then we head to Bolivia to revisit my favorite places, especially Lake Titicaca, one of the places where I feel the best in the world. This place is still incredible despite the tourist development on Isla del Sol. But in the evening, it’s still just as calm and magical.
I realize I’m healed. I had significant memory loss and worrying energy loss between 2022 and 2023, but that’s it, I’m healed, I got my memory back, and I found my energy again, not as much as before because I’ve aged in the meantime, but enough to want to move again.
We time it right to enjoy the rain over the Uyuni salt flat where the desert is flooded and forms an incredible landscape where you can’t distinguish the sky from the earth.
Unlike last time (where we started at 2500 meters above sea level), this time we’re in the right direction regarding altitude (i.e., we’re already above 3500 meters) and so JB can do the famous jeep tour to south Lipez passing several passes over 4500 meters above sea level without difficulty.
Career change: certification
We settle for a month in Buenos Aires so JB can prepare and pass an important certification. For a month, we went a bit overboard on the amount of (delicious) ice cream we bought from Rapa Nui, but the revisions are intense and JB really needs a little encouragement. This is the first time JB has to read a huge book entirely in English (1000 pages!) and learn hundreds of acronyms in less than a month.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to win first prize in the national competition, so my father made me do multiple-choice quizzes. He had the answers in a separate notebook, and I would give him answers and he would give me live feedback, so I could know right away if I got it wrong. I apply the same method for JB. I prepare quizzes for him (one question per slide) from a book. When he answers incorrectly, I give him a second chance, and on the next slide, he can access the answer and explanation. I prepared all these slides from a big Excel file.
So JB got the certification in question with a very good score, and we can continue traveling, treating ourselves to a return trip to Easter Island. Thanks to a little-known trick, we manage to find very reasonable flight tickets to Easter Island and stay there for 7 days to make the most of it. We see our favorite restaurateur again, and she is stunned to see tourists (us!) return for a second time to Easter Island, a place so isolated that it’s already extremely rare to go even once.
We spend a few weeks in a place full of hot springs in Chile before starting…
April
… an epic road trip with my parents in central Japan, starting from Tokyo. We think we’ll be late to see the cherry blossoms, but lucky us!! It was colder than usual in Japan, and the bloom arrives two weeks after the forecasted schedule, and we arrive in full bloom. In the mountains, they bloom even later, so it’s even more beautiful.
I’m very, very proud of the itinerary I put together for my parents, under the theme “Japanese tradition”. They discover for the first time a Japanese ryokan and the famous kaisekicuisine. We spend a wonderful evening with two geishas, a tea ceremony in a century-old parlor, visit the most popular onsen town in Japan, and only choose hotels with onsen access. This road trip is the most memorable experience of the entire year 2024 because it’s very rich and luxurious, while demanding the best skills I’ve acquired over the years in terms of planning and scheduling. The Japanese currency has dropped significantly in recent years, allowing us to treat ourselves to experiences we could never have afforded before.
After my parents return to Vietnam, we stay a few weeks in Kyoto , and Osaka before heading back to Vietnam (Da Nang, Hue, Hanoi).
In Hanoi, I mostly spent my time at my leatherworking teacher’s place, and I’m very happy because I realize I really enjoy this activity, and that I’m not too bad at it (despite my teacher’s criticisms). Through one of his students, I find out that my teacher is very proud of me, but in front of me, he only gives me criticism. Anyway, artisans, they’re always like that 😀 I treat myself to a very, very beautiful custom-made solitaire ring. I haven’t bought jewelry in several years, but the project is too tempting.
May
We fulfill one of our biggest dreams by spending a week at Bhutan and let’s discover the recipe for happiness. Time seems to stand still in Bhutan, and places like this are, unfortunately, becoming rarer and rarer in the world.
June
Back to Vietnam, but especially to Koh Tao, Koh Phangan where we meet up with our friends and our favorite hotel. Koh Phangan was “home” for almost 6 months during the Covid period, and we were really scared to go back now that tourism has returned to normal. Fortunately, our little paradise on earth remains intact. We take the opportunity to finish our e-foil training. Technically we’re doing well, but my mind is still not there. As soon as there’s a lot of depth and waves, I’m petrified.
Our rental apartment in Nice is delivered with a year and a half delay, and our agency finds a tenant in less than a week. What a relief after so many struggles!
July – August
One of JB’s dreams is to attend the Olympic Games. Even though, with the usual French optimism, many anticipate Paris will be hell on earth, we come back to France especially for the occasion. What hell? Paris has never been so pleasant: the metros are on time, half empty, ultra clean, an organization worthy of an ultra-developed country. Smiling policemen. Our friends who left Paris bitterly regret their choice.
JB denies himself nothing: lots of events in the most beautiful places in the capital, and even two tickets to the closing ceremony, where we are right in front of the official stand and can, with our binoculars, watch Macron scratch his nose. At the end of the ceremony, we spot Tom Cruise’s little silhouette from afar (that’s the closest I’ll ever get to Tom Cruise).
Despite the number of events per week, I still manage to work in the evenings/nights to finish not one but two leather bags, entirely hand-stitched, as well as a long hand-stitched belt and a few small leather items. Of course, they’re not perfect yet, but I surprise myself by being able to do it.
We take advantage of our time in France for me to do a bookbinding workshop to learn a more advanced method. Following that, after more than a year of reading and researching, I manage to honor my promise: rebind a childhood book of JB’sin full leather, with title lettering.
It’s also after this workshop that I completely abandon the idea of getting the CAP Bookbinding certificate, which would be completely useless to me and would only annoy me more than anything else. But I keep the idea of learning bookbinding through private lessons.
September
We celebrate my birthday at the Grand Hôtel de Cabourg, with a great upgrade to a room with a sea view. I’d been dreaming of it for a long time. Cabourg is part of my (multi-year) pilgrimage to places visited by Proust. I also visit Amiens with my friend M., still on Proust’s trail.
While JB almost gets himself killed doing the GR20, I stay in the Paris suburbs to see as many people as possible and visit as many luxury boutiques as possible to sharpen my eye for luxurious finishes. I’m very happy because my creations have nothing to envy the ones in the boutiques, and even surpass them in finishes and leather quality.
JB, for his part, is very proud to have completed the GR20 successfully but is sad for his brother Vincent, who had to give up halfway due to a significant knee injury.
October – November
Career change: job hunting
We’re settling in for a month in Sofia so JB can throw himself 100% into his job search. He didn’t start looking as soon as he got certified because he wasn’t available yet. I don’t know if JB will write you a post about his career change (yes, it’s online), but despite his IT skills and long career, given the current economic climate, HR only ticks boxes and eliminates anyone without cyber experience. A trainee with two weeks of cyber experience would almost have had a better shot than JB. His only chance is his network. As soon as JB gets an interview with a real manager, his technical and soft skills are immediately appreciated.
After that, we spend two weeks in à Istanbul to visit our favorite dentist. We’re saddened by the gloomy vibe in Istanbul and the soaring prices. A lost paradise.
We then visit the Greece for the first time in our lives. During all this time, JB stays focused on his job search, and I catch up on the blog—now all the travel diaries missed since 2022 are published.
This year, with lots of travel and no more memory issues, I’ve slowed down my reading and am at 50 books read in 2024 vs. 120 in 2023. The big project I started in 2024 is machine translation (via AI) of 6 volumes of books on the I Ching, from Chinese (a language I don’t know at all) into Vietnamese (my mother tongue). Discovering the I Ching is the greatest stroke of luck in my life, and I’d love to become an I Ching specialist one day. I’ve coded several translation programs and used increasingly sophisticated models. I’m currently proofreading, and I think I can wrap up this project by Q1 2025 (about 1500 pages). In 2025, I’d like to select and translate other interesting books. I won’t be able to publish the translations since I don’t hold any rights, but at least I can share quotes and give the general idea.
December
JB found a job in cyber—finally!!! He gets two job offers in two cities: Lille and Rennes. After some hesitation, he picks the lower-paying job because it’s a smaller company; he thinks he’ll grow faster and seize opportunities.
We have exactly one month before his start date. We treat ourselves to one last road trip for a long while and incidentally celebrate our 1-st wedding anniversary. On the agenda: Cairo (already visited, but we take advantage of the layover to stay a few days) – Saudi Arabia (first visit) and Jordan (first visit).
You can tell this road trip is even more luxurious than all the others combined—we’re denying ourselves absolutely NOTHING, as all the Marriott, Accor, and American Express points accumulated over the years are cashed in on this trip for hotel nights and various experiences. Here’s to extraordinary experiences, incredible memories, and the last rays of sunshine for a long while.
In Saudi Arabia, in Medina, we attend the sunset prayer at the Prophet’s Mosque. An intense and incredible moment!!
After 8.5 years of travel, that’s it—we arrive at Petra, the last of the new 7 wonders of the world. It took us that long to visit them all. And Petra wonderfully caps off the end of our world tours.
END OF THE WORLD TOUR
Because yes, after 8 and a half years of travel, 3 trips around the world, 70 countries, we’re reaching the END of our journey.
We’re settling down again for an indefinite period. We’ve fulfilled our dreams of travel, independence, total freedom… now it’s time for us to move on to another dream.
JB found a permanent job in cybersecurity in Lille. All these years, we planned our travels to always be in the sun; Lille is honestly not the city of our dreams to settle in, but the company is dynamic and very ambitious. JB is going to learn a lot there. Yes, he’ll have to go back to the office, work full-time, earn less money, be more careful with expenses (lol)… that means we won’t be able to jet off to Thailand on a whim or chase the sun anymore, but when you’re hungry to learn, when the idea of a new passionate career trumps everything else, it doesn’t bother him at all, quite the opposite. I know it might not seem very logical to you, but passion can make a digital nomad like JB settle down again.
Everyone asks me if I’m okay with it. To be honest, if it were up to me, I would have stopped traveling by the end of 2023 ahaha. Indeed, I’m more and more interested in craftsmanship, activities that require a FIXED location and lots of tools. Traveling doesn’t appeal to me as much anymore. But since JB wants to be better prepared and fulfill our last travel dreams before a sedentary life, we added one more year to our journey, and I don’t regret it because 2024 was EXCEPTIONAL. This lifestyle change suits me 100%!!! I’m very happy.
Being settled will also allow us to get back in shape. We’ll be able to better control the quality of our food. Eating out is nice, but too often, you end up with too much sugar or oil, and it shows in the blood tests we do every year. Being settled will give me even more time for reading. I’ve managed to build, in two years, a tiny collection of books for bibliophiles, and I plan to read them all. Being settled will let me access more French artisans; I have a couple of artisans I’d like to train with (illumination, bookbinding, enamel), but every time, the dates don’t match my stay in France. Living in France, I can get trained whenever I want. And lastly, I’ll be able to see my sister and niece whenever I want.
Unfortunately, my dear Rosalie (my cat) is in cat heaven, I wish I could have added “see Rosalie again” to the list of perks, but we shared beautiful moments together, and her place will never be taken by another cat (JB found out he’s allergic to cats, so Rosalie will remain our designated cat for life). Big thoughts to you, my beautiful Rosalie, wherever you are now!!
We’re too used to minimalism. We loved being able to store all our belongings in one suitcase. So we’re going to (try to) limit our purchases. Right now, I need to rebuild my winter capsule wardrobe (it’s cold in Lille), then, as soon as we have a “home,” we’ll find quality bedding and household linens (I’ll share my finds with you). But that’ll be it. I already have all my leatherworking and bookbinding tools, my little collection of bibliophile books. I’m going to live my best life !!!!!
With our two suitcases, we can settle in Lille ASAP. First in an Airbnb, then hopefully we’ll quickly find an apartment to move into. As for traveling, let’s not forget that the French have 5 weeks of vacation, and JB should have enough flexibility with remote work in France, so we’ll surely travel from time to time, explore our beautiful regions, but it won’t be at the frantic pace it was before. I think we’ll enjoy travel more that way.
As for the blog, since the upcoming articles will be more lifestyle and craftsmanship oriented, I think I’ll post more on my lifestyle blog mehach.com. Travels and “current favorites” will still be posted on this blog (tourdumonde5continents).
A Big Thank You!
Thanks to our clients who trusted us throughout these years of digital nomadism and enabled us to fulfill our dreams. Thanks to our families for their trust and support; and to our friends, whom we see far too little, for always keeping a place for us in their hearts.
Thanks to YOU for following us for so long, for putting up with my 6,000-word articles, my digressions, my current obsessions. On this blog, we’ve always felt we could be ourselves and have absolute freedom of expression because you are high-quality readers and for that, thank you infinitely!!!
Top 8 of 2024
Usually I do a “top 5,” but there are so many CRAZY experiences that I’m going to cheat a bit
- Returning to my favorite places in the world (Ollantaytambo, Isla del Sol, Cuzco, the flooded Uyuni salt flat)
- Our stay at the Grand Hotel in Cabourg, the Balbec ofIn Search of Lost Time
- Our road trip in Japan (especially the tea ceremony, the evening with geishas, and the making of darumas)
- Petra in Jordan
- Sleeping in a bubble tent in the desert
- Completing the GR20 (JB)
- Making progress in the career change (JB)
- The Olympic Games (seeing Tom Cruise in person at the closing ceremony)
The Flops
- Getting money stolen in a 5-star hotel in Jordan
- Not-so-great Airbnbs in Sofia (too cold + internet problems + dishonest host) and Athens (incessant construction noise)
- All the job interview rejections JB received
- The leveling down, everywhere, everywhere
