Six months ago, Kelly Westhoff and Quang Nystrom packed their backpacks and left their Plymouth home for unknown adventures.
After traveling to eight countries, they’ve returned home from the life-altering travels and still are processing the images, places and people they met.
The married couple began what they dubbed Kelly and Quang’s Global Roam in Mexico City last October.
From there, they travelled to Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar (which was formerly known as Burma).
Vacationing for a week is hard to compare to traveling for six months.
“It’s totally different. You’re not in survival mode when you’re traveling for a week,” said Nystrom, who asked Westhoff to travel the world with him when he proposed.
“When you land in a place, it’s not like ‘Amazing Race,’ but there’s an element like it. You go, look at a map to see where you are and find a hotel. There you deal with people mobbing you,” said Westhoff.
Many fellow travelers were surprised to know that as Americans the couple was traveling for an extended time.
“‘What kind of Americans are you?’” Westhoff remembers them asking. “They didn’t know Americans did that.”
In each country they visited, they learned basic things about the country and phrases such as how to say hello.
They quickly learned they didn’t need all that was packed into their four backpacks, a large and small one each. So they stored the extra items until they passed through the United States in January.
Along the way, Westhoff blogged about the adventure for friends and family to keep up to date.
She writes that their top picks for Latin American destinations include Ushuaia in Argentina, the beaches of Uruguay and a cruise from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt in Chile.
They also enjoyed the monarchs in Mexico and penguins in Patagonia.
“If you’re a hiker, Patagonia is a dream backyard,” said Nystrom.
They spent time exploring churches, monuments, museums and national parks in each of their destinations.
By February of this year, they headed to southeast Asia, using Thailand as a hub for getting to other countries.
Halong Bay in Vietnam and Angkor Wat in Cambodia were highlights, as well as Inle Lake in Myanmar.
The travels in Myanmar started out with some difficulty (a 10-hour car ride turned into 15 hours, in 90 degree heat, without air conditioning and with much dust).
They saw oxen-pulled carts and potholes being filled by hand.
“We tried to stay away from anything that supported the government,” said Westhoff.
The difficulties paid off when they got to Inle Lake, which they consider a highlight of their adventure.
In Vietnam, Nystrom enjoyed the tours, which for $3 to $6 would take them to half a dozen site-seeing places.
He also got to see where his mother used to live and visited the coffee shop in Saigon where she used to work.
While the two can rattle off cities upon cities where they went, the adventure was also about relationships, both with the travelers they met along the way and with one another.
“You need to support and protect,” said Nystrom. “If you want to test a relationship, travel. That’s intimate. You get to see the dirtiest and rawest side.”
He began the global roam with the hope of answering one question: Was it worth it? He returns with an answer.
“If you want a lifetime experience, it’s a good way to do it. You learn so many things to incorporate into your life. There are so many perspectives. If you travel, there are so many perspectives,” said Nystrom.
He’s more conscious of conserving energy and water after returning home.
“Everything you know will be challenged,” adds Westhoff.
They planned to travel for about seven months but returned home early after Nystrom’s grandmother passed away.
“We weren’t quite done with travelling yet,” said Nystrom.
They spent their first few days home moping, not able to find a routine.
“The same potholes are here that were here when we left,” said Westhoff.
“When you’re travelling you have no doubt that you’re living life,” said Westhoff, slightly resigned.
A recent addition to their family — a miniature pinscher named Aries — is a reality shift.
“The dog is helping us, but he’s going to hinder us from running off to Laos,” said Westhoff.
