Well, here we go, today, sitting in the New York Bagle Cafe in Panama City. You may have read about how and why I decided to go on this world round trip. This was complemented by some milestones like visiting Dubai, my farewell party and the final preparations in December until I flew out into the world.

Initally, one question: Why does someone go on a world round-trip and says goodbye to such wonderful people, friends and a satisfying job?

I may cite Jamie Lyn Beatty again – you guys know him:
“Jobs fill your pockets, adventures fill your soul.”

My grandmother used to say: “Go when the goings good.” 🙂 Starting from this point, away from Europe, I would love to learn new things, gain new impressions and experiences. I would like to improve my inter-cultural and language skills as well as get to know new people and different attitudes towards life. I want to understand what happiness means to people.
At this point, some colleagues asked me, do you need a break? I answer clearly: No, in fact, I’m still full of energy and drive! 🙂

Let’s go back to December…

 

Dubai

Career in Dubai – yes or no? How to better find out if not by visiting the place. I was lucky to meet a lot of people in Dubai including people from global corporations in the context of formal job interviews as well as friends of friends to learn about Dubai’s everyday life! It was amazing how many friends put their energy into bringing me in contact with their friends in Dubai. A big thank you to each and every one supporting and promoting me!

Whoop, I hopped on this 30 % booked A380 Emirates flight, in 36.000 feet having leg space like in a Maybach and a internet connection for 1$ like on my former sofa at home. If you order one beer, you’ll get two … probably to make you fall asleep quicker and thus causing less service efforts. 🙂 Anyway, seems like a good start to me.

Arriving early bird 7 a.m., first thing to get at Dubai Airport was a SIM card with a data plan to start orientation and finding my way to the area between Al Fahidi and Creek. I thought, in this the area, where Dubai was originally centred, I might meet some locals. … But that was wrong. Dubai and especially this area is a cultural melting pot with people from all around the world. This morning I mainly should meet Indians and Pakistani. Grabbing a Pepsi close by the textile market, I headed further to find some lunch. Well, my first meal in Dubai took place at an Indian fast food restaurant. In fact, way better than expected. 😉 After the first job interview at a global corporation, I headed to my AirBnB close to Dubai Marina. Later, I realized, thart the AirBnB I slept in, is the fourth highest residential building in the world. Hanging out at level 68 of 91 in Elite Residence which is more than 380 m in height. That building has its own Wikipedia page. Haha. Let’s get a beer at Barasti Beach Bar, I thought, for $10. Anyway, a recommendable place. At night Marina Beach should be explored: Over 7 km artificially created walkways along the marina water side, hosting more than 200 restaurants. Around, there all this mega tall residential buildings in an area with one of the highest population densities in the world. Still, construction sites everywhere. For expats, this is the place to live and enjoy nightlife at 35 degrees.

Dubai Creek:

My Indian lunch:

Skyline of Dubai, I was hosted in the AirBnB high orange building in the middle:

Barasti Beach:

Dubai Marina:

I would like to say a big thanks to Rolf for hosting me in his flat in Dubai Marina later and spending an awesome local style time together. Rolf is a Creative Director with a very helpful mindset. Check out his page for very high quality marketing work. He rocks!

View from Rolf’s flat. Thanks for the pics Rolf! (c) Rolf Eggers:

 

One early morning, I dropped a brick in the metro: after I had entered the underground and we started to move, I was standing there with quite some space around me. Next to me only women. That seemed strange to me. Suddenly, I realised in a kind of jet-lag mode that there is a bunch of men extremely crowded together just a few meters away. Hmm…I thought it is probably better to join the men right away – on the right sight 😉

 

“Welcome to Dubai!” *grin* 🙂

This is how people greet newbies. Dubai is the city of superlatives. They want to be bigger, better and more exclusive. From an outside view they show off, like crazy. At some point during the visit I had the feeling that Dubai is the new capital of the world, the successor of Mesopotamia, Rome, Paris, London and New York. Dubai hosts the highest density of millionaires. Highways with eight lanes – in one direction. They have the highest residential buildings and the highest building of the world, Burj Khalifa. And then, exploring the area around Burj Khalifa is like walking through Disney land – just a little more surreal. They created artificial homes on islands (The Palm, Jumeirah). They created malls so big, you hardly find the way out. And all this in the desert were temperatures go up to 45 degrees Celsius combined with this beautiful humidity. 😉 Just more crazy than Las Vegas. And yes, this indoor Ski adventure really exists. 🙂 Sending home pictures , people were wondering if I’m in a video game.

Metro Station: Not in space – yet!

Dubai Mall:

Burj Khalifa – Welcome to Disney wonderland:

 

Some fish centered in the Mall of the Emirates:

Food court – endless…

It exists, yes, so crazy:

 

As you might imagine, Dubai is a city of contrasts. A great split between rich and poor people marks the bottom line. A friend recommended to visit Al Karama Market. A place to get original but very cheap stuff. 😉 Walking from the Metro station to this place, you realize which shoulders the city is built on.

 

I was given the chance to meet some very special people in Dubai to learn from. Another very inspiring person getting to know was Natalia aka Think Natalia. She is a self-made entrepreneur who developed a business around public speaking, coaching & training as well as digital influencing in UAE. Book her for your event in case you want to motivate people! In my view, she is outstanding!

Dubai is a crazy place, but worth spending two or three years in an environment of great diversity.

 

Special thanks to Rolf, Anja, Nicolai, Natalie, Adrian and Khaled for making the Dubai experience so very local! You are awesome! 🙂

 

 

Farewell Party

Leaving home for some time and you wanna stay in the mind of the people – what can you do? Easy answer: Provide value! A party is a good opportunity to provide value to your friends: the value of joy, good food, happiness and private network extension. Get a good DJ, an outstanding party gang and rock the place! Inviting people to your home is also a good opportunity when you’re selling all your belongings.

To make it really special, we not only had the best sushi in town from Kigiku (Great thanks to “The Quan”!) but also we had an auction for my belongings. Stuff in the value of 755€ changed owner of which we spent 250€ for good purpose. Thanks to 65 party people for making this happen! You were awesome!

Selling all of your stuff releases a burden from you. You get lighter step by step and the feeling of freedom is growing. “Crazy? Nope, just enjoying life!”

Okay, lets’s see how the decision between working in Dubai and travelling a world round trip was made. Well, friends and the party people wanted to know, what will happen. What am I going to do? They asked questions. So I explained like 15 times: Well, I’m waiting for a job offer in order to then decide if it’s good or not and then to evaluate on the basis of facts if I should take it or not. Blablabla. Guys, this was the 10th of December. I realized that I need a decision. I wanted to leave Germany by the 1st of January and I got sick explaining all these variables influencing a decision soon to be made over and over. Long story short. Party guest number 16 was told: I will go on a world round trip! Thanks for asking over and over again guys! 🙂

The days after the party, several people texted and even called up to say thanks and providing great feedback. A friend from University, I studied business economics with, observed the following: “I am impressed that you were not after the money earned during the auction but solely after the fun of it. I could feel that.” He continued, “This was very sympatric and trustworthy to me.” He shared some interesting and innovative business models with me a few days later to discuss.

One other close friend said: “One can feel that new joy of life in you! Other party people expressed that too.” Another said: “Do that trip, do it for you and not for others or for Facebook.” A medium aged and wise lady said: “Show a healthy egoisms. Being happy comes from the inside of oneself. Always respect other people how they are and they will respect you.”

One more friend sent the following quote from G.B. Shaw:

[German] “Die Weisheit eines Menschen misst man nicht nach seiner Erfahrung, sondern nach seiner Fähigkeit, Erfahrungen zu machen.”

Could sound in English like that: “The wisdom of a human is not measured by ones experience, but by ones ability to make experiences.”

A friend from University asked the question, what I will probably miss the most? I filed my answer to that question in order to ask myself the question again after 6 month and to compare the answers. Let’s be excited about the differences 🙂

 

The pics …Getting some dirks for the party gang with my sister:

The stuff put on auction:

Well, next moring 😉

 

Preparations for a world round trip

In a book about travel medicine I read a quote from J.W. von Goethe published in “Wilhelm Meister Wanderjahre”:

“Unprepared and rushed traveling leads to unhappy return.”
[German] “Unvorbereitetes Wegeilen bringt unglückliche Wiederkehr.”

The party was over and, ups(!), just three weeks to go until I fly out? This is not a planning horizon a controller usually takes for such a global experience. Haha. There is some meta level stuff to sort out, not just little I can tell. 🙂

Ok, how to organize chaos and a sheer endless amount of To-Dos? Ok, let’s create a To-Do list. Or several lists, since one A4 paper is definitely not enough. Haha. If you once need such a list, feel free to reach out to me. Just some areas of things to sort out:

• First, get your vaccinations
• Finding a good and trustworthy successor tenant for your landlord (since you want to sell your furniture for a reasonable value to finance your trip)
• Put your stuff on classifieds markets and eBay as well as organize all the logistics
• Set up your packing list, think wisely what to take with you to carry, buy things that are lightweighted
• Sort out all insurances, quite the useless, get the ones needed for traveling (health insurance!)
• Deal with tax related questions
• Deal with all regular payments from your bank account – quit what you don’t need
• Prepare emergency stuff like medicine and document copies
• Get your flight ticket(s) – actually get an idea what places do you want to see? 😉

 

In the end I got everything sorted out… but stressed.

It is always the big question whether to book flights in advance or spontaneously. The timing of booking flights is about money and the time invested for searching flights. Both a limited factor in life. So I decided to book all intercontinental flights in advance and get some more flights later if people tell about cool places.

 

Well done, after the final vaccinations were pumped in my arms… I kicked it off to Panama City! Let’s go wild! 🙂

Intercontinetal flights:

Read next: Initiating world round trip – Panama

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