Beginning of My Travels with Roaming Rumblesteeze

I am no stranger to moving around and long stays from home. But this most recent chapter of global tumbleweeding has been different because I have been sharing my travels with my significant other.

Sharing a hongi with Rumblesteeze.

Traveling by yourself is an amazing and maturing experience - but I have enjoyed traveling with someone I love even more.

Ever since Stuart knew I was a global tumbleweed (2 years ago), he knew he'd be a roaming rumblesteeze. I've never heard of a Rumblesteeze, in fact, I'm pretty sure my lovely weirdo made it up, but I like how the name evokes rhythm, style, and wanderlust.

When Rumblesteeze and I decided to quit our jobs in Melbourne this year - we knew we wanted to prioritize a few things which would only be easier if we traded our steady incomes and comfortable home abroad.

If you are traveling with someone, whether it's a friend or family or partner, it's important to share common goals and expectations. However, to be cliche, we let our hearts guide our travel plans and it's only now that I can see how we allowed these four pillars to influence our adventures together:

1. See more family and friends
2. Be more creative
3. Be more active
4. Spend less money

At the beginning, we just trusted our instincts and became mentally ready to embark on a trip of a lifetime. Like the moral of Paolo Coelho's, The Alchemist, when you really want something, the whole world conspires to make your wish come true.

So, after a series of "signs" which all occurred within a 30 day period including my college girlfriend needing a travel mate through Vietnam, Rumblesteeze's family visiting Bali, Rumblesteeze's brother having his first daughter in Singapore, and ultimately, our lease ending upbruptly - we decided to get rid of most of our possessions, pack up our belongings, and travel to Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and North America together.

This kiwi sheep has been to Oz, Singy, and Vietnam. Gotta have a #travel pillow. 🐏@stular

A photo posted by Raquel Minh (@globaltumbleweed) on Jul 7, 2014 at 6:10am PDT

Our first stop was Vietnam. This was my first visit to my mother's home country and I was on a mission to be inspired to write, explore beautiful landscape, and appreciate how affordable 3 weeks in this third world was....