Episode #19 – Around the World at 80 – The Traveling Nanas

In this episode of the Solo Female Travelers Podcast, Mar is joined by Ellie Hamby and Dr. Sandy Hazelip, better known as the Traveling Nanas, whose adventures prove that there is no age limit to exploring the world. After meeting through a medical mission in Zambia, their friendship grew into decades of independent travel and, eventually, an epic journey around the world in 80 days at age 81.

Ellie and Sandy share some of their most memorable travel stories, from riding the Trans-Siberian Railway and unexpectedly becoming witnesses to a crime to navigating Syria as conflict began and relying on the kindness of strangers along the way. They also talk about how they plan their trips independently, travel on a budget, pack light, choose accommodations, and make active adventures work for them in their 80s.

They also reflect on what makes their friendship such a successful travel partnership, why giving each other space matters, and how their philosophy of simply saying “yes” has opened the door to experiences they never expected. Whether you’re 25 or 85, this episode is a reminder that it’s never too late to step outside your comfort zone, meet new people, and start your next adventure.

About Ellie and Sandy:

They weren’t chasing fame, but the spotlight found them when their contagious message of positivity, friendship, and fearless living at any age resonated deeply and spread organically across social and traditional media.

Affectionately dubbed the TikTok “traveling nanas,” Ellie and Sandy now inspire people across generations—young and old alike—and across social, political, and cultural divides throughout the United States and around the world.

They co-authored the book Here We Go and have shared their story through speaking engagements both nationally and internationally. Widowed more than 20 years ago, they became close friends after the age of 60 and have continued to say “yes” to life together. 

Over the years, they’ve also taken grandchildren along on mission trips and other adventures, passing on a legacy of curiosity, courage, faith, and service.

Connect with Ellie and Sandy:
Website: Around the World at 80
Facebook Page: Around the World at 80
Instagram: @aroundtheworldat80
TikTok: @aroundtheworldat80
Youtube: @AroundtheWorldat80
Book Here We Go: Lessons for Living Fearlessly from Two Travelling Nanas available on Amazon and other major retailers and audiobook.

Transcript:

Mar: Hello and welcome. I’m Mar Pages, one of the hosts of the Solo Female Travelers podcast. And our guests today are Eleanor Hamby and Dr. Sandy Hazelip, better known as Ellie and Sandy. And maybe you can both raise your hand, Ellie.

Ellie and Sandy: I’m Ellie.

Mar: And then Sandy. Great, fantastic. They are also known as the traveling nanas or around the world at eighty or the traveling grannies on each of the social media platforms.

And you know, some travel stories begin with the destination, but Ellie and Sandy’s journey around the world began as a joyful celebration of turning eighty and as a plan that they refused the pandemic to take away. So even though they couldn’t start with COVID at eighty, they postponed it to eighty one and you know, and you are now I believe eighty five.

Ellie and Sandy: That’s correct. We’re both eighty five.

Mar: Great. So we’re going to be talking about all of this because I know every year you have a motto, you have a theme for the year. So I’m gonna be asking you all of that. I love it. You’ve traveled to all seven continents, eighteen countries, and in 80 days, that was around the world at 81. And you plan everything yourselves, mostly on a budget and unexpectedly became a viral sensation. Or I don’t know, maybe you expected to become a viral sensation.

Ellie and Sandy: No, we did not. I had no idea. We just did it for adventure. We did it for fun. 

Mar: And this is always the best reason to start an adventure. And yours has been going on for two decades, right? Because you’ve been traveling together for quite a while before this bigger trip, right? You met on a medical mission in Zambia that one of you, I believe, Ellie, started.

Ellie and Sandy: Ellie’s the director. But that’s and that’s basically where we met, was in Zambia on a medical mission ’cause she was one of our doctors and I was one of the directors.

Mar: Fantastic. And now you also have a book that’s called “Here We Go”.

Ellie and Sandy: Absolutely, right here. It is great.

Mar: That’s so great. We can see it here. I love it.

Ellie and Sandy: Yes, it was totally unexpected. We had no plans to do that. It’s just because of all the social media and because of our news media and our age and being independent travelers and things, Penguin Random House contacted us about this has to be a book.

Mar: Yes, and you were just in Europe on your book tour, right?

Ellie and Sandy: Yes, for two count different countries where we were having the book being released while we were there. So that was really fun.

Mar: In different languages as well.

Ellie and Sandy: Yes, yes, in German and Romanian, in Europe were the two that were being released while we were there. So that was nice. A lot of fun. Thank you.

Mar: That’s all great. That’s so great. Congratulations. 

So we’re going to be talking about your travels as, as you said, independent travels, and you know, you’re traveling on a budget and all the stories that didn’t make the headlines when you were planning your trips. So welcome to the Solo Female Travelers Podcast. Again, congratulations for your book. And before we get into the adventures, I would love for you both to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about how you met on this Zambia mission.

Ellie and Sandy: I’m Ellie Hamby and I direct and still direct at 85, the Zambia Medical Mission that’s been going on for 30 years. And I’m also a photographer that I do several exhibitions about my photography. And Sandy? And I’m Sandy Hazlep. I was a physician. I actually retired at the end of last August at the age of 84 at that time. And I went on the medical mission trip to Zambia every other year for basically 20 years and took a grandchild and had a wonderful time.

Mar: And what motivated you to start this mission?

Ellie and Sandy: Well actually my husband and I moved there in nineteen eighty and were there for about six years. There’s a mission there and I wasn’t a hospital it was just schools and then it became really this need for medical care. And we started the medical mission, just a small group. I think we had 11 people and saw 500 patients. And now we have a team of about 200, mostly Zambian volunteers, and then we see over 1,500 to 2,000 patients a day out in the bush. So It’s been going on for thirty years and there’s just a real need there. And it’s great because that’s how Sandy and I met. Our friendship has developed because we met under a very difficult situation. It wasn’t like you were in a cafe or somewhere. We met out in the bush in Africa sleeping in tents and no toilets and no flush toilets, just a pit latrine. So I think that was kind of a great way to start because we knew then we both could handle things.

Mar: Yes, that was a very good start, right? You kind of started in probably some of the most challenging ways to travel. And then from then onwards everything would be easier, right?

Ellie and Sandy: Yes, that’s true.

Mar: And then you also went on a very big adventure across Russia. That was probably, I think, one of your first big adventures, right? On the Trans-Siberian Railway. And you started, you know, like on budget travel, like the locals, the same carriages as the locals, right? This was not like some luxury trip. You actually took the regular trains. 

I want to hear, I know you’ve probably told this story a few times. But there’s something involving a pajama man and some KGB agents.

Ellie and Sandy: Absolutely.

Mar: So what happened?

Ellie and Sandy: All, first let me tell you how that story started. I had always heard Ellie talk about the trips that she and her husband took besides the mission trip that were trips they took that were on a budget. Well, laughingly for people, my husband’s idea of roughing it was staying at the Holiday Inn instead of the Hilton Hotel. 

So I was very intrigued with Ellie’s form of travel. So one evening I just mentioned to her, Ellie, I have always wanted to ride the Trans-Siberian train. Is that something you would be willing to do? Well, she said, Well, yes. And so we made that plan to ride. We didn’t ride it all the way to the end of the Trans-Siberian, which is Vladivostok. We rode the Trans Siberian and then the Trans-Mongolian. To Beijing.

Wow. What an experience.

Mar: Wow, so you started in Beijing, you did Ulaanbaatar and then you ended in Beijing.

Ellie and Sandy: Yes. But we did second class, not a tourist train. I think there is somewhat of a tourist train for Trans-Siberian, but we did it second class. We both knew a person in Russia, a Nigerian, who was a travel agent and we asked him to book our tickets since they’re local and much easier and all that. 

So we started off on the train and it was just crowded with people, and we just had a blast. We started in Moscow. That’s where we got on the train in Moscow. And then we’re going through Siberia. And then we would stop at Lake Baikal for about three days. And then we got back on the train, and this time there was nobody in our car. There’s no one except us. We didn’t think so. And then pretty soon they came by asking for passports. Well actually when we got to our first stop, we were entering Mongolia and we never saw a sign of anyone. And they asked for passports and then we gave them our passports and then they asked again down the hall. And we think, my goodness, there’s somebody here. And so, okay, I being more inquisitive than Sandy, I decided to walk down the hall and see who was there. Well, the door was open. This guy was in his pajamas. He looked like a Russian man. And he wasn’t friendly whatsoever. He was kind of in bed, but it was late morning. And I just came back and said to Sandy, well, there was a guy down there, pajama man. He wasn’t friendly, so I wouldn’t know anything about him other than pajama man. And then what happened then about fifteen minutes later the officials on the train the KGB basically started taking down ceiling tiles by pajama man’s compartment. And then they are ruffling through everything of pajama man’s and then what did they do with the well yeah and they you know that you could tell there was a lot of noise and confusion going on. Well Pajama Man goes out and handcuffs. So anyway, we’re wondering, wow, this is strange. You know, I don’t know what this guy did. 

And then pretty soon here they come to our compartment and they start doing the same thing as they did for Pajama Man. And Sandy and I thinking, my gosh. We know we don’t have anything that’s illegal, but maybe somebody stuffs something in our compartment, ceiling tiles, all luggage, under the mattresses and all that. Did they find anything sandy? Fortunately, no. No, they didn’t find anything. So they leave and we’re thinking, okay, everything’s great. Now we’re, you know, it’s just going into a few hours. And then pretty soon this big old burly KGB woman and it was snowing outside. It was you know, she had the big, big fur coat on and all that sort of thing. And what did she say to us? You are the only witnesses to the crime. And we said, what crime? And she says, we found, I don’t remember the English word, it goes in a gun. And I said, a bullet? DA! A big bullet.

Mar: oh my god.

Ellie and Sandy: And then she said, since we are the only witnesses to the crime, we have no clue yet what it was. Now you reflect back. It was probably murder on the Trans-Siberia, she said, so you must testify. And they wanted all of our information, our email, our phone number, everything. And so they told us she would have to come back to testify. Well, that was ten, fifteen years ago. They haven’t called yet. So that was our pajama man story. 

So while we’re sitting there waiting, Ellie is sending text messages to her children and to my children about what we’re going through and that we are being investigated by the KGB. And if you don’t hear from us within the next few weeks, we’re probably in a trans Siberian prison. A Siberian prison chopping rock.

Mar: You’re in a gulag.

Ellie and Sandy: My kids didn’t get so concerned about it. I think they realize it was probably a joke, sorta. But it’s based on facts. Sandy’s son was ready to call Interpol. I mean he was and then we didn’t have internet access when we left there for two days. So nobody had we were out lost somewhere. 

But one of the things I think that was kind of the defining moment in our travel friendship because neither one of us were wringing our hands crying or anything. We just figured it’s we knew we hadn’t we didn’t do anything wrong. And we just figured it’s all gonna work out because that’s Shirley. That’s certainly our attitude. It’s gonna work out. It may not work out the way you planned, but it’s gonna work out. It was it was actually fun to travel with each other because we weren’t, I mean, you are stressed, you know, naturally, but we weren’t making a big scene about all of that. In fact, we even fell asleep part of the time because they were waiting the very end after eight hours of delay because of the crime. They bring back our passports finally and the minute they bring back our passports, he hands us to us, and then he gets off the train and it takes off. So we knew.

Mar: Like a movie.

Ellie and Sandy: But we survived it and it’s a great story. And we have no clue what crime Pajama Man committed and what his punishment was or anything. And as they call us now we can use the excuse we’re too old we don’t remember.

Mar: And somewhere in Siberian there is a judge trying to look for some witnesses to some crime that happened fifteen years ago and not knowing how to find you.

Ellie and Sandy: Yeah, there you go.

Mar: So this is definitely a defining moment, like you say, but was that the reason why I believe Sandy, you were the one who asked Ellie, wouldn’t it be fun to go around the world in eighty days at eighty?

Ellie and Sandy: Yes, she was. Yes. I did. I just thought that would be such a fun thing to do. go around the world in eighty days at age eighty. And so Ellie jumped on the bandwagon and of course she’s the miss organizer of everything. And so she had every hotel reservation made, every airline reservation made, and COVID shut it down that year. But COVID didn’t shut us down. No, it didn’t. And so we made the trip the following year and our theme was around the world in eighty days at eighty one and still on the run.

Mar: Love this. So the organizer, who is the organizer of the two of you?

Ellie and Sandy: Well, we’re kind of a team, okay. We both have our strengths and weaknesses. I love booking hotels, airline tickets, the excursions, and then Sandy loves: I organize the itinerary. Yeah. And there is a page that says the day, the name of the hotel where we’re, the city and country where we’re staying, the name of the hotel, how many days we’re gonna stay there, what we’re gonna do that day. 

So when you wake up in the morning and look at the calendar, you know you know the day. So that has really been fun because if we don’t have something planned, it’s noted on there, hey, you need or a few days before we kind of write, hey, you need to get a place booked to do such and such and whatever. So yeah, that’s kind of like we’re just kind of like jigsaw puzzle pieces and our method just works well together. 

But we do, we do our journey on my kitchen table because Sandy, how we really got we met in Zambia, but we became really good friends after my husband died, because Sandy’s had died about five years previous to that, and my husband died. And Sandy called me about a month or so afterwards. We’d talked before them, and said something. Ellie, have I got a deal for you? That was on the phone. You know, I lost my husband unexpectedly. He died in an accident. And of course I said, what? And she said, Well, the local hospital here, because we don’t live in the same city. We live about 60 miles apart. 

But the local hospital in Abilene, where I live, has opened up a new geriatric clinic and they want me to be the medical director. And she says, I’m accepting the job, but I don’t want to move to Abilene. I love my home in Eastland, but I need a bed two nights a week. And if you give me a bed, I’ll take you out to eat. That was it. Then I said yes, which we always have this motto, we say yes. Just say yes.

Mar: Say yes to anything.

Ellie and Sandy: So it was then Late nights, we both drink lots of coffee, we’re both workaholics, and it was during all that time that we realized while we’re two very different personalities, we actually have very similar outlooks on life. We’re super positive. We got this. We just really think we got this, and we love people and we believe in the goodness of people.

Mar: Yes, and I think that you’ve said a lot of things that are like your philosophy when you travel, right? The fact that you always say yes, that you have a very positive outlook on life, and that you believe that people are genuinely kind. I think these are great principles to travel. I very much share your philosophy because things do always work out at some point and stressing over it is not gonna change the situation.

It’s better to look at it and always think positive because you know the negative is already out there somewhere, right? You have to be positive. But have you had moments that or I’m sure you have many moments of like people helping you out and like a smile taking you somewhere that you didn’t think. What are some of these moments that you remember the most?

Ellie and Sandy: Tell them about Ziga. This was one of our around the world trips. This was really a very interesting moment. 

Yes, we were on our around the world trip and we were in Japan at the huge train station. Shinjuku. And we wanted to go to Mount Fuji. But everything was written in Japanese. There was nothing in English. Well, we’re wearing our t-shirts, and this young man comes up to us and says, I know you. Yeah, we looked and said, what? You know us? And he said, I’m Ziga from Slovenia And I read about you last week in the London Daily Mail. And here we are in Shinjuku Train Rail Station in Tokyo. And it looks like you’re having a problem. We said, yes, we are. And we said, we’re trying to get a ticket to Mount Fuji. And Ziga said, “You know, what I had to do today was not that important. So I’m going to stop and help you ladies get your tickets to Mount Fuji”. And Ziga did. We got to Mount Fuji and he was probably in his early 30s or late twenties. Just a young man, which we find seemed to be more interested in reading and seeing things we do that older people do. So that was just a great encounter.

Mar: Yeah, you need to make a local friend who’s gonna help you, you came to Europe on your book trip recently, you met Ziga or you were looking for Ziga? Did you meet him again?

Ellie and Sandy: We bet we went to Slovenia to his hometown. He thought he was going to be able to be there, but he was out of the country on a business trip. But we got to meet his mother and his sister and had a wonderful time with them. It was just great. Yeah. 

We first had been interviewed by a Slovenian radio station while we were doing our travels. They knew nothing of Ziga. We found out that’s actually his pronunciation of his name, but then they covered us twice and then she was saying, are you when are you going to come to Slovenia so when we decided that we were going to go to Slovenia hopefully to be able to see Ziga. And so they ran a thing on social media in Slovenia and within one day, a person contacted them and said, I know his mother, and here’s her phone number. So she called the mother. She said, Yes, I’m Ziga’s mother. Yes, I know. He told me about the two ladies that he helped.

But he’s out of the country right now. So anyway, it was really cute. We made a big hit in Slovenia on all their news media looking for Ziga. yeah it was a great story. Great time.

Mar: Wow, I didn’t realize that you actually didn’t know how to find him, that you ran a social media, you know, post or somebody helped you find him on social media. I thought you knew where he was.

Ellie and Sandy: No, we had no clue. And we just knew Ziga and we had a photo of him and that was all we knew. And of course when we said, how did you get this out? Well, of course they were the number one radio station, had social media, and they just put it out and they said then Slovenia is a small country. So no, one day Ziga was found.

And they talked to him. And at that time he thought he was going to be able to be there. But it didn’t work out. So we still had a great time meeting his mother. It was just really, really fun. And we could see why Ziga was so nice to us because they were truly very, very nice and friendly to us.

Mar: I love this story. I love the happy ending. I love the family. And I can see talking to you and from other episodes and podcasts from you that I’ve watched that you always finish each other’s sentences. How and you know, like so many you’re like the best marriage that there is, right? You finish each other’s sentences, you’re great travel partners. You know, most of our audience is women who travel solo, but we also many of them travel solo because they haven’t found the right travel partner to go with and they just don’t want to wait on others. Many of them love to travel on their own. What do you think makes you great travel partners and what do you think makes a great travel partner?

Ellie and Sandy: Well, one of the things for me that makes a great travel partner, as you heard earlier, Ellie is one of the directors forever for the Zambia Medical Mission. And she organizes everything to the hilt. It is wonderful. I mean, I’m a physician and to get out in the bush and have everything, all the medications and all the supplies so well organized, I was just in awe. Why wouldn’t I want to make a best friend and a travel friend with someone who can organize everything? 

But I think one of the things too is that it’s really big. We have to give each other space. You know, just because I want to do something doesn’t mean Sandy has to do it. And so we have, because I’m a little bit more adventuresome. And I know Sandy’s not gonna go zip lining in New Zealand. And she is fine with that. She will drink her cup of coffee back wherever. 

So we’re not like, you don’t wanna do this and I’m not gonna do it. If someone wants to do it and does and the other one doesn’t, you can do it on your own. It’s perfectly fine. And so we’ve really I think giving each other space and respecting each other. 

The term I use, we are both adults and we treat each other as adults. And we both have our silly little quirks, travel things that we do. We pack differently, but it just really does fit together. And really seriously, we have not had a serious argument ever. 

Mar: Okay. Are there things that you tease each other about?

Ellie and Sandy: Tease, yes. I tease about when you travel with a photographer, you have to be at the right place at sunrise to get the right light for the right picture. And you have to be at the right place at sundown to get the right lights for the right picture. And Ellie gets the right picture every time.

Mar: That’s amazing because then you get that picture too.

Ellie and Sandy: And actually Sandy, when we get to a room, I can just tell you Sandy likes a certain bed and she likes things, she likes a closet, or she’s a more organized luggage packer than I am. And so that’s fine with me. I can stick my luggage on the ground. I like it that way. We’re not arguing over who gets the space and who doesn’t. So you have to kind of adjust to what works for you. But it’s worked for us. It’s worked for us.

Mar: Works like in a marriage, right? Same thing as in a marriage. So like you don’t have to do the same things as your husband or your wife does, right? And I also heard that between the two of you, you have four artificial knees. But I see in all of your adventures on social media, like mountains, hiking, volcanoes, long train journeys, very full travel days. I mean, how do you manage all these active trips comfortably and safely?

Ellie and Sandy: Because we had our knees replaced. We were both kind of crippled until we first had the first knee done. And we are both very determined. You give us a project and so like when unbeknownst to each of us when we first had our I didn’t know Sandy when I had my first knee replaced and really both of us were just keen on physical therapy, just doing everything we could to make sure that we had a successful outcome and it it was great and it’s literally mine I’m on 24 years on my knees and there’s not one problem whatsoever. 

And when people say well I can’t travel because you know I have a knee problem or this hip problem and we tell them, look, they have a fix for that. You can get those replaced. And if you do your physical therapy right, the world’s wide open for you. Perfect.

Mar: Is there anything you say no to?

Ellie and Sandy: Well yes, we have to say no to skydiving. My orthopedic surgeon told me that he will never let me skydive with my knees. Well, I didn’t ask mine, so I think I can, but the opportunity hasn’t come up yet. So there are some things that we know, that you have to say no to. And we’re not, we are 85. We’re not going and we do climb mountains. but we have realized that we like to do it independently with our own guide so we can go at our own pace because we can’t keep up with 40 year olds and we don’t want to keep the group down. That’s why we love independent travel, because we can do it our way and in the end it may take us twice as long, but we get there.

Mar: Yeah, and that’s what matters in the end, right? And I also know that you are pretty good packers because you were on the same trip in Antarctica, Egypt and Bali, all on the same eighty days around the world trip. So what is your secret to packing light?

Ellie and Sandy: Don’t take very much. We never take many changes of clothes. Now that one was tough because we had to take jackets. We tried to take jackets that we could roll up and we layered. And when we got to the hotter climates, we bought some cooler clothes. Cause you can always do that rather than taking and we just like had hiking pair of shoes and another pair of shoes and on the plane we always wore our hiking shoes because they weighed more and so we didn’t want to take up weight in our luggage and you know we also just carried our coats on the plane so it didn’t take up space in the luggage. 

Yes and then just put it behind you and back on the plane with it. It was amazing why you know even when we got to Tasmania it was kind of cool because it was raining and all that and we were thinking so glad we have our jackets, you know, our coats with us. But yeah, it wasn’t easy, but it was definitely doable. I think we still take too much, but we always try to go as fewer changes and nobody really cares particularly when we wear t-shirts and you can wear a t- shirt several days in a row. And you know if we’re gonna stay in the same hotel for two nights. The first night we get there, we wash our clothes and hang them up and they get and they’re dry by the time it’s time to leave. So it works great.

Mar: And you’re always wearing your t-shirts, right? Like for the people who are in the podcast, they cannot see your t-shirts, but you have t-shirts with your motto on them and your pictures on them as well, right?

Ellie and Sandy: Yes, that’s true. We were just interviewed by someone saying, please, please have those t-shirts for sale. Well, and we’ve had so many young guys, and we’re thinking, they said, Is that t-shirt for sale? And we’re thinking, Do you really want a t- shirt with two old women on the front? And they said, in a heartbeat. So yeah, we don’t always wear them, but sometimes and actually when we wear them, we’re recognized a lot. If we don’t wear it we’re not recognized as much. just because, that gives them a clue. Oh my goodness, I follow you and things.

Mar: Whose idea was it?

Ellie and Sandy: Sandy’s idea. And I said no.

Mar: You said no.

Ellie and Sandy: I said, Ellie, we need to get matching t-shirts. That shows that we’re going around the world and wearing that on our trip. And I said, absolutely not. I don’t do matchy matchy. Then I don’t know, Sandy was just adamant about it. We kind of know whenever you really strongly believe in something and that’s the right thing. She said, Ellie, we really, we really must do that. And so I thought, okay, I’ll agree to it reluctantly, but I’ll agree to it. And it was one of the best things we ever did. So we didn’t agree at the beginning. But we didn’t mess up our friendship over it either. 

Mar: Well, this has become your signature. So definitely people recognize you because of the t-shirts. And of course when you see the t-shirts, then you see it’s you. What does the one you’re wearing right now say?

Ellie and Sandy: Around the world in eighty days. And on the back, so what does it say, Sandy? at age eighty-one and still on the run. And each trip we have a new t-shirt, you know, like a European adventure around the world, and we’re 84 and we have all of our slogans on the back for each trip. So and the slogans have I don’t know how that one happened just one night over coffee late nights. We just came up with a saying. And it just stuck. And then we just always do our travel sayings, little signs.

Mar: So what was with eighty two? So we have around the world at eighty, around the world at eighty one. Eighty one and still on the run. What happens with eighty two?

Ellie and Sandy: Right. And then at 82, we are 82 and we’re not through. And then at 83, we are 83 with more to see. And eighty-four. We are eighty-four and we want more.

Mar: Is there one four eighty five?

Ellie and Sandy: Well, there really isn’t and there is. Right now we’re saying it’s kind of like a joke, but we are 85 and still alive. But we are going to make one that’s not quite so jokey kind of thing. But we generally ask our followers and things for suggestions. And since I just turned 85 a few days ago, we really couldn’t do anything. Until Sandy’s I turned eighty five in April. Yes, so she’s three months older than I am. It’s really been amazing that we’re almost the same, exactly the same age. 

Mar: So you have five more months to come up with the 85 motto.

Ellie and Sandy: Yes, we’re looking for suggestions. 

Mar: Okay. We’ll ask the audience who are listening to see if they put something in the comments on Spotify or on YouTube to see if you had new ideas for your eighty five. 

This year you took a trip to Europe, right? This was this year’s main trip. Are you going somewhere else for the rest of the year?

Ellie and Sandy: Next we’re now going to one continent at a time. And so we’re going to Asia, but we’re just going specifically to Southeast Asia. Because we’ve been to a lot of countries in Asia. We actually got out our globe and we said, Okay, where are the countries? And we’re looking at it, right, Sandy? Philippines. We haven’t been there. Right. Laos, we haven’t been there. And then it got to Bhutan and we hadn’t been there. And of course people kind of like local travel companies in Bhutan that are already contacting us and saying, Hey, let me help you do this or that or whatever. And then the other one was I think East Timor. 

Some of these countries you know are very obscure, but they’re great. We want them on our bucket list because it’s just great to experience countries. Particularly that where a lot of tourists don’t go. 

Mar: Yes, absolutely.

Ellie and Sandy: And we make these trips in like February, March, April, somewhere in there. Okay. So we’ll be doing that after the first of the year. After the first of the year.

Mar: Okay. So Southeast Asia would be next year’s big trip.

Ellie and Sandy: Yes.

Mar: Perfect. So you say yes to pretty much everything except for you saying no to the t-shirts, which ended up being a great choice. And you definitely need to have merchandising and sell the t-shirts because I’m sure lots of people are gonna want to buy them. But so is there anything you said yes to and then immediately regretted it? Or what are some of the questionable things that you have said yes to and then thought like, my god, what did we get ourselves into?

Ellie and Sandy: Yes, there were a couple of things. One of them was in Syria and we both were going to the desert in Palmyra, the Syrian desert, and we were taking public buses, no less in Syria, which were great, very reasonable and fun. And very nice too, weren’t they, Sandy? Yes, they were. And so we’re leaving Damascus to go to Palmyra. And our bus stops out in the middle of nowhere. And there’s a sign that says Baghdad, straight ahead. And this was back in 2011. And literally I thought, my goodness, we have made a bad decision. We’re headed to Baghdad but look, we can’t get off this bus. We’re out in the middle of Syria in a desert, there’s no place to go or whatever. And really that was a moment I think I was even though I’m not as fearful. Sandy’s a more fearful person generally of like trying adventures. But I mean, that one just really, but we had no option, so we couldn’t stop it when we realized, my goodness, what did we get ourselves into? But there’s no getting out of it. And of course it was a phenomenal experience. But we did have that moment of, my goodness, what did we get ourselves into?

Mar: But you ended in Baghdad? No, you did not.

Ellie and Sandy: No, no. We it actually Baghdad, if we’d continued on the road, we’d gone to Baghdad. But our bus had a different route. And so we stopped in Palmyra and we slept out in a Bedouin tent, because we’d read about it in a book or an article, I think it was. If you want to sleep in a Bedouin tent in Syria, non touristy. contact Muhammad and we did. We emailed Muhammad and he became our no problem Muhammad. 

And so we stayed in his hotel and he made arrangements for us to ride camels for three hours in the desert. Just a Saturday night a little Bedouin boy that didn’t speak any English. And we were ninety five kilometers from Iraq. So we were close to getting into some bad places. But there was always the sign out there, Baghdad straight ahead. But we never quit, we weren’t going to, but it was always like looming there. Like, what are you guys thinking?

Mar: But didn’t the situation also deteriorate while you were in Syria? Wasn’t that the time when the war in Syria started?

Ellie and Sandy: Yes. Absolutely. But we were there two hours after we left Damascus was when the first skirmish really happened in Damascus in the old city. And then we’re totally oblivious. We’re on a bus going to Palmer and we spend the first night in a bedouin tent. We had no idea what was happening in the rest of Syria until that next morning. 

And we get back to Palmyra and we go to an internet cafe and someone sent us the post from the New York Times an article about what just broke out and that people were being killed and things. Yeah. But you know, we’re optimists. We thought, we’re in the desert. That’s probably just a little kind of one and done thing. But then after about two days we realized, oh my goodness. This thing is escalating and we gotta figure out a way to get out of here. And that’s where there was no problem when Muhammad stepped in and helped us. We trusted, we put our whole lives completely in his hands. But he was great. He was great. We found so many of the Bedouin people too are just so friendly and helpful. Very.

Mar: And no problem, Mohammed. Have you been in touch with him afterwards?

Ellie and Sandy: No, we tried, but the war started and we lost contact we had no way to contact we tried to, but there was no response because everything just kind of fell apart there. What happened, we said we told him, well, Muhammad, we really need to get out of Syria. We were flying out and we needed to go to Jordan to Amman. There were a lot of beautiful fabrics and other things when we were at Palmyra. They were very very cheap because there’s no tourist much there and so we’d spent most of our cash, most of our all of our Syrian money. Yeah our dollars too and so then we said Muhammad we need to get more money you know, to get where’s an ATM machine. And what did he say? No ATM machines in Palmyra. And then we said, okay, credit card. And what did he say? No credit cards in Palmyra. And we said, Muhammad, we got a problem. We haven’t even paid you for our stay here. And we got to figure out how to get out of this country. That’s now at war and cities are burning. 

And that’s whenever he told us Well, I tell you what, this is what I suggest. The next morning, you get up very early with the driver in a car, and they’re gonna drive you the five hours to Damascus, to the old square where people are being killed every day. And there’s an ATM machine there. But you get there early. Before the before the shooting starts. Yeah. And so we go, okay, we have no choice but to totally trust Muhammad on this one because we’re out in the desert with no way to get anywhere. And so we pull up and it’s line with AK-47s. I mean, in the you know, military. And our driver tells us, probably very smart, stay in the car and let me talk to them. And we have found that out. You know, Americans have a tendency to talk too much. So we, you know, it’s best for somebody else’s. Sometimes we have a tendency to answer questions that weren’t asked. So anyway, and then after about 10 minutes, the guard had a smile on his face, two of them, and they were standing right there. And they laid down their AK 47s and motioned for us to come. 

So Sandy and I ran through them, right? Got out and went up there and got money out of the ATMs. And so great. We were able to then pay. Muhammad’s driver for all the money we owed him. And then Muhammad said, there’s now to get you out of the country, there’s going to be a white unmarked car on the side of the road with a person, a man standing beside the open door. When you see that scenario, you just get in that vehicle. And what happened? We did. We did. We saw that scenario and we got in the vehicle and at the border he never got out of the vehicle. He said, give me your passports and I will take care of getting you out of Syria and into Jordan. That’s what we did.

Mar: What a story, what a story. No problem, Mohammed, getting you out of the country. It’s like a James Bond movie. When you hear when you see an unmarked car getting it and hopefully you’re getting in the right one. Hopefully there’s not anybody else in an unmarked white car at the same time in the same place.

Ellie and Sandy: Yeah, that was pretty definite and we really did see it and there it was parked on the street, a nice man who spoke very little English, but anyway, we got in the car and it worked.

Mar: Fantastic. And so Ellie, you’re the one that does all the organization of all the trips, right? All the planning, all the booking. What tools do you use? What booking systems? How do you book your flights? What is your toolkit for booking things?

Ellie and Sandy: Actually, hotels and things we basically almost always use booking.com right now. We’re looking into TikTok, and that’s something kind of new out an app out there. But we use big booking.com for most of the things because you can do your hotels and that’s the key to really our success. Because whenever we look, the first thing we put in is location. You’ve got to have been in the right location. I don’t you can’t be out in what we say Timbuktu right, Sandy? You know, whenever you want to see what’s down in downtown the city. So we first do location and then we do ratings. Ratings are huge to us. I mean absolutely. Basically an eight or above. 

If it’s below that it gets sketchy unless there’s just a special reason you already know that this was a good place. And then after that we look at the price. And we don’t choose the cheapest one by any means. We chose the one that looks like it would be interesting and a great location and that has worked really, really well. So that’s our main thing and then about activities, what do we generally do on that one? Well we generally, since we’re staying at local hotels, local inns, then we ask the innkeeper, do you know of a driver with a car? Yeah. That’s our favorite. That would pick us up at your hotel each morning while we stay here and take us to the places in your city that we need to see. It has been phenomenal the way that works out. Those drivers want those hotels to recommend more people. So those drivers treat us with the utmost respect and take us to the best places. And on flights, we try to use travel miles as much as we possibly can, because that’s a huge savings.

Mar: So are you playing the credit card game though? How do you get the miles?

Ellie and Sandy: By traveling and we do a lot of speaking anymore, and we’re being flown to different cities and places, which we get a lot of travel miles. But the credit card is the main thing. We actually this year on the booking dot com app you can do your booking on flights and that worked really well for us. We got some really, really good prices. They’re a little different, generally you have to pay for luggage and all that kind of thing. But that’s what we’ve used or we just go a lot of times we just go to the airline itself and book through them because they have a more relaxed and not as tight of cancellation policy and all that as some of them, and we do our own booking.

Mar: And I also heard that you have a budget, right? you managed to do your around the world at eighty for twenty nine dollars each?

Ellie and Sandy: That’s right. Twenty nine dollars a piece per night was our average. And that usually included breakfast the next morning. 

Now it doesn’t happen in all countries. Like when we went to Europe, we knew there was no way you were going to travel around Europe ’cause it’s more expensive. But we still do it on a budget and stayed in some super great places. We have yet to be disappointed. Absolutely.

Mar: So you first choose a location, you then narrow down the reviews, ratings above eight, and then you look at the prices.

Ellie and Sandy: Yes. And not necessarily we do get the cheapest. We just seem to find the one that seems to fit us and just really looks interesting. And we’re reading the reviews. Reading the reviews is huge.

Mar: Yeah, you can find out lots of things that people say. And then I also know that you have become quite TV personalities and social media, famous people. And I’ve read in previous interviews that you have somebody who helped you with your TikToks when you were doing your long trip, that somebody you were sending her the content and she was creating the TikTok and Instagram posts for you. How do you manage this right now? Do you do it yourself? Like, it takes a lot of time to create all this content and to post it. And you have so much activity on your Instagram and your TikTok. Who is taking care of this?

Ellie and Sandy: Right. Well, we do mostly Instagram, but we had a friend who was helping us. We basically would send photos of the day that evening. We would always send photos and write something and about three weeks before our round the world trip, we weren’t actually doing that many videos, just a few. And it was her daughter who said, you’re doing these videos for them, you should put it on TikTok. And so we said, Okay. And I think it was about our sixth or seventh video that we posted, had six point four million views, and that kind of changed. 

But when we travel, we do a lot of our own posting. But the videos that take more time, go in and cut and you know do all of that than it does to have the photos. So we generally send more videos and we do more of the photo posting. So now we just have a young girl from the local university here doing an internship with us. We don’t have any full time social media. It would be nice, but we do most of everything ourselves, like podcasts and things. That just all comes through us.

Mar: This is amazing. And what was that six point four million views TikTok video about?

Ellie and Sandy: It was Tim McGraw. I don’t know if you know the country Western Singer in the United States. He’s very popular. And he basically had a song, Live Like You Were Dying. I don’t know if that’s the actual name of it, but that was kind of live your life like you’re dying, that you got to do these things before you die. 

And we just had all the videos of us riding camels, hot air balloons. husky sleigh ride it was all these really fun things that we had been doing on our around the world trip and just matched the song beautiful beautifully and it just clicked then we recently have one of our latest videos on TikTok has 14.6 million views that one really kicked its way up there and it was all about friendship, and that’s my why it was kind of a trending theme on on TikTok. And it was just about the two of us doing all these traveling to all these countries as best friends. 

And we just had one short video that I had filmed because we do all our own videos. So we don’t have anybody traveling with us. People still accuse us of having someone traveling with us. You guys aren’t doing that. I said, Yes, we are. We have a tripod for my iPhone. It’s it’s extendable, and then we have our little remote, and so we set that up on our latest big video. We’re in Skopje, Macedonia, and there’s a beautiful kind of boat, kind of bridge. And I looking at Sandy, we got to do a video here walking down this bridge because the background was gorgeous, beautiful buildings. 

And so people are probably looking at it like, these two old women, what are they doing? Videoing themselves. But anyway, I set it up about 15, probably about 10 meters in front of us or so, and then we just started walking and just kind of b roll. And so that was the one that was used on that. But we have found the thing that resonates with our viewers is friendship because that video has me talking, and Sandy’s my best friend, and people were saying, want a friend like Sandy. And they were tagging their besties and things like that. And just the fact that we’re independent, basically two travelers, not solo, but we’re just two doing our own thing, really resonates with people.

Mar: Yeah, finding your best travel buddy that you want to share everything with. It’s almost like, you know, there’s all these memes and all these reels on social media of like, you don’t need a husband, what you need is like a best friend, you know? And so your friendship definitely looks like something beautiful. I’m lucky that I have a business partner who is also my best friend and we get along very well and that’s just priceless, right?

Ellie and Sandy: We realize that what our travels have done was make us really appreciate our friendship. Cause we took it basically for granted. We didn’t even think about it. But then when people started noticing, you know, the friendship angle and things that were like, wow, we really do have something that not everyone has. And you don’t have to work at it, you just have to be relaxed and kind of go with the flow of each other, and respect each other.

Mar: Yeah, and be mindful, be respectful. Give yourself space. Know that you don’t have to do everything. Understand each other’s quirks, laugh at them.

Ellie and Sandy: That you do something just because you want to do it, or else if you really want to do it, then it’s your job to convince the other one And most of the time we’re successful with that one. But again, just never know. Like the t-shirts. Sandy was determined that I was going to say yes to that. And finally I did.

Mar: my God, I love it. I could talk to you forever. You have so many stories. Like I’d love to listen to your stories forever. I wish we could be in person right now. But I would love to wrap up this conversation with you talking directly to the camera, each of you separately if you want, to the woman listening to this podcast, who maybe thinks that she’s too old for whatever she wants to do or too afraid to start, or thinks that it’s too late to begin something new, whatever that new thing may be. And what would you like her to know?

Ellie and Sandy: Well, actually, we just want people to realize that no matter your age, adventure has no age limit. Just because we’re 85 doesn’t mean that we don’t do things, we want to see things, we want to meet people. And the only way you’re gonna do that is to do what, Sandy? Get up out of your easy chair, step out of your comfort zone, make a list of things to do. And live.

Mar: I love that. I really love that.

Ellie and Sandy: We also tell people you don’t have to go around the world in 80 days or whatever. You don’t have to take a trip. You just need to take the first step to getting out and doing something, even locally in your city. Just get out of your house and meet people and see the sites around you. And one step is going to lead to a bigger step, and you never know what your future is holding for you, and the people that are going to cross your path. And the beautiful things you’re going to see.

Mar: I love that. And you have your books nearby. Can you tell people where they can find your book? And for those who are watching on YouTube they can see it. That there’s a picture of you on a swing in Bali, right?

Ellie and Sandy: That was a defining moment in our friendship and the picture on the swing is also a just say yes moment. We weren’t going to this swing. We were headed somewhere else, right? We were going to see a volcano up on a mountain in Bali. And there was a sign that said happy swing. Ellie said, What’s a happy swing? And our driver said, Well, let’s turn around and find out. Do you want to? And we said, yes. 

So then all of a sudden, plans changed in a moment. And then we were on this swing high above, 150 feet or so above the rice paddies below. And that was kind of a defining moment. But yes, our book is Here We Go Lessons for Living Fearlessly from Two Traveling Nanas. It’s published by the Viking imprint with Penguin Random House. An agent contacted us, Penguin Random House contacted us and said, the world needs its voice. So really, it’s not a travel book, but it’s a really living life to the fullest. And traveling is the way that we have done most of it. I mean, that’s been our greatest joy in our humanitarian service. So it really is. It’s a fun book. All our stories are in there, many that we obviously just talked about a few today, the easiest one is Amazon and it’s on there and the audio book. 

We did the recording ourselves, that was quite a thing when they asked us that we really think the book should be recorded in our own voices. We were eighty-three and we’re recording this book. But we did. We did. And then it’s on Kindle, and then it’s also a large print. And of course it’s Penguin Random House. All of the major bookstores have it or will order it. So it’s easily available. 

Also in answer to your question about encouraging older people. Robert Browning made a beautiful statement when he wrote “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be the last of life for which the first was made.”

Mar: Beautiful. Definitely beautiful. I love this way of ending our conversation today. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to talk to me today. It was really lovely to hear your stories in person one more time and you know, see your friendship. So beautiful.

Ellie and Sandy: Yeah, it was delightful for us. It was great to talk to you. You were so much fun.

Mar: Fantastic. Thank you. People can follow you on Adventures Around the World at eighty, And your book, Here We Go. And then we will link to all of this in the show notes so people can find you and follow you.

Ellie and Sandy: Thank you so much.

Mar: Thank you for listening to the Solo Female Travelers podcast. And you can follow the show and comment and see if you had already met Ellie and Sandy before, if you were following them, what was your favorite story? And if you have any suggestions for the motto for 85, and maybe they can get some inspiration for you. Thank you so much. I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Ellie and Sandy: Thank you.

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And it’s time for this week’s embarrassing travel story. We’ll call this one the stowaway. This one is from anonymous and here is her story. 

I was packing for a trip last minute as usual and I had done one final load of laundry the night before. I knew it was bringing all the items I washed so I just dumped everything directly from the dryer into my suitcase. I finished packing, got my coffee and took the shuttle to the airport. I went through security, got some breakfast, walked to my gate to read. Got a bit chilly so I busted out my sweater from my carry-on bag. It was finally time to board so I ran to the bathroom and got in line to board. I got on the plane with no issues, found my seat, put my carry-on away and just as I was about to sit down in my seat, the flight attendant tapped me on the shoulder and said, I’m sorry but I think you have some underwear on your back. I said, surely not, so she kind of hesitated and pointed to my back again, I assume because she didn’t want to touch it with her bare hands. 

Turns out I did have a pair of underwear stuck to the back of my sweater. I assumed that it probably got stuck there from the dryer and I didn’t notice when I packed my carry-on and put on my sweater when I got cold. At least I only walked to the bathroom and stood in the boarding line before someone finally told me. I grabbed the underwear and shoved them into the nearest pocket, thanked the flight attendant, and then spent most of the rest of the flight wondering how many people had noticed but decided not to tell me. 

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Miss Anonymous. If you have an embarrassing travel story of your own, we’d love to hear it. You can submit yours on our website at www.solofemaletravelers.club.