Smashing the stereotype that marriage has to bring staticness, stability and stagnation, this traveling couple, Bassi and Amr Hamid, share with us their experiences of roaming the world and explain how having a spouse can actually make traveling better!
Photographers Bassi and Amr, met through their photography before discovering their shared love of traveling. Now, more than a year after marriage and many trips later, they run a website and youtube channel offering people practical travel advice and recommendations.
Bassi tells us, “when people get married, there is this expectation that because you have responsibilities that feel heavier and you have to always take into account someone else, traveling becomes impossible.” This expectation often leaves couples feeling that traveling is really only for single people. But Bassi and Amr demonstrate this isn’t the case! “The only difference between us and other couples is a question of priorities. If you are willing to put travel as a top priority then you make it happen. If you aren’t willing to do this, you’ll always end up putting it off.”
Traveling hasn’t just been a cherry on top of their relationship, for Bassi and Amr the intensity of traveling together has formed the foundations of their marriage. “Traveling really brings you closer together and helps you get to know someone quickly. For example if you need a year to know someone well, in a month trip you get to know someone way more because of the variety of the situations that you face.” In fact, Bassi admits that now when traveling solo she misses having her husband as her travel buddy.
Bassi offered some advice for any couples considering going traveling together, “The most important thing is to give each other space. You can’t be with someone 24/7. On some days we decide I’ll do something and he’ll do something else and we’ll meet back at 4pm. We give each other breathing space. The second thing is, you have to plan before you travel the smallest of details like the time you get up and the time you go to sleep. Because if you don’t agree on such small things, it’s going to be really bad. He likes to stay up late and I like to get up early. Stuff like that you have to work out. You have to compromise. You can’t go for the whole ‘my way or the highway’ attitude. You have to be considerate of what the other person thinks and you have to let them take the lead from time to time.”
Although their lifestyle is unconventional, the responses from others have been hugely positive. Bassi explains, “People think that marriage can restrict them. So when they see us doing it, they see that they can do it too. It is also inspiring for single people who are traveling now and worry that once they get married they will have to stop traveling.”
If expectations of traveling as a couple are that it’s hard, traveling with children seems even more impossible, however Bassi doesn’t seem too concerned. “With children it might be difficult in the beginning, because you can’t travel frequently during the first two years. However, I have seen examples of many couples with two or three children that still travel very frequently, some continuously. So there is a way of getting around it, if we want to. I would like to think we will work towards travelling as a family. Whatever happens we want our lives centred around travel.”
So regardless of if you are married or not, if you have the wanderlust Bassi and Amr prove that you should embrace it and embark on your travels!
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