Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years
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What makes me sad sometimes is that traveling the world for a few months to a year doesn't even cross the minds of many of my fellow Americans. But doing just that is extremely common for almost any other wealthy country. The number of Americans I meet in a place can be counted on one hand; the number of English, Australians, Kiwis, Germans, etc. etc. are always huge. After some thought, I think it comes down to the fear that's being slowly baked in to our culture. People (and I mean Americans) are afraid of what happens if they don't work, of finding a new job when they come back, of insurance, of germs and war in foreign countries, of insanely improbable disaster striking, of getting lost, of running out of money, of bed bugs, of missing friends and family, of anything. Some of these are valid worries; most aren't.
Having grown up in just such a fear-based culture (and having a worrier gene run in the family), I struggle against those fears myself every day. It isn't easy. But the most important thing that traveling has taught me is this: that everything will be OK. You can be out of a job, get a terrible injury (I myself had an accident requiring surgery while in New Zealand), get lost, miss your flight, have your wallet stolen, lose your passport, or worse, and... everything will be OK. Your family will be there for you, your friends will be there for you, other travelers you've met will be there for you, the locals will be there for you. You'll find a job when you get back, and your old friends won't have forgotten you. As long as you've got the will and the spirit, everything will work out.
So get out there. See the world. It's a beautiful, fascinating, scary, wondrous place. Don't be afraid of taking a year off. Everything will be OK, and it will make you a smarter, more even-headed, tolerant, and curious person. And you'll make friends from all over the world that you can visit on your next big trip.
1. If you live in the UK and you want sunny weather or a ski trip, you'll need to go elsewhere in Europe. If you live in the US, you can probably get away with a local flight.
2. It's easier to justify and amortize the time to travel to a far-off destination for Europeans who have double the number of vacation days. South Africa is a 22-30 hour trip from the US, the number of US tourists is on the low end[3]#, while US tourists to Brazil are 2nd only to tourists from neighboring Argentina[4].
[1] http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_transport/trave... p. 90
[2] http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/view/m-2009-O-001/index.html
[3] http://www.southafrica.net/sat/action/media/downloadFile?med...
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Brazil
# Anecdotally, I notice more North American tourists in Cape Town than other nationalities, although this may have more to do with the volume of the average American voice.
New Zealand has plenty of amazing scenery and it's all within a rather small country too which makes it pretty easy to get to and see. But that doesn't stop hordes of young Kiwis heading off on their Big O.E. every year. Actually it's bit sad to meet some of the young Kiwis and find they haven't seen much of their own country before they spread their wings and head overseas.
And if one has a mortgage but no family responsibilities, then things can almost certainly be arranged to be rid of the house, or rent it out temporarily, etc. to make this kind of travel possible. But often that fear comes back: what if I sold it too low, what if I can't find another house, where will I put my belongings, what if in 30 years when I retire I wish I had kept the house, etc. etc.
Being an American who reads this board means one is probably at a certain station in society where these things are possible. Regardless of what one does or doesn't do with their life, in 30 years you'll still be alive, probably with a roof over your head, probably with enough food to eat tomorrow, probably with some sort of job, and probably with friends and family who love you. Long-term travel is just another choice, and if you choose it, things will be still be OK.
I think that the U.S., despite the existence of Social Security and Medicare, is more like China than a northern European country. We have a dog-eat-dog social structure and economy. One of the only reasons we have such a high standard of living is Brenton-Woods and it's subsequent replacement system, which heavily favors the U.S. because T-Bills are the most liquid place for the world to park their cash. So my point is: Sure, some of American's fear of extended foreign travel may be driven by unreasonable fear, but I'll bet a lot of it is driven by reasonable fear -- the fear of falling behind and not being able to catch up.
I think the truth is that taking just one year off (if it's within one's immediate means) will not set you back in the 30+ years you have left to you. One can save up with a trip in mind, quit their job, travel and return, and the world will still have turned, and for the most part, one can pick up where they left off. Maybe you'll be a rung or two down on the corporate ladder, but a resourceful and willing person (like those on these boards) will always make it happen for themselves.
As for social safety nets, I'm a born and raised American who works for himself and is uninsured (self-employed with pre-existing conditions). That hasn't stopped me from travel. If medical tragedy were to strike, I have money saved, my family would help support me, or worst-case is credit cards and medical bankruptcy. As I mentioned tragedy _has_ struck me while traveling: I was in an accident in NZ that required surgery, hospital time, and two months of physical therapy. Life goes on. That's just the ball game we play in America, but it doesn't mean (healthy) people should sit at home for fear of breaking a bone in a foreign country.
Anyway sorry to expostulate for so long on the topic, but it's one that's near and dear to my heart. Hopefully something of what's in this thread will inspire others to see the world while they can.
It has for me. Not just with travel too, it goes for other life experiences people aren't willing to let themselves have because of this action-oriented notion that in order to continue growing (whether it be personally, in business, or whatever) you must be doing something to meet a given end.
World travel is an action, but it's a sort of "pointless" action in the sense that there is rarely any end goal one is attempting to meet by aimlessly wandering about and experiencing what life has spawned. Sometimes I feel like it isn't "worth" my time when I think about backpacking (with no money) down to Argentina; but then I look back at my two months backpacking through India, or my year living on a commune in Kentucky, or being raised on my family ranch, or my month in Costa Rica and realize that all of those life experiences has turned me into an open-minded, dynamic, and powerful individual. I would NOT have accomplished what I have if it hadn't been for my "aimless" life experiences.
Also, many countries do not have more robust social safety nets than any other - that is a pagelong argument I won't get into ATM, but I will say this: compare the amount of freely available resources and recourses for help available in any developed country (if you're thirsty in the US, visit a gas stop bathroom and drink some tap water; can't find a place to stay, spend the night at a homeless shelter or in a park) with that of a developing country. You'll quickly find that any sort of travel is, really, about relying on yourself regardless of the country's technological status. The safety argument is an empty one.
What's really funny, is, a hippie german couple I befriended in India came to travel through the US a year later; they stopped in my city and we spent some time together reminiscing. They told me they were spending less money in the US then they had in India, primarily because they adhered to little or no convenience and used what free resources are actually taken for granted here that aren't available in a developing or crowded country. Water was a big one, they said they got all of their drinking water from bathroom sinks instead of purchasing it (which you have to do in India because of sanitary issues, or you purify it).
The trick with going on a backpacking trip is to leave your job and pick up some under-the-table jobs in the countries you are staying in (if you run out of money and have no recourse, or want to stay longer than you saved for). This is the point many cultured US citizens are trying to make about our fellow "home-locked" brethren: the excuses made are vapid - you either want to go or you don't. There is, obviously, nothing wrong if you're a person that doesn't want to travel; but if you do, all it takes is some clever thinking and embracement of the dynamism of life (you will find a job when you get back, it might even be better than the one you're leaving).
Travel is surprisingly cheap, provided you don't spend your time in 5-star hotels. This month in Belgium will cost me about 850 euros including food and rent, which isn't too far off from living with a roommate in Los Angeles, my previous home. Go to Vietnam and you'll live like a king on $500/month. Oftentimes the most expensive part of the trip is the plane ticket. Of course still not everyone can afford to do this; but if you can, then you'll find that doing so will be a landmark in your life, even if it seemed very scary at first.
They pay more taxes but get more for their taxes (free health care, education, more unemployment protection, etc.).
>who was talking about how it would take at least 2 months for him to secure a new job as a seasoned mechanical engineer, because since it's so hard to fire people there, it's super hard to get hired.
But being unemployed in Sweden for two months is a completely different world to being unemployed in the US. Further, if he's working then he'll have a 2 month notice period anyway, so he probably wont have any time off at all.
One thing is not fundamentally better than the other. They are just trade offs. Personally I find the Swedish one a hell of a lot less stressful in bad times.
> 7) The rest of the world isn't full of germs. Many people travel with their own supply of water and an industrial vat of hand sanitizer.
As a rule, yes, you'll be fine in other countries. But especially in third world countries, only eat food that is served in a sealed package from a trusted company or served hot - food that is served hot will be generally cleaner and safer to eat. The big danger is food that sits around all day half-warm: that's where you get sick from. Also, don't drink the tap water in places the locals don't drink the tap water. Don't worry about ice/teeth brushing/etc, it's incidental, but don't drink tap if the locals won't drink it.
/did research on this after getting violently ill in Cambodia, luckily the expired medicine I bought from the untrained pharmacist did the trick.
- Street meat. Unrefrigerated meat spoils very rapidly. Bacteria build up toxins in the meat that don't go away even if you cook it. This can make you very sick and even kill.
- Cut fruit. You don't know if clean water was used to wash the knife or that the knife was not used to cut raw chicken or the like.
- Raw vegetables. Many places use human feces to fertilize the fields. You don't know if it was washed properly.
I lived recently in China for several years and got sick a lot and learned to become very particular about food. There seems to be a common perception among travellers that we're weak soft westerners and just need to toughen up and be like the locals who don't get sick. This isn't true, the locals get sick and die with alarming rates. Hepatitis, diarrea and various food born illnesses kill huge numbers of people globally due to poor sanitation.
Therefore my advice is, to jump right into it. Eat what the locals eat. Do what the locals do. By this you have at least a bit fun until you have to spend your time sitting and sh*ing.
The human body is great in adapting to those situation. On my first visit to an development country I took more pictures from the window of my toilet than anything else. But since my body got somehow got used to the new environment, I have not been ill on my last few trips.
Final advice for third world travel: Have toilet paper ready. Always!
If you're traveling from place to place, you'll be exposed to a parade of regional bugs that locals, who have more stable habits, will not be. And your schedule (reservations, plans, etc.) may not be able to afford the downtime. Finally, you don't know the health care setup, so you won't always be able to sense if something is substandard.
I spent a day in a hospital in India with a very high fever (delirious) and dehydration due to a bit of uncooked chutney that none of the locals (whom I knew) had problems with. They had to give me an IV to rehydrate me. My main goal was to try to keep it together enough to ensure that the clinic was using a sterile needle for the IV.
This was not a high point of the trip.
Don't think the locals are not getting sick and dying either. They are. Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of death in the developing world.
Why do so many travellers get sick first time they enter a country with different hygienic standard, where the local population has no problem?
btw: I lived 2 years in central Africa, just returned from a 'local meal' in Luanda/Angola.
I just got back from a month in China and didn't get sick despite eating many things that'd make a typical westerner puke. I lived in China for several years previously and had learned the hard way about food safety.
In general, the best piece of advice I've received is simply "do as the locals do".
For example: Buying meat in India may make you violently ill. Drinking tap water in Mexico is guaranteed to do the trick. While for a colleague of mine (who is used to it): no problem at all.
That said, I generally agree with the fact that health hysteria is totally over the top.
I just returned from Peru where I ate at places, which would be shut down in a heartbeat here (no ginnypigs running through the kitchen allowed, let alone cooking on open fire) with not even a stomach upset whatsoever.
I think the key is just plain old common sense.
Odd they left them around the kitchen.
Agree with your recommendations. Also, watch out for ice cubes... often people make the mistake of buying bottled water... and then putting ice cubes made of tap water.
"The media lies" is something everyone should take to heart. It's an astonishing thing to be in a place where the #1 story of the day is happening and not see anything even remotely representing the reporting on it at ground level.
Also, as an American, I can vouch for "people don't hate Americans". Individual people may be rude, or behave poorly, but they're likely rude and poorly behaved to everybody. It's amazing how that one simple act of understanding can completely change the lens you view the world with. There's an old American adage that the French (Parisians) are rude to Americans. Not so! Parisians are rude to everybody, it's just like New York! If you understand that, and get into the vibe, places with rough social interactions like Paris or New York actually become very navigable and pleasant.
And finally "Everyone should travel". I can't express this enough. There's absolutely no substitute for actually spending time in a place. Reading about the Urals is one thing, eating dill laced food from local farms everyday is another. Talking about how South Korea is modern but different than the West's version of modern is one thing, taking the Seoul Subway to a Korean bar and meeting up with a dozen friends for a night of laughter, drinking, eating and otherwise having a good time is simply a different kind of experience than doing the same in the states. All the broad brush strokes are the same, but the particulars...the texture of the event...are all different.
For what it's worth, that's not unique to international news. Anyone who has been involved with a national scale story can tell you about the disconnect between what the news reports and the truth. My involvement was being home-from-school during a school shooting, and the news reports were seriously doing well to simply spell the names of those involved correctly. Most everything else just came from a pre-canned "disaster in small town" template without any sort of checking for truth or anything.
This was 1993, too. The media hasn't been worth the paper it's written on for a while now, the Internet just let us collectively discover the rot.
Most visitors aren't used to having so many people around them. Just be mindful of your surroundings. Probably good advice for any city.
Contrary to popular belief, people around the world are good. They are willing to help you out and are less likely to take advantage of the fact that you are new there. There is also a sense of curiosity - about who you are, where you are from and what you think of their lands of origin. It often gets a little tiring answering all those questions. :)
On the other hand, governments and officials especially in third world countries tend to be corrupt and agenda-driven. It's amazing how much money changing hands can do, and this I believe is a big deterrent to foreigners in many lands. You need to be a little street smart and know how to work your way out of a potentially sticky situations.
I agree with other comments on HN that you need to be careful of germs. I spent a year in the US before heading back to India to visit family, and I had food off of a street-vendor. I was sick for the next 3 days (God help me now that I have been here for a decade :D). Living in a very sanitary environment like the US can (potentially) weaken your immune system [1]. Ensuring that the food is sealed, or at the very minimum hot is a good way to avoid some of the pitfalls. On the other hand, I have eaten at locals homes in Nigeria, and don't remember having any issues (it's been a while since I was there).
This article makes me want to drop everything and take off for a few months. Sadly, that won't be happening anytime soon. But if you were to take away one thing from this article - it is that you should travel. Going to most countries in the world does not have to be expensive, and it will give you a good way to find out about other cultures, and potentially give you a new avenue into your own [2]
[1] - I am not a doctor, but this has been my experience. I tend to be susceptible to unclean water and food - even the pollution in big cities like Bombay affects me way more than it did when I lived there.
[2] I was raised in a western culture - watching NBA and CNN, listening to pop and rock music, and reading Archie and Mad magazine. But after coming to the US, I have come to realize that there is a lot of things the Indian and American cultures have in common - even more, that there is a lot they can learn from each other.
There are lots of vague hypotheses like this floating about, but IMHO[1] they're pretty flimsy. The fact that you don't have immunity to various foreign bugs doesn't imply (at all) that your immune system is "weak".
There's better evidence that sanitary conditions could increase allergy, which is an overactive immune system, not a weakened one.
Pollution, which you mention later in your comment, has nothing at all to do with immunity.
All that aside: boil it, peel it, cook it, or forget it!
[1] - Also not a doctor, but I am an epidemiologist.
Plus, the true meaning of third world is something quite different, concocted during the cold war: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World
Thank you for your astute observation and comment
[x] learned something new today
"I find my experience from 20 years of Africa is that the seemingly impossible is possible. Africa has not done bad. In 50 years they've gone from a pre-Medieval situation to a very decent 100-year-ago Europe, with a functioning nation and state. I would say that sub-Saharan Africa has done best in the world during the last 50 years. Because we don't consider where they came from. It's this stupid concept of developing countries which puts us, Argentina and Mozambique together 50 years ago, and says that Mozambique did worse. We have to know a little more about the world. I have a neighbor who knows 200 types of wine. He knows everything. He knows the name of the grape, the temperature and everything. I only know two types of wine -- red and white. (Laughter) But my neighbor only knows two types of countries -- industrialized and developing. And I know 200, I know about the small data. But you can do that."
[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_o...
Of course. These are just useful categories. Humans like to put things into categories so we can make statements about ideas. Saying it's "not so simple" is a strawman as I don't think anyone is claiming that a country is a data structure with the capacity of 1 bit (developed or developing).
Maybe if you said or quoted something about how the act of using this categorical construction in analysis when performed too often is the physical cause of some sort of injustice.
Favourite travel tips: - Kindle's International Roaming plan is $5/wk for subscriptions, so you can get your NYTimes, FT, Economist, etc. while on the go... even in places w/o paved roads and ATM's
- The Kindle is also great generally because you can be less diligent about charging it, and read it anywhere from the beach to an airport lounge without any eyestrain... It also beats a stack of books (but an iPad would do so as well).
- Taking Pepto Bismol prophylactically changes the PH of your stomach, making you much less likely to suffer from food-borne illnesses. That said, the effects become detrimental to your body as a whole after a few weeks, so we slowly weaned ourselves off of it, to give our immune system a chance to slowly adjust to the local flora/fauna.
- An unlocked iPhone is your best friend... whether it's for maps to find your way, a travel guide for a city, downloading a podcast to teach you the local phrases you need, finding/booking a hotel, or making that Skype call back home.
Ick! That'll give you all sorts of unpleasant side-effects - it's much better to eat raw garlic or raw onions every morning. You'll adjust to the local organisms better and you won't get sick at all.
To each his own on taking electronics/phones/etc... When I go backpacking I prefer to take the "no itinerary" approach, leaving technology at home so I'm not in the Western Bubble wherever I go.
My folks have spent a month Italy each of the last 7 years, at virtually no expense beyond the airplane tickets. They work on an olive farm, and stay in buildings constructed in the 1300s.
However, in Mexico, the default foreigners are usually from the US.
I think the problem is (I say this as a Canadian) that the US has a very insular streak to it's fabric that is manifested in ways such as this. This same streak that caused the US to join both world wars when they were half over.
My guess is that it stems from the individual nature of the founders, along with the split from England. This isn't as strong in Canada and Australia because those countries remained extensions of the Empire and thus were automatically and continuously connected to the larger world.
The US spent a better part of the 1800's focusing exclusively on North America.
That statement though is illustrative of my point, though. Canadians and/or Australians will either view their country as boring or too large, and so they head overseas. Americans don't.
I don't think this speaks so much to the actual fact than it does to the way one looks at the situation.
The other thing that I've noticed is that Americans from the West Coast are much more likely to travel (of course, I'm from the west coast so this might be some confirmation bias).
(opinions based on a little more than two years or so of ongoing travel and probably something like 30 countries)
This is coming from someone living in Perth, who has to travel forever to get anywhere, including having to go through Sydney or Singapore to get anywhere distant.
It's a lot harder to believe the bullshit peddled about other nationalities when you've toured through their country and experienced their hospitality.
Personally, traveling for a year changed me and the way I approach people...I was and still am an introvert, but I'm a lot more confident in social situations.
Also, if you're a Bible belt type, prepare to come back a lot more liberal and tolerant in your outlook, not a bad thing.
If nothing else, you'll also discover what the author discovered, how little you actually need to achieve a base level of comfort, and how embarrassingly high your six figure salary actually is, comparatively speaking.
I would think that everything ends up being rather similar.
I travel ten days at a time, with 6 months to a year in between international trips. Most trips only include one or two countries. Anything else would be a cognitive overload.
And usually when you do these things you've broken free of all your commitments; sold the house, finished the lease, sold the car, etc. This leaves you with more money available down route.
Doing 2 trips a year still costs plenty. You're still paying for your house even if you aren't in it as well as paying for wherever you are. You're still paying for that car to sit in park, your still paying for cable, mobile phones, electricity, etc.
When I traveled I firesaled everything that wasn't going with me, sold the car, sublet the apartment, and cancelled my phone. I stayed with my parents 1 week and worked right up until the day I left. No more bills meant I had more disposable income.
And even when things are at their worst, everything still manages to work out.
I've spent four months in Guatemala and over six in New Zealand. Most of the people I know who travel long term do the same thing. The only time I hear about people going to many countries in a short period is when countries are dense (central america and europe) or when they're only gone for a couple months and trying to get as many stamps (pokémon) as possible.
All that being said, I'm really happy to have done it a couple of times, but have no real desire to do it again. Now I much prefer shorter (4-14 days), more frequent, trips within a more limited geographic region and a higher level of comfort.
Glad the author is in robust health, but be prepared with antibiotics, anti-diarrhea medicine and remedies for whatever you are prone to getting, say, allergies. Worst case planning makes the trip more fun. For example, my friend got malaria in Kenya.
You just don't know what kind of medicine or care is going to be available.
Not exactly. The author forgets that his data set is strongly biased toward travelers and people who dream about travel.
http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2010/08/16/why-goal-based-li...
As for point #2, the media lies. The point is, really that you can't get a balanced point of view about anything from the news, since it only reports the unusual and abnormal otherwise it's not news and that's typically bad news too.
American culture seems to dominate the world particularly in that movies and T.V. seem to be everywhere.
I personally wouldn't try to run a startup while abroad, since living in a foreign city takes up so much energy (both to enjoy my surroundings and to figure out how to do day-to-day things).
Vive la difference!
The 'culture shock' between Toronto, Ontario -> Montgomery, Alabama won't be much different than if you were moving from Los Angeles instead. In contrast, the culture difference between Toronto, Canada -> Cairo, Egypt or Bangkok, Thailand will be pretty danged huge.
It would be more apt to compare the Toronto-Montgomery difference to the difference between Toronto and Glasgow or Toronto and Canberra.
Canadians are proud to be Canadian. Traveling around has shown me that people often don't know much about Canada, but they recognize the people are nice. That alone is enough to be proud of.
The whole 'Canada identity crisis' is because Canadians are too concerned with their international appearance and place. We need to just embrace the core identity we already have instead of looking for a new one.
The Olympics was an example of Canada trying too hard on the international scene. The closing ceremonies had this horrid 'comedy' portion designed to show that we don't take ourselves too seriously. That in itself was just trying too hard - you don't need an intentionally lame comedy sketch to show that.
Anyways Daniel - I recommend you travel more. The further I get from Canada the more I realize it is only a few Canadians and Americans that see it as a US vs Canada issue - we already have our own distinct identity.
No Americans see "it" as a "US vs Canada issue" because "it" is an exclusively Canadian concern. What Americans think of Canada is (a) nothing and (b) (when pressed) that big cold-but-friendly blank space at the top of the map. That doesn't stop them from being warm and fuzzy when they find out you're Canadian.
I'm a Canadian and I've lived in the USA for years. This has made me acutely aware of how different our cultures really are, and how they both have different virtues.
Is anyone actually surprised by this? That's some serious western arrogance.
I would equally say that we have some Chinese culture in our fireworks displays. It goes both ways. We are abandoning our non-fireworks culture to embrace theirs, just as others abandon their non-electrical culture to embrace parts of Western culture.
A contradiction in terms.