Hacker News Reader

Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

I decided that sitting at a desk was not the life for me (Software Engineer), so I'm working on being a Travel Writer and Photographer. I'm currently writing for about eight magazines, just published my first book, etc.

Language and culture changes are not problems, they're the very reason I travel. Once I learned enough French the West Coast of Africa was great, and English has been enough in virtually every country in the East so far. I need to learn more Swahili.

For Latin America once I learned Spanish I was set for virtually every country I drove through!

View on HN

This sounds cool and adventurous! If you need a job though, your bosses would be your "master", especially if you need that income to survive.

And it certainly sounds like a lot more freedom than most, but the country your van is parked in would be your "master" as well as you are subject to their laws and at the mercy of their justice system.

That's how challenging it is to be free of any hierarchy in the modern world.

Like I said, for me the money will probably run out, but I continually bump into people where that is not a problem. They will do this for the rest of their lives.

> you are subject to their laws and at the mercy of their justice system.

While that's true in theory, in practice there is a hell of a lot of freedom here on the ground. It's extremely rare that I don't do something because "it's illegal" - i.e. riding on the top of a truck with no seat belt, riding a motorbike with no helmet, and basically anything else you would want to be doing.

There is a lot of personal freedom in Africa (& Latin America)

Where did the money come from for the people who will never have it run out?

Some are retired, some have or had businesses, some are just renting out their house they already own.

Because driving around the world only costs something around $1500 - $2000 USD /mo, any kind of "good" retirement from a first world country is a LOT more than you can ever realistically spend. You bank account will always go up.

> Because driving around the world only costs something around $1500 - $2000 USD /mo

If you're in a smaller vehicle like your Jeep I can see it being under $2000/m. The retired people in giant Unimog overland trucks can spend hundreds per month on fuel alone. Maintenance on those trucks is expensive too.

I do spend hundreds per month on fuel alone :) It's by far my biggest expense.

I get around 16-18 mpg in the Jeep (it's heavy). Most Overland trucks I talk to get around 12-14mpg. They are also diesel, which is cheaper in virtually every country in the world. Maintenance can be a thing for sure, but also remember something like a big Merc truck or unimog is designed to go 200k kms easily without any real work done, where-as my Jeep is not nearly that durable.

Remember too, that $/month is almost entirely dependent on how far you drive each month, given that fuel is by far the biggest expense. If you have all the time in the world, you can drive hardly at all and just spend $1000/mo :)

Unimogs aren't very big, especially not compared to modern full size SUVs. I don't have one (wish I did!), but I doubt that the maintenance is difficult: I already repair all our vehicles except the newest one that's still under warranty.

[edit] However the prices have increased since I last looked. A truck dealership near me used to sell them, but not for $100k+

A 1960's Unimog may not be that large but those aren't what we're talking about. Most overland trucks you'll find in Africa and South America are modern cab-over 4x4 chassis (Unimog, other Merc models, Mann, Fuso, etc), in the range of 20ft (6m) long, 8ft (2.4m) wide, and 10ft (3m) high. The cutaway chassis alone is $50-75k new.

Not sure why I got downvotes. I live in a shuttle bus with a similar running cost to an overland truck. Massive offroad tires are $500-1000+ each. The engines hold gallons of oil and changes cost over $100 for materials. They typically get 8-12mpg.

If you stay parked somewhere for a long period of time sure, your costs will be low. But in that case it doesn't matter what you're living in, maintenance costs will be roughly the same.

I traveled argentina with some friends who were going back to visit friends and family after a few years away. We met so many different types of people, from those at the pinnacle of the wine industry with houses and developments spread across to country, to those that live a subsistence lifestyle basically, living in a Yurt and creating crafts when they need money. There are definitely ways to live without a master - provided they weren't causing any problems law enforcement had much bigger concerns to deal with. Basically if you go somewhere with lots of space and limited government you can be pretty close to having no master. We were between Mendoza and San Carlos De Bariloche most of the time.

Yeah, I think the point is we can certainly simulate what it would be like to live without a master, but it's hard to achieve it in it's true form.

Your master may be passive and have broad boundaries, but if you cross a boundary, they will become active and enforce their rules upon you. If you are comfortable living within the boundaries your master deems appropriate, then it can feel like there's no master, but in reality it's just the illusion of having no master. But, even the illusion of no master is still pretty impressive in this modern world.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com