What I’ve Learned From Traveling Around the World for Three Years | Hacker News Reader

What I’ve Learned From Traveling Around the World for Three Years

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61 pointsda5e28 comments

Well said. The important things that most Americans I meet don't get are these two:

  - Travel is cheap

Americans tend to think of Travel in terms of the Caribbean Cruise. A cruise lasts seven days and costs $5,000. Therefore, traveling costs $5,000 per week. Therefore I must have spent about $250k on my last trip. "How do you afford that?"

No, travel costs $500-$1000 per month unless you go out of your way to make it cost more.

  - They're not actually going to kill you for being American

I went through Syria in 2003, and everybody back home thought I was nuts. I had the time of my life. In general, if you want to get killed by crazy middle-eastern terrorists, you're better off staying out of crazy middle-eastern countries. They just don't have the infrastructure for it over there, since the few people who care about that stuff are all in places where westerners actually go.

Even in the "dangerous" places, the odds are generally in your favor. Most days, nobody shows up at the Valley of the Kings with guns. Once every 10 years they do, but still your odds are better than 50/50. I was at that club in Bali a year before it blew up. I was handling chickens in Asia during the Bird Flu scare, having lunch with the dreaded Thai Muslim Separatists, and all of this during Tsunami Season.

If you look at the odds, it's like being afraid to go to Nebraska because of the lightning storms. Relax, and go see some cool stuff!

No, travel costs $500-$1000 per month

If you're careful, travelling can be even cheaper. I went travelling through Vietnam, China, Mongolia and Russia on my own this year and probably spent ~$10 a day, and that includes food, accommodation and travel. If you're young, stay in decent hostels and never fly.

Take the train everywhere and even if you don't speak the same language, people are incredibly friendly and generous. One of my best memories was drinking vodka with a group of Russian soldiers whilst on the Trans-Siberian.

    - People don't hate Americans

This is totally true, even in some countries you might think differently (e.g. Vietnam). Some of the funniest and best people to be around when I was travelling were from America.

Just, what is "Tsunami Season" exactly?

That's actually a quote from a relative. I went to the Indian Ocean side of Thailand the year following the Tsunami. Being December, I was asked if I was worried to be there during Tsunami season, since everybody knows that once-in-500-year random events happen in December over there.

Right. Living in Thailand I recognize the kind of confused reasoning people are capable of here.

I used to collect them too but there was just too much to keep up with.

Also consider the cost of food in other countries. I lived healthily on about a US$2/day food budget when I spent six weeks in India (Bangalore). This isn't true for all places, of course, but I imagine it holds reasonably true.

> I confronted one German man about this, asking him who the Prime Minister of Japan was. He had no clue.

That's a slightly unfair question, because they've been getting a new one roughly once a year for the past several years due to scandals and such. They only seem to make the news when appointed and stepping down due to scandal, unless they visit that shrine for Japanese war dead or something that triggers protests.

Seriously. In my lifetime we've had two popes, five presidents, and eighteen Japanese prime ministers.

My old roommate knew he'd really aced his interview to be an assistant english teacher there when they asked him who the prime minister was and were flabbergasted that he could reply off the cuff.

It's a tricky question and there are far more practical things to know than current affairs, e.g. customs and taboos, language, currency etc.

For example, I've met people (American and others) who weren't aware that the UK hasn't switched to the euro. I once pointed this out to two surprised Americans on a flight to London - when you are a few hours from landing this is more useful than knowing the prime minister's name!

Beyond knowledge and ignorance (there are certainly ignorant Brits too) there may be a difference in attitude which sometimes comes across as ignorance. I'm relocating from London to NYC in just over a week so it will be interesting to experience the differences, I've heard that despite being quite cosmopolitan NYC is generally a little more inward looking.

"I'm relocating from London to NYC...I've heard that despite being quite cosmopolitan NYC is generally a little more inward looking."

Sounds like you could use a map:

http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/newyorker2.JP...

(Discussion:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21121

And, from 40 years prior:

http://maps.bpl.org/details_10595/?mpubl_id=159

http://www.georgeglazer.com/archives/maps/archive-nyc/nyersi... ).

I live in NYC. That's a good assessment. It's a very cosmopolitan place in that every world culture is represented here. There are groups of people I never knew about until I moved here. Albanians in the Bronx? Fujianese Christian Chinese in the Lower East side? Etc.

However, once you're here, nothing outside of the city really matters. I think it's because of the structure of the city itself. It's huge and fast and inhuman and you're always busy and overwhelmed.

That said, world events are a popular subject amongst the literati crowd, but it's mostly just grist for the mill... so you have something interesting to talk about at brunch, or feel like you've got the right intel to make some money trading the yen against the pound, or whatever...

> People are good

I can't emphasize this one enough. Travelling is a great way to restore ones faith in humanity.

> Many people travel with their own supply of water and an industrial vat of hand sanitizer.

Germs aside, you should still carry a bottle of water. Dehydration is not fun. Also, hand sanitizer kills the bacteria that make you smell which is handy when you can' t shower as often as you might like.

I agree with everything written in that blog post. I haven't travelled anywhere near as much as this blogger, but i've visited a fair few countries, and for sure that really started to change my view of the world.

Previous discussion on HN (Though the story was posted on Huffinton Post)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1629521

  When is the last time you’ve heard Laos or Oman mentioned in a news story? What makes for good news are exceptional events, not ordinary events.

That's because it's the news, it's designed to inform you of current events, not tell you about places...

Another interesting post on the same topic, by someone else: http://squid314.livejournal.com/2008/07/29/. squid314 concludes some of the same things as this post, but also some things not mentioned in this post.

I agree with most of those points, with an addition to #1: people are generally happy.

On my most recent visit to Bangalore I went out of my way to go into the more run-down, impoverished areas of the city to see what life was like for people there, and I was really surprised at just how excited and happy people there were when I asked to take their picture. It really changed my view of the people that live in what I'd consider to be pretty depressing conditions.

The pictures can be seen here (flickr): http://goo.gl/CsgD

Very true. We are onto 5th month of our travels and notes on why you don't need 97% of stuff from home and long thoughts when buying something have particularly been on my mind during this trip :)

I agree with everything except 13; superficially American and Canadian culture are similar but they are not. I moved from the US to Canada because of that difference.

I do agree that we share a common North American culture. Travel in South America, and you will be called a North American.

In my travels, it is usually easy to tell whether someone is from Canada or the US. I've travelled within every province and territory in Canada except Nunavut, 33 states in the US, numerous Caribbean islands, and even so I feel that I have only skimmed the surface. Live and travel around North America, and you will discover a lot of diversity within this huge continent. Like the Gary Arndt, I encourage travel because of what you will learn.

Oh, there's definitely cultural differences - I moved from Canada to the United States for grad school, but I've stayed because I prefer it down here.

However, the deeper differences between the two countries aren't going to be immediately apparent when interacting with tourists. It's not hard to see how someone on another continent could equate the two countries.

Well it's about as much difference between a texan, a new yorker and a californian.

Oui, ç'est vrai.

My wife keepstelling me to stop buying expensive gadgets so we can travel more. (apple is keeping me from seeing the world, darn it!)

I took 18 months off and lived and worked overseas. I keep recommending it to anyone who'll listen.

Gadgets like iPads and iPhones are just diversions, the freedom you'll get if you take time off (not just a two week trip!) is worth so much more.

The picture in (18) is quite profound.

I've been to that McDonalds. It's on Khoa San Road in Bangkok.

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