How to travel around the world for a year
blog.alexmaccaw.com
blog.alexmaccaw.com
Consider picking just one country, and living there, instead of travelling around the world. Learn the language, get a job (teaching English?), get a boyfriend/girlfriend, travel locally.
I know a lot of people who have done both (travel around the world, or live abroad). Travelling around the world can be utterly exhausting -- absolutely exhilirating, but the endless work involved in finding accomodation, food, etc. can wear people down faster than they think. Also, the lack of any constant companions, that all your human relationships last only a day or a couple of weeks at best.
Setting down some kind of "roots" in a place can be very rewarding as well, and can be more deeply educational as well -- what you see about a country in the first few weeks, versus what you see about it after a year or two, can be strikingly different. But, it all depends on your goals and personality of course!
As for your MB(A), if you have one, be careful because when the summer hits, it can heat up really quickly and everything will slow to a snail's pace. I was using a 2010 MBA all through 2011 and 2012 and it was seriously tough-going. In terms of banks, I recommend Capital One 360, no foreign withdrawal fees, no monthly fee. While using Citibank in Brazil, I must have given them thousands in fees over the years.
If you trade being in the most popular places of whatever city you're in with a nearby neighborhood or district, (at least in terms of Brazil) you can spend just US$6K for the year...but for that price, you'd have to be okay with living more or less on the poor side. The great thing about living in a tropical, developing nation is there's plenty to do for cheap or free.
The constant movement, decisions about where to sleep, what to do, and where you're headed to next can be very stressful.
The three weeks we spent in Ecuador learning spanish are some of our fondest memories of our trip. We were ready to get moving after three weeks, but in hindsight I think it would have been good if we stayed longer.
There's also a middle ground I might consider ideal: choose 4 places to go to, and spend 3 months in each. You can't pick up everything a city has to offer in 3 months (let alone a country!), but it gets you much further than the 3 days here, 4 days there strategy. Cuts down on travel and housing costs, too, both monetarily and temporally.
If you want more extended trips than that, you can often go on a day-to-weeklong vacation to a neighboring country and return to where you were before, bringing it to a 6 month stay in a city. I'd almost argue that if you want to be there longer than that, you actually should pick up a local job, not just to fund yourself (which is probably a minor point for most of us) but because it deepens your experience in a place.
If you're pretty well-off, at least some countries will offer you an "investment visa" if you can prove you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in liquid assets.
I recently moved from San Francisco to Berlin, and have been living here and learning (at times, rather painfully) how different cultures can be, even between two of the dominant western nations. To say it's been a worthy experience doesn't do it justice. Having to restart your entire social life — with deflated self-confidence — is a fantastic learning experience.
One key aspect of it, in my opinion, is there's no flight home. You just left, and you don't plan on coming back. When things get challenging, there is no comfort that your plane is waiting. There is no plane. You have to pull yourself together and make it work.
Many folks who visit this website are blessed with a skill-set rooted in distribution. Generations before us simply couldn't imagine moving around the world and still being comfortable and happy with their work and their means of providing for themselves.
If you have this opportunity, to leave your comfort zone, challenge yourself and not have a "home" to go back to when the journey is over, I recommend you take it.
Generally, bills aren't too bad here, I cook my own meals and live with roommates. The lifestyle is actually pretty fantastic. Cost of living is substantially less then SF was for me. Part of that is the local economy, but I've found I fundamentally socialize differently, as people aren't desiring to eat every meal out, drink expensive drinks.
Come back! You can come over for beers.
[1] http://soundcloud.com/jobs (grep non-German)
That said, if you can afford it, why not travel until you get tired of traveling, and then just go to your favorite place from your travels over the previous six months and stay there for a while? I've often thought that this would be my dream life, at least for the next decade or so: travel six months, stay somewhere six months, repeat, with changes to the ratio as I saw fit. I'm not sure life could possibly get any better than that. Now I just need to get rich...
I ended up giving up the dream, and now I have a mortgage :(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT_(treaty) http://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/new-zealand-visa/work-visa/...
First off, there's way too much planning going on beforehand. Having done several of these trips, my pre-planning now involves booking a single flight and letting things work themselves out from there. Dates on the calendar are really really bad to have, since they force you to move faster or slower than you want to. Avoid them at all costs.
And, of course, he overpacked. 90 liters is way too big. 40 liters is probably still too big, but at least realistic. You want to be able to fit your full pack on your lap on a crowded chicken bus without drawing angry looks from the locals. One complete change of clothes is plenty. Most of the stuff you think you need, you don't.
Beyond that, there's a lot of good stuff here. Sounds like he had a fun trip.
At the start, 40L was really tough and I think for someone doing this for the first time, 40-50L is ideal. The focus on bag size can be almost fetishistic for some long term travelers. Those who travel with two shirts, one pair of pants, and a laptop are going too far in the opposite direction in my opinion. I don't want to spend all my time doing laundry or smelling awful.
This is in contrast to buying a $100 Patagonia super-awesome lightweight shell, that is certainly better than that cheap sweatshirt, but that you need to treat as a prized possession and carry everywhere.
However for the first time, a round the world flight was great. It gave me a taste of each country, and then on the second time I'm planning on going back to my favorite and really immersing myself in them.
http://old.alexmaccaw.com//posts/traveling_writing_programmi...
I fear what will happen as data collection gets better, I know the local IRS is cross-examining data to catch the usual evasors (lawyers, dentists and others that regularly under-report their earnings, though to be fair the local taxes are abusive). They look at sports club affiliations - "how can you afford such a posh sports club on your paltry income"?, luxury buys (golf clubs are a giveaway), etc..
I think you're doing the right thing, and as long as tax is being paid, you will more than likely be fine IMO.
Good luck and enjoy.
To each their own.
There's a sub-reddit dedicated to "ultralight" camping. Most of the knowledge applies to traveling in general. It seems 15lb is the sweet spot if you plan on doing a lot of walking.
26L is possible!
For the entire 22 month, 65,000km (40k miles) journey through 16 countries, I spent $27,300 [2]. That's only $1200 a month, which is barely more than I was spending to live in a city and go to work every day.
I'm extremely happy to answer any questions or help anyone that has an interest in traveling like this. WikiOverland [3] has tons of the logistical information you'll find helpful. The FAQ [4] is a great place to start for anyone new to driving themselves around continents or the world (called Overlanding)
[2] http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure
[4] http://wikioverland.org/Overland_Frequently_Asked_Questions
Edit with more details:
Choosing where to go: get a big map and an imagination!
Flights: Just booked mine as I went and that seemed to work out well costwise. In any case try to overland as much as possible, it's more interesting.
Packing: Bring as little as possible, I had a 50+10L backpack and it was more than adequate. Every litre extra you pack is more and more hassle when moving.
Visas: This obv depends on where you're from and where you're headed. I sorted visas for Iran and India before leaving home (Ireland). Generally what the article says is true, it's usually possible to throw some money at the problem and get visas while on the move if necessary. Some visas run from time of entry, some from time of issuance (particularly India) - pay attention to this!
Hasslewise: I was traveling with my partner, she had to wear the hijab (hair covering) at all times while outdoors which was a bit of a challenge (try keeping it on with the wind blowing out of the metro in Tehran!). People are very accommodating though, a huddle of women would sometimes form around her to set things right if it was slipping off! This was exacerbated by the time of year (midsummer), you'd be better going sometime cooler. Only other thing I can think of is that the banking system is totally cut off from outside (no ATMs which accept foreign cards, very few places accept western credit cards), so you need to carry in as much cash as you need for the trip. Definitely intending to go back in the future with more time on our hands - there's just endless places to see and visit - it truly was a unique experience.
We've got some blog posts here that might help: http://www.sarahandniall.com/2011/08/iran.html http://www.sarahandniall.com/2011/09/traveling-as-woman-in-i... (I have blog posts written but not published for the rest of the trip - really must get them up!).
If you happen to come back here I'd be glad to show you around town (Santa Cruz de la Sierra) and grab a coffee or something like that.
Regarding packing: My wife and I each carried a 40L backpack. This is pretty small, but I'd highly recommend it for this kind of trip. They were a godsend on buses in South America.
Cost: Over the course of the trip we spent almost 40k ($165/day), if you exclude Antarctica it was a much more reasonable $92/day. Last minute deals for Antarctica DO exist, I recommend them highly (we saved somewhere in the neighborhood of 20k).
Transport: As with others in the thread, we bought as we went and opted primarily for overland travel. Tips for 30 hour bus rides: carrots to snack on and Harry Potter audio books.
My most recent post [1] was a wrap up after being home for some time. You can check out the blog for more on packing, budget, etc.
Happy to answer any questions.
The third best thing I ever did (after getting married and starting a family).
Travel guides: buy Lonely Planet or similar books as dead trees, not Kindle which is almost useless for this. Buy them in the US if it's convenient, because they definitely aren't cheaper in many other places.
Visas: US passport is usually good, but may increase the odds of being asked to pay someone off. In Cambodia specifically, better to get a visa in advance via the official website; some of the border stations are well-known for various schemes to get extra cash from those seeking visas on arrival. Make sure your passport starts out fairly empty--some visas take a whole page each. For US passports, extra pages are free initially, expensive to add later.
Room and board: if breakfast is free, great. But don't buy it in advance if it's not included, unless you're in the middle of nowhere.
Transportation: hitchhiking can be easier in poorer areas where many people do it, harder in places where everyone owns a car. For regional flights not every country does things online, and some smaller airlines do not charge a lot for last-minute tickets.
Packing: a 50 liter pack is enough if you don't have many gadgets. Take thin clothes that dry quickly, avoid jeans, wash a few items in the sink each night and enjoy perpetual clean clothes for free. An ultralight daypack like Marmot's Kompressor ($35) is useful, or get a cheapie abroad, e.g. $7 in Bangkok.
We used mostly wikitravel on an ipad, made notes, and used our notes while moving about cities.
The new offline support in Reading List is really a godsend for this. Just hammer cmd+shift+D on the laptop/desktop while browsing along the wiki, and the iPad will have it all available when you need it.
I used the offline reading list so much for wikivoyage also - it was amazing!
Even if you look like the quintessential dirty hippy?
Room and board: Stay in hostels where possible, they meet a lot of interesting people.
Transportation: Take ground transport where possible, you see a lot more and meet a lot of interesting people on those long journeys.
Packing: depends where you are going. Hot countries you can get away with a side bag, cold countries you need more.
Has nobody heard of www.couchsurfing.com?
Why travel all the way around the world to pay money and sit in a hotel room/private apartment?
I've done travelling and couldn't recommend it enough. It's a fantastic experience but by far the biggest benefit, and most memorable moments, were from the people I met (even though I'm not really a 'people' person). Couchsurfing allows you to stay for free with a local host.. think AirBnB but FREE and where you can actually speak and interact with them. Most of the hosts in the more remote countries are fellow American's doing Peace Corp. It's interesting to hear their different perspective on their host country, and they enjoy the contact with another 'westerner' too. Lots of other hosts will happily invite you sailing, climbing, hiking, BBQing with them or their mates too.
If you're happy to sleep on the floor occasionally (rarely in my experience) then I highly recommend any travellers (particularly solo) give it a go.
If you're really adventurous, or want some even more amazing, serendipitous encounters with incredible people, stick out your thumb ;-)
Hostels are my time off. I can sleep in my bed as long as I want, I don't have to talk to anybody, I can pay and not ask/talk. Socializing is huge energy consumer. Hostel time is when I don't have to worry about a thing, relaxing and recharging.
The worst guests are the guest who treat it as a free hotel and/or are so cheap that they aren't willing to go out for a pint of beer with their host or do anything that requires a few dollars. And if you are working working while travelling, then that is a sign you both less willing to interact with your hosts and that you can easily afford a hotel.
[1] - http://juokaz.com/blog/living-homeless.html [2] - https://twitter.com/juokaz/status/348036931214524416
You do need the company's permission. But no wonder our country is getting deeper in debt. I don't know that many people but I do know 5 people who have done this.
Oh, and don't be so eager to jump on the neo-liberal thought wagon. Some people travel, most use it to raise babies.
Source: I've done it.
Also, I just visited South America for 3 months and decided beforehand that I would quit my job (which I didn't hate but it didn't provoke any passionate response either) and afterwards start working on something I'm truly passionate about. So no leaching off the state budget and couldn't be happier.
I had a very good client for whom it didn't matter where I was, I worked on the relationship with the travel in mind and noted from day one. This ment I was about £300 a day less than my normal London day rate for two months for them. However, even down by three hundread I was travelling like a king, well king of economy travellers.
It worked well, but I had one massive disadvantage, I had to ensure good wifi whereever I moved. SEA is mostly 6 hours ahead of London, so keeping London time isn't hard, 11pm is the latest your expected to be online.
The main problem I had was due to a staff change at the clients end. The people I had been dealing with before quit on mass over a pay dispute. The placements, they were a little bit bottom draw (think where is the defintion of this 'web service', I don't want a WSDL, this is a web service, this isn't good enough types).
That is where we come to the crunch. Would I do it again? No.
It was a bit of a pain really, my friends I'd met up with along the way were off having fun, but I was stuck still chained to a laptop. Given that I'd taken a substaintial rate cut, I would have been better off just working full time as normal for half a year, saving, and taking time of normally.
The digital nomad traveller isn't all its cracked up to be. However working remotely from a fairly fixed base is great. It's very easy to get a 6 month tourist VISA to say Thailand, which has great food, and a great countryside. Rent a place for duration, make sure it has reliable good internet, and working remotely isn't such an issue when your not moving around. Now I type this I realise it was the moving around that was the issue. If working say 40hours, you either move round at a snails pace, or miss really interesting things.
I am actually looking to buy a condo in the mountains of Thailand as a bolt hole, my girlfriend and I could just run and hide there for a month or two, still work if need be, but have a change of scenary, weather and society.
Instead, I'd rather live in foreign cities for 1-3 months at a time. 1 month in Krakow here, 2 months in Chiang Mai there, etc.
I really like Chiang Mai, I'm currently trying to buy a flat near there, but the sales agent is giving my lawyer concerns so it is looking like it might fall through (it has taken 4 months to get this far, I will not be out of pocket any money bar lawyer fees).
However I much prefer the mountains outside Chiang Mai. Heading up to Pai, which sadly is overrun by hippies, is great. If you were able to get a place there with good internet, you'd have a wounderful time. Assuming you either can afford to rent a car or can ride a motorbike.
I think I was very nieve about the moving every week or two bit, but I was limited by travel companions.
A friend of mine ended up in Chiang Mai just before Songkram festival, ended up staying there for 5 months before moving on.
One of the reasons I'm giving up the super stable income of whoring myself out to large firms as a consultant (the more you charge, the more they believe you must be good) to do a start up, is partly so I can spend large parts of the year out there.
I also have some Vietnamese friends near Hoi An (my favourite place!) who I intend to rent a room from, that I can have set up nicely for working from, on the side I hope to help kick their business up a notch.
When I mentioned to a few friends if they would be willing to work on a project for a 3 month contract coming out to visit me in SEA, I was suprised, they all immediately said things along the line of "I'd discount my rate".
Ask me again in two years what happened to the dream :D
I thought you could only get a 30-day visa that's valid for a 6 month period, and spend a maximum of 90 days in Thailand within than 6 month period if you count re-entry. Going for visa runs very four weeks can't be that fun.
I'm British, so maybe its easier. You can get a 3 month tourist visa, with a 3 month pending extension from the London embassy.
Failing that you can do a 'border run'. I quite like being near Chiang Mai or Pai. From there its about a 3/4 hour drive up to Burhma. I did it with a mate of mine for a day out.
If you're outside of Thailand, you can get a 60 day visa for about $30, and that can be extended a further 30 days once inside Thailand for another fee (I never did this, but I think it's around another $30.) The consulates in countries around Thailand are aware of people entering, leaving and getting a new visa, then re-entering. Certain consulates will almost always give the visa, some will deny if they see repeat visits - it really depends on the guy looking at the paperwork at the time sometimes.
For example, when I was there last year, the consulate in Penang, Malaysia was known to give back to back 60 day visas as long as you never did the 30 day extension. But they wouldn't give the multiple entry visas that basically give you the 60 days + 30 days extension each time you enter the country for 2-3 entries.
However, everything can be bought there.... Everything.
You can get your 90 day without too much hassle, I would recommend this lawyer firm, as I have used their Chiang Mai branch and found them good, however they are a big firm, so YMMV. http://canada.siam-legal.com/90-Day-Thailand-Visa-for-Canadi...
I would have thought that the worst case would be a 5 day gap between two of these, obviously, check with the lawyer.
If you want to spend 5 days in a nearby nation you are spoilt for choice. Myself I like Vietnam, the food is really good, friendly people, stunning, stunning scenary.
But now, wikivoyage is probably the preferred route. They've been adopted by Wikimedia after some drama with the company that owns wikitravel. wikitravel is now covered with ads and most of the editors abandoned ship for wikivoyage.
It's a great resource though! I have never owned a travel guide.
How do you find traveling with kids?
Do you keep the same soul sucking enterprise IT job, or save up, travel and then find a new one when you return?
What do you do about maintaining a permanent base at "home"? This one's the biggest struggle for me; how do you travel without having somewhere stable to come back to? I'd have to be bringing at least £1.7k/month just to cover rent/mortgage and fixed costs for a house in the UK on top of what it would cost for the traveling itself. I don't think finding a new place to live every time I come home would work.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3476016
also it says "This is a repost of a post first published in December 2011." at the end of the post.
If I wanted to travel and get work done now I wold probably revisit some of the same countries.
We had a £10 a day budget.
My budget was something around 20/day, which buys me dorms at nice hostels (no bugs, aircon and usually hot water), food at local restaurant (I usually stays out of hawker stalls), transportation and occasional sights (like Angkor Wat and such).
PS: We got a 3 day tour of all of the Ankor Wat temples, including transport between them for $9 each. For anyone who's not been, they are incredible.
have fun ! ;)
The Taj Mahal one isn't terrible. As far as I can tell that's because there isn't much in the foreground. The HDR used makes the others appear uniformly flat / without depth, like an old chinese woodcut (e.g. [0], in which perspective is flattened).
[0] http://lifeasahuman.com/files/2011/12/P14-Old-Chinese-woodcu...
The worst is to book this round-the-world ticket, where you have to decide in advance how long you'll stay at each point. We travelled around the world for 1 year and ended up staying as much as one month in one place where we'd planned to stay 1 day, or literally flee out of countries like Malaysia after 2 days.
*by which I mean within one continent
Theoretically I could return via Central Asia and the Caucasus but I haven't figured that part out yet.
I drove Alaska->Argentina and had a blast
You need only travel 1, 5, 10, 15 miles from wherever you are right now to find entire communities that are outside your techy echo chamber. Meet them, and you will get some perspective.
Best of all is with this alternative plan is what you won't do. You won't waste many many days (weeks? a month?) of your life either in airports, flying between airports, travelling to and from airports, or recovering from jet lag. Most importantly, in my opinion, you won't be burning 250 to 500 gallons of gasoline, and releasing 2.5 to 5 tons of carbon into the atmosphere.
more seriously, having travelled much, and now living "abroad" i think it's way over-rated. people are fundamentally the same. the ways in which societies differ are in the rituals people are accustomed to - and dealing with that gets old quickly.
maybe another way of making my point is that the kind of people whose mind is most likely to be be broadened by travel are already aware of the kind of issues you might think they would learn. while those so closed they don't get it, won't - travel or not... your argument only seems (to me) to apply to the lucky few who are closed-minded at home, but open-minded enough to suddenly change when the food is different or the people don't react the way they're used to.
I think that experience is the best teacher. Whether or not you think you understand issues, or think you are experienced enough to deal with certain situations, you don't know that until you are put in those situations or confronted with those issues.
I also think it's a mistake to say that people are binary "close minded at home" and "open minded" outside. People have a range of experiences and impressions that colors every interaction they have.
Living in a different one of those cultures can be very educational, but it's somewhat hard to break into unless you have some organic reason to be there or social connection. People are often resentful of "lifestyle tourism", the stereotypical one being an upper-middle-class white kid who moves to a poor minority neighborhood as a cultural experience. Small rural communities can also be quite closed as well, in terms of being able to really join the culture (vs. just visit the town).
Two summers ago I participated in the Mongol Rally (http://www.theadventurists.com/the-adventures/mongol-rally). Getting to connect and hang out with locals along the way (particularly in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Mongolia, etc) was one of the highlights of the trip.
In addition, the fact people are "fundamentally the same" is actually something I derive a lot of pleasure from, given it continues to reinforce the base "good" that we all have in us (despite what the MSM might otherwise tell us).
"WorldHum" http://worldhum.com
"Brave New Traveler" http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/
I myself prefer to stay in an area long term and marinate the local culture and language. I studied abroad in Beijing for one year in undergrad, and taught english in Japan for 2 year. You discover many subtle things by staying somewhere for an extended period of time, and learn a new way of living. Definitely want to do it again.
But before I die, I'd like to try this method too.
A question I have: Does anyone have any experience being a landlord while traveling abroad? What's it like?
I was thinking that investing in an apartment before I leave might be a great way for me to get some low-maintenance income while traveling.
Vietnam and China visas I wish I had known about before. For some passports, China is something you should get even before leaving your home country.
Otherwise, I definitely agree that travelling over land is much more interesting.
My problem is, If I get to a place that requires no VISA but I have no return ticket because I plan to buy the next hop while I'm there, won't this make getting into the country more complicated?
What if you planned to buy a train ticket to leave? I don't know about HK but in China it's a mess since it can only be done a few weeks before the travel date and might not even have been possible to do prior to entering the country.
There is no train that connects Japan to another country that I know of.
Thanks for the info. Very usefull since I was thinking of going to Japan and had this lingering in the back of my mind.
You can always, always fake one. And put it on your computer. And take your time showing it to them. They'll wave you through eventually.
That was on a flight from malaysia. When I entered HK from China and Macau, they didn't say anything.
I mean, who wouldn't want to see the world?
Wow. Consultancy that pays $20k+ still eludes me.
It depends on where you go, but we live very well on far less than we did in the US and it's been a great experience for our entire family in many, many ways.
I always used to read posts like this jealous of those who are unattached. While it's a different experience doing it with kids. and takes a bit more planning, it's got its own rewards (such as the impact of your children living first-hand in a different culture).
Like how you found a job, how you found schools, how the kids are liking it etc
It sounds like cultural and historical context is important to you. It may not be for another traveler.
Traveling is about living in the moment and doing whatever makes you happy :)