Rolf Potts's Blog, page 114

Vagablogging: Call for writers

Looking for an opportunity to express your sage vagabonding advice?

Are you on or about to leave for a long-term journey, excited to share tricks and tips learned on the road?

Vagablogging is getting a fresh new look, and we're looking for some fresh new bloggers to join the team. These new writers will post once or twice a week on vagabonding-related topics of their choice, from travel tips to destination suggestions to reviews of travel media. The ideal writer should be familiar with Vagabonding and the philosophy behind it. To get an idea what we're looking for in terms of content and style, take a look at our recent posts and archives. The best posts are informative in nature and conversational in tone. The deadline for submitting is December 31st. We'll announce our new contributors along with the new look on January 15th.

Though the positions are unpaid, it's a great opportunity to build a readership, establish contacts, and create professional opportunities in the travel-writing realm. Vagabloggers who've landed lucrative gigs after writing for us include Tim Ferriss (who wrote a little bestseller called The 4-Hour Work Week), Justin Glow (who went on to full-time editing positions at Gadling and AOL), and a number of individuals who've landed paid freelance work at World Hum, the National Post, Gadling, US Airways Magazine, Travelers' Tales, the Los Angeles Times, and other travel-writing venues. Kristin Pope even got a call from The Daily Show after her post about "staycations".

To be considered for a weekly slot at Vagablogging, please email 2-3 previously unpublished sample posts (200-600 words each) to our managing editor, Ted Beatie (ted *at* tedbeatie *dot* com). To ensure Ted gets your submission, please include the word "Vagablogging" in the subject header. Also be sure to include a little bit about yourself, like where you're from, your best travel experiences, and anything else you think we should know.

Travel and the Holidays

The holiday season is upon us. Christmas trees. Thanksgiving dinners. Holiday lights and decorations. Music. Cookies. Going to parties. Shopping. Giving and receiving gifts.

For many people, with the holidays comes travel.  Some go visit family and friends around the world.  Others take advantage of the much deserved time off and head for warmer weather in anticipation of the cold winter months ahead.  For others, it's time to dream and wish about that next big trip.  One way to start doing that is to think about our loved ones who we love to travel with.  Whether it's a spouse, a significant other, a family member, or a friend, chances are you have someone in your life who loves travel as much as you do.

Since the gift giving season is upon us, BootsnAll thought it would be fun to compile a massive list of awesome travel gear that would make great presents for that travel lover in your life.  While you could brave the huge, ridiculous crowds on Black Friday, doesn't it sound much more appealing to do all your holiday shopping from the comforts of your own home?

Grab yourself a cup of coffee, heat up a plate of those leftover goodies from Thanksgiving, and get all your shopping done for that travel lover in your life. Or if you are the travel lover, start subtlely sending some of the following links to your loved ones.  Or post them on Facebook or Twitter under the guise of, "Look how cool this is!"  Surely someone will get the hint.

Since a big part of this site is devoted to long-term travel, you might want to check out this gift guide for the RTW traveler.
Career breaks are gaining more steam around the US, and if you are thinking of taking one yourself or know someone in your life who is contemplating it, then this gift guide is the perfect one. From resources to classes to storage to gear, there are plenty of great gift ideas.
But not all travelers are in it for the long haul. Some can only get away for a week or two. We don't like to discriminate, so there's plenty of gift guides for the short-term traveler as well. Technology is a big part of travel, and many travelers, like myself, are big tech geeks. We don't like to leave our toys at home when we travel. If this describes you, check out these gift ideas for the techie traveler.
Not every gift has to be a huge, expensive ordeal, so be sure to shop around for various stocking stuffers or peruse our collection of 50 gifts that are under $50.

No matter what kind of traveler you are, you are sure to find something for your travel-loving friends and family members, and you don't have to camp out for hours in the cold while braving the crowds to do it. So do yourself a favor this Friday. Sleep in, enjoy yourself, and simply hop on the old computer and do all your shopping from the comforts of your own home.

Travel is a learning accelerator

A speedometer. Photo: Nathan E / Flickr

"You'll learn more in your first month of travel then in all your years in school."  I've heard this sentiment expressed by many vagabonders far and wide.  Nothing will get you as interested in history, geography, art, architecture, economics, politics, and religion as being somewhere else.  Names on a map become touchstones for memories and faces of friends made.

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek (and former Vagablogging writer!) put down these thoughts in a blog post: Filling the void: thoughts on learning and karma.

Here's where Tim makes the case for taking your education out into the world:

Though you can upgrade your brain domestically, traveling and relocating provides unique conditions that make progress much faster. The different surroundings act as a counterpoint and mirror for your own prejudices, making addressing weaknesses that much easier.

Nothing like getting away from home to break out of your routine, and your usual thought patterns.  Going abroad is like the first step in re-wiring your brain.  New stimuli will force you to think differently, about a lot of things.

Language is one of the top things you can learn while on the road.  Nothing can beat full immersion for boosting your fluency.  I had never taken a Mandarin Chinese course before I moved to China. After one year in Shanghai I was conversational.  Although I only had one class a week, I had the environment to practice in 24/7.

However, learning about a language isn't just about learning vocabulary, isn't it?  You pick up on insights into culture and customs.  For example, Chinese lacks many of the honorifics you'd find in Japanese, when you're speaking to someone older or more important.  As a consequence, Chinese can come off as more direct and blunt vs. the circumlocutions of Japanese.

How has travel helped you learn?  Please share your experiences in the comments.

Traveling with a lover creates a heightened romantic energy

"Traveling with a lover creates a sense of forward momentum where it might not otherwise exist. The relationship adopts the motion of the physical journey, eliminating the risk of boredom and making the travelers complicit. It shows each person in a new, maybe sexier, light. A journey can drive two people apart, as they realize the different ways they handle fender benders and lost luggage. But if it doesn't, it binds them in a filament of romance and camaraderie."

–Elisabeth Eaves, Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents (2011)

Vagabonding Case Study: Los Fogg

Los Fogg

losfogg.com

Age: 36 and 30

Hometown: Valencia, Spain

Quote: "Take the firm decision of doing the journey first, and everything else will fall into place by itself."



How did you find out about Vagabonding, and how did you find it useful before and during the trip?

Like many, I read a blog post on Tim Ferriss' blog (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/02/25/rolf-potts-vagabonding-travel/) and a lot of what was said there resonated with the way we think and try to live: Time is money, keep it simple, slow down, don't set limits, etc.

How long were you on the road?

13 months and a week. We left in July 2010 and we were back in September 2011.

Where all did you go?

We traveled a total of 22 countries in North and South America, Asia, Oceania and Europe. We traveled westward through: USA, Canada, Mexico, Belize (transit only), Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, China, Mongolia, Russia and The Netherlands.

What was your job or source of travel funding for this journey?

I worked as a freelance consultant for software companies and Manu worked as a graphic designer. We saved money for four years, mostly by eating and drinking out less.

Did you work or volunteer on the road?

Working on the road was an option we considered initially, but we were quite naive in our planning. Our travel philosophy was "improvisation", but finding a job requires planning and… actually looking for a job.

But we could improvise some WWOOFing in Chile, and that was just the right thing to do at the time: we had to wait for three weeks for a cheap flight onwards to New Zealand and we were a bit tired of changing places and faces every two to three days. Working on a farm in the quiet bay of Metri allowed us to recover our sanity and get ready for the next stage of the trip.

Of all the places you visited, which was your favorite?

This is a very difficult question that we get asked all the time. We don't have a favorite place or country. Everywhere we go we tried to find the positive things. We enjoyed the tranquility of Metri bay in Chile and the pristine beaches of the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia. We were overwhelmed with the emptiness and silence of a night in a camping tent in Mongolia. We were excited to go back to Bangkok, and taste their amazing street food. The smiles of the people and children in Laos disarmed us. Our CouchSurfing hosts in Argentina were amazing and they gave everything even when we stayed with them during Christmas eve. Truly, every place has something.

Was there a place that was your least favorite, or most disappointing, or most challenging?

The crowds and gray skies of Beijing were very tiring. In Southeast Asia, anywhere in the Banana Pancake trail, where the tourism has impacted the local environment in a negative (in our eyes) way. Places like Vang Vieng in Laos, where westerners go to party hard, misbehave, and do the things they don't dare doing back home.

Did any of your pre-trip worries or concerns come true?  Did you run into any problems or obstacles that you hadn't anticipated?

Before we started the trip we were concerned about our personal safety. Specially in Central and South America. It was interesting to see how every country perceived their neighbors as more dangerous: "Are you going to Mexico? Things are tough in Mexico…. (in Mexico) Are you going to Guatemala? Things are really, really bad in Guatemala. Honduras? Now, THAT is dangerous."

But we were very lucky, and used common sense, and we didn't run into any safety problems.

Healthwise we were also lucky and we only had a couple mild episodes of food poisoning, altitude sickness and traveler's diarrhea.

As a couple we were also worried that being together, 24 hours a day, every day, would be very challenging for our relationship. But the opposite happened, we were confronted with each other's weaknesses and issues and, in the end, we came out as a stronger couple. As we say in Spanish: "We now know which is each other's limping foot".

Which travel gear proved most useful?  Least useful?

Our top three useful gear:

Headlamp: Useful when arriving late, leaving early or going to the toilet in hostels. It was also key in places where they didn't have electricity, and when camping. Or for reading in a night bus.
Earplugs: A quiet place to sleep is hard to come by when traveling on a budget. Late-night-arriving and disrespectful hostel guests; karaoke bars and discos; livestock… all of these can easily ruin your night of well deserved rest. Earplugs were so important that we carried many pairs in our luggage, jackets, pants, just to make sure we always had them handy.
Sarong, kroma or equivalent: Essentially it is a long piece of cloth worn around the waist by men and women in many parts of the world. Ours doubled as: towel, blanket, pillow, scarf, table cloth, seat cover, makeshift bag…

The least useful: Any kind of chain or locking device to keep our backpacks safe. They are heavy and useless.

What are the rewards of the vagabonding lifestyle?

For us, vagabonding was the living of a dream. The complete freedom to decide when and where we wanted to be. Leaving everything behind and living a simple life allowed us to value everything we have in our homeland. It also taught us so many life lessons in such a short period that we feel like we've lived a small life in thirteen months.

What are the challenges and sacrifices of the vagabonding lifestyle?

In terms of money people initially think that the vagabonding lifestyle is an expensive lifestyle, but it is actually not. The sacrifice comes on the earning side: by leaving our jobs and starting traveling we actually spent less money at the end of the month, but we didn't earn any money, so every month our savings account went down instead of up.

It gets very tiring at some point having to worry every other day about where you're going to sleep, making "ephemeral friends", moving around, carrying our backpacks. We missed having all of those things taken care of so we could dedicate our time to other projects. Towards the end we started missing doing more meaningful projects and work.

What lessons did you learn on the road?

We wrote a whole blog post about this (in Spanish). A few of the lessons:

In the western world we live very comfortably and we flush the toilet with drinking water
Adventures are moments to be remembered happen when you get out of your comfort zone
The best experiences, a beautiful sunrise, laughing with friends, a warm meal, don not necessarily cost a lot of money
The more expensive the hotel, the smaller the chances of having free wifi
Human beings tend to always want more
It is possible to live a very simple life. We don't need half of the stuff we have, and the same goes for the other half…
In every country people have to eat, sleep and move around. Even in the countries perceived as very dangerous. As a friend of ours put it: "There aren't bandits around every street corner waiting to rob us"

 

How did your personal definition of "vagabonding" develop over the course of the trip?

We didn't have a personal definition, but we had idealized the vagabonding lifestyle as something unique and rare. Right now there are lots of people out there that have left everything behind and have embarked in an unforgettable experience. For good or bad, that has also started to create an industry around "backpackers".

As the year went by, we started valuing more the experiences we lived, the people we met and the cultures that welcomed us, as more important than just following a guidebook and going where everybody else was going.

If there was one thing you could have told yourself before the trip, what would it be?

Definitely: Pack less stuff. Leave behind everything you won't be using frequently and everything you packed "just in case". You can buy stuff along the way.

Any advice or tips for someone hoping to embark on a similar adventure?

The biggest objector to a trip like this is inside our heads. Take the firm decision of doing the journey first, and everything else will fall into place by itself.

When and where do you think you'll take your next long-term journey?

How do you know there will be a next? Of course there will be one! Even when we were traveling we were already planning our next trips. We are considering some sort of trip where fly far away from home and come back by land, potentially using unusual means of transportation (horse carriage? taxi? hot air balloon?)

Website: losfogg.com
Twitter: losfogg

Are you a Vagabonding reader planning, in the middle of, or returning from a journey? Would you like your travel blog or website to be featured on Vagabonding Case Studies? If so, drop us a line at casestudies@vagabonding.net and tell us a little about yourself.

Jesus wants you to travel

"Is there a more compressed and charming religious exhortation than the one in the Gospel of Thomas in which Jesus merrily recommends to his disciples, "Be passersby"? Too much fussing about place and home and ritual, and even about where, exactly, you're going to live, is unnecessary: be wanderers, dharma bums."

–Adam Gopnik, "What Did Jesus Do?" New Yorker, May 24, 2010

How travel made a rock star humble

Henry Rollins in concert with the Rollins Band. Photo: Pelle Sten / Flickr

Rock stars aren't exactly known for being modest, peaceful types.  In fact, we sort of expect them to be the opposite.  On a refreshing change of pace, World Hum had this Interview with Henry Rollins.  The former lead singer of the band Black Flag, Rollins decided to pursue his wanderlust.  What he saw changed his outlook entirely.

A lot of us can relate to Rollins' feelings about going abroad being a transformational experience.  This is especially true for that first trip, where you start as one person, but come back after the trip as someone else.  Rollins describes it this way:

You come back humbled and you bring that into your life. It's made me much more tolerant of other peoples—and I'm not saying I used to be a misogynist, or I used to be a racist, that was never my problem. But I can be extremely headstrong, impatient, rude. Like, "Hurry up, man. What's your problem? Get out of my way." That sentiment comes easy to me. Going to these countries, you realize none of that is necessary, none of it's cool, it's nothing Abraham Lincoln would do, and so why are you doing it? Those are the lessons I've learned.

There is a certain irony in that we go overseas to see a foreign country.  What happens is that we end up seeing ourselves, and our home country, in a whole new way.  When you're able to see first-hand the impact your country has on another one, the results are unforgettable.

Rollins also took the opportunity to give a message to the next generation.  His words, his passion, are spoken like a true vagabonder:

I beg young people to travel. If you don't have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you're going to see your country differently, you're going to see your president differently, no matter who it is.  Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You're going to get a sense of what globalization looks like.

How did travel change you?  Please share your experiences in the comments.

Travel makes routine experiences new again

"Leave home, leave the country, leave the familiar. Only then can routine experiences — buying bread, eating vegetables, even saying hello — become new all over again."

–Anthony Doerr, Four Seasons in Rome (2007)

Vagabonding Case Study: Gary Williams

Gary Williams

garywilliams.co.uk/tag/travel-lifestyle

Age: 40

Hometown: London, U.K.

Quote: "It's been a radically liberating experience. I feel free to live my life the way I want unencumbered by superfluous 'stuff'.."

How did you find out about Vagabonding, and how did you find it useful before and during the trip?

About 18 months ago I came across Tim Ferriss' 'The Four Hour Work Week' and through that I discovered Rolf's 'Vagabonding'. Together, they fuelled and a genuine lifestyle change.

Through Rolf I learned that by spending less I could afford to work less, and that mean't more time for what's really important: time and experiences, not money and "stuff". One quote from Ed Buryn in Vagabonding really stayed with me, "Money, of course, is still needed to survive, but time is what you need to live."

How long were you on the road?

It's ongoing. About half my life is spent working on cruise ships (usually for just a week at a time) and the rest is spent doing land work and finding vagabonding opportunities along the way. One place I keep being drawn back to is Brazil. When I am there I just have this sense of belonging.

Inspired by the beautiful music, I started to learn Brazilian Portuguese. Last year I spent about eight weeks there.

Where all did you go?

I started in the old district of Santa Teresa in Rio for the pre-carnival week, visited Paraty and Petropolis, worked my way up north to Recife, Natal, Fortaleza, Salvador da Bahia then took a boat up the Amazon, ending up at the Amazonian capital: Manaus. From there I flew to Brasilia then Foz do Iguazu for the falls.

What was your job or source of travel funding for this journey?

I am a singer. I travel worldwide with my job. Often, when I have finished a contract I ask my employer to delay my return flight so I have time for some independent travel.

Did you work or volunteer on the road?

I planned my vagabonding around various singing contracts in the same area, so after my time in around Rio I worked on another ship which took me up the east coast to Recife where I took more time out, then another ship to Manaus. From there I was on my own.

Of all the places you visited, which was your favorite?

Paraty in Brazil is a favourite. Others include St Petersburg, The Falklands, Queenstown New Zealand, and Beijing.

Was there a place that was your least favorite, or most disappointing, or most challenging?

Of course it's great to "see the sights" but our experience of a place is so often affected by the people we meet there and the mood we happen to be in. Alain du Botton, in 'The Art of Travel' says as much: "the true ingredients to happiness could not be material or aesthetic but must stubbornly be psychological." One moment that stays with me was hiking to the foot of a deserted lake in the Tierra del Fuego. Apart from me, it was deserted. The art critic John Ruskin encouraged tourists to take their time and really let every detail of a vista soak in, and that's exactly what I did. After about an hour just sitting by the water's edge, I turned and walked back up the road to see a convoy of six  coaches heading to the same spot. I felt grateful not to be one of those tourists about to be dumped off the bus with five minutes to take a photo and pile back on to reach the next beauty spot on time.

Did any of your pre-trip worries or concerns come true? Did you run into any problems or obstacles that you hadn't anticipated?

I was a little worried about safety, especially in Rio and Salvador da Bahia. I took all the usual precautions and was fine. I guess a little luck helps too.

Which travel gear proved most useful? Least useful?

I rely a lot on my Blackberry. It's great for travel information, uploading blogs, taking pictures and keeping in touch. The least useful was my boots, I chucked them in favour of flip flops.

What are the rewards of the vagabonding lifestyle?

In our culture, we give up time with our loved ones, put off perusing our ambitions and spend our lives glued to laptops and mobile phones. Well, I did, anyway. With luck we hope to retire at 65 and that our pensions afford us to do all the things we've been putting off. That's providing our friends haven't forgotten who we are, and we've still got our health.

There is, as Tim Ferris says, "an insanity of consensus, if you will – to get rich from life rather than live richly, to "do well" in the world instead of living well. And, in spite of the fact that America is famous for its unhappy rich people, most of us remain convinced that just a little more money will set life right".

That really struck a chord with me and inspired me to find a better way of living and working. At that time I was also juggling my time between a fire safety business (we produce specialist fire training DVDs), and an entertainment agency (selling acts and producing ready made shows). Financially I was doing okay, but I was never off the phone, always stressed and hardly ever relaxed.

Numerous studies have shown that living more simply and avoiding unnecessary purchases makes us happier than when we're obsessed with material possessions and money. Lusting after new stuff never produces the long-term satisfaction we think it will. No sooner do we have the latest, fastest, shiniest or coolest thing, an even better model comes along to tempt us all over again. Before we know it we're sucked in to a never ending cycle of working, producing and consuming – with little time for actually living. Sony, Prada and Tesco would love us to believe that shopping is all we need for a satisfying life.

I used to spend half my life on the phone. I loved making calls and taking them. I especially liked checking my voicemail and hearing: "You have 17 messages". I think it made me feel important and necessary – like dentistry. It certainly made me feel successful. Then one day I thought: "Who is more 'successful': the man running around like a maniac on the phone all day, or the man sitting on his beach with his phone switched off?"

So I decided to shed as many responsibilities as possible. I sold off my agency, restructured my fire safety business to run with hardly any involvement from me and, since I spend so much time away, decided to sell off most of my possessions and rent my home out. I figured the benefits of someone else paying my mortgage would be worth the inconvenience of having no place to call my own.

It's been a radically liberating experience. I feel free to live my life the way I want unencumbered by superfluous "stuff".

What are the challenges and sacrifices of the vagabonding lifestyle?

I've had to learn I can't have everything I want. At least not at the same time. As well as a life free to travel part of me also wants more time with my friends. I want a dog, I miss cooking at home. I love the unpredictability of my life, but at the same time I miss any sense of regularity.

What lessons did you learn on the road?

I like time alone, but not for long. I don't do well experiencing great things with no one to share them with. I love meeting new people. Thankfully, most people you meet on the road are super friendly and totally open to making friends.

How did your personal definition of "vagabonding" develop over the course of the trip?

I think of vagabonding as living with an open mind and open heart. Free from traditional  expectations and open to new experiences. I used to think of vagabonding as a way of travel, but now I consider it a way of life. I try to maintain the same sense of openness and wonder whether I am buying apples from a market in Lima or my home town. I think it's an attitude of mind.

If there was one thing you could have told yourself before the trip, what would it be?

Don't waste time getting to know people – jump right in.

Any advice or tips for someone hoping to embark on a similar adventure?

Don't worry. Plan carefully, don't be stupid and then jump in feet first and enjoy yourself.

When and where do you think you'll take your next long-term journey?

I have a five month work trip coming up in Brazil. It's not a physical vagabonding experience but I will be around Brazilians the whole time and hope to really soak in the culture and finally improve my Portuguese.

Website: garywilliams.co.uk/tag/travel-lifestyle

Are you a Vagabonding reader planning, in the middle of, or returning from a journey? Would you like your travel blog or website to be featured on Vagabonding Case Studies? If so, drop us a line at casestudies@vagabonding.net and tell us a little about yourself.

Finding local guides and experts through Guidehop

One of the payoffs of the vagabonding lifestyle is that the more time you spend in an area, the more genuine your experience can be. While nothing will ever replace the tried and true method — stay longer and you'll experience more — a new website aims to help short-term travelers find authentic local experiences.

Guidehop.com is an online marketplace that connects travelers with informed locals who provide personal activities or tours in their hometown. Whether you want to borrow a mountain bike in Connecticut and ride the best trails around, join a local for some backcountry snowboarding in Colorado, or get a taste of the street food in Austin while accompanied by a local food-trailer entrepreneur, the site offers a whole spectrum of activities, with new tours being posted daily.

Guidehop guides include folks like Aaron Bell, who we featured in a June 2009 post on hitchhiking. He's one of the guys behind the site, and he exemplifies the type of people you'll meet on Guidehop. Aaron is your everyday guy — he teaches at a high school in Austin — but when he's not at work, he's out exploring Austin's outdoor scene. Through Guidehop, you can meet up with Aaron and other like-minded locals to get the lowdown on activities you might otherwise miss. Contact Aaron to surf a local river, kayak at sunset while 1.5 million bats fly overhead, spelunk to a 50-year-old clay art gallery deep inside a tiny cave, or cruise his extra scooter and ride with the local moped gang.

If that sounds like fun, or if it gets you thinking of the brilliant tours you could be offering in your own hometown, you can also use the site to post the activities you believe make your city tick. As a local guide, this can also be a great way to deepen your experience of your hometown while making extra money for your next journey. For more information, check out the Guidehop website.