Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

by Rolf Potts

Ultimately, this shotgun wedding of time and money has a way of keeping us in a holding pattern. The more we associate experience with cash value, the more we think that money is what we need to live. And the more we associate money with life, the more we convince ourselves that we’re too poor to buy our freedom. With this kind of mind-set, it’s no wonder so many Americans think extended overseas travel is the exclusive realm of students, counterculture dropouts, and the idle rich.

said to me, “I’m living vicariously through you.” Don’t ever live vicariously.

On hearing this, the arrogant officer scoffed with envy, because the cities he’d visited were full of scheming liars, cheats, and wicked barbarians. Listening to these reports, the king laughed to himself—for he had sent both men to the same places. “We see as we are,” said the Buddha, and rarely is this quite so evident as when we travel. Unlike a simple vacation (where you rarely have time to interact with your environment), vagabonding revolves around the people you meet on the road—and the attitude you take into these encounters can make or break your entire travel experience. “If you view the world as a predominately hostile place, it will be,” wrote Ed Buryn. By this same logic, of course, a positive worldview can lead to inspiring, human-centered road experiences.

The secret of adventure, then, is not to carefully seek it out but to travel in such a way that it finds you.