Backpacking, freedom, fleedom, etc.

Where are all the hipsters who have chosen backpacking as a 'lifestyle'?

Where have you been, where are you going, how do you finance your trips?
Why did you choose this 'lifestyle'? Is it because of the freedom or because you are fleeing for/from something?
Or maybe the sex? Or is it your curiosity? Or mayhaps a combination?

Let us searchers unite!

 

Where have you been?

- So far. India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia.

Where am I going?

- Who knows...Probably going to go back to all the places I visited last time (the above). But this time i'm definitely going to Burma, Vietnam (to teach english...I've heard how impossible it is to get off the tourist trail) and Indonesia...
More long-term South America is on my list...One thing i'd quite like to do is to take the train across russia then mongolia then into china...I've heard Iran is excellent so that too. Really hope it doesnt get invaded...Everywhere I suppose!

How did you finance your trip?

- Through lots of awful jobs!!! I'm saving again, going to take a couple of grand, when it starts to run out i'll teach english...Hopefully this way I can be on the road for a few years...

Why did you choose this 'lifestyle'?

- I dunno really, it just sort of happened...Was sick to death of my hometown, sick to death of my whole situation, knew there were alternative ways to live than what people were telling me and convince me to believe...I always was a 'spiritual' person I suppose, looking for the meaning in everything. None of the jobs I worked in gave me a sense of meaning and purpose...When I was little I was obssessed with maps and Atlas'. I had this globe that glows with a light inside it. I used to ask my father endless amounts of questions about each country. I dreamed of visiting some of them some day...
When I went to India and Nepal I found Buddhism, I started practicing meditation, all in all I became much happier...I'm convinced ending up in India was no coincidence...I feel it was very much a part of my destiny. It was always meant to happen...I always felt as if I was 'looking' for something from a very young age, hence all that obssession with maps.

Now I couldn't imagine going through my life without travelling! It's just something I have to do...If you told me I couldn't go travelling ever again my life would lose all meaning!

 

I just do it because living in one place is all the time and working is overrated, if I can save money for 6/7 months and then take off to other places and take it easy and travel around for ages without working it's a result. It's broadens your horizons big time aswell. It's cool going to crazy places and seeing how the rest of the world live.

I've mate a who's worked in Oz, New Zealand, USA, Canada and around Europe. He always live in cities all the time. Same as a normal life most people have except in a different city every 6 months. He gets bored of one city and moves on to the next. This is a pretty cool aswell.

By October at the latest I'll be on my merry way again of to South America.

Do you've any more adventure planned Bird Migration?

 

By backpackers/tourists or US/NATO/UN??? Both can ruin a place!

 

Indeed I have. Just working a bit now to save some money and around october I will probably fly to Malaysia or Singapore or Bangkok, depending on what flight is the cheapest.
In Malaysia I am going to meet up with my girl. I met her in a previous trip and after spending some time with her I will probably go to Indonesia. Or Thailand and Myanmar. Or Bangladesh and India. Or.... Wherever destiny takes me I guess. I do not make any plans, only to meet with my girl and just see what happens from there.

I did make some plans before, only to find out I never end up where I planned to. So now I just let the unknown guide me and it is a great guide. I always ended up where I wanted to be without knowing it.

 

Very true once you get off the plane your plans go out the window as mine did the last time, this time I'm just flying to Ecuador and taking it from there. I've a few places in mind but you always end up hearing about and other place and going or metting some people and travelling with them for a while. Tis the good life.

 

^^Exactly.

I have a few ideas where I want to go, but itinerys never work for me...I get side-tracked. Unexpected stuff happens constantly. Nothing ever goes to plan...

That's one thing travelling taught me very quickly. That long-term and meticulous plans are only ever in the mind, they never ever work out in reality! So why bother?

I've met the odd few travellers who are on a strict itinery and time-limit. They can never seem to enjoy the moment and relax because they are rushing around trying to see everything and constantly making plans about the future...It's no way to travel!

I really regretted buying my tickets out of india to thailand then out of thailand back home in advance...I felt tied down. I changed them about 20 times lol Very frustrating!

Definitely just buying them as i go next time!

 

interesting posts

Where have you been - Mexico, Guatemala, Belize & islands, Canada (BC), Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Czech Republic, Poland, Norway, Greece, USA

where are you going? - good question. to an extent i don't care as long as it's somewhere. in 2008 i'm doing a year of travelling in europe working in hostels. i really want to get back to central america though. i have vague plans for road tripping in the USA and also for going back to the conservation site in Guatemala that i worked for.

how do you finance your trips?
in the past i've just saved for them and then gone somewhere til my money runs out. but i'm studying for a modern languages degree & teaching qualifications so that i can teach english abroad, as i really need to work as i go.

Why did you choose this 'lifestyle'? Is it because of the freedom or because you are fleeing for/from something? - great question again, i have always thought it is because of the freedom really. but maybe it's a bit deeper than that. i've seen how my parents are stuck in their jobs and mortgages and just don't want my spirit to be crushed like that.

hey, i just came across a photo from this time last year. it was taken in belize, at a lovely waterfall spot where we stopped to avoid the midday sun while trekking. made me REALLY want to go back...

 

I live in a tin shack back in the woods and feel I have more freedom than if I were trompin aroun the countryside.

 

Greentree; So tell me about this conservation work in Guatemala? I'd definitely be interested in doing something like that.

Noticed you are from Oxford, not too far from me!

 

"Too many plans ruin the moment"

That's my new travelling moto i've decided!

 

I spent some time on a turtle conservation project called Arcas, in a village called Hawaii, which is technically an island, on the Pacific coast of Guatemala.

The work in the day was in the hatchery, and at night we did beach walks to collect turtle eggs as the females were laying. We also had to make sure poachers donated the legally required amount of eggs to the hatcheries, and used donations from the villagers to try and buy the eggs from the poachers.

It's a horrible situation with the tortugas marinas out there because the growing population of fishers on the islands mean the turtles just can't get in to nest. And the people there live wonderfully simple lives without creating pollution or anything, but unfortunately the fishing nets they use to catch their dinner inadvertently cause the extinction of these wonderful turtles.

They are so beautiful, but unfortunately you're more likely to find a dead one washed up in bits of net than a laying mother turtle.

It is a really crucial time for the sea turtles. Their population is now about 2% of what it was 10 years ago.

I love your travelling motto

yeah i'm at uni in Oxford, live in Hampshire though, where are you from?

<3

 

Hampshire...Well I went to college in Andover..So where in Hampshire?

I live over the border in Wiltshire, Salisbury.

And you are going to uni at Oxford Brooks?

 

No i'm at Oxford University.

& hometown is Petersfield xxx

 

goddamn petersfield. just round the corner from where i am at the moment.
is it me or does hampshire kinda suck?

 

petersfield's nice hee hee. i love hampshire actually. it's beautiful why do you think it sucks?

 

Tipo...nice picture of stonehendge...I'm living about 6 miles from there.

Andover sucks that for sure!

The area is pretty boring in the way of decent cities...Bristol and Bournemouth are about all thats on offer...But I really can't knock the landscape. The new forest is pretty beautiful. I only live a few miles from it.

Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Southampton are total dumps! As is pretty much every city in Wiltshire..

 

.

 

Where have I been:

NY, VT, ME, NH, CT, MASS, RI, PA, MD, OH, WV, VA, NC, SC, GA, TN, FL, IN, AL, MI, IL, AR, KS, LA, KT, OK, NE, TX, NM, CO, WY, UT, AZ, NV, OR, ID, CA,

I am ready to go to another country, Im running out of places to go in the U.S.

 

Noticed you didn't make it to WAsh St., is there a reason?