Yesterday, I turned thirty, so in a fit of originality I thought I’d write a post about it.
Simon At Thirty – The State of My Union of One
Category Archives: Our Travel Philosophy
Holy Crap I’m Going To Die! Why I Have A Bucket List
Sooner than I like, I’m going to be dead. It sucks, but there it is. It wouldn’t be imprudent to call my faith in higher powers non-existent and so, as far as I know, (and I’m the first to admit I know very little) this is it.
If I want to do any fun or important (or, hopefully, fun AND important) stuffs, then I had really better get on with it.
The Benefits of Selling Everything You Own
It’s been five months since we sold almost everything we owned and embarked on our Never Ending Voyage. It’s been a long, hard trip. Each morning I wake up and think about all the cool stuff I left behind:
“This Paraguayan sunrise sucks,” I’ll lament.
“If only I could be back in Manchester, sitting on my Ikea couch and watching the latest Michael Bay DVD on my huge Sony TV.”
OK, so I never actually owned a huge Sony TV and I’m never likely to say that about Michael Bay – dude raped my childhood – but, really, I’m still very surprised at how little I do miss.
Even if you’re not planning to be as nutty as us and get rid of your house, your car and anything you can’t get on your back, take the money and spend it (Pensions? Pffs, pensions are for old people!) on walking the earth until it starts running out (the money, not the earth) at which point you desperately scratch around looking for a way to make more just to eat that month (on a totally unrelated note, I think you could do with a new awesome website), there are still some major advantages to be had from getting rid of your junk.
Our Travel Priorities
The world is full of places that you absolutely must see or things that you should definitely go and do. They are hyped up like a Hollywood Blockbuster but the reality is that they are never going to be able to live up to the carefully crafted photographs and tourist brochure sales pitch. When you do go, they are often filled with bus loads of other tourists together with touts, tacky souvenir sellers and tawdry, over-priced bars and restaurants.
Often, between the little plastic models and camera flashes, you get a glimpse of why these places are popular – they are stunning examples of natural beauty or testaments to the abilities of humanity. Walking around to the far side of Uluru, away from the crowds and surrounded by flat desert for miles around, we began to get a sense of the natural majesty of this huge rock. Unfortunately, unless it is a large rock surrounded by flat plains, it’s often difficult to get this sense of place.
We found that the magical experiences that made our last trip came when we least expected them, in places not renowned for their stunning natural beauty or impressive neo-classical architecture. Being given sweets and nuts by a lavish wedding party as we wandered through a random Indian town; serenaded by our homestay host on a starlit canoe ride home after a night at a local bar; or weaving our own textiles in Laos, our favourite memories are of places that you’ve never heard of before doing things that we’ve never done before.
For our new nomadic lifestyle we’ll be seeking amazing experiences rather than just sight-seeing. Yes, we want to visit Machu Picchu and Iguazu Falls, but we know there is more to South America than the famous attractions, and if we miss them then that’s OK.
We haven’t planned our Latin America trip – not knowing where we will end up is part of the fun – but we do have a list of things that we would like to try and experience:
How We Plan to Travel Forever
A year of travel was never going to be enough – too much world and not enough time. The monotonous, sedentary lifestyle that awaited us upon our return simply fuelled our desire to make travelling a permanent state. The question was how.
Luckily for us, there are plenty of opportunities where, instead of paying in cash, we can contribute time or effort. This helps stretch the travel budget as well as offering unique and interesting experiences. We’ve tried out a few of these already and they have been incredibly rewarding, so we are looking forward to trying more this time.
Couchsurfing
Couchsurfing is a huge hospitality network where hosts from around the world allow travellers to stay on their couches or in their spare rooms for free. This is an amazing opportunity to save money and to meet local people who can give you tips about the area and even show you around. We had a great experience hosting interesting travellers in our home, and now we are looking forward to trying ‘surfing’ ourselves.