Posted: 06/09/2011 | June 11th, 2011
It’s the people you satisfy that make travel the rich, lively experience that it is. They shape our memories a lot more than the places themselves. They can make a poor location good, or a excellent location bad. They show us about what we like or don’t like in others.
They radiate lights on our ignorance as well as show us about ourselves.
And as I technique five years of travel, I want to take a long time to mention the five people (or groups of people) who have had the most effect on my journey:
Greg – Back in 2006, I spent a few months in Amsterdam playing poker. (Yes, you might have called me a professional.) There was always this regional there who kept inviting me out.
Looking down at a big stack of his money in front of me, I was always suspicious about it — was he just going to rob me? However, after being reassured he was a great person by the other players as well as seeing him around a lot, I realized he was just a great person as well as agreed to his invitation.
He as well as some other players took me out for drinks, to their regular house poker games, as well as overall, just showed me the “local” handle Amsterdam. Greg taught me that strangers are not always out to get you. As somebody who has been on the road for a while, this is evident to me now. however when you are fresh-faced as well as new to traveling, it isn’t so simple to let your guard down as well as let strangers in.
Sadly though, I can never tell Greg say thanks to you. A few months after I left Amsterdam, he was killed during a robbery in his home. anywhere he is now, he is missed.
The unknown Backpackers in Chiang Mai – There are little moments in life that shape the whole rest of your life afterward. bit events that ripple out to type significant waves.
I never believed my two-week trip to Thailand would be anything a lot more than a break from the chilly Boston winter. Yet on that fateful trip in 2005, I satisfied five backpackers on a bus to a temple in Chiang Mai. Over conversation about exactly how absurd the two-weeks-per-year holiday system in America is, I realized there was a lot more to life than a 401(k) as well as 50-hour work weeks.
That little event ended up being one of the most essential moments in my life. A week later on the beach in Ko Samui, I counted on my good friend as well as stated I was going to backpack the world. The rest is history — all thanks to strangers on a bus.
The Ko Lipe team – soon after Amsterdam, on a whim I made a decision to go to Ko Lipe in Thailand. somebody told me it was good, cheap, as well as mainly vacationer complimentary — it sounded like paradise.
To bolo.
I ended up staying a month. While I was there, I satisfied Paul as well as Jane, a couple from new Zealand. We hit it off ideal away as well as ended up being quick friends. That was the very first time on my trip that I had truly bonded with people so quickly. I had believed of travel as a method to make friends, however never as a method to discover “best friends.”
But Ko Lipe verified me wrong, as well as years later they satisfied me at the new Zealand flight terminal as well as we chosen up ideal where we left off. This experience opened me as much as the concept that, even in a blink of an eye, you can make lifelong friends.
Anna the Ex – I don’t commonly talk about my dating life, other than to mention that it is often difficult to date on the road. however I will state I had a relationship. I satisfied Anna a few days after I transferred to Taiwan. I saw her in a bar as well as just went as much as speak to her. (Lesson right here guy of the world: just go up as well as state hi. It works.)
She was studying Chinese for the semester. We dated while I was in Taipei, which — understanding I was leaving in a few months — made things very…complex. After I left Taipei, we stayed “together” in a loose sense of the word.
Months later, I went to Europe as well as spent two weeks with her in Vienna. It was difficult: Anna didn’t want to leave Vienna, as well as I wasn’t prepared to stop traveling. When I left, we both understood that I wasn’t coming back. We just kind of left it there, though we do often stay in touch.
However, my connection with her taught me that there was no method I was prepared for a connection that needed me to provide up traveling, as well as that I was okay with that.
The La Tomatina Gang – like the people in Ko Lipe, this was a group of people that just clicked. There were six of us in a dorm room. Strangers from around the world, however we hit it off ideal away.
For the next week, we were all inseparable. When we moved on to Barcelona, people commented on exactly how close we were, which, provided that we were all from different parts of the world, was odd.
“How lots of years have you understood each other?” they would ask.
“About a week,” we replied.
But often people just connect, as weAko gang z La Tomatina bol tip, že je to možné nielen vtedy, keď cestujete, aj keď často.
A v najlepšom príklade presne toho, ako sa veci nikdy nezmenia, o rok neskôr som oslavoval Deň vďakyvzdania s dvojitými súrodencami z tejto skupiny, ako aj s ich rodinou, ako aj to, že sme boli dobrí priatelia, ktorí zvažovali toto detstvo.
Samozrejme by som tam bol na Deň vďakyvzdania!
Život je plný cudzincov, ktorí formujú naše životy, skvelé aj zlé. Všetci ľudia, ktorých uspokojíte, nechávajú so sebou kúsok seba. Rovnako ako to bežne nepoznáte až oveľa neskôr. Skutočne o tom neveríte, až do nejakej melancholickej, reflexnej noci v budúcnosti, keď si sadnete, aby ste zostavili takúto publikovanie blogu.
Aj keď som na svojich cestách videl veľa pozoruhodných miest, sú hlavne irelevantné. Sú to ľudia, s ktorými som sa stretol, a zlepšili môj život. Sú to to, čoho verím najviac.
A bez toho, aby som uspokojil ľudí, ako sú tí, na cestách, pravdepodobne by som netrval tak dlho.
Takže, keď sa tento víkend otáčam 30, zdvihnem ich, ako aj všetkých ostatných ľudí, ktorých som spokojný za posledných päť rokov. Poďakujte vám, povedzte vám, ďakujem vám, ďakujem vám.
Ako cestovať po svete za 50 dolárov denne
Môj New York Times veľmi populárny sprievodca brožovanosťou po World Travel vám ukáže, ako zvládnuť umenie cestovania, aby ste sa uistili, že sa dostanete z vychodenej cesty, ušetríte peniaze a tiež máte hlbší cestovný zážitok. Je to váš sprievodca plánovaním A to Z, ktorý BBC nazval „Biblia pre cestujúcich v pláne rozpočtu“.
Kliknutím doprava tu objavte oveľa viac a začnite ho čítať ešte dnes!
Zarezervujte si cestu: logistické nápady a triky
Zarezervujte si svoj let
Nájdite cenovo dostupný let pomocou SkyScanner. Je to môj preferovaný motor Browse, pretože vyhľadáva webové stránky, ako aj letecké spoločnosti po celom svete, takže vždy pochopíte, že žiadny kameň nezostane nezostáva.
Zarezervujte si ubytovanie
Svoju hostel si môžete rezervovať s Hostelworld. Ak chcete zostať niekde inde ako v hosteli, využite Booking.com, pretože neustále vracia najlacnejšie ceny pre penzióny a hotely.
Nepamätáte si cestovné poistenie
Cestovné poistenie vás zaistí proti chorobám, zraneniu, krádeži a zrušení. Je to podrobná bezpečnosť v situácii, čokoľvek sa pokazí. Nikdy som nešiel na výlet bez toho, pretože som ho v minulosti musel využiť veľakrát. Moje preferované podnikanie, ktoré ponúkajú najlepšie služby a hodnotu, sú:
Safetywing (najlepšie pre všetkých)
Zaistite moju cestu (pre tých nad 70 rokov)
Medjet (pre ďalšie pokrytie evakuácie)
Ste pripravení rezervovať si cestu?
Pozrite sa na moju stránku zdrojov, kde nájdete to najlepšie podnikanie, ktoré môžete využiť pri cestovaní. Uvádzam všetky tie, ktoré používam, keď cestujem. Sú to najlepšie v triede, pretože sa nemôžete pokaziť a využiť ich na vašej ceste.