15 lessons from our journey around the world

15 lessons from our journey around the world

I mainly did not want to write this post because it is impossible to make this type of summary without sounding. I am sure that millions of words have already been written about the advantages of travel and wisdom that are gained from life on the street.

I have given in because a contribution like this feels like a natural bookkeeping for our year. We will continue to write about our trip and focus on some of the sights that we have not yet treated, but now it feels like a good time to think about what we have learned. Here are 15 lessons from our journey around the world.

1. Travelers can be the greatest bores

The author Elizabeth Drew once said: "Travel too often instead of expanding the horizon, only extends the conversation."

We have certainly learned the truth behind her words. In 5 things that travel authors do not tell you, we introduced the readers' Mark '' the backpacker, whom we met on Fiji, who spent 40 minutes to teach us about all the authentic, remote places he had visited in Tonga (all of which were in the travel guide ... and tripadvisor ... and in the travel schedule every backpack tour, the journey after the journey Tonga undertook). Traveling itself does not make a person interesting.

2. Travel can be cheaper than life at home

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How to save for a year when traveling, we explained that we saved £ 20,000 ($ 30,000) for our year abroad. We have reserved 25 % for transport and expensive things like our Machu Picchu hike, which meant that our daily budget for food, accommodation and daily activities was £ £ 60.

I suspect that many Londoners spend more than in their daily life. Between mortgages/rent, municipal tax, gas, electricity, internet and telephone, food, subway trips and leisure activities, it is easy to spend more at home than on the go.

3. It's okay not to have a plan

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Here is an exchange that took place in my third or maybe fourth date with Peter a few years ago:

I: Is 12.30 p.m. too early? We could meet in Canary Wharf, eat at Carluccio’s for lunch and then go to the West India Quay to see a film? It is buried at 2.30 p.m. The trailer is terrible, but it has good reviews.

Peter: Sure, but everything seems to be a bit unorganized ... Could you insert it into an Excel document and send it to my assistant by email? I will discuss it with the board and see if it is practical. Do you have data from 2009 that support this?

me: ok, pointed.

I've always been a planner. When we started our trip, my plan was actually to secure a good job after my return and return to real life. Now I'm planning our next trip. I have learned that it is okay not to have a plan or a career that automatically drive you higher. That doesn't mean they waste their lives.

4. The frugal life is not to be feared

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As a daughter of a immigrant from Bangladesh, I always paid attention to money - not enough to chase it behind, but enough to make sure that I always have a buffer. I never had a credit card before our trip (and the one that I took out for emergencies is dusted and unused), I paid off my student loan prematurely, I always paid my bills immediately after receipt and was generally super responsible with money -so far.

We returned to London and for the first time in my adult life I had no savings. That would have flipped me out a year or two, but today I agree. Our travel year was absolutely worth it. I would not always live without a buffer - but what use is saving if you don't use it from time to time for something great?

5. It's okay to have friends who only eat one portion

We shared a Tongan Fixed dinner with Natasha and David on Tongatapu and did a 20-mile walk with Mandy on 'Eua-and then never heard of them again. They had written down our data, but we couldn't take up theirs and they never reported. In other cases it was the other way around. We have learned that this is okay. Sure, you can add fellow travelers on Facebook for the rest of your life and exchange occasional likes, but it is also okay to spend a day or evening in really good company and then let you go. This is simply the nature of travel.

6. We are part of what we hate

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We did our best to promote environmentally friendly tourism on the Galápagos Islands, but we cannot avoid that we, as tourists, are part of the system, produces the dozens of fuel-eating boats that drive back and forth several times a day.

It is easy to complain about the crowds of the most important sights or to crow on how they discovered a travel destination before it became a mainstream, but the fact remains: All visitors are tourists.

7. It is easy to forget our innate privilege

The fact that we could travel the world means that we are among the most privileged people in the world. The encounter with clever locals on the street reminded us to check our privilege. to consider that we are not where we are through intelligence, devotion or determination, but where and for whom we were born.

8. More sunscreen!

If you ask yourself: "Do you think I need sunscreen?" Is the answer "yes". It's always yes. Our trips exposed us extremely strong sun and we were not always adequately protected. I don't burn so easily, but the sun dried out my skin. Sun damage does not occur overnight, which leads to complacency - but it catches up with it, so be loyal.

9. Pay-as-you-go is better than RTW

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We have already talked about the advantages and disadvantages of a round the world. For us, the Pay-As-You-Go model worked much, much better. It enabled us to spend a month on Tahiti to take a last-minute luxury cruise, to visit the Mauna Kea (the highest mountain in the world) and to take a spontaneous road trip to the USA. We will definitely follow this model on future trips.

10. If you travel with a guitar, you look like a fullidiot

At least a dozen people have proven this dictum. Don't do it.

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11. Sentimality is not worth the space

When Peter visited my apartment for the first time, he asked me if I had just moved in. I shook my head. "I've been here for about a year." He took a look at the bare walls, the unadorned coffee table and the minimalist dishes. "Oh," he said without understanding. He soon noticed that I am not in the slightest sentimental.

on the move has conveyed the same feeling of distancing. After he had only lived with belongings with belongings for a year, he realized that he no longer had to keep his huge collection of CDs, DVDs and dozens of band t-shirts from his time as a sound engineer.

12. We prefer people to people

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It may be taboo to admit this, but we do not travel for humans, but for places. We love to meet locals and are in love with certain nations (Fijians, Samoan and Cambodian are our favorite peoples in the world), but they are the natural landscapes and the impressive architecture that really attract us abroad.

13. Samba is not the sound of South America

If I had been asked to describe the sound of South America a year ago, I would have said Samba or Salsa. Now I know it differently. Really, that's:

This can apparently be heard everywhere and everywhere within the borders of South America. On Taquile, a car-free island in Lake Titicaca, we heard it from the banks of the mainland and found that there was no escape.

14. Traveling will not get out of your system

Our big trip should be our big trip, our only long adventure before we returned to normal life. Unfortunately we have not yet got rid of the travel fever. If at all, we have more appealed to visit places that we have not seen yet: Asia Minor, the majority of Africa, Greenland, Canada, the Antarctic and more. There is a world out there and we have only seen part of it.

15. It's not that difficult

Before I left, I was worried about how I would get used to life on the street. I mentioned above that I am a planner. I like to know how things develop and I like my comfort. I was worried that I would be overwhelmed by life on the street or tired or tired or bored. In reality it was much easier than I expected. Everything was easier: saving, giving up jobs, planning and packing, saying goodbye, the 32-hour bus trips, the delays, the cockroaches and even the end and the return. It showed me the real meaning of freedom and I still believe that it was the best decision I ever made.

Here it goes to the next.

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