When you are alone for days or weeks at a time, you eventually become drawn to people. Talking to randos is the norm. I\u2019ll never forget the conversation with the aquarium fisherman, forest ranger, and women at the Thai market. It\u2019s refreshing to compare notes on life with people from vastly different backgrounds.<\/p>\n
When you meet fellow travelers, you\u2019ll find they are also filled with a similar sense of adventure and curiosity about the world. Five days of friendship on the road is like five months of friendship at home. It\u2019s the experiences that bond you together, not the place. A rule I followed that worked well: be the first to initiate conversation. I met some incredible people by simply being the first to talk.<\/p>\n
Long term travel is different than a luxury vacation. The point is to see the world, not stay in a 5-star hotel. During the trip, I stayed on a strict budget. The goal was to spend no more than $33 per day on accommodations. After a year, I was able to spend only $26.15 per day by booking through HostelWorld<\/a> and Airbnb<\/a>. When I wanted to meet people, I\u2019d stay in a shared room at a hostel. When I wanted to be alone, I\u2019d book a private room with Airbnb.<\/p>\n Take the cost of your rent or mortgage + food per month and divide it by 30. This is how much it costs per day to live at home. You will find that it\u2019s possible to travel the world for roughly the same amount. Or, if you live in an expensive city like San Francisco, far less.<\/p>\n I was surprised how many people spoke English (apparently 1.8 billion people worldwide). Places where English was less prevalent, I made an effort to learn a handful of words and phrases in the local language. Even though it\u2019s passable, I do desire to learn another language fluently. You can only take the conversation so far when all you can say is: \u201c\u00bfEsto contiene gluten?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s possible to communicate a lot without saying a word. For instance, I left my phone at a restaurant in Chile. I pointed at the table where I was sitting, put my hand to my ear like a phone, then shrugged\u200a\u2014\u200a2 minutes later, my phone had been retrieved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you are alone for days or weeks at a time, you eventually become drawn to people. Talking to randos is the norm. I\u2019ll never forget the conversation with the aquarium fisherman, forest ranger, and women at the Thai market. It\u2019s refreshing to compare notes on life with people from vastly different backgrounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[109],"tags":[27,28,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandlanet.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}An universal language.<\/h4>\n