While we are traveling, we like to extract from our memory proven quotes that made us and many other people step on the exciting journey, either a short or long one. Here is the list of our favorite quotes, we hope that by reading them you will get inspired to step into a journey yourself.
“Peculiar travel suggestions are the dancing lessons of God” – Kurt Vonnegut
Monkey family in Rishikesh
“Not all those who wander are lost. “ – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Indian brother and sister in Old Delhi, India
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” ― Ernest Hemingway
Ashram in Rishikesh
“You’re on Earth. There’s no cure for that.” ― Samuel Beckett
A Ghat in Rishikesh
“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” ― Gustave Flaubert
Woman in Taj Mahal, Agra, India
“Because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars…” ― Jack Kerouac, On the Road
A cow and the road
“No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.” ― Haruki Murakami, after the quake
Grandmother with her grandson in Saigon.
“I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.” ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Kids playing with water balloons, Chiang Mai, Thailand
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” ― Henry Miller
Kid running to pigeons in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ― Lao Tzu
Many of my friends, colleagues, family members asked me why did I step on the road of full-time travelling, am I not bored or tired of moving from one country to another, of searching for new places to stay one, two or even three times a month? I can very firmly say– No and No. Full-time traveling is not an easy thing, especially if you travel on a budget and have certain financial limitations, plus if you are obliged to deliver things in time while traveling and working online. It is not always a road paved with blooming flowers, but it’s definitely worth it, if you are sincerely interested in traveling the world.
Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia
INTANGIBLES
I thought– “I am soon to be 30, probably in a few years I will be completely enrolled into family or other commitments, so this kind of travelling would become a bit more complicated (but not impossible), or it would just be more difficult for me to leave all my possessions behind even if only for a relatively short period of time…”
I doubt that I will surprise anybody by saying that living abroad is a great experience. But one important thing you should remember is that full-time travelling or working abroad is not something irreversible, you can always come back whenever you want. You will bring new valuable experience, ideas, views and the most important, you will come back a different person, no matter how long you have traveled or worked in another country.
Yes, all these things are intangible, they will not bring immediate material effects into your life, but they will definitely reshape your mindset and your perception of the world. You will learn how to get out of ridiculous and unexpected situations, how to read people without talking to them, you will learn that classifying a culture or country as “bad”, “best”, “worst” or “retrograde” doesn’t really work. You will meet various political and social systems, unusual solutions, you will compare them with your own, then make out of that a conclusion, and learn from all of these.
Lotus Temple, New Delhi, India
GIVE ME A REASON
We met on our way many people from very different parts of the world. All of them had their own, very personal reasons for travelling the world: simply to experience new things, to get out of their comfort zones, obtaining a better understanding of themselves, and personal growth. But there is one thing, that is definitely similar in all these people – the need and desire to witness all the possibilities and varieties of lifestyles that exist here, in our world.
The key word here is “OUR”. It can sound a bit cliche, but unfortunately, this idea has not yet been embraced by everybody. Many of us continue building cultural walls, excluding ourselves from the circle of comprehensive understanding, still believing that “we are all too different” to manage living in a basic level of unity. Maybe now I sound a bit pathetic, and if so take it as an excuse to smile.
Nepalese woman in traditional clothes, Pokhara valley, Nepal
Portrait of Nepalese man relaxing by the Phewa’s lakeside
FEAR OF THE UNKOWN
We are all biased by deeply rooted prejudices, constant media brain wash, respectful “expert” opinions, experience of others and fear of the unknown, foreign and unfamiliar. In the end, we are locked by the will of others, because we trust and believe the vision of somebody’s eyes. The “reality” very often contradicts what was “heard” and “told” by someone. Each time I traveled, my expectations and the actual experience differed. I ended up having better experiences than what I was expecting.
Before going to India, I was told to be very cautious and careful with my belongings and eating in local places. The advice was partly valuable for me. I indeed had some stomach problems, but that was my body’s normal reaction to the new world of microbacteries, to which I was not used to. It took a week to get used to it and in the end, I did – it was just a matter of time as with anything new or unusual. Also, it is known that India has the biggest amount of poor people in the world, nevertheless I didn’t feel any kind of pressure nor was I ever afraid of leaving my belongings in the hotels or guesthouses. In a way all the problems are in our heads, as my friend, Anna Stavenskaya, recently said in her interview with us.
Pokhara, Nepal
Rishikesh, India
WHAT ABOUT FINANCING?
And by now a question should have come up to your mind: “It is all great and amazing and I want to travel the world, but how and from where should I get money for such an awesome thing?”. And here is my reply:“There are so many ways to finance your travelling and moreover there are a few ways to make it cost fantastically low”. I will tell you a few, the most proven and common.
One of the most popular ways to get financing for your trip is to work for some time and save money. It will really require you to seriously cut on your spendings, but then you will feel proud of yourself and you will be able to fund a few months of travelling without any worries. I met a lot of people on my way who were funding their trips with a “personal fund”, made up ofpreviously saved money. Some of the best travel destinations are located in Asia, where you can get the greatest possible experience for a comparatively decent amount of money: from $700 to $1000 a month you can rent accommodation,buy inside fly tickets and eat a few times a day outside.
Boat ride at sunrise in Varanasi, India
Another option, which is growing in popularity very fast in our new on-demand economy, is to become a remote freelancer. Thanks to the revolution happening in the world economy and dramatically new digital marketplaces, by 2020 one in two people will work in online regime. The whole way we live and work will drastically be changed soon. Those who have certain digital skills, want to work independently and have the desire to travel, can do it nowadays relatively easily. It is easy to make a beginners income from $500 to $2500 if you have skills that you can sell remotely.
Smiling Tibetan Monks in Dharamsala, India
Cambodian Sisters in Phnom Penh
Old man in RIshikesh
Indian girl in Red Fort, Delhi, India
Another great way to partly fund your traveling is to involve yourself in volunteering projects, which can be easily found, especially in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. For example, by teaching locals your native language, you can be granted free accomodation and/or free meals. We met a wonderful french couple in India, which has been living for a long time in Kazakhstan, in the house of a local family, in exchange of French classes to their children. You can choose other fields, such as teaching art or computer literacy, just check some websites of reliable volunteering organizations working around the world or take a peek at www.workaway.info. In some programs you can even earn a bit of extra cash for your travels. Also, you can check expat portals in a specific country for the vacancies regarding private language tutoring – for English native speakers the demand is pretty high.
Dressed up with the help of our host family and ready to take part in the ceremony, Bali
No doubt, staying with a local family is the best option to immerse yourself fully with local culture, learn the language and get some tips about the location you are visiting. That is, if you don’t mind loosing a bit of privacy. For this there are two popular ways: one is couchsurfing and the other is airbnb. The first option is free, but requires from you availability and the right mindset. The second is a room or flat rental system, which allows you to rent directly from the locals. Sometimes rooms in peoples houses,other timeentireapartments.
Local family with whom we stayed in Bukit, Bali
WHAT DID I LEARN?
The more world you see – the more open you become to others and surprisingly to yourself. I’ve stopped judging other people and other countries in terms of “the worst” or “the best”. I’ve learnt that even a slight judgement requires you to spend a lot of time learning the history, understanding the culture and being aware of the current context of the person or country you are judging.
In India, I was surprised how poor people accept their situation and destiny. It could be easily explained by deeply rooted ideas that come from Hinduism – you get what you deserve on the merit of what you’ve done in your previous life. That is why many of these people don’t even try to change their lives.
By traveling, I ceased to take seriously any nationalism, and become less prone to digest “traditional values” of certain individuals and countries.Global citizenship doesn’t seem to me a crazy idea anymore – it is something that is coming our way and those who are ready should embrace it.
I learnt that basically all people are the same, they want and strive for the same things: they want happiness for their families, good schooling, elimination of poverty and tolerance. All other things that differentiate us are becoming less and less important. Now I am in Malaysia, and, for example, only one thing here is completely unusual to me– it is left-side driving.
staygypsy | Traveling and freelancing 