Over the past two years I have had many friends make a similar comment along the lines of "I wish I could just leave like you do" or "If I (insert excuse) I would hope I could travel like you do". The truth is I am no expert on travel at all. I have never been to Asia, which from what I hear can make you a travel expert quickly in most scenarios. For Australia I packed way too much, and travelling light is one key skill an expert traveller must fine tune.
Let me get back to the point. There are most definitly factors in life making it easier to travel. I have a few friends who are able to fly for very little or for free due to their career or a family member's career. Other travellers may have a huge bank account. Some travellers have no money at all, and it is amazing how they make it a month in a foreign country on a shoe string.
So regardless of your finances the ability to be able to travel is 100% making the decision to do so. One has to stop making excuses. I am far from being wealthy. It is very nice to have a safety net financially while overseas for those just in case moments. I was lucky enough to have parents who didn't want to see me eating Vegemite and crackers two meals a day. I had to call and ask them for money to fly back to Perth for work. I was flat out broke! I would have never ended the AU trip with a bang if I couldn't have gotten back to Western Australia. Thanks goodness for loving parents! :) I also had friends back home via Facebook messaging me "Do you need money?" Knowing the option was there took some of the desperation out of getting money ASAP. Thanks for the offers True Friends! However, one doesn't have to be rich (with finances) to travel.
A traveller does need to plan SOME. Hopefully next time I can afford to Get Out I will be a little more prepared. Making the decision to Get Out, however, is the first step. One can begin saving money after deciding to make a change.
It drives me nuts when I hear "Dude, I would love to go take a trip like you have, but I just don't have the time." This will be spoken from a friend in there mid to late 20's who has a college degree and is far from poor. I always respond with something simple like "You just have to Do It." I know this is so easy to say, and I really am not helping this friend out any at all by telling him or her to Just Do It. At the end of the day there is most likely nothing I can do in order to help them out.
I did have help. Leah did everything but drag my ass to "Straya". However, she had planted a travel seed in lots of people with her Facebook posts, photos, stories and so on. I was the person I described above. "You HAVE to come over here and just see if you like it. Even if for just a month," Leah would phone. I would make excuses.
"I would love to, but don't have the money. I have a good job. I can't just quit! That would be stupid," were my excact words. Right Leah? Well I didn't have the money bvecause I just got back from a snowboarding trip with the rowdies. I didn;t have the money, but there are pictures posted on my Facebook from last month where I was crushing $7 Yagerbombs in some island with a cruise ship in the background.
Leah found a nice way to tell me I might have to ease up on some of those trips in order to make it happen. She never said anything about quitting my job though, knowing this was a decision I would have to make on my own.
If I would have known I could have the best job in the world working on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef I would have quit my States job much sooner. Worse case scenario is working a job you don't enjoy in a place you love. This sure beats working a job you don't like in a place you are just complacent with.
Being single also helps ones ability to pick up and GO. Travelling with a partner will isolate you from other travellers and opportunities like you wouldn't believe. Do not make the mistake of thinking you can go follow your dreams with your homebodied boyfriend or girlfriend tagging along. They will just slow you down or piss you off the whole time. Actually, this statement holds true to non-travalling situations as well. ;) Just kidding... but yea really.
Let's just make a bullet list of the things to consider to Make It Happen:
Let me get back to the point. There are most definitly factors in life making it easier to travel. I have a few friends who are able to fly for very little or for free due to their career or a family member's career. Other travellers may have a huge bank account. Some travellers have no money at all, and it is amazing how they make it a month in a foreign country on a shoe string.
So regardless of your finances the ability to be able to travel is 100% making the decision to do so. One has to stop making excuses. I am far from being wealthy. It is very nice to have a safety net financially while overseas for those just in case moments. I was lucky enough to have parents who didn't want to see me eating Vegemite and crackers two meals a day. I had to call and ask them for money to fly back to Perth for work. I was flat out broke! I would have never ended the AU trip with a bang if I couldn't have gotten back to Western Australia. Thanks goodness for loving parents! :) I also had friends back home via Facebook messaging me "Do you need money?" Knowing the option was there took some of the desperation out of getting money ASAP. Thanks for the offers True Friends! However, one doesn't have to be rich (with finances) to travel.
A traveller does need to plan SOME. Hopefully next time I can afford to Get Out I will be a little more prepared. Making the decision to Get Out, however, is the first step. One can begin saving money after deciding to make a change.
It drives me nuts when I hear "Dude, I would love to go take a trip like you have, but I just don't have the time." This will be spoken from a friend in there mid to late 20's who has a college degree and is far from poor. I always respond with something simple like "You just have to Do It." I know this is so easy to say, and I really am not helping this friend out any at all by telling him or her to Just Do It. At the end of the day there is most likely nothing I can do in order to help them out.
I did have help. Leah did everything but drag my ass to "Straya". However, she had planted a travel seed in lots of people with her Facebook posts, photos, stories and so on. I was the person I described above. "You HAVE to come over here and just see if you like it. Even if for just a month," Leah would phone. I would make excuses.
"I would love to, but don't have the money. I have a good job. I can't just quit! That would be stupid," were my excact words. Right Leah? Well I didn't have the money bvecause I just got back from a snowboarding trip with the rowdies. I didn;t have the money, but there are pictures posted on my Facebook from last month where I was crushing $7 Yagerbombs in some island with a cruise ship in the background.
Leah found a nice way to tell me I might have to ease up on some of those trips in order to make it happen. She never said anything about quitting my job though, knowing this was a decision I would have to make on my own.
If I would have known I could have the best job in the world working on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef I would have quit my States job much sooner. Worse case scenario is working a job you don't enjoy in a place you love. This sure beats working a job you don't like in a place you are just complacent with.
Being single also helps ones ability to pick up and GO. Travelling with a partner will isolate you from other travellers and opportunities like you wouldn't believe. Do not make the mistake of thinking you can go follow your dreams with your homebodied boyfriend or girlfriend tagging along. They will just slow you down or piss you off the whole time. Actually, this statement holds true to non-travalling situations as well. ;) Just kidding... but yea really.
Let's just make a bullet list of the things to consider to Make It Happen:
- Stop making excuses! If your excuse is $money$ then stop eating out so much. Take your lunch to work. I eat rice and soup almost every day here at the nuclear plant. Soup or tuna with crackers. Ease up on all those weekend trips while you save. Start living like a traveller now. I still eat Vegemite and crackers almost daily because it 1. Is DELICIOUS 2. Is Cheap 3. Is Substance.
- Don't over plan and over prep. I bought the first sailboat I looked at off of Craig's List. What... The... HELL! It floated. I got so sick of reading buying guides online. It turns out most sailors are super anal about EVERYTHING. One cannot travel like this. You will be miserable the first time you miss a flight, loose a passport, get lost... The first night I slept on the Millennium Falcon it rained. I had to curl up in a "C" shape in my sleeping bag because there is a leak somewhere and it finds it's way to the center of the rear birth (bedroom). I sleep in the front of the boat now (I haven't found the leak yet). "Boats leak!" according to my neighbor, David, here at the Marina. Don;t let small details crowd the overall big picture. Buy the ticket and go. Things will work out. They have to! It will take very little time to realise not knowing where you will sleep tonight is not a big deal. If a homeless person can park bench it then I can too.
- Travel alone. You will not be alone! There will be many others who are going though the same culture shocks and life changes. It will bond you and much laughter comes from being lost or realising all the hostels are fully booked. If you are lucky enough to be with someone who is an awesome travel mate then you can throw this out and CONGRATS. I want to read your story about how things went the first time you got lost and she was cool with it. :) I consider "being lost" to be completely the same as "going exploring".
- Travel light! My budy Traugh has covered this very well. So here is a link to his info on "Packing Light". http://www.dorkygringo.com/packing-light.html Thanks for this great write up bud!
- Don't worry about age. Nobody asked, and nobody cared. Most of my friends were 20-25. I was most always the oldest in the group (except for Jed the "Jedi" ya old c%#t).
- Don't worry about losing friends back home. If they are a True Friend then they will understand why you left. If anything they will be envious you found the strength to put yourself out there.
- Don't worry about making a mistake. Just like every other day of life, you will screw up. You will get more comfortable at "being lost" or not knowing where you will sleep next. I flew to Darwin last minute hoping for work. There lead I had on work was completely false. The town was flooded with backpackers looking for work. The hostels were fully booked for the next week. I knew no one in the entire Northern Territory. I walked out of the airport with way too many bags. I was almost scared to death. I looked at one palm tree and figured it could be so much worse. I hid my SCUBA gear in a bush thinking I couldn't sleep in the park with it all night and it be safe. Things worked out.
- Don't be complacent, and stop settling for sub par.
- Have fun! No matter what you do have fun doing it. If one more person asks me "when are you going to grow up" I might slug them in the mouth. I had someone tell me "riding bicycles is for kids" one time. Man, your life must suck! You will see how important small things can be when you get away from everything you thought was important. When you are broke, lost, and alone you will actually realise you are rich, still exploring,
One of my New Year's resolutions for 2014 is to "Convince 1 Person 2Go2 AU". I had a push, so I will continue to push everyone I meet that is capable of doing a similar trip. It is easier than ya think. I will add this to my resolutions list every year until I help someone Get Down Under. I made $22/hr cooking steaks all night long while saving money to get to the next town. The job sucked, but what a story. I also made life long friends at that job. I did it at 30 years old too.
If I can help anyone with contacts or advice do not hesitate to email, call, I think there is a comment section here on this blog too. If I can't help I have many friends abroad that can and will. Thanks for reading. ~McNair
If I can help anyone with contacts or advice do not hesitate to email, call, I think there is a comment section here on this blog too. If I can't help I have many friends abroad that can and will. Thanks for reading. ~McNair