Tips, tricks, and advice to help you travel the world cheaply.
In my old consulting days, at the end of every project my team would summarize our “lessons learned.” Nobody ever enjoyed the exercise, but it was always an invaluable resource for the next team. I did this for work numerous times, but never once took inventory of my own “lessons learned” in life. Now that I’m traveling, I realize the value of writing them down and I feel this is one of the few ways I can give back to readers of this blog.
Two months before I left the US to begin my trek across the world a friend of mine, Sean, asked me where in the world I’d be the week of February 9th, 2015. He was planning a trip with his best friend, Will, to Abu Dhabi and said I should try to meet up with them while I’m on the road. Sean still adamantly (and somewhat resentfully) claims I told him we wouldn’t meet up with him because I’d be in India, but in reality I couldn’t make any plans because I had no idea where I’d end up. Planning nine months into the future is a crapshoot even when you have a stable life and if you live a nomadic life like I do it's next to impossible. Fortunately, thanks to the month-long delay with my Indian Visa back in Tel Aviv, the timing worked out perfectly and I had the chance to experience a taste of southern hospitality courtesy of Sean, Will, and Will’s parents, Kurt and Lulu.
I’m rather surprised by how much there is to do in the UAE (albeit expensive at times), but as great as the country is, what made the experience for me was not so much the city, attractions, or even activities – it was the great company I got to share it with. Backpacking across the world by myself grants me the freedom to make spontaneous, unilateral decisions as I go, but there is a price: I have nobody to share my adventures with. While I do my best to share my stories with family and friends back home through this blog, it is a far cry from actually experiencing the events together. While cliché, it’s true when they say life is better with company - and the same applies to travel. Ironically, what started out as terrible travel delay with my Indian visa turned out to be a blessing in disguise and I had the opportunity to travel with two old friends from college, Sean and Will, who were visiting family in Abu Dhabi.
It’s 3:00 am Gulf Standard Time as my plane descends into Dubai International Airport. I’ve been up for over 21 hours and my eyes feel like sandpaper rubbing against wood every time I blink, but the dazzling city outside my narrow window instantly washes away my lethargy. From thousands of feet in the air I can see the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, conspicuously jutting out from the futuristic-looking city of Dubai. The mammoth structure dwarfs every other building in sight and appears comically out of place among its peers. As the plane passes over downtown Dubai, a rush of excitement fills my body and chills run down my spine. It is a uniquely exhilarating feeling that reminds me of the first time I laid eyes on the Empire State Building as I flew over Manhattan.
Whenever I mentioned my plans to travel through Jordan, the first (and usually only) place everyone recommends is Petra. Most people know next to nothing about Jordan aside from the famous landmark, but I was surprised to find out that travelers I spoke with unanimously said that there was nothing special about the capital city of Amman. In fact, many indicated Amman was their least favorite city in the Middle East and recommended I skip it entirely. Since my flight to Dubai departed out of Amman, I figured I should spend a few days in the city so I could formulate my own opinion. I had to at least Amman a chance and was delightfully surprised by what I found.
It’s been almost a month now since I applied for my visa to India, and I can already tell that the country’s notorious bureaucracy is going to be a thorn in my side for the next several months. Like with most formal visa requests, the Indian Consulate took hostage the one document this traveler never dares to go without – my passport. There is a tremendous amount of anxiety whenever I’m separated from my little passport; since my very first day back in Faro, Portugal over eight months ago, that document has remained with me at all times. To backpackers, our passport is a natural extension of our bodies and not only serves as our global form of identification, but as a sacred repository for our badges of honor (aka passport stamps). Thankfully, my time in “travel purgatory” is finally at an end and the Indian consulate returned my passport. I am once again free to travel to my heart’s content!
Ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come to reveal the biggest secret I’ve been carrying for the last year of my life – what’s in my backpack? (Yes, the bad pun is intended) Many people, including my fellow backpackers, cannot believe I survive off the contents of a single, 40-liter backpack (typical school backpacks range from 15 to 30 liters). I was a bit skeptical at first, but now that I’ve been on the road for over a year I can finally say with confidence that I know a thing or two about backpacking.
During my last few days in Dubrovnik I dragged my feet deciding what city I should visit next; Bosnia was a short trip to the north, Montenegro to the south, and just beyond lie Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania - so many choices! I wanted to visit them all, but the beautiful coastline of Croatia called to me like a seductive siren's song, luring me to stay just a little longer. The enchanting spell Croatia casted on me was difficult to break, and making plans for what country to visit next meant accepting that that I was intentionally leaving this wondrous landscape - a thought I couldn't bear. While I never planned to visit Montenegro, I crossed paths with two Finnish cyclists, Aarni and Tommy, who were both tired of the droves of tourists in Dubrovnik and were heading south to the towns of Kotor and Tivat. All it took them to convince me to tag along was a promotional flyer for 33% off a hostel in Tivat.
Never in my life have I been so repeatedly surprised by a country as much as Croatia. Since arriving nearly a month ago, each and every city I’ve visited ranks as one of my favorites in the world and Croatia currently holds the #1 spot as my favorite country. The last city on my tour of the Croatian coastline, Dubrovnik, came highly recommended by my fellow travelers, many of who ranked it as their favorite city in the entire country. Considering how amazing Croatia has been so far, the rave reviews from travelers, and my fascination with the Game of Thrones TV series - I had very high hopes for Dubrovnik.
If I haven’t stressed this enough through my myriad of posts thus far, permit me to reiterate once more: the only way to travel is without a schedule. I’ve taken trips in the past where I planned every activity down to the hour, but the single greatest aspect of traveling for a year is learning how to genuinely wander - I have absolutely no schedule and no place to be other than where I am right now. I've yet to experience a greater joy on this trip than to spontaneously change my mind at the last minute. Hvar is such an incredible city; simply lounging around town on the beaches, park benches, and in the various cafes is an unbelievable experience and I couldn’t bare to part ways with it. I really didn’t want to leave…
