How to travel the world with almost no money

Nguyen Nguyen The Hey Hey people, I’m Tom from Croatia, and for the last couple of years, the world has been my house. I walked, I hitchhiked in cars, trucks, mares, motorcycles, boats.

I drove in the bus, instructs, rickshaws. I made all kinds of jobs, wasted epoch with neighbourhoods, I volunteered, and became a monk -just kidding. I skippered across the Indian Ocean, I tried things that I never tried before.

I’ve seen things that I will recollect as long as I live.

And all that with almost no money. That’s pretty much it actually, thank you very much. Most of the people when they see this video, they respond with, “Wow! I please I could roam like that.

” The thing is, most of us actually can. Before I started travelling, as Andrew said, I was a stockbroker, succeeding 9-5, had a lot of money. and then the accident came 2008, I lost my job, I lost the money, and I lost the meaning. At that time, I detected a website called Couchsurfing. I don’t know how many of you guys heard about Couchsurfing?

Ok, how many of you haven’t heard about Couchsurfing? Ok, for you guys, it’s an internet website that allows you to host travellers in your own home, and at the same time it allows you to stay in other people’s homes while you’re hurtle yourself. When I was hosting parties in my apartment, over 150 of them, by listening to their narrations, and attending the provoke in their gazes, my thought was, “wow! I wish I could walk like that.” But I was afraid.

The world is a very dangerous place, at least according to the media, our education, our kinfolk religiou, and so on. I was afraid of leaving my solace zone, and extending, by myself, into the unknown world. I was also afraid of not having any money, and then the people that I hosted in my accommodation “ve been told” two amazing things. First of all, you don’t have to be brave to travel, you just have to have a little bit of fortitude to start, to leave. And the other thing they told me is that you don’t have to be rich to travel.

Actually, all outlays while you’re walk fall into three major categories: first is transportation, to get from part A to time B, the other one is accommodation, and the last is everything else, food, drinks and so on. And they told me if you belittle those three expenditures to some minimum, it can actually be cheaper to travel than live in your own city.

I listened to them, and for the next five years, I’ve been travelling various regions of the world, with almost no money. And this is how I did it: first thing, I hitchhiked. Apart from being free, apart from being really fast, it allowed me one amazing thing, to have an adventure between top A and pitch B.

Now how many of you guys have ever hitchhiked before? Ok, a lot of you, why, what are you doing? I’m going to play you a short video called “Hitchhiking Guide”, time is to say a few unwritten rules about hitchhiking, and some of my experiences. There are other alternatives to transportation.

One of them is accompanying, you guys know what that is … How many of you guys know? So, you just take your backpack and hit the road.

Another way is cycling; it’s not maybe completely free, because you have to buy the bicycle, and eventually fix it, but it’s much cheaper than the conventional methods of transportation. And the last one is actually working in exchange for transportation.

I did this when I was sailing across the Indian Ocean from Australia to Africa. And I didn’t have to pay for the razz, I only is necessary to do some work on the craft, like some night watches, “cooking” and material like that.

When it came to accommodation, the majority of cases I exerted Couchsurfing, because I had a lot of know, got a lot these positive cites on the website and so on.

What I been fucking loving Couchsurfing “the worlds largest” is not just a matter because it’s free, it allows you to have a different perspective of the destination. You’re not destined is necessary to stay in your hotel area or make the sightseer tours.

You exactly hang out with your host he takes you on lieu that you would probably never visit by yourself. But also there some other alternatives; one of them is camping, you have your tents, you can sleep almost everywhere you want. In the big cities I typically slept in parks time have my sleeping bag and my mattress.

The last-place one when it comes to accommodation is volunteering. There are a lot of possibilities all around the world that give you to work in exchange for accommodation, sometimes even meat. So you get to sleep in beautiful chambers like this.

When it comes to all the other expenses, one of them is food, in rich municipalities and rich countries I typically buy food in supermarkets, which is the cheapest room, and just eat on the streets.

You can also cook with your host, which can be a pretty unique experience.

( Laughter) To say the least These are Germans actually. Sorry, it was pretty yummy to say the least and one of the cheapest.

Another thing is dumpster diving; maybe over 40 -5 0% of the nutrient that is being produced is being thrown away, and a good deal of beings “ve got a problem” with that, so they go to supermarket bins after the closing hours, and just take all the food that is not going to be sold the day after.

When it comes to potions, booze you know, the usual ty to avoid tables, restaurants and to drink in parks. This is how you can travel really really cheaply but one other thing when it comes to travelling is that you can earn money while travelling.

How to do that? I did it a marry day. One of them is busking, toy the guitar on the street. I’m not a musician. I know like probably four or five chords, and four psalms, so it’s like repeat all, you know.

People are legislating by, so they don’t really know. The most important thing is to have a story.

I always “ve had my” tiny cardboard, which I wrote, actually someone else wrote in the neighbourhood word, where I’m from, what I’m doing there, what’s my narrative. I think that’s why people donated a little of fund, some sandwiches, sodas, and so on. You won’t earn a great deal of money by doing this but it can get you through the day.

One other path is to write; you can write a blog, open up a Facebook page. After a while, you are eligible to maybe write a book, and so on. But what delivered me largest amount of money is actually going to Australia. This is a job I directed in Australia, I call it “professional traffic diverter”, it’s a very hard job as you can see, you tell people, “Please exit this room and not this way” I imply, if they are blind you know. So for this, I was getting paid twenty dollars an hour.

I’m sorry, I “ve known you” dislike me, and all that. Oh, well. Plus, I had menu and adaptation included. I know, I know. Actually, one message, this was on my around the world trip, it made me thirteen days of working at this job, to pay off eight months of crossing from Croatia through the entire Asia, reaching Australia.

So thirteen working days, in exchange for eight months of roaming. So, what have I learned on all these excursions? Have I met the meaning of life and so on. That’s what my momma asked me? Like “Oh, you know we were really scared for all these years, but was it worth it?

” and my answer is always “definitely yes”. I’ve learned a great deal of things, the majority of members of them are just like some personal nature things so I won’t be talking about that, but I likewise learned a few general results. so to speak I learned not to trust media, and all their “horror stories”.

I learned that we should preserve our earth, like it’s the only one we have, and the only one with chocolate freedom? I learned to tear down my prejudices, that was probably one of the most important things.

I learned that all the people around the world , no matter how much we try to point out the differences between the cultures, races, beliefs, and so on, we’re all actually mostly the same. I have a short story about these racisms that I encountered while I was hurtling.

When I was leaving Croatia, heading on my around the world trip, everybody used to tell me, “Be careful, it’s very dangerous, you know you’re going to hitchhike, going to sleep in other people’s homes and nonsense like that.” In Croatia, it’s still ok to travel, but as soon as you cross the border, and enter into Serbia … you know what Serbians are like.

Be extremely carefully balanced, individual might killing yourself. And I’m like “Ok, thank you for giving me the warning” and I cross the border enter into Serbia, astonishing escapades, shocking people I met, people picking me up, taking me out sleeping in their homes, really really amazing suffers.

I was leaving Serbia, heading to Bulgaria, and I was driving with a move, and telling him that floor, like how Croatians were urging me about Serbians.

And he’s like, “Ah brother, you know that is complete nonsense, Croatians and Serbians, we are all brothers. But Bulgarians, when you cross the border, enter into Bulgaria … you know what Bulgarians are like; a lots of gypsies, husband, you know.

Be very careful, someone might kill you.” Entering Bulgaria, the same story all over again. Amazing knowledge, people merely highly friendly. Then I was driving with one truck driver, going towards Turkey and I was telling him the same story how Croatians advised me about Serbians, Serbians about Bulgarians.

And he was like, “Oh brother, that’s complete sillines, Croatians, Serbians, Bulgarians.

.. we are all Balkan brethren! But Turkish people, oh my God! You know what Turkish parties are like.

Very dangerous, person might kill you.” Turkish people forewarned me about Kurdish beings, Kurdish people about Iranis, Iranis about Pakistanis, Pakistanis about Indians, Indians didn’t warn me about anyone, I don’t know, it’s like the last frontier, or something. Beats me, but yeah, it wasn’t simply a wandering exercise, but maybe a life lesson like not to trust all these horror narratives that beings were telling.

And one also interesting thing, when you come back home, people are kind of afraid of leaving, because they don’t know what’s going to wait for them once they come back. There’s a big probability you will be a star.

When you come back, everybody will buy you beers, the girls will be like, “Ooh, you know he’s been travelling! ” But after a while, it kinda get enduring; you’re tired of telling your own story, people are tired of listening to it, and this announce roaming hollow kickings in.

Then you actually have three options. One of them is to merely settle down to your old life-style. You still have your old friends, they’re still talking about the same things, going to the same residences, perhaps you can get your age-old occupation back, and after a while it’s ok.

You feel safe living there; but you kind of miss that guy who has been travelling, having this intensity wherever he goes. The second option is to take your backpack, and say, “Oh no, I can’t live here” and time honcho back to the road.

You will have that strength, you’ll meet amazing parties, have adventures every single day. But after a while, you’ll miss something; you’ll miss belonging to a story. Your friendships will be intense, but they will be short-lasting.

Your relationships will previous as long as your visa for a certain country. You will miss having a home. The third alternative is actually the balance of these two: so stay in one place, but still don’t liberate that strength. Walk in streets you’ve never ambled in before, start talking with random parties on the street, get a new diversion, find a new job, perhaps write a book, give a TEDx conference talk, you are well aware like all sorts of things.

So, is it for everyone, this type of travelling?

I don’t think so; with all the amazing things that this kind of travelling can bring to you, there are also downsides: it’s a big chance that you’ll be lonely and that you’ll be hungry, sick, homesick, but it all comes down to your gut feeling.

If after all these thoughts, and all these knowledge, you still have that, “wow, I wish I could hasten like this” then you should definitely do it. Then you should forget about your fears, ignore the facts of the case that you’re stone-broke, and he left, ability to the road. Because like that far-famed quote says, “In twenty years from now on, you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, than by the things you did do”. Thank you very much.