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COMMENT OR QUESTION:
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Dear Andy.
I am writing to let you know I enjoy reading your newsletters. You seem to
have
a great life, reading your website makes me happy, but I do wonder
what you
motives are for the site, it must take a lot of your time?
I am 23 {UK) and looking to embark on a hobo travelling career!! Next week
I am
flying to Thailand to take my divemaster course in Koh Tao, I am also
hopeing to
embark on a online TEFL course. I would like to start a hobo career
there and
then but I am all worried about money and security - what if I fell ill,
I would
have nothing. I think I will try and take the tran-siberian tran from bejing
to
moscow and work my way back to the uk, commence with a 9-5 job so I can
save up
some money so I can make some kind of investment as my insurance.
I am not sure what to really write to you here, are you interested what a
strangers
plans are? Maybe as you have a comments box! Maybe it is so your inbox
is
full of self gratifying comments!!! I think not!!!
Without wishing to snoop too much I wonder if you have such \'insurance\' or if
you
live your life day to day so to speak!
I spent the last year in North America first doing a ski season I then spent
some
time in Alaska, Yukon, spent a summer in Montreal with a quick trip to
Cuba!
If you have any interest in my journey, you can check
http://members.lycos.co.uk/mtaylor/
I have a few things I would like to do, I am wonder if you have any advice or
have
done anything similar and if you think it sound cool!!
When in Dawson City Yukon, I met some Swiss guys who were paddeling the
whole of
the river Yukon all the way to the bearing sea. They had lots of pasta and
rice
and hoped to catch lots of salmon and not get caught by and grizz!!!
They
thought it would take about 65 days on the river!!!
Last summer me and my phonix buddy hitched the dalton highway to the mountain
range in the artic circle (forgotton the name now), We stopped at a terrific
little
community (Joy Alaska) in the middle of nowhere. There life was very
first nations
influenced, if your cold you fell a tree and start a fire, if your
hungry you go hunting,
if your tired you go to bed etc. They breed husky dogs
and lived a very simple life.
I would love to stay in this community through the
winter, with no light,
-30 temperatures and live the this life!!!
Cheers, Matt - P.S. All English are alcoholics!!!
ANSWER
This is an essential letter, although full of mixed and complicated questions.
I used this letter to add a couple of FAQs to my Frequently Asked Questions page
I am making to help me deal with great questions faster.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/faqs/What motivates you? The website and
newsletter must take a lot of work.
My motivation has always been simple, I wanted enough money to travel,
and to continue to travel. Presently I have achieved my goal of having enough
money to travel, so now I ask myself the same question, why work when I am
living comfortable and happy. I suppose partly to quote my friend Walt,
"That is who I are."
I have woke every morning for the last 18 years at around 6:00 am and fiddled
around with work or tried to categorize my life first on a yellow legal pad, and
now on a computer, but this is what I do every morning. It keeps me regular.
routine is my security blanket, my best friend, and sometimes keeps me
from accepting a new challenge.
I quit drinking alcohol about 18 years ago, and I needed to change.
So I changed.
Most travelers make their trip and endless party, they are on vacation, and use
this as an excuse to be someone else, therefore they are radically different on
their trip, when they go home they become someone else again. For me, I am
about the same traveling as I was home in Indiana, just a different dance.
I am very curious.
I am endlessly curious.
The world is endless, there is always another corner to go investigate.
I like to help people, on the other hand, I do believe the best help I can lend
to
people is to let them know all is possible and they are responsible for
themselves.
I should add girls to the list of motivations, I suppose one day I will find a
wife somewhere.
Do you have insurance?
I suppose I am the same as the rest of the travelers in my class. No, I do
not
have insurance, I suppose God protect fools, but nonetheless I live under a
lucky star. It has become a thought though, although is one of the excuses
people give me for not traveling. I would do the same...
Except for ... I have no money.
Except for ... I need to pay my car payment, my house payment.
Except for ... I need insurance.
Except for ... Blah Blah Blah
Face the facts, you are afraid, or you jump.
Get a passport and buy a plane ticket, then you leave, it always works out.
That is what is great about travel, there is a path.
You will never have enough money, I will guarantee that.
I am endlessly curious, I am not endlessly wanting to buy things.
"A Life Less Normal"
YOU WROTE
"I met some Swiss guys who were paddeling the
whole of the river Yukon all the way to the bearing sea."
I can add that
one to my list of river trips and places to go.
Dive Master is a great travel job, it is stationary to stationary
however you can do it about anywhere. Never worry about earning money,
worry about how you spend money. You will earn enough to live and
travel, can you stop spending money and be a Hobo.
No house, No money, No job, No worries.
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COMMENT OR QUESTION:
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Hey Andi !
I´m back from Thailand , but it was a nightmare.
My friend had a very, very bad motorcycle accident near Pai
( 120km from Chiang
Mai)
in the first week.
She is still at the ICU in Bangkok.Her son is still with her.
Everything at the whole body is broken.
But she can be happy, that she survived this.
She got hit by a truck.
so I´m trying to get back in normality .
It seems that your hostel plans didn´t work out.
Yes, but you did the right thing to trust your instinct!
Take care!
Sabine !
ANSWER
This is tragic and very sad.
The most dangerous part of travel is walking along the road,
and when a person makes a decision to rent a car or motorcycle
along the path. This is not Kansas, and the roads are very
dangerous, it is ten time more dangerous on the highway in
an under developed country as in the developed countries.
This means 80 percent of the planet is crazily dangerous.
Cars are 10 times more dangerous than AIDS.
I am not afraid of AIDS, I am afraid of people driving
cars, it is extremely obvious to me that people do not
care about other people until it is too late.
There are no grown ups, or adults on the planet.
People drive like children, honking their horns, passing
pushing and shoving, just like kindergarten, nobody can
wait their turn, they are behind the wheel of a two ton
killing machine.
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