Are you ready for a few weeks or months in a developing country or region? Almost any physical item imaginable, like a backpack, clothes, toiletries even shots (should you deem them necessary) can -- and perhaps some cases should -- be acquired at your destination. Therefore, what do you really need? Without further banter, I present to you the following five intangibles.
Behold!…
- A bit of money
- No commitment to a job
- No commitment to personal or family relationships
- The proper documentation
- The traveling spirit
Let’s break each of these down.
FIRST – A BIT OF MONEY
How much money? This of course depends on how you travel.
I would say that, in the budget-travel friendly regions like Southeast Asia and the Indian sub-continent, I spent about $7000 annually. This is about $19/day. I’m talking about countries like Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, and Nepal. In South America, it probably worked out to about $9000 annually. Here, we’re talking about countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, and Ecuador to name a few.
On all my trips, I have been the very definition of a shoestring traveler. I consistently looked for the cheapest places to stay, ate street food incessantly, and traveled by overland public transport. I also bargained for everything I could, because I knew that when my limited funds ran out, I would have to stop traveling.
Yet I lived well like this. Wherever I went, I stayed in my own clean, safe room -- not a hostel with many beds to a room like in Europe. I ate three or more meals a day out. I saw all the places I wanted to see and met loads of amazing people. I partied at night. I even bought a bunch of stuff and sent it home.
Given the weakness of the dollar, and slight inflation in those countries, I’d say that in 2007 I would want about $9k a year to travel in Asia, and maybe $11k a year in South America in order to maintain the same lifestyle. Still a bargain!
Finally, there is the issue of how to carry your money. In most countries today, you can just carry a Visa or Mastercard card that can be used to take out cash in your home nation, and then use it to grab local currency. Just be aware that this may not be possible in the most remote destinations on the planet – some countries in West and Central Africa, for example, may be utterly devoid of cash machines.
SECOND – NO COMMITMENT TO A JOB
This is pretty self-explanatory. Of course, you can’t have a present job that ties you down. And you can’t have promised to start a job in the near future.
You might think that this would limit long-term budget travel to the realm of students and lifelong transients. But throughout my journeys, I saw long-term travelers who broke this mold. I met, for example, many seasonal blue-collar workers. I also saw people who were working professionally, and just wanted to take some real time off. See our related piece on how to get time off from work.
THIRD – NO COMMITMENT TO ONE OR MORE PERSONS
Yes, it’s hard to travel in the developing world with a family. But I saw some people doing it. I’ll never forget a Swiss woman – a single mother -- who was taking her children through Laos, one of the least developed countries in Asia. I met her on a rather uncomfortable bus packed with locals and negotiating a bumpy road. The kids didn’t seem to care – and when the bus stopped they got off and started playing with hill tribe children. She told me it was tough but rewarding, and that she and her children got special treatment from locals wherever they went.
If you’re seriously involved with a significant other, then it might be best to try to convince them to go with you. But beware: Is this person up for a long-term adventure? They too have to have all five of these factors present! Plus – are you going to enjoy traveling together for an extended period of time? Will you fight? Will your boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse be able to handle the rigors of budget travel? Or, like many people, will they rebel against living outside of a world of creature comforts? I have long believed that, for me, the ultimate test of long-term compatibility is a good six-month road trip in a hardcore region!
FOURTH – THE PROPER DOCUMENTATION
It is easy for those with an American, Canadian, EU, Japanese, or other developed world passport to take this for granted. Sure, sometimes we have to put up with red tape and even long lines. Getting an Indian visa in Nepal for example, required considerable patience. But I usually waited to acquire visas until I was in the region of my destination countries. And in the end, those from the developed world can go to most countries without problems.
But this is not so for all of the world’s citizens. Several people from developing countries mentioned that it was extremely difficult for them to get tourist visas because of suspicion for alterior motives in their destination countries. Others, like Chinese, face domestic obstacles to foreign travel.
FIFTH – AND MOST IMPORTANT – THE TRAVELING SPIRIT
The traveling spirit includes getting over the natural human fear that faraway, different and impoverished places are dangerous. Part of this is a realization that you will rarely be targeted or looked upon with disdain simply for being a foreigner. With a little luck, bad things won’t happen. In eight years abroad, I have rarely ever gotten sick or hurt, and the only time I had an act of physical violence committed against me was in Europe. Oh, and someone stole my old camera in Peru. But that’s about it.
All that said, having the spirit also means realizing that putting up with some occasional physical discomfort is worth the rewards of seeing the way the world really is.
To me, the traveling spirit also means making an effort to spend real time with locals and travelers. This might mean learning a local language, or just actively listening to what people have to say. Of course being friendly, open-minded, and well-informed is important too. And most of all, the long-term traveler better be ready to have some serious and uninhibited fun.
-justin
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