Been Traveling for a Year Now. AMA

Island said:
How hard is it to learn Thai?
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Ummm, hard. The way I explain it is beginner Thai is very difficult, while beginner English is very easy. However, advanced Thai is easy, whereas advanced English is difficult.

Thai has 5 tones, I think 86 characters in the alphabet, 4 tone signs, and many of the words are very similar to each other, making it a pain. For example, you'll look up a new word and find out it's "leuy", but there's 500 words in the Thai language that sound similar to "leuy", so getting the pronunciation down can be daunting.

For another example, the simple word "mai" can mean anything from "no", a question particle, wood, new, or mile. The word "maa" can mean anything from dog, horse or "to come", and I'm not sure what the other two are. All depends what tone you use.

On the flip side, Thai doesn't have plurals, tenses, and so on. So once you get your head wrapped around the fundamentals, the rest is easy, as it's actually a pretty primitive language. Getting the fundamentals down is tough though.
 


Wicked Ice said:
P8eACeh.gif
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Can't stop watching.
 
JarredLv said:
Got a few more for ya GW:

How easy was it for you to make friends as an American. Was there a stigma given that our government is fairly trigger happy with the drones and whatnot?



Do you think this experience was enhanced doing it solo?



Single greatest fear or worry going into it?
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It was super easy to meet people. I found travelers to be extremely open and friendly. You could walk up to most people and just ask to join them for dinner or to also hike out to this site and they would always say ok. But I did get a TON of shit for being American. It's pretty much one of the worst places to be from out side of the US. Back home there are no issues. When you leave the US you find no one likes the US. Drinking age, health care, education, gun laws, wars, even the metric system, everything we do is a absolute joke to the rest of the world. Most don't even understand how we are able to do anything.

Also because of our immigration policies we are fucked everywhere. Sure we get to visit places without applying for visa's which is great. But other countries have the options of holiday working visas. As a US citizen the only two countries in the world that I found that would give me a holiday working visa is Australia and New Zealand. Europeans get to live, work and go to school anywhere in Europe. Australian's and Kiwis (New Zealand) get to also apply to work in a lot more places.

At this point I kinda wish I wasn't American. Once you really get to talk to people and visit other countries to learn how shitty yours really is.

Going solo was an awesome choice. Sure it may have helped a few times to have a buddy with me. But I had absolute freedom to go and do whatever I wanted. Since none of the trip was planned out I didn't have to fight with anyone as to what place to visit next.

You are never alone really. As a solo traveler I think it made it easier to talk to people and get into the little clicks people formed. I am glad I went solo and would do it again.

Greatest fear...You know I never had one. I am so easy going that the worry of missing a flight or train just meant I would be visiting somewhere else. If I lost my passport all I would need to do is visit the embassy. If I was robbed and lost my wallet my credit card companies would just overnight me new cards. If I was hurt I had travel insurance and if it was bad enough flying home was only a flight away. I never understood why people were always so worried about everything. Just enjoy the trip and if shit happens deal with it and keep going.
 
Man, you've set yourself up for some bad shit by not looking out for the future. Just taking 1 year off work as a whole and not keeping any bit of discipline is going to make your return back to a 9-5 an experience like sending yourself into the ring with both Klitschko's.

I've travelled the world for 18 months too, not having a fixed residence anywhere. Although I have to admit I didn't get to experience an Everest hike (props to that).

But trust me, it's a whole lot more fun to travel if you can actually stay in places where you're quite sure that nobody will be banging a random chick 1 meter next to you in that dirty hostel room. Be honest with yourself, would it really be THAT impossible to get a campaign started that would've at LEAST covered your expenses (lets say 1.5k $ a month)? It's not like I'm complaining, more money to me. But worth thinking in your position.

I'm seeing it right now with a close friend of mine. If you're out of this business for longer than 12 months, then good luck getting back into it. Especially if your funds are low.

I agree on the part of being happy for not being American and travelling alone. Being European is the best thing that could've happened to me. Free movement across all member states, no International taxation if you're not a resident and the fact that any bank will still gladly open a bank account with my passport, unlike Americans, is gold.
 
Finaly got a chance to read this thread. Some years back I decided one new years that it was time to start doing some of those things I had always wanted and did a bit of traveling too. Much smaller scope, but it had a big and positive effect on my life.

To bad you didn't like India. I've been there a bunch and there is such a massive variation not many can say they really know it. Of the places you listed I am surprised you didn't mention liking Bodhgaya - since it is generaly clean and peaceful with a few unique things to see.
 
ricdes said:
If you're out of this business for longer than 12 months, then good luck getting back into it. Especially if your funds are low.
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I was out of the game for a lot longer than 12 months. Yeah, it sucks to claw your way back, but I'd say it's still easier than years ago when I started out with nothing and no idea what I was doing.

Once people learn how to make money and are able to run a profitable business, that puts them ahead of most others out there.

IMHO, the rest just comes down to putting in the time and work needed to get shit done.
 
ricdes said:
where'd you get that from - the bible?
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Pretty sure it was an observation of reality.

Following high school graduation in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Reed was an expensive college which Paul and Clara could ill afford. They were spending much of their life savings on their son's higher education. Jobs dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes, including a course on calligraphy. He continued auditing classes at Reed while sleeping on the floor in friends' dorm rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple. Jobs later said, "If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts."
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OMG, Steve Jobs didn't look out his future! He's setting his life up for bad shit!

The OP has had an interesting and fulfilling adventure. So what if he didn't make any money for a year? It's irrelevant. One good quarter and he can make more than most people make in 10 years.

src: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
 
ricdes said:
Man, you've set yourself up for some bad shit by not looking out for the future. Just taking 1 year off work as a whole and not keeping any bit of discipline is going to make your return back to a 9-5 an experience like sending yourself into the ring with both Klitschko's..
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Atleast, OP experienced what most people would never be able to do. A years worth of money and lost discipline isn't shit to worry about

If I die day after tomorrow, I'd very likely regret that I should have toured the world while I was alive and well.. Same for quite a few people I know who have the money to travel for years, yet all they do every single day is make money, work overtime, sleep, eat, shit and so on. That's all
 
jacky8 said:
Atleast, OP experienced what most people would never be able to do. A years worth of money and lost discipline isn't shit to worry about

If I die day after tomorrow, I'd very likely regret that I should have toured the world while I was alive and well.. Same for quite a few people I know who have the money to travel for years, yet all they do every single day is make money, work overtime, sleep, eat, shit and so on. That's all
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Not to mention its much better travelling when you're young and not an old creepy balding fat guy.
 
ricdes said:
Man, you've set yourself up for some bad shit by not looking out for the future. Just taking 1 year off work as a whole and not keeping any bit of discipline is going to make your return back to a 9-5 an experience like sending yourself into the ring with both Klitschko's.

I've travelled the world for 18 months too, not having a fixed residence anywhere. Although I have to admit I didn't get to experience an Everest hike (props to that).

But trust me, it's a whole lot more fun to travel if you can actually stay in places where you're quite sure that nobody will be banging a random chick 1 meter next to you in that dirty hostel room. Be honest with yourself, would it really be THAT impossible to get a campaign started that would've at LEAST covered your expenses (lets say 1.5k $ a month)? It's not like I'm complaining, more money to me. But worth thinking in your position.

I'm seeing it right now with a close friend of mine. If you're out of this business for longer than 12 months, then good luck getting back into it. Especially if your funds are low.

I agree on the part of being happy for not being American and travelling alone. Being European is the best thing that could've happened to me. Free movement across all member states, no International taxation if you're not a resident and the fact that any bank will still gladly open a bank account with my passport, unlike Americans, is gold.
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Starting up a PPC campaign is a gamble. The ads the lander everything needs to be tested and tweaked until its profitable. Testing eats money. If I started to get back into PPC while traveling and it didn't work out I would have lost traveling money. The idea of losing any money did not sound fun as it would have cut away at my trip funds. I stretched what I had out as long as possible.

I could have worked on something SEO wise and just done all the leg work with out paying for services. But that would have taken up time. I was in each city for 3-6 days so I really wanted to explore as much as possible and just live it up. So both money and time were limited.

Yes working 9-5 sucks but its not like I plan on doing it for years before I make more campaigns. I just need a stable income that will allow me to invest back into my business and still live. I expect I will work for a few months before I figure something out. When I got into the business I was working 9-5 at an agency and at night at home I built what I had. I just need to do that again. I am not so self righteous to say I will never work for someone or do a 9-5 again. I am humble enough to know where I am and to accept that I need to rebuild. No big, its not the end of the world.
 
Wow. What else possibly you could dream of. That's awesome mate. what part of the world you enjoyed the most ?
 
Not sure if anyone cares but I am bumping this topic because I finally got around to finishing the foundation posts on my travel blog TravelingOnwards.com. I have my galleries posted now and recaps from each city i visited. From now on I will be able to post more stories and general travel advice.
 
BeerNuts said:
Not sure if anyone cares but I am bumping this topic because I finally got around to finishing the foundation posts on my travel blog TravelingOnwards.com. I have my galleries posted now and recaps from each city i visited. From now on I will be able to post more stories and general travel advice.
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Nice choice of theme. It doesn't have that cliche travel blog vibe.
 
Token troll post: the more developed your imagination is (pineal gland) the less compelled you are to travel.

That said, good luck to the OP if he monetizes his site. Might as well get something for it lolz.
 
BeerNuts said:
Not sure if anyone cares but I am bumping this topic because I finally got around to finishing the foundation posts on my travel blog TravelingOnwards.com. I have my galleries posted now and recaps from each city i visited. From now on I will be able to post more stories and general travel advice.
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BTW, on your Hong Kong page, I assume you meant to write "felt like a peasant there". And in your profile, I assume you meant to write "wanderlust". Just a heads up.
 
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