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Backpacking travel near Dali, China

Backpacking Travel

Imagine waking up and every day is Saturday. You are alone in a strange place far from home. Your senses are working overtime to translate all the new smells, sights, and sounds into something that you are familiar with. Even simple tasks like getting something to eat require much more effort. The new challenges present stress, but the more of the culture that you unlock, the more confident you become. It feels amazing to speak new words and be understood in the local language.

You are “rich” by local financial standards and no one knows who you are. You answer only to yourself and your own conscience. This is a true test of who you are as a human being and you can reinvent your personality. You have the power to be anyone.

Backpacking travel in Dahab, Egypt

You bought a one way ticket so there are no time restrictions and for the first time in your life you feel as if you are “going with the flow”. You don’t even own a watch. You listen to your body - when it is hungry, you eat. When it is tired, you sleep. For probably the first time since you were a child, you are tuned to your body’s natural rhythms. You never expected backpacking travel to have made you feel healthier.

You start to realize that you are doing just fine with the things in your bag and don’t need much else. All the other material things you had at home were never really necessary. The size of your backpack keeps you from buying many things to take home. For the first time, you are actively trying NOT to accumulate things.

You were slightly shy back at home but here everyone is immediately best friends. You meet so many new people that you have to try to be alone sometimes. At meals, you simply approach complete strangers’ tables and sit, assuming that it is fine to do so. No one is hostile and other solo travelers enjoy your company. You swap stories, practice languages, and meet people from all over the world.  You might even find yourself falling in love with some of these people.

Backpacking travel is so fast and furious that there is no time for the usual protocols which prevent people from being true to themselves.

When you grow tired of doing activities or seeing things with your new travel friends, you simply part company.  It shocks you at how fast and passionate your new friendships have developed - reaching the same levels that would have taken months or years at home. You exchange a sad goodbye and swap emails, but the truth is that you will probably never see this person ever again.

The pain of the goodbye quickly fades because the weight of your rucksack digging into your shoulders feels familiar and welcomed. Its the same way that you were transported to this magical place, so surely there must be new adventures waiting down the road. New experiences, new dangers, new friendships waiting to be made. The sweat tickles down the side of your forehead and the road stretches out in front of you. You can literally choose any direction on a map to go and no one will say anything different.

The freedom of backpacking travel is intoxicating to you.

Ko Lanta, Thailand

When you reach the next island, you start all over. You learn the town, the names, the other traveler’s faces all over again. Every day is spent walking in the jungle, exploring temples, caves, and scuba diving. Stuff that should probably be dangerous, but at the time it makes your body vibrate with survival. You are getting so much sunshine and exercise that you have never felt healthier or more energetic in your life.

backpacking travel party

At night, you party continuously. Unless you are sick, you go out and party the night away with other backpackers - it is expected. Everyone dances like its their last night on earth…and if you mess up on your deep dive tomorrow morning, it could be.

Your home, which waits thousands of miles away, seems like something that happened in a dream a long time ago. You start to loose all sense of time. You are not sure what you are going to do when your year of backpacking travel is over.

Inevitably one day you find yourself standing at the airport back in your home country. It feels foreign to see so many other people of your same race in one place. You almost want to grab a few of them and start telling them mad tales of your adventures over the last year. Your friendly attempts are seldom returned here, these people are all in a hurry to either earn or spend money.

At home, it seems like everything is moving in slow motion.  You no longer negotiate prices and you can’t believe how expensive things are. You still convert the prices to the currency that you just left. Life is too easy here and you are growing bored. There are no giant spiders or centipedes under your mattress here to keep you guessing.

For a while, you still meet people equally as fast because no one else is playing by the backpacking travel rules like you are. It still seems like you are still traveling for some reason. You still take your shoes off at the door and you are not used to having so many clothes to choose from in the closet. You retain your new backpacking travel habits and you are proud to be different - you earned it.

Backpacking in Vang Vieng, Laos

At first, it feels great to be home. You missed your friends and family. You try to share your stories and answer their “so how was it?” questions but you find that you cannot relate. They nod as if they understood and usually start talking about something else. They barely even acknowledged the fact that you were swimming with sharks a few weeks ago or that you found a thousand year old temple.

As the excitement of being home turns more into frustration, you find yourself parked in front of the computer. It is the magical link to your lost travel friends. You take in their reports from the field and find yourself wishing that you were back out there.

More and more, you find yourself in front of the computer, checking email dozens of times a day. You know flight prices by heart. You crave news from that magical world you left behind a couple of months ago. You spend all of your time looking through journal entries and pictures. The rift between you and some of your dearest friends at home has widened. You are very different now and both of you know it. All that you want to talk about is travel and people don’t like that.

As it becomes more and more apparent that your old daily life will never be the same, your discontent grows. All you can think about is getting back to that magic place, stepping over the snakes, and dancing the night away with those strangers. You would do anything to smell the ocean again. It never even occurred to you that backpacking travel would change your life so much.

One day, even though you can’t afford it, you sit down and book another ticket and relief rushes through your body.

Once again you are alone in a strange place far from home. Your senses are working overtime to translate all the new smells……

Sound frightening or inviting?

You decided, then check out my backpacking travel guide with

tips and advice on how to get on the road.