I am a huge fan of reading other peoples blogs about travelling and really love to read about their thoughts and experiences, I also love to read about people who are against the idea of giving up their jobs to travel. Most of these people (mostly) tend to be the ones who want kids and a mortgage etc one day, but me? I don’t want kids and haven’t found a place yet in the UK where I think “I want to own a bit of this land”, so I found myself thinking “what exactly am I saving for?”, “retirement” is what one side of my brain yelled while the other side yelled “travelling”. These are both good things to save for, but I do have about 40 more years of working to save for retirement whereas travelling I can do and work at the same time, thus killing two birds with one stone 🙂
Today I read a blog post basically saying that those who travel aren’t brave, but privileged, I can understand where she is coming from with this; 5 years ago I was living in London working for a hospitality agency barely able to afford to pay my rent and travel abroad was something that other people did. It is only in the past 3 years that I have had the disposal income for travelling, then actually realising that I too can access this world.
When I go off on my travels rest easy in the knowledge that I have earned this, I have worked my socks off for the past years to save money and have zero debt, I am also not funded by my parents; some of my friends have parents who pay for their travels which in my mind doesn’t make it such a rewarding experience O_O
One thing I have figured out after travelling to Vietnam, New York, Hong Kong & Canada then booking a 3 week trip to India, is that it is so much cheaper to book a one way ticket and travel on from where you get to then fly somewhere and back again for short trips. So travelling long term would actually work out cheaper than taking multiple holidays, flights are so expensive.
Take my tour in Vietnam; it cost a ridiculous amount of money overall as we had decided to book through Intrepid tours, I accept that this money might have got me further if I had decided to travel the country by myself but the experience was great!
My travelling plans; fly down towards Oz in March stopping off in Hong Kong for a short stay to see a friend from uni then heading into Asia before heading to Brisbane to start my year working holiday Visa and travel the country. I personally don’t think it is sustainable for me to travel long term just on my savings, I need to work, even if it is part time to keep my costs down. My plans after this is to head to New Zealand to make the most of their working holiday visas for the under 30’s.
I have just 3 years before I turn 30, lets go!
A thought on pretentiousness; why are people who travel considered pretentious? Some people are so dismissive and negative about what the world offers, they always look bored when you show them photos from travels and tell them stories of fun activities. Part of the joy of travel is sharing your experience with everyone else and talking excitedly about the places you have visited!
Admittedly travellers can be shown as pretentious in media, look at the Inbetweener’s 2 movie with that guy with dread locks!
One reason I was put off from travelling to Oz before is that the only photos I see of my peers are ones of them passed out from alcohol at parties; this is not what I am interested in! The country is so big and full of interesting places to visit that there must be more to the continent than being a giant Ibiza; Bill Bryson opened my eyes to this in his book called Down Under, he showed what a amazing diverse place it is; I was hooked!
BecksyMoo 