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Originally Posted by tedmagnum
All my long travels have been on a bike but i've considered backpacking as it's always seemed so much simpler and cheaper..
Then I think back to those buses full of 18 year old kids on "study breaks", 10 hour coach journeys to another tourist rip off destination, being stuck in overcrowded hostels near the bus stations...
Anyway, how much can you experience a country with your face up against a bus or train window ?
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I´ve been on backpacking trips where no 18 year old has the imagination to even dream of going. You´re as limited as you allow yourself to be, with bike or backpack.
Personally, I find it frustrating that I spend most of my days now listening to my own thoughts, rather than interacting with local people the way I used to on local transport (which means cars, trucks, buses, donkey carts, camels, freight and passenger trains, and foot). You don´t get that with a bike.
What I don´t miss is waiting around in the hot sun in the center of little villages for the truck that might show up later today....or maybe tomorrow....or maybe not, who knows? But I take my impatience as a sign I´m getting old and soft. If I was still young and tough, I´d still be hopping freight trains and rampaging around the way I used to. I´d have a lot less baggage to worry about, too.
The takeaway lesson here is: don´t confuse the means of travel with the validity, authenticity or difficulty.
Mark
(From Nicaragua, where I´m paying twice as much for my hotel as I might otherwise, solely to insure safe parking for my bike)
Safe journeys!
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