I came across travelers from Japan and Korea.. China, Latin America too. Turks, kazakh, russians, philippinos, indians, thai, etc. They often speak limited english and communicate with people on travel forums in their native tongue.. if they do.

If you search for info on Brazil there will be quite a few youtube videos in portuguese. Likewise on Japan overlanding is popular there. And there are inmates here on forum from south africa.. new zealand and australia..

As for more exotic locations traveling is the privilege of rich.. in these places people strive to survive not post about travels on social media. If they spend their last money to buy ticket to Ecuador with intention to walk across Darien gap they won't be posting here.. they live in different reality. I had seen them in northern mexico, was never compelled to interact.

Likewise wasn't interested in middle east looking guys at Serbian border crossing, hiding behind billboard and waiting for night to make a run.. the real travelers.

Well thats an interesting subject.

During my RTW trip I am quite sure I met most nationals from Germany, they seem to be a nation of travellers. But Germany are definetively «westerners» so that doesnt count. The second most nationals I met was people from the Czeck republic, and even though they are kinda westerners they are from a country that belonged to the «other side» of Europe with all that still goes with that, economically and geopolitically.

So to the subject - there are a couple of very clear objective reasons we dont see many international travellers from Bolivia, Nepal, Congo etc.
First its the economical reason. We westerners can work hard a few years and save up money to buy a motorbike and travel a year or 3. Because western money lasts a long time in south and central America and even longer in souteast Asia for example. A person, even a relatively priveliged person from Congo, Nepal or Bolivia will never have the money to buy a motorbike and travel to Europe or north America. They can maybe travel to a neighbor country or 3 but never to «the west». It is simply out of theyre economical reach.

Secondly - the geopolitical system. How much buraucrasy would it take for a congolese or nepalese to travel through Europe and or north America?

I got to know a traveller from Thailand while I was doing my RTW trip. He was some months behind me on the loop and I gave him some info about this and that and I startee following his blog. And by all means - this thai guy was a well educated and smart guy with good economy even with western standards. But still he now and then he had to visit embassies just to apply for visas in countries all westerners would get a visa on arrival. Apply and pay, get documents and wait, and wait and wait - before he finally could get his visas. And this was countries like Uruguay and Brasil - not any superspecial bananarepublics.

Getting visas for priveliged countries for a person from a non-priveliged country is very very very difficult. Thats just how it has become nowadays - unfortunately. Thus travelling possibilities for such persons is very limited. A group tour for a week - arranged by a travel agency maybe. But a trip alone through multiple countries for a year or 3 - extremely difficult!

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Dont forget that the cost of travel to many from, especially developing nations, is proportionally much higher. Lower incomes, greater employment challenges and family responsibilities can represent significant challenges to those people.

I've personally met overlanders who has travelled the world on a shoe string. Having left home with virtually no money or gear, maybe just a moped, some basic personal items, and s bit of pocket change. Travelling very slowly, working for food and s place to crash, and a few bucks here and there. Some travel indefinitely and have been gone for years. I once met this young German kid who took his classic 50cc Vespa and criss crossed Africa for three years, living mostly off of simple grains.

I've also noticed (and benefited from personally), that if you travel on a piece of unsuitable kit with a large international fan base, clubs and other fans across the planet will go way out of their ways to enable your continued yourney.

Also, I've met plenty of very privileged people from very not do privileged places - some who has been on every continent. None have been overlanders.

There is as has been mentioned, the financial aspect of it - where there are solutions for the most motivated. I'm pretty sure that different communities across the globe would go far in helping an unlikely fellow in all sorts of ways. Sure the financial aspect can to a large extent explain much. I still believe that the geopolitical aspect is the number one reason - many people are simply not allowed to travel as freely.

A community like ours could easily "sponsor" the occasional overlander from say a place like Guinea Bissau or some other unlikely place. Many of us would be happy to offer free room and board, receive mail, serve as a host for visa applications, give them some work to make a few bucks, donate used equipment we can easily part with, fill up their tank, give some provisions, and put some money in their pocket, etc, etc. We would use our connections to help find other Samaritan's along the route.

The really truely difficult bit for many will be the red tape. They could have the funds, but still find it extremely difficult to be able to travel - at least legally.

There used to be s time when western adventures got plenty of sponsors to ve the first to do something or another. The first woman, the youngest guy, the first with a particular means of transport, doing something for a particular cause as a fundraiser, the first doing this or that... Those days are long gone as doing obscure things has been common place - at least in our part of the world.

What got me thinking about all of this was reading about the Ted Simon Foundation here on HU - a foundation set up to help travellers (albeit mostly about getting published, etc) - really great stuff.

What would have been just as great would be a foundation that would help an unlikely overlander to actually be able to do the overlanding bit in the first place, and maybe getting published as part of that solution (to fund their own trip/return and to help those that would follow in their fottsteps). I'm thinking about something like a network of experts in relevant fields, donors/sponsors, as well as a network of Samaritans - spread out across the planet - people and organisations that would come together to give practical aid to a single eligible traveller - ensure their success. A review board could choose which applicants who would become eligible for the foundations aid...

Unrealistic I know, but dreaming is free.

Hopefully we will meet or hear about more and more unlikely overlanders, journeying through our own back yards in a not to distant future.

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Blog: www.bamakobyvespa.no
My Youtube Channel

That way of life is a privilege for us (westerners, mainly white male).
Just imagine how it would work out if someone from central Africa would like to travel through Europe sponging off others like some of those (I don't need money to travel guys) do.


But even if you travel on your own money, for us it's easy to save money if you want to (maybe not for single parents), all you need is a normal job, you don't have to be from the upper class.
If working in many of the normal the jobs we do, in the third world, we would not be familiar with the concept of holiday.
And we can burn all our money and come home totaly broke and society will look after us.


Visa is the other thing, possible only for the rich.

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My RTW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrXt660ztenere

Yes, that's probably true at the moment (up to a point anyway), and has been over the course of my lifetime. Probably since the sixties if you're in the UK. But it hasn't always been so. It wasn't true for my father and it certainly wasn't true for anyone further back in my timeline. Our family tree research tells me I come from a long line of North of England coal miners, most of whom never travelled more than a few miles from their birthplace over the course of their lives. Travel for them was the 1/4 mile walk from the pit to the 2 rooms they lived in with 6 children. In fact I'm pretty certain I was the first in my family ever to have a passport. So the sort of travel we talk about here, and to some extent take for granted, is a recent phenomenon - for what was my stratum of society anyway.

Re Wheelie's suggestion that we "offer free room and board, receive mail, serve as a host for visa applications, give them some work to make a few bucks, donate used equipment we can easily part with, fill up their tank, give some provisions, and put some money in their pocket", I have a friend in the US who, for many years now, has been doing just that. He's had travellers staying with him for weeks on end, hosts bike groups in his garden, employs people regularly and is known in the area as someone who takes in 'waifs and strays'.

There's no thought of 'putting something back' or 'owing something to the biker community' and he's not after publicity or reward or anything like that, it's just the way he is. And that, I suspect, is probably the sort of person who'll help out if you're stuck at the side of the road somewhere. Societal norms in different countries put different expectations on people so in some places you'll find help more readily than others but I've always been surprised at the amount of assistance people have offered me when I've been in need.

This is a bit offtopic, but I would get a little bit offended on behalf of the Czechs - for almost their entire national history a major player in the politics of the Holy Roman Empire, one of Europe's industrial and engineering powerhouses, the birthplace of what became Protestantism, etc. They just had the misfortune to be on the wrong side of a frontline in 1945.

Anyway, back on topic. Lots of good points above, and I'd add another consideration. We Westerners (*strokes his EU passport*) travel, especially overland, to a significant degree in order to escape our boring lives in a safe society. Yes, we think of them as "unfulfilling" lives, but what we're after is the excitement of not knowing what will happen to us tomorrow, and the feeling of achievement for getting through a difficult (maybe dangerous, though not TOO dangerous) situation.

Now take someone from the Global South who, maybe, even has the money to go traveling. What do they want to experience? Same as us - an environment and culture that is significantly different to what they've lived in for all of their lives. So shall someone from an upper-class Thai or Chilean family go riding a motorcycle across Africa? Eh, probably not... they might do an Interrail journey across Europe, going from Paris to Florence to Barcelona, or buy an old Cadillac and do a road trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Chicago to New York.

You'll certainly find rich Third Worlders at Nordkapp... but they'll have probably gotten there by Hurtigruten cruise ship.

I am a Canadian expat living in Colombia and I have been asked countless times by Nationals on how to get a visa for Canada My answer is all-ways I have no idea because I am Canadian but I refer them to google Visa Canada and dont look up anything but the official Government of Canada web site> It is a format that turns into a Process And all other web sites want to take your money because you may think it is easier . Of Course English is the barrier for many and they are intimidated by our two official languages but there are tons of Colombians in Canada
The thing about a lot of riders I know in Colombia is that they want to see Alaska and a lot of them think they can drive there from Canada and enter Alaska with out a US visa then I say you Need a American visa too !
Many think Alaska Is a Country