On another note, if you are trying to decide whether to leave your current job, house/apartment, living situation for a long trip consider this: The world could end tomorrow and suddenly the only thing that would make any difference would be if you fealt you had lived your life to the fullest. The modern world seems to be all about buying things to achieve happyness. I find that this is so not true. The more stuff you have the more tied to the system you are and the less happy. You have to work more to cover the cost of living, food, toys etc. So many people get stuck in the work, buy house, get married, have kids track. If this is what you want then its fine. I think there are a good number of us who fear this since we know it endangers our ability to get up and go. My hope is that I will travel, go adventuring, and one day either be satisfied, or not feel the need to take off and then the other world may be more appealing. Ultimately I look at it this way: When I am 85 years old I want to look back on my life and think wow I did so many things and I am pleased. Rather then, wow I wish I did this or that.

Well said!


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Brooklyn Dakar
http://motorcycleramblings.blogspot.com/

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Prevously known as JSherm
My blog: http://www.motorcycleramblings.com/
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/sherman/ I will up date this soon, really Grant, I will....
"This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do." J Kerouac
"Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him" OW Kenobi

Seth
Thanks for reminding me of one of my favourite quotations.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain.

I'm not really brave enough to go travelling in countries like Thailand. What I prefer to do is spend winter in somewhere like Morocco and then spend the UK summer working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week for 6 months in order to finance next winters 'holiday'.

I'm 44 years old, unmarried with no ties, ride a 1982 Yamaha 750cc Maxim which cost £500, drive a £100 Rover to & from work, live in a shared house that costs me £200 a month and work for an agency that understands that I do not want to spend a couple of months every year scraping ice off the car windscreen.

One day maybe I'll go further than Morocco but deep down I think I'm just too lazy.

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The people who turned their swords into ploughshares generally end up working for the people who kept their swords!

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The people who turned their swords into ploughshares generally end up working for the people who kept their swords!

Interesting comment "not really brave enough to go travelling in countries like Thailand."

I think many will agree that Thailand requires LESS bravery than Morocco!

Don't worry, we'll get you off your arse... just hang around a while...

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Money is a tool.

I sold everything I had. It was easy: I had very little. This also means that I got very little money for it.

However, our society is not fit for human consumption. So leaving it is equivalent to quiting smoking: it´s something you do for yourself and something that must be done radically to be achieved. If health should come before pleasure... it should come definately before ambition, competition, stress, selfishness, ugliness, slavery and indifference.

So now I´m in Brazil after having travelled 45 000 kilómeters in South America for close to a year.

Sometimes I think I don´t have enough money to afford so much freedom and beauty. But "enough" is such a relative term that it doesn´t deserve to be taken seriously.

As far as the "going back into society" bit... No thanks, I quit a year ago...

Balam

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To get to the point you don´t know, you must take the road that you don´t know.

Bank loan, overdraft and credit cards and ebay. That is how I'm financing my three month tour of the Baltic Sea. Being 43 and with no ties and no money, I think I can happily class it as a mid-life crisis. Admittedly, I was planning to do it in my mid 30s - but then I had my bike nicked. Doh! Hopefully this is only a practise run for 2007 - RTW or China and back. Financially I have no security for the future, but I have decided to stop worrying about it since realistically there is little I can do about it.

See you in the Baltic.

Sometimes you dont need to sell everything to go and do a trip you dream of. You would be amazed at what you can achieve in as little time as 4 weeks. For those of you who can't give up everything, or choose not to, why not try to take a block of time off work (maybe unpaid) and be imaginative. You may not be able to 'do the long trip' but you will have access to finances. And they can often 'buy you time'. In less than four weeks holiday I have managed the trips below, always coming back to my job (and new debts) refreshed. Admittedly I always want more, buy hey, dont they say too much of a good thing is bad for you? Consequently I dream almost all the time, but with a little ingenuity and effort I can usually turn my dreams to reality for at least 1 month a year....

Around Ireland with no map only ever turning left.....(honda dominator)

Over the himalayas and back on an Enfield (solo)

Exploring Central America by TS185

Turkey, Aegean to Iran and back by DR350

North West African Desert and back XT600

Across the USA offroad 5000 miles by XR400

Western Europe (all over the place) various bikes

This summer.....The 'All Road Tour' 2000km competative rally in northern Finland by KTM640


GO ON......where ever you want to ride, just go and do it. The way I figure it, the last thing I will EVER say on my death bed (wherever it turns out to be) is :

'Thank GOD I sat on my arse and didnt do anything about going on 'that trip'. I'm so glad I stayed at home/went on another package tour'


All the best and safe riding to you all out there.

Dave

'its all about doing what you can with what you've got...'

Wow, has this thread struck an accord! I met up with my fellow Aussy mates, Cheryl and David in Chiang Mai.I have just arrived back in Oz after 11 months on the road thru S.E. Asia,
How I funded the trip was to "Grow Old Discracefully",spend the kids inheritance and go and enjoy myself. If the shit hits the fan, I could always go and live in the backyard of my daughter's and baby sit my grand kids!
As far as settling back into society when you get back, you have to be joking! I have lasted 8 weeks in Brisbane, began a well paid job,planning my next bike trip to S.America, when I was offered a job in Shanghai.So guess were I am heading now? Maybe I will find some devious way of getting my bike into the PRC!

I notice a few people who work with NGO's, but none who are working while travelling. This is what I've been doing (photography/writing) the last 1 1/2 years in the US, after living in Africa for 12 years. Despite the exotic location, at times I felt stuck in suburbia there. Which is ironically where I am right now in California staying at a friend's house, getting some work stuff done I can't do on the road until I get a satelite phone.

So this morning I woke up in a real funk because... I feel stuck in suburbia again!!! So, went straight to Horizons Unlimited which I always do when I feel like this! I don't have the bike because of my two dogs, (I have a van instead) but when they're gone, I'll be on a bike again!!!
Looking forward to seeing some of you folk when I leave here for South America this summer. Thanks for the inspiration.
Lorraine

http://OnaMissionFromDog.com

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Rallying for A Wild Life — THE FILM!
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I like many have commitments to kids, wife, etc etc so the round the world journey aint going to happen just yet. But i still manage some decent journeys, most of europe, to the med,next was all of scandanavia, this year the baltic and a week into russia. so bit by bit I am moving towards the bigger journey. How do I finance it, simple I live in a smaller house, run a older car, packed in working for the company and work very hard on lower pay for myself but this gives me the flexability to take months rather than weeks off when it suits me, then I save like hell its amazing how much people spend to have the bigger house the newer car or be keeping up with the neighbours. Then they think I am rich when i take off for a month or two on the bike. Even got my wife coming along on this trip this time she is taking unpaid leave. It kills me every time I come back i start planning the next bigger journey. so it can be done on a budget. Two weeks and off to russia - five or six years the world trip is on the horizon. Jake.

You all are some pretty amazing people. Got to love the fact that there are so many consiously lost souls out there (i mean that in only the best way).

I took the route of international school teacher. A 2 year contract here and there plus huge summer holidays for travel. I leave in a week for Vietnam where I'm hoping to ride a minsk through the region. Last year I was based in Tanzania with my Suzuki 650 to explore the bush. Another perk of teaching international schools is you get multicultural holidays. They gave us a week off for Chinese new year, a week for Thai new year, and 3 weeks for christmas/western new year. BONUS for reci.s to the places you'll visit on bike later.

Still dreaming of quiting for a year or two and taking it around the world. In the mean time short trips with lots of educational and inspirational reading on this site.

Happy trails,
Poa

I'm happy knowing that I haven't found it because that leaves me to search.

Great quote Stephano, that is one of my favourites.

[This message has been edited by Tathagata (edited 08 December 2005).]

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\"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didnt do than by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.\" - M.Twain

Hi everyone,
Interesting thread.
heres my 2 cents worth. Look at the salary u earn in an hour.(more for those in Europe) That same amount can sustain you for at least a day or two in Asia.

I am from Singapore, for South east Asia we earn quite a bit of money but in Europe, its a fraction. But if you are in Europe, Asia is soo cheap its hard to see why not to do it.

If you stay in your own country, you will have similar standard of living as almost anyone in a similar position anywhere in the world, (with your dvd, hi fi entertainment, car, phone bills, other bills ..... in europe you earn big salaries but cost of living is big too) but if you leave your continent (Europe Especially) the whole world is cheap. I just spent the last 4 months working in ireland behind a bar, and the money i saved there will prob take me for my ride back to Singapore or to almost any destination. Camp in Europe or stay with friends, or ride quickly, and after that... everywhere is affordable, when u have earned in euros.

For our american friends i sympathise with u. In 2003 when i left singapore, i had travellers checks in Usd. 1 USD was worth 1.15 or more Euros, when i got to europe it got the other way around and worse. So my travel money evaporated and for u its more expensive to travel.

How to afford to this lifestyle. Prioritise what u really want. Every pint of lager u skip in Western Europe, u could have two or more further east. Every packet of cigarette u buy in Uk for example could buy u five or easily pay for your guesthouse in asia. Im not suggesting to stop enjoying yourself, but think what that money could do u in another country. I know i'm having lots of s starting from poland onwards. If you live in Europe and wish to travel, you are in a way blessed that u are born there.
Think about the locals in Asia and Africa, South America, for them overland travel is not an option, well definately not in Europe anyways.

So go out an enjoy your luck of being born in Europe or America or for me in Singapore, cause we can afford it. I didnt have a house to sell or a rent to collect, but enough luck and money to buy an old 1989 dommie and travel. I know i am lucky cause i am born in Singapore, and all of you are too.
So go and enjoy it, travel, and do spread good vibes to the locals in the poorer countries, even if they try to con u and ask for more money than they should. At the end of the day they are not as lucky as we are. But they have other things we dont either, and they are usually happy to share them.

So for all of u earning euros and pounds, go now, before the other currencies catch up.

Besides how much money is just relative. Its never enough or if u choose it can be enough.

Cheers
Dalbir

I put off my dream of driving across the sahara for years because I didn't think I could afford it. Plymouth to Dakar challenge proved to me that I could. me and my dad did it in a 200 pound pink suzuki jeep ( www.plymouth-dakar.com ), then I bought a ford sierra on ebay for 100 pounds and drove to poland and back, now gone up market and bought a 2050 pound landcruiser for another africa trip next year. just driven it to russia and back, all in my annual leave periods (had to kill the mileage for russia though!) cheap cars have lots of advantages. carnets are cheaper and it's not a disaster if something terminal goes wrong. break your 25000 pound td5 defender in the sahara and your going to be a bit sick!! Also driving a shed, leaving all the dents in the car and having a coathanger as an aerial keeps down the cost of bribes!!
never had a reliability problem, except my back wheel coming off the landcruiser at 70mph on the autobahn!!! then that was user error! (check your nuts regularly, in all senses of the word!)

Andy
land rover 101 ambie/camper
landcruiser 60 series
ford escort and 1968 morris minor!

[This message has been edited by moggy 1968 (edited 26 June 2005).]

[This message has been edited by moggy 1968 (edited 30 June 2005).]

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014