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Grabbing the Reins While on the Road
This article is a follow-up to last week's Letting Go While on the Road. Then, I was in the midst of an experimental road trip, aiming to just let go and drift without plans or control for a couple weeks. Near the end of the road trip, though, and after publishing last week's article, I blatantly broke the rules of my experiment.
To explain why, I have to back up to ten days before the incident to a conversation that planted the seed of dissent in my head.
It had been raining all day in Queenstown. In a packed campground kitchen, I sat down next to a guy I'd briefly talked with weeks before in a hostel in Greymouth and in striking up a conversation, quickly realized we were kindred spirits. A teacher and writer, Jeremy was in the midst of a backcountry exploration of the South Island on foot while documenting the journey through his website. A remarkable conversation ensued for a couple hours, most pertinently exposing one major difference in our approaches to travel. Both Jeremy and I held no rigid plans, but I had literally no knowledge of my surroundings while Jeremy was loaded with more information than any traveler I'd ever met.
“How Did I Get Here?” Moments
An old Toyota pickup that was roughly converted into a dump truck cruised a Hawaiian highway with dense jungle on both sides. In the back of the dump truck was a giant pile of bananas. Atop that pile of bananas were three guys. I was one of them.
The absurdity of the situation baffled me as I sat, precariously perched atop a pile of fruit at such high speeds. I looked at my buddy, Alex, with near disbelief. “Dude!” I yelled through the wind, “Do you realize we’re in Hawaii riding down the highway in the back of a dump truck full of bananas right now?”
We laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation as we attempted to juggle bananas, throwing them forward into the 65mph blast of wind that would push them back towards you to catch as you tossed the next. Chuckling, I incredulously wondered aloud, “How did I get here?”
10 Rules for Insanely Cheap Travel
I've spent a majority of the past two years traveling and honed some serious ultra-cheap traveling skills. I've bicycled across the United States, lived like a local in Mexico, worked as a deckhand on a cruise ship, and had many other adventures on a shoestring budget.
I am not rich, nor do I have passive income. I just picked up skills, strategies, and a host of resources along the way that make traveling insanely cheap. I suppose you could call me a “travel hacker.” A quick example: I spent two and a half months on the Big Island of Hawaii last summer for $669 (including airfare) without budgeting or “penny pinching.”
Here are 10 rules I attempt to follow that produce some insanely inexpensive trips: