Translator: Herald Park
Reviewer: Nguyen Nguyen The Hey Hey guys, I'm Tom from Croatia,
and for the last couple of years, the world has been my home. I travelled, I hitchhiked in cars,
trucks, horses, motorcycles, boats. I drove in buses, trains,
rickshaws. I worked all kinds of jobs,
spent time with locals, I volunteered, and became a monk
-just kidding. I sailed across the Indian Ocean,
I tried things that I never tried before. I've seen things that I will
remember as long as I live. and all that with almost no money. (Applause) That's pretty much it actually,
thank you very much. (Laughter) Most of the people when they see
this video, they react with, "Wow! I wish I could travel like that." The thing is, most of us actually can.
Before I started travelling, as Andrew said, I was a stockbroker,
working 9-5, had a lot of money. and then the crash came 2008,
I lost my job, I lost the money, and I lost the meaning. At that time, I discovered a website
called Couchsurfing. I don't know how many of you guys
heard about Couchsurfing? Ok, how many of you haven't
heard about Couchsurfing? Ok, for you guys, it's an internet website
that allows you to host travellers in your own home, and at the same time
it allows you to stay in other people's homes
while you're travelling yourself. When I was hosting people in my
apartment, over 150 of them, by listening to their stories, and seeing the spark
in their eyes, my thought was, "wow! I wish I could travel like that." But I was afraid. The world is a very dangerous place,
at least according to the media, our education,
our family church, and so on. I was afraid of leaving
my comfort zone, and going, by myself,
into the unknown world. I was also afraid of not having any money,
and then the people that I hosted in my apartment told me
two amazing things. First of all, you don't have to be brave
to travel, you just have to have a little bit of courage
to start, to leave. And the other thing they told me is
that you don't have to be rich to travel. Actually, all expenses while you're travelling fall into three major categories: first is transportation,
to get from point A to point B, the other one is accommodation,
and the last is everything else, food, drinks and so on. And they told me if you minimize
those three expenses to some minimum, it can actually be cheaper to travel
than live in your own city. I listened to them,
and for the next five years, I've been travelling
around the world, with almost no money. And this is how I did it:
first thing, I hitchhiked. Apart from being free,
apart from being really fast, it allowed me one amazing thing,
to have an adventure between point A and point B. Now how many of you guys
have ever hitchhiked before? Ok, quite a lot of you, why,
what are you doing? (Laughter) I'm going to play you a short video
called "Hitchhiking Guide", just to tell you a few unwritten rules
about hitchhiking, and some of my experiences. (music playing in background) (laughter) (laughter) (sobbing) (car honks) (applause) Thank you. There are other alternatives
to transportation. One of them is walking,
you guys know what that is... How many of you guys know? (Laughter) So, you just take your
backpack and hit the road. Another way is cycling;
it's not maybe completely free, because you have to buy the bicycle,
and eventually fix it, but it's much cheaper
than the conventional methods of transportation. And the last one is actually
working in exchange for transportation. I did this when I was sailing across
the Indian Ocean from Australia to Africa. And I didn't have to pay for the ride, I
just needed to do some work on the boat, like some night watches,
"cooking" and stuff like that. When it came to accommodation,
most of the time I used Couchsurfing, because I had a lot of experience,
had a lot these positive references on the website and so on. What I like about Couchsurfing the most
is not only because it's free, it allows you to have
a different perspective of the destination. You're not destined to stay in your hotel
room or take the tourist tours. You just hang out with your host
he takes you on places that you would probably never visit
by yourself. But also there some other alternatives;
one of them is camping, you have your tents, you can sleep
almost everywhere you want. In the big cities I usually slept in parks just have my sleeping bag and my mattress. The last one when it comes
to accommodation is volunteering. There are a lot of opportunities all
around the world that offer you to work in exchange for accommodation,
sometimes even food. So you get to sleep
in beautiful rooms like this. When it comes to all the other expenses,
one of them is food, in rich cities and rich countries I usually buy food in supermarkets,
which is the cheapest way, and just eat on the streets. You can also cook with your host,
which can be a pretty unique experience. (Laughter)
To say the least These are Germans actually.
(Laughter) Sorry, it was pretty delicious
to say the least and one of the cheapest. Another thing is dumpster diving;
maybe over 40-50% of the food that is being produced
is being thrown away, and a lot of people have a problem with
that, so they go to supermarket bins after the closing hours,
and just take all the food that is not going to be sold
the day after. When it comes to drinks, booze you know,
the usual ty to avoid bars, restaurants and to drink in parks. This is how you can travel really really cheaply but one other thing when it comes to travelling is that you can
earn money while travelling. How to do that?
I did it a couple times. One of them is busking,
playing the guitar on the streets. I'm not a musician. I know like probably
four or five chords, and four songs, so it's like repeat all, you know. People are passing by,
so they don't really know. (Laughter) The most important thing
is to have a story. I always had my small cardboard, which
I wrote, actually somebody else wrote in the local language, where I'm from,
what I'm doing there, what's my story. I think that's why people donated
a little bit of money, some sandwiches, sodas, and so on. You won't earn a lot of money
by doing this but it can get you through the day. One other way is to write;
you can write a blog, open up a Facebook page. After a while,
you can maybe write a book, and so on. But what brought me largest amount of money is actually going to Australia. This is a job I worked in Australia,
I call it "professional traffic diverter", it's a very hard job as you can see,
you tell people, "Please go this way
and not this way" I mean, if they are blind you know.
(Laughter) So for this, I was getting paid
twenty dollars an hour. (crowd gasping) I'm sorry, I know you hate me,
and all that. (Laughter) Oh, well. Plus, I had food and accommodation
included. I know, I know. Actually, one information, this was
on my around the world trip, it took me thirteen days
of working at this job, to pay off eight months of travelling
from Croatia through the entire Asia, reaching Australia. So thirteen days of work, in exchange
for eight months of travelling. So, what have I learned on
all these trips? Have I found the meaning of life and so
on. That's what my mom asked me? Like "Oh, you know we were really scared
for all these years, but was it worth it?" and my answer is always "definitely yes". I've learned a lot of things, most of them
are just like some personal nature things so I won't be talking about that,
but I also learned some general fruits. so to speak I learned not to trust media,
and all their "horror stories". I learned that we should preserve
our earth, like it's the only one we have, and the only one
with chocolate right? I learned to tear down my prejudices,
that was probably one of the most important things. I learned that all the people
around the world, no matter how much we try
to point out the differences between the cultures, races,
religions, and so on, we're all actually
basically the same. I have a short story about these prejudices
that I encountered while I was travelling. When I was leaving Croatia,
heading on my around the world trip, everybody was telling me,
"Be careful, it's very dangerous, you know you're going to hitchhike,
going to sleep in other people's homes and stuff like that." In Croatia, it's still ok to travel,
but as soon as you cross the border, and enter into Serbia...
you know what Serbians are like. Be very very careful, somebody might kill
you. And I'm like "Ok, thank you for the warning" and I cross the border
enter into Serbia, amazing adventures, amazing people I met, people picking me up, taking me out sleeping in their homes, really
really amazing experiences. I was leaving Serbia, heading to Bulgaria,
and I was driving with a driver, and telling him that story, like
how Croatians were warning me about Serbians. And he's like, "Ah brother, you know
that is complete nonsense, Croatians and Serbians,
we are all brothers. But Bulgarians, when you cross the
border, enter into Bulgaria... you know what Bulgarians are like;
a lots of gypsies, man, you know. Be very careful, somebody might kill you."
(Laughter) Entering Bulgaria,
the same story all over again. Amazing experiences,
people just extremely friendly. Then I was driving with one truck driver,
going towards Turkey and I was telling him the same story how Croatians
warned me about Serbians, Serbians about Bulgarians. And he was like, "Oh brother,
that's complete nonsense, Croatians, Serbians, Bulgarians...
we are all Balkan brothers! But Turkish people, oh my God!
You know what Turkish people are like. Very dangerous, somebody
might kill you." Turkish people warned me about
Kurdish people, Kurdish people about Iranis, Iranis about Pakistanis,
Pakistanis about Indians, Indians didn't warn me about anyone, I don't know, it's like the last frontier, or something. Beats me, but yeah, it wasn't only
a travel lesson, but maybe a life lesson like not to trust all these horror stories
that people were telling. And one also interesting thing,
when you come back home, people are kind of afraid of leaving,
because they don't know what's going to wait for them
once they come back. There's a big probability
you will be a star. When you come back,
everybody will buy you beers, the girls will be like, "Ooh, you know
he's been travelling!" (Laughter) But after a while, it kinda gets boring;
you're tired of telling your own story, people are tired of listening to it, and
this post travelling depression kicks in. Then you actually have three options. One of them is to just settle down
to your old lifestyle. You still have your old friends, they're still talking about
the same things, going to the same places,
maybe you can get your old job back, and after a while it's ok. You feel safe living there;
but you kind of miss that guy who has been travelling,
having this intensity wherever he goes. The second option is
to take your backpack, and say, "Oh no, I can't live here" and
just head back to the road. You will have that intensity,
you'll meet amazing people, have adventures every single day. But after a while, you'll miss something;
you'll miss belonging to a story. Your friendships will be intense,
but they will be short-lasting. Your relationships will last as long as
your visa for a certain country. You will miss having a home. The third option is actually
the balance of these two: so stay in one place,
but still don't loose that intensity. Walk in streets you've never
walked in before, start talking with random people
on the streets, get a new hobby, find a new job, maybe write a book,
give a TEDx conference talk, you know like all sorts of things. So, is it for everyone,
this type of travelling? I don't think so;
with all the amazing things that this kind of travelling can bring
to you, there are also downsides: it's a big chance that you'll be lonely
and that you'll be hungry, sick, homesick, but it all comes down
to your gut feeling. If after all these ideas,
and all these knowledges, you still have that,
"wow, I wish I could travel like this" then you should definitely do it. Then you should forget about your fears,
disregard the fact that you're broke, and just leave, head to the road. Because like that famous quote says,
"In twenty years from now on, you'll be more disappointed
by the things you didn't do, than by the things you did do". Thank you very much.
(Applause)
Very cool video! Been contemplating about this for years. I think the first step would be to open our home to couch surfing and hear stories and help people from all over the world.
This really tortures me because it is basically 'how to travel the world for no money if you are a white man.'
He's a cool, brave guy--I'm not knocking him. But the odds of a young woman sleeping in a sleeping bag in a park in most countries and remaining safe are extremely low. When young, I experienced harassment and physical assault (mauling, grabbing, being forcibly kissed) all throughout Europe even--and some happened in hotels and trains. I took my 12 year old sister through Italy and in Rome she finally just lost it and we had to basically stay inside for a couple of days. I mean...she was 12 and men were constantly ogling, pinching...it was too stressful for her.
Latin America is also not so easy. People are more polite in Asia. As a woman, I think I would do what he does in China and Japan (if it is legal there). Definitely not India. Not in Latin America. Weird thing is that the country with the least amount of harassment in Latin America was Brazil. But it's not that safe in terms of crime. But I did feel safer there somehow. I love Brazil and Brazilians.
I hate that feeling when you wish you were a white man.
Great advice for the most part but if you're a woman, hitchhiking is probably not the safest mode of transportation. I'd like to hear more discussion about safety issues.
Step 1: Be male in your mid-20's. If you are neither, this won't turn out so well for you.
I am from Sri Lanka. All I can say is you have to be rich to travel (at least for the people from this part of the world). For us we have to provide many many documents including invitations and bank account details for 'Applying Visa' before leaving.
I am a white guy in my 20s, and I have traveled with companions who are not white, not make, and not in their 20s. Our experiences standing right next to one another are incredibly different. This advice will work for some, but not for most. The best way to travel cheap is to backpack and learn from others. You'll meet people from diverse backgrounds who will readily offer tips that work for them and might work for you. The secrets lie everywhere.
So pretty much mooch off of everyone you encounter is the strategy.
This guy did an AMA here one year ago or so... I vaguely remember that he was kinda sponsored from a bank, but I could be misremembering.
We get it. Not everyone is white and a man. Great.
So, other than everyone saying this guy is shit and doesn't know what he's talking about because of his race and sex, do any of you have anything useful to contribute at all?
Didn't think so.