wecallthishome

I was spending around 20k a year. I've met people traveling on half that amount and a cyclist who was spending $10/day. I tried to keep a daily budget of about $40/day. This would drop to as low as $10 or $15/day depending on the country. I was lucky not to work while traveling. I saved up enough money working, made a few wise investments in stocks, and sold a lot of my belongings. I gave up the lease on my apt in NYC 7-8 months before I left and stayed with friends or slept at the building I worked in. Rent there is really expensive.

Not much dating going on. There were some interests along the way but I was constantly moving that it wasn't realistic. However, I did meet a woman who was traveling as well in Samarkand, Uzbekistan while I was there for two days in Oct 2013. We talked online back and forth for over a year and then finally met up again last November. We're now dating :)

Rather than see some beautiful landscape or ancient man made structure I would love to have everyone experience a moment in a foreign land where the local people reach out and help you when you least expect it. It might be something simple as offering help when you're lost or more serious like coming to your aid after an accident. I think this is one of the great things about traveling. It keeps you alert and open minded about people far away.

Advice - I would try to avoid working long hours as much as you can. It's nice to make extra money if you are paid for overtime hours and it's wonderful to be passionate about work you believe in but there's a lot more out there. I regret working long hours while I was living in NYC. There were so many things happening all the time but I was at my office instead. It helped me fund this trip but I think I was incredibly unhappy because of it.

Overall I would say Burning Man. It was pretty crazy how they build a city like that in the middle of nowhere. There's lots of interesting people there and the atmosphere is wonderful. I would like to go again someday in the future.

Personally I enjoyed Electric Daisy Carnival 2012 the most. I went with my brother and his group of friends and it was there we decided to make a trip together to Africa the following year. Our relationship was improving before that festival and that trip helped us out a lot.

At the moment I usually say Brazil. There's a wide variety of things to do in the country and the people are so easy to befriend. I've made some wonderful friends there.

I didn't enjoy the UAE as much. I only stayed in Dubai so I can't judge the rest of the country but people weren't very friendly there. People looked at me like I was crazy whenever I smiled. I've also never experienced heat and humidity like that.

It's an odd feeling. I always felt like this moment was going to be so far away and now it's here. During the last two months I felt moments of hopelessness because everything seemed so mundane and I was really lethargic. I would go from thinking about my experiences and how fortunate I am to wondering if I just wasted a whole lot of time ruining any chances of a career. I guess the post travel blues or reverse culture shock is a real thing. I'm doing much better now though. I'm planning to find a job after my Kickstarter campaign is over and I would like to live abroad somewhere. I'm not sure what I exactly want to do yet but hopefully I find something where I can put my experiences to good use.