Dear GoMad Nomad:

I’m low on cash but still want to travel, what should I do? Go into further debt and live life in the moment, or do the prudent thing and save up my money?

-Broke In Brooklyn

Dear Broke in Brooklyn:

My first advice is to get the heck out of Brooklyn! You’ll save up more money living in the sticks. But, yeah, yeah, I know you want to be at the epicenter of Hipsterdom.

Anyhow, to answer your question: Don’t go into debt! But…you can still travel on very limited funds. The options are limitless.

Since you don’t have money, I’m assuming you have time.  You can spend that extra time that you normally spend nursing PBRs on Bedford Ave, researching and planning out your travel.

First thing you’ll have to understand about cheap/budget travel is that it happens very slowly. You’ll have to opt for the pueblo bus over the bullet train; and if you’re going to hitch, you’ll have a lot of time to perfect your hacky sack skills while waiting for your free rides. So I’d reserve anywhere from two months to a year for this expedition.

If you just happen to have graduated from college and don’t know what to do, check out this fantastic post over at Almost Fearless.

Since you have the time, I would highly recommend volunteering, “helping,” working, and temporarily residing in the places you plan on visiting. This will allow you to actually experience the place and get to know the people you have traveled so far to visit.

Volunteering

This one is tricky. You want to avoid paying a fee to volunteer. I don’t mind helping others, but I don’t like to have to pay for that privilege, and neither should you. Check out these awesome articles for low-cost or free volunteering opportunities in Nepal, the West Bank, and Spain. Transitions Abroad Magazine is also an incredible resource for volunteering abroad info.

Help Exchange

Before I started teaching English in Madrid, I almost took a gig helping an English couple in Brittany restore an old train station into a B & B. I would have helped them for four hours a day and they would have fed me and given me a room in their home. The rest of the day I could spend working on my writing projects with the help of their wireless internet. I used Help Exchange to connect with these people in need of a helper. But the dream was never realized.

Working

Get to the Caribbean or cross the Atlantic while working aboard a yacht. Skippers in ports far and wide are always looking for a crew that preferably speaks their language and may or may not have sailing experience. Good sites to connect skippers and crew: Crewfinders, Yacht Crew Register, or Dovaston Crew.

Temporarily Residing

A great option is house sitting. I kind of want to make a career out of this, except it doesn’t pay very well. Why not take care of the perritos and water Señora Torres’ garden for the month August while she’s vacationing at her other home on the Canaries? You’ll probably need a good reference before strangers will entrust you with their home and animals. Use Mind My House, House Careers, or House Sit World.

So if you combine a little traveling in between some of these ideas, you’ll have a well-rounded trip.  Use couchsurfing for accommodation read up on hitchhiking before you leave.

-Stephen

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Happy Birthday GoMad Nomad!

One is the loneliest number

We’ve come a long way in our first year: published 115 posts from more than 15 writers and photographers, and just today got our 100th fan on Facebook and  over 700 followers on Twitter!

Our goal remains the same: provide you with the best information to travel independently on a low budget, to give you fresh ideas for volunteering and working abroad, and to teach you how to make long-term travel a reality. And don’t forget great travel stories from around the world.

In case you missed any, here are our top 10 most popular post from the past year:

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Dear GoMad Nomad:

My husband and I are going to England in two weeks. We have four days planned in London, but for the rest of the trip (6 days), we don’t really have plans.  I’ve been reading books and trying to figure out what to do.  Ideally, we’d like to take the train out to the country, visit some sites, etc. I was just wondering if you knew or had visited some off the beaten path places in England. We probably wouldn’t want to camp out too much, but stay in little inns, etc. With that said, we’d be up for camping maybe 1-2 nights if there was a particularly unique place.

-Erika, Louisville, KY

Dear Erika,

in the Yorshire Dales

Yorkshire is a favorite of mine, whether you check out the city of York and its enormous minster and associated medieval history or the insanely delicious fish and chips and Abbey on the hill in the amiable seaside city of Whitby. It’s an especially good choice if you head out to the countryside.

It would probably be best to take the train up to York and then rent a car (a very small one, petrol is expensive) in order to drive around and see Yorkshire at your leisure, allowing you to stop at any random village in the countryside and enjoy a pint in the local pub or tea and scones at a café, or take a break to walk an inviting path along the famous stone walls on the edge of a sheep pasture. In the small market town of Masham you can taste the ales at two great breweries: Black Sheep and Theakston.

For National Parks, I would choose Yorkshire Dales over North Yorkshire Moors. I’m sure you could find plenty of camping in the area, although many will probably be private RV parks. I hear the Peak District is also worth visiting for some great hikes, but keep in mind it is the most visited park in England.

Further to the north from Yorkshire, are Durham and Newcastle, two cities that I’ve wanted to check out, but haven’t yet.

I might try and book your accommodation ahead because you will be traveling in high season. Of course you could take your chances and just show up in some random villages and hope somebody has an open room.

If you wanted to avoid renting a car I would suggest, (and I know I’m all over the place now, far from Yorkshire) the Heart of Wales train line, which hits a number of villages and spa towns for 121 miles between Swansea and Shrewsbury through the middle of picturesque rural Wales.

I will admit, these suggestions certainly aren’t hard-core off the beaten path, but they are great places to visit and exploring the countryside, either in Wales or England will allow you to find your own off the beaten path favorites.

Other ideas:

In terms of other cities in England, I’ve found Liverpool to be one of the most interesting because of its history, excellent (free) museums, and locals.

And if I were to return to England, I’d probably check out the Lakes District and Cornwall (the Eden Project might be your style or even volunteering at the Monkey Sanctuary if you had more time).

-Stephen

What are your favorite spots in England? Feel free to give Erica and her husband your own tips in the comments below.

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By Stephen Bugno

Here are some practical tips to improving your travel and your writing.

Get the details

Photo Credit: Roz Abbotts

Write descriptions of the five senses. A big mistake in my past 22 years of travel journaling (I started keeping a journal on a family vacation to the Southwest U.S. when I was seven years old at my mother’s strong suggestion) was not capturing the details.

I’m the kind of writer who likes to write about my travel experiences after they have digested. I get a better sense of the magnitude of the events as they fit into my life and the trip, and the publication I’m writing for, long after they have occurred.

But three months after the fact, when I want to write about that four days in a Nicaraguan village living with Sandinistas, I need to able to look back into my journal and read the details of the chirping chicks and squealing piglets that woke me up in the morning, the pungent smell of the burning rubbish piles, and the colorful hand-painted signs hung around the community.

Get quotes down

Another thing I’m really bad at: remembering quotes. I need to take my own advice here and carry a notepad or a small tape recorder. Write those quotes down ASAP. During practically all of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Love Pray, I was asking myself, “How did she remember all these long, detailed conversations?”

Elizabeth…if you are out there… how did you remember all those quotes?

Write every day

I have a bad history of getting behind on my journal. At the end of the day running around Madrid art museums, churches, cafes and clubs, I’m either too tired or too drunk, and chances are, you are too. Whip out that journal during your morning coffee or at coffee number two, or even at coffee number three. Write during the day when you are awake, alert, and sober.

Back it up

The days of Paul Theroux mailing back photocopies of his hand-written journal from a Nairobi post office may soon be over. Although that is still an option, times are changing. I have been taking photographs of my journal pages and uploading the images onto Google Picasa. Do it regularly.

I learned this the hard way when I had to hand over my shoulder bag as I was held up at knife-point on the beach in Nicaragua. My journal was in the bag. I was not diligent staying up-to-date on backing up my journal. Following that incident I wasted a week being annoyed, frustrated, unmotivated and just plain pissed off. I didn’t pick up a pen the whole time.

If you keep an electronic journal, back your documents up online at Google Docs. Or, for a third backup, carry a USB flash drive or a portable hard drive or better yet, pay for an online storage service.

Plan less

I wrote a detailed post about this over at Bohemian Traveler inspired by Susan Orlean’s suggestion at the New York Times Travel Show to do less background research and show up at your destination less prepared. She offered firsthand accounts of when she was more successful writing about a place when she had fewer preconceived notions. She thought that a place “loses its freshness” if you know too much about it.

Have a project

Tony Perrottet had another good suggestion at the Travel Show. He once traveled around Paris using a 19^th century food guidebook.  This could be done with any historical book, or not even a book at all. Follow your own interests, be it jazz, architecture, wine, graffiti, or ethnic minorities. Your detective work will have you running around to different places meeting lots of different people. Interesting, experience-rich travel leads to interesting writing.

Stephen Bugno’s articles and essays have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Seattle Times, and Transitions Abroad magazine. He edits the Gomad Nomad Travel Mag.

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Meet the 73-year-old, mountain-trekking, pilgrimage-making, French-born, Swiss citizen, Lydie Carbou.

Lydie Carbou hiking the Bisse de Ro in Switzerland

She’s a retired traveler. Not retired from traveling. But retired. And can’t stop traveling. It’s hard for Lydie Carbou to stay in her 7^th floor apartment in Geneva for very long without setting off on another adventure. I caught up with her for an e-mail interview after recently returning from a trip to Nepal.

GN:  How long have you been traveling? Is this something you started doing after you retired, or have you been traveling all your life?

LC:  As long as I’ve had money, I’ve been traveling during my holidays from work. I’ve always loved going places, but when I was working, I only had about four weeks (and later five) of holidays per year. I started traveling sometime after I turned 25.

GN:  Which place would call your favorite place on earth? What draws you to that particular place?

LC:  My favorite place is Bhutan. It’s a very special place–untouched, very pure, no new construction, no roads, people wear typical dress and there are the most beautifull monasteries I’ve ever seen in my life where locals stay the whole night to pray. When I visited, the government was protecting the country by accepting only 2,000 tourists per year, so it was very expensive to get a visa.

GN:  Have you ever felt like you were born in the wrong place, like you belonged someplace else?

LC:  Sure I was born in the wrong place. I should have been born in Asia, probably India, a place I go at least once a year.

GN:  It’s been almost 2 years since I first met you on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. What have you been doing since then?

LC:  Since I met you two years ago, I’ve gone to Porto, Portugal and walked the Camino Portugues to Santiago. But it was not enough. After that, I took the train to Oviedo, Spain and walked to Santiago on the Camino Primitivo. In August, I went to Ladakh, India to trek to Zanskar, up to 4,800 m (15,748 ft.). In November, I was in Nepal, around the Annapurna, up to 5,416 m (17, 769 ft.).

GN:  How many times have you made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela? Why do you like the Camino de Santiago so much?

LC:  I’ve made five caminos and have five compostelas, about 5,000 kms of walking total. I very much like walking continuously, always farther in front of me.

GN:  When did you get interested in long-distance walking?

LC: I started walking long-distance on the caminos after I retired. As you know, long-distance walking is a very good school for both your brain and your body. It’s nice to make a break with your own life, you have plenty of time to dream when walking and to get lost sometimes…and you meet people from everywhere which can be good value.

GN:  You’re 73 now. What’s your secret? How do you stay healthy and physically strong when you walk such long distance, trek at such high altitudes, or visit countries with more difficult living conditions?  What advice can you share with our senior traveling readers?

LC:  Well, if i am strong at 73, it is because I choose to be like that. I think we can do what we want. Just to wish it is enough and easy. This is very important and everyone can be the same as me.

Just beleive it. If i am physically strong, it is because I don’t care too much about my body, I am asthmatic and have some arthritis…but never mind…I keep going..I try and I’m always positive and optimistic and my mind is happy.

GN:  You grew up in France during the Second World War? How did you get away from the war? How did you end up in Switzerland?

LC:  I was two years old when the war started and all I remember is that we often went hungry. For this reason, I carry a lot of food with me when I hike. But I was really too young to remember much else and except for the food I missed, we got away from the war without any big problems.

My sister was living on the border of Switzerland and in 1959 I came here and never left…except to travel. I’m always thinking about traveling.

GN:  Any plans for you next trip?

LC: Next trip will be to Mt. Kailash in Tibet if it is possible to go. And one day I will pass away in Asia….and stay there…

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Avery Sumner was raised on a small farm just over the Georgia state line in Jefferson County, Florida.  As a child she spent many solitary hours in the stillness of nature and credits these early experiences for directing her to the life she currently leads as a writer and yoga instructor. Avery presently lives in the mountains of North Georgia, having moved there from Normandy, France where she lived with her French husband Alain Laplanche. Before France, Avery lived seven years in the Florida Everglades where she operated a seasonal cafe and wrote the column Notes From the End of the Road for area newspapers. When she travels she looks for the natural and simple.

Avery’s posts on GoMad Nomad:

Learning French in France

The Same Dirt

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I met Noel Lau back in 2005 in Leon, Spain while walking the Camino de Santiago. Since then I’ve traveled through the Middle East with him and joined him in Spain to teach English. In 2008 he left for South America. He’s currently in Colombia.

Noel Lau at Wadi Rum, Jordan

GN: So, you’ve been on the road more or less, away from you native Borneo for more than 5 years, is that right?

NL: I have been away for almost 6 years. I left home because I was feeling trapped and bored by my old life; I was working as the Training Manager of The Westin Hotel, (a 5 star international hotel) a good, well-paid job with lots of opportunity to advance and make a career for myself. I had a secured a comfortable life. But I wasn’t happy. Life felt like a routine and I was having an identical life as anybody else: education, career, car, house, retirement, etc. I wanted something more. I was longing for freedom and just wanted to get away. Ever since I was young, I had always wanted to travel so that was a chance to fulfill my dream.

I haven’t returned to Malaysia because I don’t really feel that it’s my home anymore. I went back for two weeks about three years ago to renew my passport and visit my family, but I felt like a stranger in my own home. This could be what you call “reverse culture shock”, but for me it is much deeper than that.

GN: I’ve dubbed you “International Nomad”. Does that fit you?

NL: I’m not sure whether I am worthy of that title. I didn’t set out to be a nomad or traveler. When I left my home, I thought I was just going to go to London to work. Then step by step, things happened and after all these years, I’m still on the road. I guess “nomad” is the best way to describe what I am doing. I have had a few temporary homes, where I based myself to work and save money, but the idea of having a permanent home and a career, is quite claustrophobic for me right now.

GN: So you just work and save up and then travel, then repeat? Where are some of the places you’ve done this?

NL: Yes, that’s right. When I come to a place that I like or when I am low on money, I stay and work there. And when I have saved enough I go on traveling again. I have lived in London, Madrid, Mendoza (Argentina) and now Medellin (Colombia). There are also other places where I stayed from a week to a month like Puerto Natales (Chile), Castro (Chiloe Island, Chile) and Cartagena (Colombia) where I worked for my keep, mainly because either I was too tired to move on right away or I like the place enough to stay that long.

GN: Where is the longest you’ve stayed any one place?

NL: I lived and worked in Madrid, Spain for 3 years. I stayed that long because I wanted to learn Spanish and I made some really good and close friends that made it difficult for me to leave. I really like Spain and have a great memory of my 3 years there.

GN: But you’re from Malaysia. Your father is ethnically Chinese and your mother native Bornean? You were raised Christian. Your passport says you’re Malaysian? How do you identify yourself?

NL: When you put it this way, it sounds weird but yes, those are correct. Though I still speak Chinese fluently and love Malaysian food and still can recite all the prayers of the church by heart, I don’t really identify myself with any of them anymore. When I left Malaysia, one of my aims was to find myself. Since I wasn’t happy with the kind of life that everybody wants and seeks, then there must be something fundamentally wrong with me. So I decided to embark on a journey of self discovery. Who am I? What do I want? All the social conditionings that I went through growing up in one particular society: are they changeable? And if so, are there limits to experiencing life? Through these years of being by myself and being in contact with so many different cultures and exposing myself to different ways of life and schools of thought, I have shed my old identity and embraced a new one. So now I don’t really fit into any box or stereotype. And I rather enjoy this freedom in identity.

GN: You mentioned you didn’t feel at home in Malaysia? Where do you feel most at home? Why?

NL: Of all the places I have been to, I think I feel most at home in Spain. I really like the culture and friendly people, the open-minded society and the country is diverse and beautiful. I had also grown to like the tapas culture, where you have a drink and eat some tapas while chatting with friends in the evening. That seems to me the best way to end a day, any kind of day.

GN: How many languages do you speak?

NL: I speak about 6 languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Malay, Cantonese and Taiwanese. I am also learning Portuguese. But at any given moment, I can only manage 3 fluently. For example, my Malay is really rusty after not speaking it in 6 years.

GN: Your favorite place or country? The least favorite? How about people…the most friendly or most hospitable? Were you ever turned off by a particular country or its people? Did they not treat you well?

NL: It’s really hard to name a favorite; I like different places or countries for different reasons. I really like Spain as a country to live and explore. I had a memorable and wonderful experience backpacking through the Middle-East. I also like the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of small countries like Belgium, The Netherlands and Austria. Also the beaches of Brazil and the otherworldly beauty of the Patagonia in South America are to die for. I don’t really have a least favorite place but I generally don’t like overly touristy places, or going to places in high season. The friendliest people I have encountered are the Brazilians and Colombians; some have really gone out of their way to help me. When I crossed from Bolivia to Brazil, I was a bit lost at the port because the immigration office wasn’t there. I went up to the police and asked for directions, and instead of pointing me the way he drove me all the way there. And here in Colombia, if you stop someone in the street for directions, they will spend the time needed to point you to in the right direction. No one is in too much of a rush to not help others.

GN: You are a budget traveler I know. What countries has your dollar (or Euro) gone the furthest?

NL: So far I think it was in Syria and Bolivia. I can’t remember what my budget in Syria was because that was more than 2 years ago. In Bolivia, I lived on 10 Euro a day, everything included, food, accommodation, transportation, etc

GN: Any travel tips…ways to experience a foreign culture better, see things differently, or save money?

NL: I think the first thing you have to do is to leave your guidebook in the hostel. Guidebooks are good for research and practical information, but once you are on the road, you should let your instinct guide you and try to get acquainted with locals. There are so many people traveling right now, that backpacking isn’t what it used to be. So, you meet other travelers in the hostel, restaurants, bars, etc. Everyone goes to the same place that the guidebooks dictate, so you don’t really get to experience the local culture, you see but a small portion of a country, merely there to take pictures. And you will have the same experience as other travelers that visit the same place. So, what’s so special about that? I try to speak to the locals, in buses, on the street, etc. I eat where the locals eat, and stay in hostels that aren’t in the guidebook; they are usually much cheaper. It can be risky, but that’s what travelling is about, getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing life.

GN: Why does a life on the road appeal to you? Do you ever think you’ll settle in one spot? Will traveling always be a part of your life?

NL: I think what appeals to me about of a life on the road is the freedom. The kind of freedom I could never experience in any other way of life. I have no obligation to anyone except myself and most importantly I do not have to live up to anybody’s expectations. On top of that I get to see incredible sights and meet interesting people and characters along the way. I cannot say that I will go on like a nomad or travel for the rest of my life. I will do it as long as there is meaning in it and it brings me happiness and contentment more than any other way of life. But when the moment arrives that it doesn’t do it for me anymore, I need to have to courage to let go and change. That said, traveling will always be a part of my life because not only is it an enriching experience when you go out of your comfort zone and confront all kinds of experience, it’s also a lesson in humility and self discovery.

GN: You are in the midst of a South American trip. Tell us a little bit about what you’ve done/seen so far.

NL: Yes, I have been here over 15 months now. I started in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, and spent about two months heading south through the coast of Brazil. Been to some small villages with beautiful and wild beaches, Rio de Janeiro, Ouro Preto, Curitiba and my favorite place in Brazil, Florianopolis. Then I went to the see the Iguazu falls and crossed into Argentina en-route to Uruguay. There I spent about 2 weeks seeing Montevideo, Punta del Diablo and Colonia de Sacramento. Took a boat across the Rio Plata to Argentina, where I spent sometime in Buenos Aires, Rosario, Puerto Madryn to see whales and penguins. I then headed to the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia to spend Christmas and New Year. I was trying to get a free ride working in the ships that go to Antarctica, but unfortunately there wasn’t any available. Then I went hiking and camping in the most beautiful national park I have ever seen, Torres del Paine, Chile. The beauty is so pristine as if untouched by humans. I then hitchhiked up the Carretera Austral, one of the world’s most isolated highways, exploring the mythical island of Chiloe, Puerto Pontt, Pucón, Valpariso and Santiago. After about two months in Chile, I went back to Argentina and spent three months working in a hostel in Mendoza. Then I met up with a friend and went to Bolivia, laboring through Bolivian highways and harsh travelling conditions for two months. But it was an incredible period when I visited Sucre, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Samaipata, Cochabamba, La Paz, Titicaca Lake, The Uyuni salt flat, Trinidad and Rurrenabaque. After which, I went back to Brazil to take 2 boat rides through the Amazon to get to Colombia. I then spent about 2 months in Cartagena working on the street, selling origamis and writing names in Chinese. Now I am in Medellin, Columbia.

GN: You are currently in Medellin, Colombia. What are you doing? What is so great about Colombia? And what everybody wants to know…is it safe for travelers?

NL: I am working as an English teacher in a language centre. I hope to stay for a while and to explore this country. Colombia is a really beautiful country: both the landscape as well as the people. The Colombians are the friendliest people I have met; they’re warm hearted and will go out of their way to help you. Yes, it is safe, as long as you don’t wander into the jungle or unmarked territory. The cities and towns are safe, of course there are areas to avoid, just like any other cities. Even travelling by bus at night is safe. So, the general rule is to stick to tourist route or talk to a friendly local who is always willing to give you any information you need.

GN: What after Colombia? You’ve never been to the U.S., any desire to go there?

NL: I have no idea what or where after Colombia, as I don’t really plan my life more than 1 month in advance. I do want to go to the U.S. because I have some good friends there. But unfortunately, with my current status, no permanent job nor home address, the U.S. immigration would never give me the visa to enter. So, I guess, I will have to put that on the back burner.

Noel Lau blogs at http://wander2nowhere.blogspot.com

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Stephen Bugno has been writing about travel ever since his mother made him keep a travel journal at the age of 9 on a family vacation to the southwestern United States. Since then his travels have taken him to four continents and his writing has been published in more than ten online and print publications including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He specializes in off-the-beaten-track destinations, budget and independent/alternative travel and travel narratives.

He temporarily resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia, freelance writing in addition to editing the GoMad Nomad Travel Mag.

He blogs at Blog of a Modern Nomad

Reach him at stephenbugno [at] gmail [dot] com

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Emolyn Liden has been volunteering, working, and traveling her way around the globe for almost a decade. When she’s not traveling she’s at home in the mountains of western North Carolina. She’s a writer, knitwear designer and avid fiddler. Read her knitting blog at Emolyn Knits

She blogs for GoMad Nomad at Emolyn’s Travel Snapshots

Emolyn’s recent posts on GoMad Nomad:

Teaching English in Madrid

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Ask Gomad Nomad!

Calling all readers to submit their independent travel related questions to Gomad Nomad to be answered in a new column.

Send your questions to: gomadnomadtravelmag@gmail.com

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