My thoughts and reflections as I complete my first year of backpacking around the world.

To mark my one-year anniversary, I thought it would be nice to jot down a few thoughts since embarking on my travels.

Celebration

I am currently in Manila in the Philippines for my final two months of the Asia segment of my trip. As a way to celebrate, what one year ago was but an idea, I had a few treats. I originally planned going to what is regarded as one of the finest buffets in the world called Spiral, it is however, around £60 without alcohol.

By chance, I noticed a long queue of local people outside a nice looking restaurant in a shopping mall. I asked to look around and decided to join in. What an amazing up-market lunch buffet it was at Vikings. vikings

Oysters, tuna, salmon, sushi, tiger prawns, beef, lamb, a huge dessert selection and free flow beer for £12.50 accompanied by sophisticated jazz....what more do I need!

I also treated myself to amazing upmarket cocktails at the Raffles Hotel. It is not unusual in London to pay £15+ for a cocktail in a 5-Star hotel. As I'm no longer a banker but a backpacker, I located probably one of the finest happy hours in the whole of South East Asia. A selection of unlimited cocktails, beer or wine between 5-8pm for £12.....to say that I got my money's worth, would be an understatement!

Going forwards, I will be releasing one new article on this website and one new question and/or answer on my questions website on the 24th day of every month, as this will mark another month of travels since beginning on the 24th October 2018.

Beginning

A world map, a few thoughts for where I wanted to go and some money in the bank was my start. Back then, the original idea was to travel for more than three months which was the length of my first long trip. map

Four months was my first thought, but that very quickly became six.

Six almost immediately became twelve. Why not, there was nothing holding me back and the thought of visiting Japan sealed the deal. The big leap towards a two-year trip was however, a slightly more thought out process. I decided to spend half my time in Asia, the other half in the Americas.

Sometimes I find it quite hard to believe that it has been 365 days since I left London on a dark and dreary day back in October 2018. This has been without doubt, one of the biggest decisions I have made in my life and is changing my future direction as I embrace internal growth as well as seeing and experiencing different cultures around the world.

Practicality

My immediate reaction was how could I afford this two year trip. My previous 3-month trip to Southern China, Vietnam & Cambodia was organized around staying in hotels & guest houses, this wasn't an option even though the cost was quite low, averaging £13pn. Hostels for 95% of the trip was the most economical but also more importantly, the social way to travel as staying in your own room can be isolating as I had previously discovered.

The main and easiest, or, so I thought, financial option was to rent out my flat in London. This meant I would have to clear out all my belongings which wasn't an easy task on many levels. A slight panic ensued as I only had two months before my departure. I went through every room and either threw away no longer needed items, gave them to charity, with other items being left outside for others to pick up and up-cycle, which surprisingly worked really well......clearly my junk was good quality as every morning the previous stash had disappeared.

Phase 1 of this cleansing process was easy, items I would never use again were my target. I ended going through each room 4 times. With each phase, it became more difficult to get rid of things. By phase 3, I was discarding items I wanted to keep but knew the long term storage costs outweighed their value. Partially in denial, I left the decision about whether to keep or sell my sports car (a.k.a my midlife crisis) to the end. After analysing storage, insurance and depreciation costs, I had to admit, I couldn't justify keeping it. A few days after I handed the keys over to a dealer, I rationalized my decision by thinking of the new experiences I would be having as opposed to thinking of my past driving trips around Europe......this was phase 4.....I had to be brutal. Strangely, after a while, I felt lighter, at that time I didn't know why. I would estimate, I got rid of 75% of my clothes & shoes, it dawned on me that I was a secret hoarder, something I didn't realize until I discarded items I hadn't worn or used for years.

Actuality

When I look back to the first few weeks of backpacking, I can say in all honesty it was easy to adjust to this new way of living. If I were to give someone new to backpacking some advice, it would be to at least initially, choose hostels that have a high rating for being social. Talking and making friends with other backpackers is probably more important than cost or comfort at the start of your hostel journey.

Hostel life, I believe, has been one of the main factors in making travelling to far away places easier. I have stayed in around 100 hostels while visiting 10 countries. One aspect I have learned, is that, after a while, an amazing temple, mountain or beach becomes the norm. I'm not implying they are no longer special, but at some point they become part of your day-to-day life. People on the other hand are alive, unique and interesting. In addition, because you have the travelling bug in common, making friends or part-time acquaintances is usually pretty easy.

Simply chilling in the communal areas of hostels, fellow backpackers are keen to find out each others stories. Whether you talk about your past and how the decision was made to travel or importantly where you have been or are going, there is always something to talk about. Yes sometimes the conversations get repetitive, but you nearly always learn something new as you are talking to different people from different parts of the world. My age has sometimes been a consideration as most are usually in their twenties, so yes, you don't always get invited to join in. This is completely understandable, however, this has only happened a handful of times, it's usually me turning down the offer to join in.....something I need to work on!

People

Oh, the people you will meet. The main reason for backpacking and staying in hostels, as well as cost, was to meet fellow travellers.

I have been very fortunate to meet nice, intelligent as well as inspiring people on my journey so far. As I have mentioned in previous articles, age hasn't been a barrier in socializing with other backpackers. I say a big "thank you" to everyone I have met.

I have met engineers, comedians, businessmen & women, professors, electricians, builders, roofers, bloggers, YouTubers, stock traders, personal assistants, PhD students, teachers, architects, radiology engineers, musicians, tour guides, designers, technologists, bar owners, producers, zoo keepers, psychologists, retirees, event managers, divorcees, couples with kids, developers, influencers, entrepreneurs, bar tenders, biologists, students, hackers, accountants, estate agents, professional photographers, chemical engineers, librarians, co-living entrepreneurs, ex-servicemen, anthropologists, baristas, waiters, trawler fishermen, bankers, beauticians, yoga instructors, digital marketers and content creators....the list goes on and on.....I truly feel humbled meeting so many diverse personalities and thank them all again for being a part of my journey.

I would say that Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia have been the easiest places to meet and make friends. These countries are well trodden backpacker routes and so hostels tend to be full most of the time.

Costs

People are always interested to know how much it costs to complete a round the world trip similar to mine as a backpacker. Prior to leaving London, I had estimated a budget of around £50 per day. This was roughly broken down into £15 for a hostel, £20 for food & drinks, £5 for local transport and £10 for attractions.

The reality so far, has been quite surprising. My average daily spend has been around £25. As I knew Japan was going to be the most expensive destination by far, I decided to keep a daily log of my expenses. I had originally estimated it would be around £75, which was confirmed by a couple of backpackers I had spoken to. This budget included travelling all day from dawn to dusk and entry fees to museums and attractions and finishing off with bars & clubs and the inevitable drinking.

My average daily spend in Japan was a more "sober".....£37. Drinking was very moderate and done at my hostel with a reasonably priced bottle of wine for under £5.

Transportation

Getting around most South-east Asian countries is pretty straight forward......especially if you can speak & read English. Train & Metro systems always have English translations or even easier, stations have numbers in addition to names.

Many if not most of the backpacker destinations are well trodden routes so transport is easy and often cheap. Even when heading to lesser known destinations, local buses or private minivans will be available.

Japan is the most expensive, but using the slower local trains is really cheap. As I spent 6 weeks in Japan time was not a consideration, so the expensive bullet trains were not required apart from one route where it was the only option.

Destinations

A question that always comes up is, what has been my favourite place. Firstly there is never just one place and secondly it's difficult to answer as wholly subjective. Here are my thoughts on the places I will be going back to in the future.

I thought it would also be fun to include a screen shot from my phone showing where I have visited so far. It's funny, when you zoom out of the map, my travels look pretty insignificant!

Chiang Mai (Thailand): Outside the burning season and ultra hot summer, it is a very easy place to live a western lifestyle on a low budget. This is why it's a base for many digital nomads.

Pai (Thailand): This former hippie hangout, offers you the chance to stay in your own private wooden shack in the countryside giving you ample time to read or write your own book in solitude.

Luang Prabang (Laos): A world heritage site with a very laid back, easy going attitude and an air of sophistication too.

Koh Lipe & Koh Tao (Thailand): These two small islands although very well frequented by tourists offer a laid back and cheap cocktail on the beach experience as well as a place to get scuba diving certification.

Siem Reap (Cambodia): Another world heritage site with the famous Angkor Wat ruins on its doorstep. It is full of tourists, but this means a huge choice of hotel/hostel and restaurant options.

Kobe (Japan): Not well known or frequented, but this small and easily walkable city has everything needed for a good stay including a forest as a backdrop for hiking.

Bali (Indonesia): This large island has many facets: beach, countryside and volcanoes. The lifestyle tends to evolve around healthy eating, detoxing, yoga, surfing and spiritual enlightenment.

Loneliness

I often get asked how difficult it is travelling solo and whether I get lonely. The honest answer is yes, there are occasions I have been lonely, but I have chosen to stay in hostels which alleviate or almost eliminate this element of travelling solo. It is also down to your personality, in that you have to make the effort to talk to others and a start conversation by breaking the ice.

I also don't believe it's sufficient to just travel as your motivation at each destination, each memorial, each waterfall, each temple becomes part of your daily life and therefore no longer as special as at the start of one's travels. You need something else to keep your brain active by having a project, hobby or learning something new, which ideally leads to a higher purpose.

At home in London, I would often hold back from going to pubs or eating out alone. I can no longer hold onto that excuse as I'm travelling alone and I need to eat & drink. This in itself forces you outside your comfort zone and helps you grow.

Fatigue

Another subject that comes up with other long-term travellers is the subject of fatigue. I experienced a bout of fatigue when I hit 9 months, others have told me their wall was at 6 months.

It lasted for a few days, I then changed my way of looking at the situation and realized I had a first world problem and that I was extremely fortunate to be in my position.

The other aspect leading to fatigue is the constant moving every few days. I dealt with this by thinking back to my former, daily 9-5 work routine. We all have repetitive parts to our day in whatever we do, the difference is that I now see new things every few days....problem solved.

Another good way to help with fatigue, is to give yourself a "weekend away" or the equivalent of a "week in the sun" for those that work. It may sound crazy to give yourself a holiday within a holiday, but to simply switch off for 3-5 days if travelling short-term, or 2-3 weeks if long-term, I found is very important. Base yourself in a nice hostel with a great outdoor or social area and switch off, this has definitely helped me. My two winding down points were Chiang Mai & Ubud.

My Interests

As many of you will know, my interests are focussed on various projects such as updating this travel journal, a questions website, where I aim to answer 80 meaningful and hopefully helpful questions on diverse and often controversial topics. A photography website which concentrates on a very narrow field of black & white street photography capturing moments of life as they unfold before my eyes. Finally, running a portfolio of online businesses with future interesting lifestyle concepts in the pipeline.

This is an image of my business card that I designed. pirinthian

I hope you can see how simple, clean and uncluttered it is, no telephone number or address, just a website and email address. This is how I see and live my life today and most probably in the future, global not local.

Weather

One of my original motivations for long-term travel was experiencing 7 months of grey skies during a London winter. I therefore designed my trip to constantly be in the sunshine. With 365 days now under my belt, I believe that the number of days of rain I have experienced, is less than 12 out of my 365 days. Of those, only 4 were complete wash-outs where it rained all day.

I did however, miss-calculate the latter part of my trip by putting the Philippines ahead of Indonesia. By pure chance or as I like to see it, the universe giving me a helping hand. I "randomly" bump into a lovely lady from the Philippines, and we got talking. She tells me that maybe I should change my plans. Upon further research, I placed my two months in Indonesia before the Philippines.....she was correct......thanks Yu-Hsien.

The constant exposure to sunshine has had a strange effect upon my skin. In the past I would wear sun protection lotion, but often still burn and peel. My skin seems to have adapted to this constant hot weather, with day's in the 80s, 90s and often over 100 degrees.

I no longer use sun "protection" lotion as my research on this subject has uncovered that the chemicals seep deep into your body. sun-hat

My only protection is to use an embarrassing wide-brim sun hat, to keep my head cool and the sun off my face. This has the side effect of putting a smile on peoples faces as they laugh at the foreigner.

One of the questions in the health section of my questions website, asks "Is the sun as dangerous to humans as we have been told"?

Health

I had a bout of dengue fever which lasted a week with flu like symptoms. However overall, I've been fortunate not to have any other ailments this past year despite by being bitten by a fair number of mosquitoes.

Surprisingly I have also lost some weight despite eating out all the time. I'm sure my insides are probably not in the best of shape as my food choices would be healthier if I was cooking myself. I would estimate that I have eaten street food at least 95% of the time for lunch and probably 25% for dinner. The food is local and most of the time pre-cooked, super tasty and extremely cheap. You may be wondering how many times I've been sick from food poisoning.....none, zero, zilch times. In fact on my previous 3-month trip, I got ill 3 times eating vegetarian food at very nice restaurants.....go figure!

I probably walk at least five to six hours every day wherever I am, this is probably one of the reasons that I have lost a few inches around my waist and around 6kg/13lbs in weight. I suspect the warm weather also results in having smaller, lighter meals and therefore fewer calories. I also practice intermittent fasting which is probably the biggest factor towards weight control.

My alcohol consumption is probably higher compared to back home as every day, is a "holiday", so this does require discipline and is under control.

I have also adapted my workout routine from back in the UK and will be writing an article on what I like to call "The Backpackers' Workout".

Seeing

The more I travel, the more I experience my ever-changing environment through childlike eyes. Seeing this simple, yet fascinating complex world unravel as though I'm truly seeing it for the first time.

You start to see patterns in human behaviour and perceptions, then realize, we are all the same, trying to do the best with what we have.

I'm finding that the little things while working in London that I didn't have the time to savour are more prominent in my daily life. The old saying of "smelling the roses" comes to mind.

Watching wild dogs having fun on a beach, seeing the wonder of a sunset, watching children playing with what they have managed to cobble together with their imagination, brings me straight back to my childhood, collecting scraps of wood, nails and screws from skips on the road where I lived as a child......fond memories of true freedom!

The thousands of small elements that come together in our daily lives and pass so quickly....these are the moments I now pay attention to, the ones we all tend to side-line or not even notice. Every moment makes life and the universe tick.

I have read so many (mainly American), business books during my early twenties with advice relating to achieving goals which seemed to be the path every successful businessperson had taken. I now seriously question this path. Would I prefer my gravestone to read "I was successful" or "I tried to help"......I'm leaning towards the later.

Should we equate life to achieving major milestones or should we embrace everyday moments. We are all on this planet striving for a better life for ourselves and our children. The more I travel, the more I agree with the Thai saying "Same, same but different". We are all fundamentally the same with what we have in common far outweighing our differences. Looking for things we have in common compared to making judgements on our differences is the way forward.

Our beliefs are based on where we were born, how we were raised and educated, however, this may differ to what is actually true. I have learned, it's not difficult to challenge and change my beliefs and therefore the way I view life.

Purpose

I have been asked on a few occasions, "why am I travelling and is there a purpose?." This question has come from those working the 9-5 system......they were puzzled by my lifestyle.

My answer....."what is the purpose of working until I'm 65?".

The majority of us, and I include my former self, are simply working in order to pay the bills and lead a semi decent western life. This is the narrative we have been programmed to believe is the norm. I have simply challenged its premise and changed course.

Quotes

As readers of my travel journal will know, I have collected many inspirational quotes. Here are my favourites.

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. Sren Kierkegaard

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. Saint Augustine

This quote eloquently leads to my all time favourite.....

All the wonders you seek are within yourself. Thomas Browne

We have all been led down the garden path with the fake narrative of searching for the meaning of life outside ourselves......everything we need is within.

My last quote is one I created myself which I inscribed onto a piece of driftwood while on an island:

Navigating the world liberates the mind, the heart set free by souls met along the way. Ugo Domizioli

Future

I will very soon no longer have a home in London. Where will my new home be? I actually have no idea. My future address is "the world" and my life will be contained in a cabin sized 38 litre backpack. That's all I know as I write this article and strangely for the first time in my life, I'm fine not knowing or having an answer. Of course, I have started exploring options, but none of my research has yielded any answers yet.

This is one positive aspect that has changed my outlook on life, in that none of us can actually know what will happen in the future, so why stress about it. I have the luxury of having all the time in the world to think of a solution together with clarity of mind.

One new idea that I have been pondering for the past month is, why stop travelling after two years......watch this space?

HOMEPAGE