LIFE
I want to travel, but I don’t like the idea of going alone. This is the biggest hurdle for many would-be-travelers. The hard reality for many is if we don’t go backpacking alone, we aren’t going backpacking. You have to be lucky to have a travel partner with similar goals, time, and money as yourself. Plus, can you realistically expect to have a travel partner with whom you want to spend almost every hour of every day? Traveling alone will force you to meet other people, and will probably expose you much more to the real experiences of travel. If you feel you must travel with someone, there’s a good chance you will meet another person in similar circumstances as you travel. I have traveled with dozens of backpackers for periods long and short--from a few months to a few weeks, a few days, even a few hours. It’s fun, and you can go off on your own again whenever you must.
I don’t think I’m the backpacker type.
Fears and Concers
Photo: Sometimes it’s hard to find your way.
Who do I talk to when I’m alone?
This is the biggest hurdle for many would-be-travelers. The hard reality for many is if we don’t go backpacking alone, we aren’t going backpacking. You have to be lucky to have a travel partner with similar goals, time, and money as yourself. 3
Most Americans don’t think they’re the backpacker type, but perhaps you aren’t sure what the backpacker type is. We Americans really don’t do much traveling compared to Germans, English, French, Italians, Danes, Australians, etc. We take brief vacations, sign up for tours and cruises, but as a nation we aren’t very adventurous. The reason for this, I believe, is that our country is so gigantic we aren’t much exposed to travel in other lands. Many people in Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Denmark, and Australia--including teachers, architects, engineers, secretaries, mechanics, farmers, and students--consider themselves backpacker types, and travel on their own all over the world. They have an intellectual in-
terest in other cultures, and it is the greatest fun for them to make their own way through. The purpose of this book is to expose more people to the concept of backpacker travel, and to give them a good start on how to do it. Americans especially need to travel more. It would do our national outlook good, and it might do you good.
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
Is it safe to travel? The last thing I want is for someone to read this book and then naļvely get Fear is useful for an initial brief period: to hurt traveling. There are risks to travel, as there are in everything you do. expedite movement to safety or to cause a reevaluation. Soon thereafter rationality must The first determinant of risk is largely geographical. For exam- come to the fore. Those who would reduce ple, pickpockets are currently a greater plague in Managua the fullness of life want to engender fear, limit than London. Backpackers in Central America, however, are a intellectual and physical activity, ultimately roself-selected group who are overall more worldly than average boticize humanity for their own idiotic ends. backpackers in Europe or Australia. They know to keep money Nowhere is it preordained that brutality and in a hidden money belt, and are wary with wallets and packs. appalling conservatism will lose. ReasonThese travelers mostly navigate Managua without great incident. able people must fight to preserve and enhance freedom for themselves and others. But there are plenty of pickpockets in London, and backpackers can be just as run-over there as in any developing world Regarding rationality, intoxicated vehicle opcity. Indeed I consider myself at a greater risk in left-side-driv- erators kill five of my fellow Texans every day ing Great Britain than proper-side-driving Nicaragua--it’s easy of every year, maim many more. In Germany to forget where you are when you’re having so much fun. and France fatalities per kilometer of travel are fifty percent higher than in the United StatesThe other determinant is you. Your risks skyrocket if you -in developing countries the rate is twendon’t wear a seat belt, if you don’t take proper health precau- ty times more disastrous. With this in mind tions, or if you walk alone at night in dangerous areas of me- I’ll make my next backpacking journey with dieval countries in a miniskirt. If you are sensible, like most all possible care (using my alert and flexible backpackers, your risks are reduced wherever you travel. superpowerful1 brain to daily make scores. 4