So, here we are in mid-August 2015 and I have officially been on my world tour since mid-September 2015, that is 11 months of travel. In this article, I will take stock of my journey and my vision of my world tour.
@In Thailand, on the island of Koh phi phi
Being a traveler or an adventurer
Before leaving to do this world tour in 2014, I had already traveled between two and a half and three years, so you can imagine, I started this world tour with a lot of experience all over the world whether in Asia, Europe, or Australia.
During this world tour, I revisited some countries that I really liked such as Australia for 3 weeks (I lived 15 months in Australia, 6 years ago) or the USA / Canada for 3 months (it was my fourth / third time in 15 years) or Thailand for 1 month (it was my fourth time in 5 years).
I lived this world tour before leaving and if I had to make my choice again, I would not change my choice (my story before my world tour) whether it is about my destinations or my choices before the world tour. Well then why are you bothering us with your article…… you might say!!
The observation after 11 months:
To be honest, even with all these travels, I sincerely think that I have never been a TRAVELER but rather an ADVENTURER in search of experiences.
I clearly see that I do not have that feeling of excitement that other travelers have when they travel because maybe traveling has become my daily routine.
I travel to live new adventures, whether they are everyday experiences abroad, life experiences, and sharing that I would not have had the chance to have if I had stayed in France.
I could have lived these experiences and adventures without moving so much but my thirst for knowledge, my curiosity, and my desires pushed me to change places as soon as these new experiences became my daily life.
My favorite experiences are generally:
- Talking with locals,
- Learning new languages,
- Hiking or cycling,
- Discovering nightlife,
- Practicing outdoor activities.
I also spend a lot of time on my computer looking for ways to finance my trip, working on the internet and also researching and seeking the most economical solutions to travel.
@Jericho Beach in Vancouver, Canada
Traveling in immersion
Following this observation that I have made for a long time, I do fewer and fewer tourist visits because they do not bring me much more experience. Visiting another temple, visiting another big city, I do not need to consume always and always….
I am not a consumer and I will not be one, I want to ENJOY these experiences. It is for these reasons, for example, that I decided to stay 3 weeks in Vancouver in June or now I have been in Playa del Carmen for 3 weeks and I plan to stay another three weeks to learn Spanish and immerse myself a little more in Spanish and Latin culture. You might say ok.. I could have chosen another more Mexican place because Playa is still quite westernized.
You have to do things step by step and it has always worked for me.
That is why I decided to do things differently for my next trips:
- I will go to Cuba to learn Salsa for two weeks, I will spend most of my time in Havana.
- Then, I will go to Guatemala to deepen my Spanish for two to three weeks, I will spend most of my time in Antigua.
- I will go diving in Belize or another place in Latin America, to be defined for now.
- I will hike during my stay in Guatemala and Nicaragua, mainly to climb volcanoes and mountains.
- I will then head to Colombia, where I will take more Spanish classes either in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali where I plan to stay at least one month or even 3 months if I like it.
I might change these plans because they might no longer suit my current needs and that is why I like taking my time.
Travel allows you to have the CHOICE. I feel like I have a kind of new life at each new place I go and it is up to me to live, to enjoy these new experiences.
@Sunset beach in Vancouver, Canada
When will I return from my world tour?
To be honest, I don’t even know the answer yet.
I like my current lifestyle and I also want to come back to France.
I am torn between these two feelings, continuing my trip or returning to France. Maybe it will only take a trigger for me to say: I will travel another year or I will stay in France in a month.
The moment I will come back to France also depends on my activities on the internet and currently, I am set to travel for another 6 months.
My activities on the Internet
The truth is that I have been making a living on the Internet for 3 years and I accumulated a lot of money during these 3 years because before leaving on the world tour, I also had a full-time job.
I financed my first year of world tour with the money I earned on the internet since my first day of the world tour and the 3 months of salary I negotiated to leave my company but there is a BUT.
The money I earned on the Internet comes from the efforts I made 3 years ago during 2 years when I worked seriously. In 6 months, I might no longer earn money. Currently, I earn on average 500-600 euros per month since mid-2014, which is little compared to what I earned a year and a half ago with my websites.
I would like to come back to France with peace of mind and say to myself: “I was able to finance my world tour with my Internet activities and I am moving on” but currently I am trying to develop these activities because I have the time to have no regrets.
@Stanley Park in Vancouver, Canada
Making choices
Being able to travel another 6 months or even 1 year will require me to make sacrifices. To be able to do what I want, I will have to find another business idea, make money on the internet in another way, train in skills that I do not have but have high potential, the solutions are multiple.
BUT the ROI (return on investment) may not be there. You are never sure on the internet. I have already had many successes and earned a lot of money on the internet but this luck will not always be present.
An economist said: “Failure is the key to success”, he is completely right but I need this success now.
Staying a little longer in my future places also allows me to work on these projects although I should stay much longer to have a better success rate.
I have made the choice to try to live from my passion and to have as many different experiences as possible in various areas of life. It may be the easy solution for me and the difficult solution for others because it is my life and my daily routine for 6 years but the path is still very long.
I think it would be more difficult for me to return to France and have a normal life like everyone else than to continue my initiatory journey.
If you want to know how I travel as much as possible at low cost here are several articles to complement your reading:
- Having the cheapest possible plane ticket
- Going on a world tour without a return ticket at a low price
- The countries I visited during my world tour
And you? What would you have done in my place? What do you think of my choices?
