We ....

joined the rat race :(

saving money :helpsmilie:

leave in 2013 :scooter:

always the same story SSDD .... doh

Thomas beer

hahah so true.... I live a life on ever decreasing circles. Or maybe they're getting bigger ???

In 1990 I took one of the first aid convoys to Romania, I was in the former Yugoslavia on a first UN mission in the 90's, I was in Iraq in 1993.....

I really hated the idiots who said " Hi, you are back... did u enjoy your HOLIDAY......." I will never be able to explain to them, they will never be able to understand......."

Stay Safe in whatever you do.

Alan L.

Hi Guys,
We were on the road for 18 odd months.
Cut the trip short by a one or two months (due to volcano).
Got to Perth Aus (never been there before)
got part time job, got depressed,
got full time job, remained depressed
Slowly got used to slavery .. i mean 9-5
got less depressed.

started dreaming and talking about next trip..
more dreaming. more talk..

got permanent full time work (but it involves a lot of travel)
got less depressed.


normal wasting money buying stupid stuff life came back all too quick.doh
truth is i still have not settled down.

I want out of this normal life.


I want to travel but have like 50 bucks in the bank.
It is gunna take a long time before i can go again. Probably wont be truly happy till then.

I've just completed 12,000 km over a month, not as huge trip, but not bad for the first one. What next? I quite fancy taking my 1960 Dnepr sidecar back to Kiev! Sure it will be slow, but the slower you travel the more you see, and the more people you meet, it's not the getting there that's important. First of all, I'd better earn some more money :(

An optimistic approach
 

Hi all,

I am reading the whole post, but got impatient after some bored/sad approaches that urge me to write, probably very long, hopefully not as boring as some’s vision of the reality shock once back. No kidding, I feel terrible reading about anyone having a hard time about this! (Edit: finished reading...)

After 11 months travelling and two and a half of work routine, things seem to go quite good/great for us… at least until now. So, I would like to provide an optimistic approach, focusing on the bright side (of life… whistle, tutu-turu-turu-tutuuuu, always look at the briiiight side of life…).

It’s true that we (especially me) are in general very optimistic: it is never too late to be disappointed/annoyed/pissed off, so why should you start too soon and/or unnecessarily to worry? (for those soon coming back, please!). After some analyse I’d say this is our approach, which actually sounds like a “self-help” book, but true in our case. Hopefully it helps, no one deserves to be disappointed when coming back home:

1) THIS IS A NEW STAGE in your life, so get the best of your experience to make things better now at home. Start from ZERO and/or improve everything you have always thought of: new trees in the garden, DIY floor in the kitchen, comfy sofa with a nice lamp to read your travel books, join a ping-pong club, study a new language! Do not just sit in the couch thinking “life if boring here”, otherwise you would be boring element.

2) Your friends, family, colleagues look the same as when you left, time did not pass at all for them? Boring conversations? -> NOOOOOOO, these are your friends, man, they haven’t changed and do not take you as a stranger, that would be much worse! They are just like that, you knew it before. So, enjoy the time with them, the same beer in the same pub. Isn’t it nice to be back home (imagine a never-ending trip eating crap and suffering turista every now and then!). Do not put them off at all, just consider other parallel plans and count with them if they want to join (HUBB meeting, trip to the Lakes District, learning to sail, etc). You changed, so be smart and adapt yourself.

3) People do not really understand what you do? -> So what? It’s nice to have endorsement, but do you really need it? It’s your time and your money, so you spend it as you like it best, so do not even argue it. “Do I ever criticise the money you spend in Italian shoes and silk ties? Same”. Ah, I talk a lot (look the length of this post!), but I seldom speak about any trip (my friends actually complain about that) and almost never show photos (just too lazy). Tell funny anecdotes, forget about moral lessons about poverty, people get really bored (I myself find really boring listening to people enlightened b/c of a trip to Rishikesh in India, for instance).

4) Analyze how the trip has changed you: are you now more temperate after you dealt with corrupt border officials? Does it help you in everyday life? Are you maybe a funnier and better story-teller?

5) Don’t you actually feel like stopping your nomadic life and resting for a while (sitting in a sofa is great pleasure, isn’t it?). But start planning: A) short trips, as said before, you are still on the move! B) maybe another long trip: keep it as a goal/motivation, but not in the shortest term. You are not trying to flee, ok? Life is routine, that is why spare time is soooo valuable… and (a) year(s) off so great. Welcome the nice side of routine.

6) Do not over-dream, nor“over-dramatize”. You may plan to write a book… but not to become a full-time writer, let’s say. Your friends are not that simplistic, nor idiot. Just regular good fellas and your only true friends.

7) Get a lot in HUBB and the like, your link with that previous/other life. Everyone knows it well: you’ll be happy to help others, meet many others like you (among the best things of internet!) and will detach your thoughts about camping/visas/mechanics progressively. And join a HUBB community! (I just did, but still have to meet the chaps!). But this site cannot be your only "refuge", get out to have a beer with friends! Once again, I am amazed about how nice/honest people in here get to be, really.

8) IF YOU ACTUALLY DID NOT LIKE YOUR PLACE and/or LIFESTYLE before your trip: maybe you feel like moving abroad for a while? Well, maybe time to give it a try. Or change job (hard now, I know it well).

I once felt that way (aka bored/sad) at some extent after the 1st year abroad (NGO time in SA, really disappointing approach to poverty and then lots of fun as Erasmus student in Germany), so completely understand it. But based on that, this other vision is our antidote and works well for us. It helps we both have before and after meeting lived some years abroad (8 and 6), so it is probably less of a shock as it happened already several times.

In our case, it was great to travel a little shorter and make a progressive return to routine. We spent more than a month in Spain, our loved country (hard to come back while the economic crisis lasts! sadly). So went for the safe bet: my gf getting her previous job back and me, miraculousely mine as well, so avoided the hard time sending CVs. So came to Switzerland 10 days before to get everything ready to start to live/work in here.

If you start thinking that it will be horrible when you come back, sure it will be.

Anticipate a great time and probably it will be even greater. The most important thing is to survive the trip back and enjoy regular life.

PS: Don't think of the one who writes as an "iluminati" or hippie-peace-and-love, just a very regular, even classical, guy. It's only like being sad when starting to work after summer holidays... hold on, you had a great time, think like that!

If your a building surveyor (if I understand the term properly), Fort MacMurray in Alberta is the place for you. Actually anyplace in the Canadian west is the place, it's started to heat up in the oil sands again and they're begging for people to work there. The companies there are actively recruiting in the US and Europe for trades and engineering people, check it out, look it up on the internet..and good luck


Cheers Growler

the whole point in a sentence
bierbierbier

im back home getting more drunk!

Change
 

Change plans .... 1 year earlier, can`t stand it any longer :stormy:

We are off in July 2012 :D

Happy trails
Thomas & Andrea

www.miles-to-ride.com

Hi Goh

save the beer money and leave again

Greets with Love from Switzerland

Thomas & Andrea

www.miles-to-ride.com

I'm honestly not just saying this to promote my book, but when I got back from my Eurasia trip last year, I spent the dark cold winter writing about it. The best thing about doing that is (this is the point of this post) that I was able to relive every single moment again. Let’s face it we pass by so much on the road, even if we take it all in we don’t always recall it. But reading back through diary notes and more importantly looking at the photos I took, bought back the trip mile by mile, how I was feeling at any particular time and why I took that photo of the smoking Ural or horse and cart. On the computer screen we look at our photos but rarely see them. The detail and the awe the made us take them in the first place. I was able to completely relive my trip and regardless of how the book sells I feel like I got to do the journey twice. Oh and then I did another bike trip... 2 months and counting to get through Mexico, what it lacks in adventure it makes up for in fun. The book? Well soon as you asked...
In Search of Greener Grass - - Matador Non-Fiction - Graham Field

To live it again and again... RECORD IT!
 

Originally I loved photography the most, and still admire its very artistic side. I used to think: "recording video"? do you mean enjoying the holidays on a TV when you come back?"...

BUT... if you want to live it again once back home, "teletransport" yourself to the place and the time, nothing can beat the VIDEO with its sounds. You play it and in a second you feel your're there again. Actually, I feel that those amazing photographies -with their silence- sometimes may produce nostalgia, while the video is just a kick up!

Esteban

PS: Now they invest a lot in 3D camcorders but... nobody is going to make the one recording the smells???? I'd be happy to smell the bazaars and markets (or maybe even open the windows and get a small hint of the streets of Baranasi)!:D

so that's what happens when one gets back... still in planing stages myself and looking forward to leaving. plan is to start in stages... a month out, back to take care of business. then back out for another month. then out for several months.

Hi Ted,

After 3 years being an overlander we had trouble settling but got straight down to paying the Debts off & now clear saving up for the next trip in 2014 once we have converted the truck saved up enough cash to last as long as we can. the cash will last a lot longer with all the experiance we gained from the first 3 years.

I ended up working as a Security Contractor in Baghdad now in Afghanistan tax free it helps speed up the bank account. But the urge to travel is amazing. one thing is when things are crap I always rember the 3 years on the road and smile.