What you have done after your big trip ??
 

This is something that interests me as I'm in that stage myself...

I came back and went straight back into work to pay off the hefty debts I accumulated while being away... Now I'm bored, restless and even more desperate to get away again. This time permanently.

What have you done when you got back ????

Did you settle down into your old life ??

Did you not come back ????

Has your trip made you urge for more ??

Discuss :arabia:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ing-home-40955

Hey tedmagnum. So im not up there with the 'big boys' yet, and it was a very relaxed three day jount around derbyshire, but I hated every minute of coming back to my home town. That being said I think dan walsh summed it up perfectly as 'dont get off the boat' (apocalyspe now lol), becuase you loose momentum. next time, on my trip atound the uk somewhere, i would like to keep going day after day.

Going home
 

Ted,

a fearful time. In 2 days we are heading home after 13 months on the road.

We have 3 boxes of mail to go through, we have to live with my in laws until we find a new house, we are low on money. The list goes on and on, a real bummer. Will we do it again? YES!

Look at all they gray people around you, they have never lived, you have!

May life get on track for you quick and may the next trip come sooner than you expect! Good luck!

I like to travel quite a bit, and spent about six months on the road in 2007-2008. And you know what? While I really enjoyed the trip, I was damn glad to get back home. I travelled alone and met lots of people, saw lot of places, but the whole thing was so very transitory and by the end I was ready to get back to real life and real relationships.

If you hate going home that much, maybe the solution is to fix something at home? Move to a new city or country, find a new job, go back to school, find new relationships, find new interests, whatever...at the end of the day maybe you're travelling to leave problems behind rather than try to solve them. That lasts only as long as you keep moving...

Hi, Tedmagnum
 

Hi TedMagnum, same as you i got off my "ASS" and did something that only most dream of doing, would like to meet up with you sometime, as i too want to go again, did you meet up with my mate,"Bazza" in USA/ Canada, HU meet? take care, Alan.

Only one answer, TedMagnum
 

Hi, Ted

Got back from a stint in S-America a 3 years ago, and started working 2 days later but was ruined for the 'normal' life (Johannesburg, South Africa). Best answer is to get away on as many weekends as possible but also start planning for the next long(er) trip asap. Once it's in your blood, there's no cure I believe.

Keep going!

We decided to do a big trip back in 2003, but it did not materialise until 2006. We saved up, as most people do, before we left. This big trip was quite small by a lot of stardards: 13 weeks across Argentina and Chile. The mileage was relatively small: 7500 miles. This, however, did not bother us (although 6 months would have taken the pressure off some bits) and the whole experience definetely left us with the travel bug under our skin as well as a strange rash that made our feet itch when we read a good travel blog.

So yes, we came back and yes we have the urge to do more of the same.

There were several advantages to doing a 3 moth trip such as ours:

1. We did not have to save a ridiculous amount of cash: only slightly ridiculous.
2. We did not come back with any debts to pay off.
3. It meants we were able to keep the flat we were renting (we loved it).
4. We did not feel completely baffled by the daily grind on our return.
5. My other half was able to negotiate keeping here job open.

So basically we had one income, whilst I looked for work, which I found. Since then we have moved to Estonia. Partly its a good launch pad for Asia, but also its simply not the UK...

My move Estonia was prompted (althgouh a few years ago: I would have opted for France, had I been single) because I knew I did not want to live in the UK.

I say this becuase I get the impression fro your post that you want to get away from the lifestyle, rather than the place, in which case moving to another country may be the answer, but then again may not... I think you need a place where living there is lie an adventure to keep you stimulated ie perhaps somewhere less westernised?
Just a thought, if you do decide to emmigrate.

Strange
 

Our London to Cape Town trip was over a year long, and to be honest (and this isn't the best place in the world to be saying this) by the end of the trip we were bored of travelling - After you have been up and running for a while, travelling isn't a particularly difficult task to undertake and we found that all we were doing is riding the bike, talking to people and looking at things ! We found it a bit self indulgent eventually and a return to the "nobility of labour" and contributing to society on our return to the Uk was very welcome.

Find a job you enjoy, then work a bit, travel a bit, work a bit, travel a bit.

3 month trips sound just about perfect now. Plenty of time to enjoy the process of planning, anticipation, the departure, have enough cash to do interesting things whilst you are on the road and it is short enough that you don't have to destroy your life at home. I think shorter more intense, purposeful trips can be just a rewarding as big epics, especially if you set yourself challenging goals, which mean you are achieving things rather than just existing and looking.

And you get to do interesting things like rake moss out of the lawn at home at weekends whilst you dream of your next Sahara trip

But if you can find a suitable job that you enjoy, that's half the battle to doing lots of travelling, surely

+1 for what Dick says
 

... my philosophy too Dick .. :thumbup1: .. around 2-4½ months away at a time is the perfect compromise for me and 'er indoors'. Just the right balance of everything. Been doing this type of on-off travelling for the last 2½ years, and will carry on until the time comes to stop. It all works for us.

Ted, IMHO there's no right or wrong answer to your question. We're all different. I suggest that you try and discover what escape method works best for you and your circumstances.

Good luck

KEITH

Another approach...
 

I discovered 2-4 months away was too difficult. It meant giving up my job, storing all my junk, and finding temporary homes for my animals. I moved to Egypt in 1991, thinking that would satisfy my wanderlust. It didn't, because I was an expat in suburbia. Economically things were easier as I didn't have to give up my house while traveling, and I'd become freelance which eased the job situation. But it still meant chunks of time away from my animals and partner. In 2003 I took to the road WITH my two dogs (partner didn't share my lifestyle fantasies), and began worked WHILE traveling. Seven months ago I was joined by another traveler working on the road with his dog, so now we're a happy pack of five. For me it's the dream. For many others it would be hell. Apples and oranges...
Lorraine

I just got back from 6 months through South America. The end of the trip was to be in Buenos Aires, then ship the bike back to Panama where I live. However, I have a great -- and unusual -- wife. As I was approaching Buenos Aires she said "how can you ship the bike, you haven't finished the trip yet!"

So after six months on the road I was really quite tired and ready to get off the bike. But I decided to leave it in BA and come back for it in July. I figured after four months at home I would be ready to travel again... and boy was I right! I have four months to fix all those things in the house that have gone wrong, straighten out bank accounts that have gotten screwed up, visit friends, and (most importantly) prepare for another 2 or 3 months on the road. It took me about a month to miss the traveling. Now I'm ready to go.

I think this has become a major addiction. I'm so glad I retired :scooter::scooter:

top question Ted
 

I have been back 6 months now. I did the prudhoe TDF ride. by the time i hit patagonia, i thought i was pretty full and didnt mind going home to clean pants, edible tapped water, my bed, fluffy comforts and being understood in conversations. My job was kept open. A low rung job in a postroom, slap bang in the centre of greedy londons financial heart. i walked straight back into where i had left off. nothing had obviously changed. i didnt even think about how i would feel when getting back home... I`m blooming bored to the point of hardly thinking about anything, with a purpetual expression of gommyness. First thing that smacks me in the mouth is the grey way everyone ignores everyone. I was stuffed with confidence and chat. no one listened. mates just smile for 2 minutes then yorn, when i started bleeting on about, pisco, helpful villagers, dead bodies, kuna indians, sunrise at low breath altitudes, volcanos & wrestling the bike in deep sand . I forgot you cant smile at someone walking in the other direction , without receiving a stare of fear or contempt. I have become greedy again. wanting a big flat screen & shiny new bike. My thoughts, when i do think are always away looking at the wonderful people i met. longing for the company of those interested , genuine, rascals, with so much to share........ i made lots of mistakes on my trip. i was to fast through some places. fear got the better of me sometimes. i know now, that fear isnt that hard to face and is actually nessesary... before i went away i would just walk away from fearful stituations and live in some sort of small denial... i am loving the way memories suddenly zoom back. forgotten moments. even the tiny things that happened. I have unfinished business with foriegn roads. A direction is not obsessing yet, but it is definatly rumbling away in a part of my head.

If any of you find your way into south london sometime, lets meet and moan over beers by the river ?? !! :crying: :clap:

Nice summary siggsy. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

KEITH (in Cornwall) .. who's going quietly nuts down here, for the same reasons.

Wossit all about, eh?



.

Very nicely put Siggsy. Couldn't agree more.

I was always hoping for that 'epiphamy' moment on my trip when I would go 'ah, thats what I want to do for the rest of my life' but like you, my old job here was kept open and in the current financial state, it was a case of 'the better the devil you know' and all that. Even with a decent job and despite being pretty frugal, I find my salary just gets sucked up each month with very little to show for it and just keeping your head above water in the UK is pretty damn expensive. I think any city, no matter where it is, is pretty much the same though. I always tried to avoid the big cities while travelling as I enjoyed the smaller places which were generally much more friendly.

So while I'm plotting my next escape, I've just thrown myself into stuff I really enjoy like playing guitar and have so far managed to get myself back into playing again and have joined a good band and am also studying jazz. At work, (I'm a building surveyor), I'm just taking on bigger projects to get useful experience and hopefully look into getting work elsewhere like Canada (one of my favorite countries) though their visa system doesn't seem to be that easy to deal with, especially if you're job isn't on their list of approved occupations (eg hairdressing!). Will keep plugging on though!!

I can relate to a lot of that Siggsy !!!

Seems very hard to let go of that western comfort and greed mentality .....

I was also looking for a pinacle moment when my life would suddenly change but it just doesnt work like that.

I do think I am a much different person for my travels but not for where I have been or what I have seen, its definately been in the people I have met and their warmness, love of life and friendly trusting nature.

Many people fear the "3rd world" for corruption, crime and greed where really the western world are really the biggest criminals of the lot.

i tell you lot what. just reading this thread has really got me going again. I`m starting to spin a plastic globe, that sits on a blokes desk, on the 4th floor of my glorious work place, watching for a way east. People are saying "oh here he goes again. the escapist, cant handle the real world. substituting love and commitment "... maybe thats true. I say a happy happy , "oh well !" to that !... the only thing that reminds me of the real world is the sad looking infected , lonely tree outside my window.

I agree with ya Ted about 1st world criminality. It seems so high up that we mostly dont see it. We have to look for it. The 3rd world threat to a traveller is generally in ya face, so that scares us. But like you i didnt see it when i was there. it was all just smiles and interest help and loads of laughs.

I wonder if the pinnacle, the epiphany, the golden moment is there. we just have to keep building to find it. So more trips have to be !....... Going away indefinatly doesnt seem like its just for other people , to me now....So the loose plan now is, to get the flat done up sparkling, so as to rent it out. graft for a couple of years, growing blisters on my dreams. (heard that the other day , not sure where, and like it - had to use it !) and just go. surely its that simple..

in the mean time i have listened to what you lot have said and have stuffed myself with an interest for my non working hours. A shiny new camera. gonna wander the streets and capture stuff. fulfill my artistic pretentions ! and take that gommy expression off my face... mind you i was reading yesterday about photo restrictions. like you have to ask permission and pay for taking a photo of major landmarks here in london, unless you can prove you are taking the shot for personal reasons that are not a desire to blow it up. Or not for business reasons. Let them stop me ! pahhhh !

I`m lucky really, to have come back into a job, even though its a low payer. I see that there are alot of riders who have come back to no job and even no place to permanently live. Good luck you lot. its probably just round the corner !

what you up to then people ? whats the plans ? who wants beers by the thames then ? :palm:

Dude... You are my mirror image from down south !!!!!!

I couldnt put how I feel into any better words than that...People say and think the same about me..

"When are you going to get realistic"

"When are you going to settle down"

"Shouldnt you be putting money away for a pension instead of "wasting" it on bikes and travel"

"When are you going to stop wasting your life"

"You're 30 now Ted, don't you think you should grow up and get a career"

"You're going to die lonely and broke"




Just a few quotes of the week :)

Fine ,let them think that .
Just be very glad that you aren't one of them .
We need the masses to be that way ,so that we can be the way we want to be .

What have you done when you got back ????

Bought an F650 Dakar. No seriously.

Left uni, started travelling, and never stopped. Tell you what. People stopped talking to me like they are to you. Has to do with age. The older you get and still remain the same free spirit, they turn to accept the alternative lifestyle for a legitimite lifestyle.

But now I'm 12 years older than when I started and I'm more with Dick. Travelling is not as exiting as it once was as everything become routine if you do it long enough. But that's where motorcycling while travelling is so amazing, because you do it for the biking and seeing scenery, and less about seeing every single Church. Three months is about long enough. Just have to justify the cost of getting the bike there. But a 5 week trip to Europe cost as much as a 3 month bike trip to keep it into perspective.

As for living a sustainable lifestyle, you guys in the UK are limited as was I. So I moved to Aus where you can do adventure rides all year long.
It's all about the lifestyle.

..7 year on..and still going strong
 

well...I am sitting here just on the outskirts of the Gobi desert in Mongolia (on a very bad internet connection ) and came across this thread.
Simon and I started our trip almost 7 years ago and the plan was for 2 years. 2 years came and we felt like we had only jsut begun - we couldnt stop. so here we are 7 years later and still loving almost every minute of it.
there are good and bad times..and being ill on the road is no fun at all.
However, after all this time we still get those same questions.
Our reply - this is now our 'normal' life. How do we survive financially we are often asked. We do what we can when and where we can...write for mags, sell photos, give presentations. it all helps.
The luckiest thing about our trip is that we (Simon my husband of 14 years) do it together...so as sweet and sickly as it sounds...wherever he is is where my home is and vica versa!

if you can travel with a loved one and they love the travel just as much as you - you are in trouble - you may never stop!

I've been home for a month.

I'm voluntarily unemployed.

I'm living with my girlfriend's parents.

Rock and Roll.

Birdy

Ps.
I've also got a plane ticket to return to South Africa, where I am going to be doing any work I can so as not to be in England.

Pps
I am also currently writing a book about our travels in Africa.

ıts always nice to be back home ...

great to sit on my own toilet again ...

its always nice to see friends for 6-8 months ....

great to plan the other trip ....

its always nice to "on the road" ...

great to reach the destination point ...

its always nice to be back home ...

AND .... Wonderful to live this "boring" life ........:D ....

Future ??? .... i think nothing will change...i will again travel ... maybe with different vehicles ..... maybe closer destinations ... maybe for shorter periods ...but eventually will be on the road ...whenever and however possible ....

Got back from trip in 2006 - cut short due to injury

Old job available so back I went......
[nice your back]

Rented a house......
[why don't you buy]

Bought a 4x4 to travel in as unable to ride bikes for while.....
[when are you going to settle down?]

Did the 4x4 up......
[stop wasting money and think of the future]

Couple of short trips to Europe but too expensive....
[you need a reality check]

Missed the bikes.......sold the 4x4
[stop wasting money, she'll grow out of it]

Applied for NZ visa (never been but looks nice!)
[never happy with what I have]

Granted permenent residency.... moving May 2010

Just a summary of whats been going on for me [and my parents comments]

Bikers welcome to stay with us!

Becky

Well our trip is jsut ending (the cars still on the ship), and we have decided to emigrate to Australia, where I have easily found a job (one application and phone interval all from Goa). The main motivation is the fact that we brewed a baby due in May.

But keeping the landie, and still planning more small scale adventures, and at least one massive one, but most probably by boat rather than land .....

For us there are loads of good things to occupy us, most not travel related. But amongst them all travel is the one that makes you dream the most!

Join the Foreign Legion
 

L�gion �trang�re - Site officiel

but forget how old you :oops2: are and find summit else!

Back 'home'
 

We've been back after Cape Town to Uk for around 6 mths. My husband is ... not good about it. He is really disillusioned and grey. The kids LOVE been back in 'normal' school, same place for more than a few days/weeks. Me? Well - I like it, I think! We've moved to a new area.

There's a lot I miss, warm weather, friendly people, outdoors - but it's just too transitory for me on a long-term basis. I want to get stuck into 'living' but that's not easy either and will just take time.

I think short breaks is a good tip. Although that runs opposite to most over landers' experience who come back and have to rough it in this country for a while until they get more financially and/or socially stable. Maybe that is what makes it particularly hard?

Is it 2011 already?
 

A tricky question that Ted. I've spent the last four or so years grappling with that one and can only summarise as thus:

• Got back after a year on the road in the Americas and spent about a month in the shed drinking tea, listening to Test Match Special and applying for jobs.
  
• Found myself working back in Cambridge, discovering inane things such as 'Mitcham's Corner' and 'The Queen Elizabeth Bridge' which had been flushed from my memory.
  
• Put in about as many miles commuting to work in my second year back as I had rode whilst away!?!?
  
• Became VERY bored with riding in the UK (maybe due the the motorway miles above). That said, I think I'll take a little trip to Morocco this spring. :)
  
• Carried on living in Brighton and met a good bunch of folks through another Britonian I bumped into in Durrango.
  
• Learnt how to sail and realised it affords the freedom crowded Northern European roads don't.

That's it!

BTW MikeS, I may be up in your neck of the woods again this Summer. If you're about I'll drop for a pint. beer

Good stuff Marky. let me know when you're up this way!

Barely ridden here either since I got back, a lot to do with boring motorways and grey skys, but mainly because the old b@stard doesn't start very often

Maybe you need to get a job / start a business as a motorcycle tour guide?

back home, same shit different day.
 

we were famous for the first few weeks when we were back in Singapore. Suddenly, Singaporeans on the road became very friendly when they saw my bike and putting thumbs up to me.

Managed a lot of interviews, presentation and media coverage. also rejected a handful of them as they were using us to help them make money.

then, work came.

the work kept us tired and time filled. We did not have time to think about the trip that we went thro from 2008-2010.

slowly, the society forgets about this crazy couple that went around the world on the motorbike.

we found our life aimless. joining the society being in the rat race.

we want to make changes in our environment, like applying what we experience in other country in Singapore, to help and improve productivity.

We want to help and motivate fellow country man to travel as we did.

We want to see our friends and family again.

but...

what are all these for?
we can't be in full control of our life.
when we tell others about our trip, they do not understand why we did it.
Their crucial question was: how much did we spend for the trip.
They didn't ask who was the nicest person we met.

back here were we were living, in an Asian society, in a busy city of Singapore, my wife and i have to make some money first then we can move on for the next trip or another environment.

a truck driver earns about SGD$1500 per month. (US$1172)
a fresh diploma holder earns about SGD$1800 per month. (US$1406)
a fresh uni grad earns about SGD$2000 per month. (US$1562)

my last salary drawn from my previous boss was SGD$1850.
a new car, Volkswagon Golf cost more than SGD$100,000. (US$78130)
a 3 room government funded apartment cost SGD$300,000. (US$234390)

we need to join the rat race to save up and go for the trip again.

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.

very interesting to read keep them coming. :D

Hi,

Haha so true :D I think to work is wasting your live. I dont need a big flat TV or things like that...i go with my bike to see the world live...out there in the wild its HD and 3D as well ;)

Also traveling can be something like a carrere if you do Slide shows or publish Articels in a Magazine when you back home to earn money for the next trip...

cu, Tobi

my2 cents
 

hello all
just found this.on our journeys towards the end usually ready to come home.
but after being home for a couple weeks ready to go again,start to go a bit crazy.often go back to work to money up for next trip.we try to go on a good trip every other year.so on the off year . we plan for that trip,which
game parks,campsites,lodging,route.also look at expedition vehicle builds.
as long as i am planning and have departure date I can cope fine.I am lucky
to have a job in the pipeline industry.where i can have time off.also worked
on the road for many years with no home or house.it was terrible so now we
keep a home to come back too.
good luck
kevin

greetings
 

When we came back we never really had a chance to settle back in as my (now) wife was diagnosed with cancer and so began nearly two years of treatment. During that time I HAD TO finish editing the book we were writing of the journey. Plus after that journey I found, somewhere along the ways, I had lost the stillness of normality, along with the previous reference points shared with work colleagues - so I bit the bullet and took early retirement to finish the writing and editing.

I originally knew (in 2006) that I would write a book about my wife but had thought it would be (academically) based on aspects of her blindness (yes, she is completely blind).

I never dreamed a motorcycle journey would be the vehicle to tell of her life and disability........... Just goes to show how life has some mysterious and wonderful turns around each corner. Her battle with cancer goes on to this very day and so each and every one is appreciated. Sometimes life can be placed very much into perspective when you least expect it.

You can find the link to our on-going story on this site at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/boo...nd-25000-miles

Best wishes to you all.

Bernard and Cathy.

I wish the best of luck to the both of you... And I hope your wife is better or on the path of recovery.

Ted

I have made videos of my trip and even looking back to the ones that I made at the start of the trip, really helps me feel like I am being transported back there.

Keep up that positive outlook -it's important. You're right about an unexpected setback like this and how it changes thinking. The day is different in ways which are inexplicable. I can't say much to give you a boost except 'be here now', and never give up. There are many turnarounds from such an illness and I support you in your intention to experience this. I look for your wife (and you) to come through successfully.

Make sure you recharge your own batteries in order to help your wife. It'll give you the strength to continue till you get that break, which is the good news of an improvement. Consider Grant's progress here - I wish it for you too.

I was on the road for nearly 8 and a half years. I dreaded the trip finishing. I'd never been bored, every day had been an adventure, I'd loved riding my bike and I'd kept on meeting amazing people - many of whom made me realise how lucky I was to be able to call the UK home. I still dreaded the end...

But as usual I was lucky and I think that combining the luck with the things I played with at the end of previous long trips, worked.

This was my plan; it worked for me:

• - Never get home broke. It's important to have enough to have a beer or three with mates and to have enough to pay those first few months rent and food money, to be able to fix the bust bits on your bike and pay for the insurance etc.
• - To begin with, don't take on a 9-5 job. That's way too restricting - claustrophobic!
• - Use your weekends to get out and about as much as you can.
• - Make a point of talking to people first - don't wait for them to talk to you. But as you would on the road, be more interested in them than you expect them to be of you. My first year back New Years resolution was 'Make someone smile every day'. I had a lot of laughs. Must try that again : )
• - Learn not to 'bag on' about your trip. The reactions from people who don't have a clue will drag you down.
• - Think about your home country as not being the end of the adventure but as being another country on the journey - just its one that you can stay in for a bit longer. After all, both you and your country will have changed. Interesting.
• - Of course it doesn't hurt to start dreaming and planning for the next trip. Scratches the itch : )

:mchappy:

With smell and taste included.

...the future is scary!
 

thanks Sam for your post above.
Simon and I have now been on the road for what seems an eternity (in our 10th year) ......the end is now closer than the begining, much closer.
we have no idea as to where we will end up or what we will do.
but finish we will as money is a continual point of stress and has been for the last 5 years!
we always seem to manage to make 'ends meet' and get to the next country but it is getting harder and harder.

People say, write a book, make a DVD or three! but there are so many out there these days is anyone interested in 'yet another'. perhaps we will - who knows?

this type of travel is like a drug. the more you do the more you want to do! without the continual moving we become restless and irritated. once the 'drug' hits in we feel content again.

however reading your post Sam has provided us with a different perspective on how things may be.......

i will keep looking at this thread when I get the chance!
cheers guys.

I managed 2 trips this year not in the big league although ....... 10,000 K's is the taste that tiped me over the edge.

Returning to work getting an endless ear full of bottom lip, bills, rates, insurance, power up by 40% :-0 Maintenance on the house, car, bike, the rideon mower carked it had to buy a new one .... ouch, the tenant, hearing the total and utter rot from our politicians ...... how damn embarrassing and it goes on and on......

Sound like a winger but hey we all put up with it, thats life, right ?


Reading the threads here any chance I got ..... the penny dropped......Time to get off the merry go round, I'm not playing anymore!


Everything is on the market, soon to be seen heading for the hills:mchappy:

Depression
 

It is normal for anyone when they have just experienced a great freedom trip that they feel fed up and depressed at the thought of getting back into the hub bub of life.
What I do is spend weeks editing all my videos and photos of the trip, this helps me to relive the moments and pass the time, try to make a small documentry about it so that you can enjoy it years later.
After that i then spend weeks and months planning my next trip this helps to keep the adventure feeling alive longer. Plotting all my GPS points, accomodation points of interest etc.
On top of that try to join a bikers club or go rides with some mates, just get out on your bike and enjoy it.

Just remember that your greatest adventure is the one that you have not taken yet!
:scooter:

'Just remember that your greatest adventure is the one that you have not taken yet!'

How perfectly said is that!!!!! :mchappy:

Mine isn't a trip or an adventure, it is a lifestyle...I don't travel as far as others, nor as fast, but I have the opportunity to learn and explore and better understand the country I am traveling in. Of course I am retired, have a regular income, good health, and limited family to deal with. I have been on the road for most of the last 4 years, the longest stretch has been 6 months thru North and Central America. I ride towards warmer weather for snorkeling and body surfing plus good riding! I am anticipating a year long adventure to a different continent next year...Life is good! Ride the wind and never look back!
Smoke

Interesting thread.

What causes post-trip blues? In my opinion, it's the perception that what is done after returning, can't measure up to what was experienced on the road. That, and the assumption that the trip would be some kind of magical cure-all and would make life all wonderful the moment it was completed - which (from what I've read from overlander writings) doesn't seem to happen.

I think both these assumptions are false. "Real life" can be just as interesting if not more so than overlanding. And travelling a long time and distance doesn't magically make normal life suddenly become an effortless utopia.

What works to have a successful and satisfying trip? Isn't it things like: having a dream, setting some goals to achieve it, doing some research, preparation, then making a plan and starting it, taking action, then handling all the setbacks along the way, and persevering until it was completed. Well, won't the same virtues that created a successful trip of a lifetime, also help to make 'normal life' more successful and satisfying when you get back home?

So, perhaps the cure for post-trip blues is to treat your life back home as just another adventure. Imagine it as your next big trip, bring the same virtues that you applied to your recently completed epic journey, and see what happens.

I spent 899 days on the road across the globe (THE HARD WAY HOME) When i got back now 6 years a go I struggled, i did not get a normal 9 to 5 job, i ended up getting into roster work, which then enabled me to move to another country. I came home to Australia, it had changed, 'NORMAL life i could not handle, it was boring, so i moved to Thailand, something different, smells, sites, language, culture, people, food, i just needed my normal. I stayed there for 2 and a half years before coming back to Oz, and kinda feel now im just a part of boring normal life, for me that is, of course im not saying my friends live s are boring but for me it is.
I wrote a book, a lot of hard work and money, rewarding in the end and its on Amazon, in the shops etc but it'll be a few years yet before it pays for itself, so in the end was it worth it I'm not sure, it has great reviews and i never did it to make money but for what i spent it could have been a year on the road! I continue to dream but I've found once i had done the world trip my dreams got bigger. I fulfilled a childhood dream this year by competing at the 2014 Dakar rally in south america, i finished and came 39th in the world, it was 14 days of intense racing which saw me train work and save for nearly 2 years to make it happen. But thatsthe problem once we have done what we have done our dreams get bigger, we need more to stimulate us, well for me anyway!

So that's what happened to me, I still daydream, i still have dreams but sometimes im envious of the 'normal' untraveled people, why because they are more easily pleased and are not aware of the amazing world that is out there

Hi Allan

I will buy your book!, a very modest account about riding and finishing 39th in the hardest enduro rally on earth!

i understand about being envious of the 'normal' untraveled people. i myself have been living out of bags and traveling in one way or another since i was 16. I guess home is just where you leave your bag

What's Next?
 

In a small way, a very small way coming home from an RTW or continental ride might be like soldiers or war correspondents coming home from war.
The experiences... those that do not become nightmares or fodder for social situations or less and less humorous situations that eventually extinguish themselves are generally supported by videos and photos and the mandates of daily diaries, and these tend to live on, and those too emotionally expensive to relate, just die.

Acquiescenceships, friendships and enemyships are what is next and, until death never finished, and, sometimes not even finished by death.

In 1967, while traveling, I met a young woman in Trinidad, our affair was brief, but we promised to meed again in five years, no matter what. In exactly five years, she was in Halifax and I was in Tampa, so I quit my job and drove to Halifax and she quit her job and together we drove to Acapulco. It is not the journey but the people you meet and love along the way. She is gone now, yet not gone from my thoughts and yes I confess my dreams.

And, while traveling, an inconsiderate word or action might offend or hurt someone, and that lives on.

I have always believed it is not what has been done to me, but what I have done to others that is what really counts. I am still working out amends for careless, inconsiderate words and actions that unthinkingly undercut the natural affinity we all have for others.

Friends are forever, on the road or at home.

So, what is next is what is now. Make and keep friends while traveling or not, and make damn sure you offend only those you truly wish to offend. Be careful in your words and actions and be confident that you can always do the right thing. Know you can survive and that you can help others survive.

Of course, shit happens, that is a good reason to buy insurance and learn how to make amends. Like in war, the friends and enemies you made while traveling are more than what's next, they are what is.

xfiltrate

UK to Thailand 2014
 

We have traveled by car extensively crossing Canada and the USA stopping in hotels on the way on many many occasions. We did a great driving trip in South Africa and Swaziland but nothing on the scale of our Europe/Asia trip

Well in 2014 our plan was to drive our 17 year old converted Ex prisoner transport vehicle 814D Merc from our home in the UK to our holiday home in Thailand it turned out to be a trip that crossed 29 countries and covered 25,500 Km, so we set off on March 9th 2014, stop for as long or as short a time as we wanted where we wanted the trip was the most amazing thing we have ever done and the people we met on our travels made the trip for both of us, since then we have wondered what to do next with Plodd, so for the last 2 years we talked about the Americas, never spoke about Australia and did short trips in to Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, these are great places to travel in round with fantastic things to see and do but far to hot most of the year traveling in an overlander truck, so we are now planning our trip back to Europe, we will probably take a similar route back as we enjoyed most of the counties we visited. We think that we will spend less time in Russia, but generally speaking the same route, at lease until we reach Turkey then we will decide where to head from then.
Our tentative plan is to leave Thailand April/May next year (2017) so watch this space.

Dave & Lesley
Plodd - A Trip of a Lifetime
Overlanders - Stellplatz stop over and tour Pattaya, Thailand

Wow. All you lucky folks that had the where-with-all to take months long/years long trips. I was able to take enough time off work to spend 5 weeks in Thailand (including week in Cambodia) this past December/January.

I fell in love with the Thai people and their beautiful country. Came back to winter in the NW corner of the USA and two feet of compacted, hard as a rock snow on my driveway. :freezing: I missed the sunshine. I missed long motorcycle rides on winding roads (with a foot of snow on the ground at home, the bikes were tucked away in the garage). I missed the food. haha

After a week back at work, I was ready to leave again. It was depressing. Every day, I look at the finances and plan for the future. When can I retire? (not for a few more years) Can I afford to take time off without pay? (probably not....)

But. The bright side is, I have a good job where I can take 6 weeks of paid vacation every year.

So, I plan. I live through other peoples ride reports. :-) I count the days until I can pack a bag and head to the airport. Mid January looks to be a good time. Although the New Years fireworks in Bangkok was amazing.

So, you all keep traveling, keep writing up these fabulous reports. I will read them and be jealous until its time for me and the husband to go away once more.

I started independent travelling with seven months around the US and Mexico on a bike with a girlfriend.
Coming back to ‘normality’ was very hard so I took a summer job taking people to and around Morocco and went to college when I came back.

Nothing really fit, not so much because I couldn’t settle down as I had no wish to. I loved travelling and had terribly itchy feet so I travelled overland solo to the Orient, stopping and teaching English in various places.
I found a country which I came to love. It was so different from my own that every day was an adventure.
I settled there for almost a generation but still travelled for months at a time. Kids came along after I married a local girl and months’ long trips became shorter holidays.
Teaching English paid well at that time and place and we did well.

I came back to England to school the kids and we were OK. Solvent.
Now, after fifteen years, the kids have gone off and we again take the bike away for many months, to far flung continents.
Our last trip was 27,000 miles over seven months and the only reason we stopped was to come back and see the kids.

So you can certainly spend your life travelling on motorbikes.
I don’t personally want to spend ten years on the road. I’ve seen people who have and it seems like just another rut to me.
Personally, I disagree with the ‘everything here is shit’ way of looking at life. Having lived in quite a few countries and travelled in many, many more I’ve seen horrific corruption and disregard for the people. Eye watering cruelty and indifference and also incredible generosity.
But the question was, how do you settle. For me, it was find a country you love, a partner who’ll make you better, and then start a business of your own, however small, so that you can feel a measure of control over what you do and, if you get it right, can make enough to travel and live your own way.
I’m 61 now and am planning to ride to Oz next.

Good luck.

How does one get back into the rut of work and home after a big trip?
In my case, one doesn't!

My first trip was USA and Canada in 1980, up the west coast, along the Alaska Highway when it was all gravel, on a BMW R90S.
Utterly unsuitable bike for gravel, but I didn't know any better, thus everything worked out fine.

When I returned home to (then) the UK and I was getting interviews for jobs, I was inevitably asked about the gap in my employment history, which I explained away by saying the trip was just something I needed to get out of my system, blah blah blah, knowing full well that I just wanted to earn enough tin to get on the road again.

40 years later, I'm still up to the same old silliness, last year was a 35,000km lap around Australia, this year is Norway into the arctic circle and then south through Russia and Ukraine, looping pack through southern Europe, ending up on the Isle of Man for the Manx GP.

Work is for horses.

Feb 2022 Edit..... well, we all know what happened to the trip through Russia in early 2019, don't we children?
Covid happened.
Latest update, bike is en route to UK for a ride through Europe, Iran, Pakistan and India, and then.....? who knows?

Keep dreaming, keep planning, keep saving then start riding.

Coming back is mostly heavy, if you did go "to leave" your current situation in any way (live, work, friends, family, relationship).

If your purpose was exploring and adventures and did love your setting - your re-entry of the normal live will get pretty relaxed. And you are happy to start again.

If you had problems bevore the trip, they usually dont vanish - and it is harder to fight them after the trip. And they do not help to enjoy your trip. Somewhere in your head you know - what is waiting at home......

Surfy

So, you got me thinking...

Our last three trips:

1) 11 months around South America, 2010-2011, once back home - continued consulting, did lots of short trips, mainly tagged onto work travel (Canada, USA, Mexico, UK/France, USA/Mexico, France/Spain/Andorra, Canada x 2, Croatia/Bosnia & Herzegovina/Algeria/Slovenia/UK, Canada, USA/Mexico, USA, France/Singapore/Malaysia/UK, Argentina, France, South Korea, Germany, USA, Singapore/Indonesia/Austria/Czech Republic/Hungary/Slovakia/UK, Mexico, Canada, UK/France/Spain, Brazil, Cuba, Canada/USA, Mexico, Canada/China/Vietnam/UK, Brazil, Panamá, Republic of China, USA/Costa Rica/UK/Algeria/Germany/Canada/Malaysia/Myanmar, Argentina/UK, USA, Panamá/USA, Argentina x 2, USA, Portugal/Argentina, Canada/Mexico, USA/UK, Argentina). Saved up for the next "big trip".

2) 10 months around Africa in 2017, plus stops in USA and UK on the way there, and UK and Portugal on the way home. Back home - continued consulting, did lots of short trips, mainly tagged onto work travel (Canada, USA, Canada, Argentina, UK/Belgium/Luxembourg/Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Norway, Argentina, Perú, Indonesia). Saved for the next "big trip".

3) 9 months around Australia in 2019, plus stops in UK, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos. Back in January, back to consulting, local trips until March, then into "lockdown".

So the answer is - get home, visit family, continue working and saving money, start planning the next "big trip"...