A way of experiencing a country
I want to explain this concept because whenever I say low budgeting and $11 a day, people laugh. But when I say zero budgeting, people can not imagine anything else except me sleeping on the streets and starving myself. So with this article I try to comfort my family and make clear I do not sleep on a bench in a park or in a gutter. I sleep mainly in Boeddhist monasteries at this particular moment. And free food and transportation is easy, it just goes together and automatically. And whenever it does not, we buy. So far i have spent the last month around $1 a day, sometimes 2, sometimes nothing. Above this dollar a day I also spent money on my visas of course. (extreme zero budgeters can go for some illegal ways.) Since I also low budget, depending on with who I am traveling with, I do have money. But I do not care for the luxuries and care more for the experiences I get in return. I like to experience how local people live and come in contact with them in a none touristy way. For some reason people found that offending or selfish to accept help from locals when they have little themselves. I do understand the reason, the concept is you help people that need help, taught in all religions and societies in some kind of way. And there is some shame to ask for any help, it means you can not take care of yourself. Traveling longterm makes you put money in a different perspective. The more I save, the longer I can travel without having to start working on the way. (Which is of course also a nice way to experience a country, but saving money when staying in one spot, probably in a country with either low wages or high costs, is not so evident, but a nice experience and never a wast of time even without savings.) An other way to see money when traveling is the more I spent money, the less experience I get on how locals live. If I go to a hostel, I meet locals that see me as a walking wallet and get so much in contact with our capitalist western minds that there’s get infected by it, and a lot of the tourists are ignorant consummating people that only care about a picture and an image or ego and forget about local culture although they are right in it. If I go to fancy restaurants and only eat my western food, which can not be called real western food because it simply does not taste the same and is always of less quality and maybe same price as in my own country, and I miss out on local foods wether* they are horrible or delicious. Try and error and experiment again is a good way of traveling. And then the transport is an important key in traveling with no or low budget. If I travel with a low budget and take a Platzkart, third class train, in Kazachstan I meet so many locals (no separate carts, but one big cart where everybody suffers together if it is hot) and have the have the advantage of being trapped with locals, all in the same situation, good or bad. People like to complain if there is a reason to complain, it makes the problem lighter. People like drama. Locals have the time to observe you and a growing interest to start the conversation, even when there is no word of English that can be shared because of a language barrier, you can share a smile and any non verbal gesture. If I suffer in a lack of seating in Indian trains, I could of missed out on it if I just paid for the airconditioned carts, but then I would miss out on the experience of suffering that is caused by putting so many living beings in a cart, or in one country. Of course there are also locals in the airconditioned carts, but lets be honest, rich people are boring to me. The majority of people live with little money and are living a more real live, closer to reality. If I do not hitchhike but take a tourist bus, I probably end up with a lot of tourists that I do not care for. So for those reasons I like to travel low and zero budget. Not because I must, because it brings so much in return. And above all it makes me more happy, I have no reason to be just humble and grateful with any help I get. No need to get agitated about locals only seeing me as a walking wallet. For everybody who has been in India and experienced the tuktuk drivers knows how you eventually become an angry and mean person and that even after bargaining and going to an attraction you will always end up with a unsatisfying feeling as if you just have been ripped off. So I do couchsurfing (an app where you can meet up with people all over the world, they offer you a free accommodation (floor, couch or bed, whatever they can afford and have), local knowledge, maybe food, maybe their free time to explore with you, or now I am staying in monasteries (We have a translated card on our phone where we ask for accommodation, they do not speak English very often), or sleep in a tent or knock on somebody’s door, no need to sleep on the streets and very dangerous. Hitchhiking (asking for a free ride to people that are already going that direction), makes you talk to locals and you have time to atleast try to have a conversation, after all you are stuck with each other until your paths split again. It can also result in a lunch together or some free water or sweets, and who knows in an accommodation because that person likes to host you. I would not do hitchhiking on my own as a girl, because unfortunately we live in a world where most places women are not treated equal and seen as a lust object. So it brings danger. I can not think of any single place where I would not have these stupid and unfair problem and walk around with a free mind. But it is what it is and I can not blame the whole world, men and women who cause this and enhance this. But it is fun to hitchhike! And to travel! Locking myself up in my home or in my country can only enhance what I do not likened keep the problem for next generations… And cheap food is eating street food, if it is given not for free then you buy. Whatever food you can buy in your hotel and especially Foreign Western food, the quality is uncertain. But because of our habit of preferring to not see the unhygienic kitchen, or market where the products come from, or the place where they produce the products, or the food you buy in any other fancy or non fancy restaurant. If you buy street food and they are cooking or grilling it at that moment, and they do not have an endless menu where they need to buy so many different ingredients for and takes so much time to prepare, you can see the conditions of the ‘kitchen’ and the food. You decide. You know what you get, not only a name on the menu and a surprise when they interpret that name different then you. Try to order a pizza and see how much it will look like an Italian pizza. What else is there to travel and survive the day? Attractions? Pay for what you do not want to miss out, or try to find a back door, literally and do not pay for it if you feel comfortable for taking somebody’s living and find it justified. And at least think once what will I get for my money, something worth paying for? Will I just pay for the picture on Facebook, with my face on it? Being selfish, because you live for free while having money, can also been seen as the opposite. Me not being mean and angry and not enhancing the road to capitalism and tourism that wants the luxuries of the western world and therefor turning every country in our own country with all the comforts is being a hero in it self in my opinion. And getting free of the consummating&money system is also bringing relief and freedom. Freedom of your comforts and bubble, freedom of worries for consuming* (traveling without money is not hard at all and no needs to worry), Free from the worries of having not enough money (there is always a solution), Free from being stuck to the tourist areas (the full country is worth a visit), free from worrying on missing out on something (I have to travel quickly because I need to see everything there is to see in this country in this amount of days) and also free from hate and annoyance. You can not project anger on some car not stopping for you, because you are never in a hurry and you can only be angry for one second on a specific person or car before it is gone. You can only be grateful and humble when you get a place to sleep, even when it is just a floor, if it is all they can offer then it is all. If you do not get any free food, then you buy. You do not need to beg or ask, people are naturally interested in what you weird farrang are doing and will automatically help with listening what you are doing and caring for you if they like you, with a simple ‘thank you’ for any help you get even if it is just listening to you. If you get a sign with your destination for hitchhiking, or it is food, water or a toilet, or the gesture of resting in their shop/home then it is like that. People will suggest help themselves, no need for begging (simply ask for a free ride and if they do not want or can not help: be grateful and say: “Thanks, have a nice day! and ask if they can give you free accommodation: a floor, a garden, a couch, a bed, anything. All the rest you need will happen and those problems will solve themselves. You are not asking something crazy and you do not need to be taken care of and pampered.) and they will do it with a warm smile, these kind of smiles you miss out when traveling in the touristy way or probably when staying in the Western world (except when traveling low or zero budget there, people are helpful and kind all over the world), and unbelievable kindness that can only make you humble. It all makes it so easy to enjoy a country and appreciate all forms of kindness and discomfort that is immediately compensated with a good experience or a warm smile. It makes it so easy to realize where life is about. As well as traveling. Missing out of an important sight. I get this question. If I do not do the highlights, the must sees of the lonely planet, will I feel that I missed out? First of all i do not miss anything I really want to visit, ven if i can not do it free. I will pay if necessary. But if you do not read what is in the lonely planet, with all the ridiculously over-exaggerated explanations, how many things you know about the country that you really must see? Not much per country I am sure of. What can you miss out if you do not know about it? And if I do go and visit, but after the visit I barely know the name of the attraction or where it is about, then what did I just see or experienced? I can say the same about people never taking a third class train in India. How can you miss out on that? It is all relative. I go experience and see what I want to see and I experience the country right there and at that particular moment, whatever surprise comes up. Without having any expectations, I can not get disappointed and with paying for your experience, also a big part of your experience gets fixed. No surprises, unless you had absolutely no clue where you where paying for or maybe disappointed because you get ripped off. You know what you will get if you read about it and think rationally without ignorance. You know you will get burned bodies in Pashupaty* in Kathmandu, and you know it will probably confront you with never seen anything like it and it is shocking to do it in that way in our western world, but it is also less artificial, we just burn bodies in a building without getting confronted by it. We hide the ugly truth in a lot of situations. We do not produce less garbage then in India, we just pay for people to take it out of our sight and away from our nose. When traveling you get confronted with different customs, conditioning, religions and culture. But wait, that was the reason to travel in the first place? Or is it having an excuse to be wasted and high all the time under the name of peace and freedom and hippiehood? Or to be able to say: “been there, done that, took a picture”, my amazing experience is on Facebook so it is official? Your life, your choice! But experiencing locals out of a tourist context, and therefor with different mentality, is amazing, undescribable and also difficult to capture in a picture, because a story is not captured in one click. And getting rid of your ego by being grateful all the time and not feeling any better because you are a farrang or from ‘a more developed country’ (Try to describe you being more developed anyway! What is that kind of bullshit? More clean? Less grateful?), as well as putting away your shame to accept help whether* you need it or not (I might feel at some time the need to explain this more but in a feminist context, recently realized this at Vipassana). The art of traveling.
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