Join Me On My Round-the-World, Low-Budget Adventure

Hitting the Road

My name is Wes Nations and this is my first blog. Having recently turned 39 for the fourth time, I’ve decided to fulfill a life-long dream and take a year off to travel the world. I’ll be visiting the developing world, mostly — taking my time and trying to be as flexible as possible. I’ve traveled some before: 6 months in India, 3 weeks in Italy, 2 months in Amsterdam, and I once spent a summer on my motorcycle, touring the national parks of the American West.

I plan on traveling for a year or until the money runs out — whichever comes first. My plan is to buy a one-way ticket to Thailand and plot the rest of the trip from there, in order to be as flexible as possible. I hope to leave in March 2010.

Low and Slow?

So, what do I mean by “low and slow”? To me, traveling low to the ground, taking ground transport where possible, and traveling as the locals do is the ideal way to experience a place. Being poor, it’s also my only option. :)

While traveling first class through the developing world is certainly easier and more comfortable, it also insulates the traveler from the very people he or she came halfway across the world to learn about. Paul Otteson has an excellent book, The World Awaits: How to Travel Far and Well, where he describes this as threading — trying to connect as much of your travel by ground or sea transport, avoiding flying as much as possible to prevent ‘breaking the thread’.

While in India, I met a group of American tourists at the Taj Mahal. I had removed my shoes, as was the custom, but their tour had provided fancy blue space booties for them to wrap around their shoes as they walked about.

I was staying at a $4 per night guest house nearby — they were happily ensconced in the big air-conditioned Hilton outside of town, with cable TV and a “great American-style” breakfast. More power to them, I suppose, but I can find that at home. And one night’s rate at the Hilton would easily fund 4-5 days of travel for me.

Join Me on the Trip.

I’m keeping this blog along the way for several reasons:

1. I’m a geek, plain and simple. I love photography, traveling, tinkering, and telling tall tales so a blog seems like a natural choice.

2. My parents can’t travel, so I’d like them to be able to experience as much of this adventure as possible.

3. I want to encourage others to get out and see the world and to realize that long-distance travel is more accessible than ever. We live at an interesting time, historically: modern air travel makes such journeys possible for even those of fairly limited means. At the same time, that easy access (and modern communication)  is diluting and homogenizing cultures across the world. Languages are dying out and folk traditions are being forgotten (or converted into hollow entertainment for paying tourists).

I want to see as much of it as I can while it’s still here.

Along the way, I’ll share photos, reviews, tips and tricks, and try to answer any questions you have.
See ya on the road.