April 19th, 2015
7 Ways Being a Backpacker Makes You Feel Like a Kid Again
1. It’s Back to Bunk Beds in a Big Way
For most people bunkbeds are a childhood memory once they get to University if not long before then. We can’t all live like Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly after all. But when you hit the road, you hit the bunkbeds. As a backpacker it’s just unavoidable. This has it’s advantages and it’s disadvantages, especially since physically these people are adults. Long sleepless nights spent on a rocking bottom or top bunk is no fun, but the dorm atmosphere and the friendships forged from encounters there make it all worth it. Bunk Beds are as entwined with backpacking as they are with childhood, and you’ll know your feeling like a kid again when you’re arguing with your travel partner over who gets which bunk. Oh and word to the wise top bunk is not the best anymore.
2. You get to see new places with wide eyes and feel the awe pure and true
This is the main reason I travel. As kids we knew nothing and everything all at once. Easily amazed and even more easily entertained. Full of wide eyed wonderment is a state I’d come to miss very deeply before traveling long term. Now it’s rare that a day goes by when I’m not utterly enthralled by some gift of this vast world. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a stunning waterfall, some sort of animal encounter, a simple conversation with a local, or falling down a mountain. The feeling of awe and asking the question “How Does this Exist?”. That’s why I travel, it’s something I wondered all the time as a child, and thanks to this incredible planet we call home, it’s something I’m asking again and again.
3. You’re always learning with thousands of different teachers.
One of the dangers of becoming an adult, leaving school and youth behind, is that we can very easily stop actively learning. It’s easy to fall into a routine, to do what you’re good at, and to never push your limits. Travel pushes your limits. Even when you don’t want it to. You will learn new things, some smoothly…some rather less so. From language to love, from your true limits to the varying definitions and meanings of poverty, travel helps you learn all about yourself and the world around you. I’m a teacher and I had an amazing experience all through education, but I still think I’ve learned more from my almost 2 years straight on the road than in any degree or collegiate experience. So hit the road as hard as you hit the books, do it right and you’ll learn a lot.
4. You’re back on the bus on a regular basis.
Unless you’re a lot richer than I am long term travel will mean a lot of long bus rides. Even though a lot of them will be through scenery you could only dream about as a child, they’ll still be long. That said, I still remember the excitement of my grade 4 bus ride to Toronto, on our way to Medieval times for the field trip of a lifetime. It’s that same feeling of anticipation that gets me through the really long buses. 8 hours with your butt off the seat in Nepal, 16 hours on a stained mattress with a dutchman bigger than me in Laos, or 30 hours from the North of Chile down to Santiago, the excitement of seeing a new place, discovering it’s ins and outs keeps you going. Because believe me, the buses are not always comfortable, or on time. Oh and one more tip, unlike the school bus, now the back of the bus is not where you want to be.
5. You’re making new friends all the time.
One of the great things about a long trip is you feel lonely a lot. You didn’t read that wrong, but what makes it great is what you do about it. Hostels are the most incredible social gathering in the world if you pick the right ones (And with my hostel section found in the main menu how could you not?) Anyone travelling alone or even in small groups has felt the loneliness and a good hostel provides the cure new friends. In the last two years I’ve made countless new friends, some for a day or two, and some I’ll probably keep in touch with for all my life. Either way I love that about travel, each day is kind of like the first day at a new school. Scry but full of promise and great friends waiting to be made. So if you’re ever feeling lonely on the road, go talk to someone knowing your in a great place to make new friends.
6. You’re always doing math and still almost never getting it right
Travelling long term internationally means you’re going to be doing a lot of math. Unless you’re really lucky you’ll be keeping some sort of budget. (I keep a spreadsheet of all expenses and revenue which I’ll add to this blog this summer.) But it’s not just the budget, it’s the different currencies. To keep from being ripped off you’re going to need to memorize those exchange rates better than you ever did your timetables. (Because let’s be honest who really learned those?) For real though, it’s very easy to get your numbers muddled on the road and this can have consequences even more dire than a phone call home or a bad report card. I’ve watched people pay 40 times what they should have for a cab ride in India simply because they weren’t sure on there conversions. Don’t let that be you. As you pack your bags polish up those math skills and pass those daily travel tests to let that budget stretch as far as it can!
7. So many sleepovers.
As a kid one of my favourite things, the thing that got you through that long school week was knowing there was a sleepover coming up on the weekend. Staying up to late, eating too much, laughing and playing games all night long and even escaping your parents, nothing ever beat a sleepover. But staying in a hostel makes every night a sleepover. There’s usually even irritable guests who can act as the parental figures, and there is certainly a long list of dormitory etiquette to bide by just like sleepovers. Still from late nights laughing on the veranda at hostel Taormina with people from all around the world, to staying up till 7am new years eve speaking in Spanish, hindi and english, listening to mantras and burning incense hostels often deliver an amazing sleepover experience. Which brings me to my next goal, find a hostel where I can build a full on blanket and pillow fort. See you soon.
