“Travelling is brutal. It forces you to rely on strangers and lose sight of everything familiar and comfortable about your friends and home. You’re off balance all the time. Nothing is yours except the essential things.
- Introduction
Backpacking, what? The politically correct description defines a backpacker as a traveller, backpack over shoulder, on a limited budget. But since I admit I am an insanely romantic, for me, backpacking is something more, and it is the true essence of the traveller.
The rules of the game are easy:
→ THE BACKPACK. Backpacking without a backpack is like starting a diet on a Friday, a cheesecake without cheese, catching the elephant swinging on a spider’s web: Impossible!
→ MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. Your dream is to see the world, but you’re afraid you won’t make it because your uncle isn’t Gilito? Welcome to the club! All of us backpackers have been there, but there’s a secret: you can travel without spending too much. And there are ways to make a living and self-support your trip. Or to get free accommodation on your travels.
→ TIME. Normally a backpacker, unlike a tourist, travels for long periods… weeks, months or years! But it is not indispensable, and you can be a backpacker for a weekend!
→ THE LOOK. Setting off with a backpack doesn’t make you a real traveller. It’s your eyes that make the difference. You have to stop seeing the world through a shop window, and you have to learn to look at it, to feel it. If the tourist is the one who watches a film, the backpacker is the one who is behind the camera, who narrates it and who feels everything that happens without limiting himself to the moment of “chack action”!
Are you ready to know a little more about the backpacker’s way of travelling?
- Backpacker typology
The family is the backpacker, but the species are very varied: there is the techno globetrotter who never moves without updating his Facebook status with his latest i-phone, the neo-hippy who believes in the power of peace&love, the beach guy, the mountaineer who doesn’t go below 1000 metres, or the urbanite who prefers the asphalt jungle. There are so many backpackers that it would be a mistake to classify them all, but they always share certain characteristics: backpack, low-cost budget and a different look. - The budget
Let’s not overthink it. Knowing how much money we need to travel is the number one dilemma. How much does it cost to travel? Whether you’re backpacking depends largely on one thing: the destination. In our 9-month adventure in Asia, we spent an average of 14€ a day on food, sleep, travel, insurance, visas and travel expenses! Of course, you can spend less, or more! It depends on how you manage. There are always ways to save a little money, take a look at our articles “How to save money travelling” and “Tips to save money in your day to day life”. And you can always find a way to self-finance your trip. - Accommodation
Learn these acronyms: GH. Guest Houses are hostels that offer cheap rooms or dormitories. Another option is to stay in Homestays, private homes that rent rooms at affordable prices. And if you don’t want to spend anything but don’t want to sleep under a bridge, there is Couchsurfing: an online community where you can find/offer a sofa/bed/floor to sleep. And the best thing about it is not saving money on the hostel but getting in direct contact with the locals!
There is also the alternative of working a few hours in exchange for accommodation, which is very interesting if you want to stay in one place for a while.
- Food
We know mum’s food is the best, no doubt about it. But out there is a world full of surprises, and if you like to eat and discover new flavours, wait and see! In many countries you eat for 1€ in street stalls, and how good they are! Rice, noodles, curries and the strangest dishes. And if you are travelling in Asia, learn to say NO SPICY in the local language: the taste buds of Asians, we dream them up! - Transport
Bus, train, boat, plane? You’d be amazed at how many means of transport there are: tuk-tuk, rickshaw, jeepney, canoe, tandem, World War II motorbike, horse-drawn carriage, unidentified flying object that if NASA catches it, it will be placed under state secrecy….. Whatever, the important thing is to be as economical as possible! And remember that the most ecofriendly and FREE means of transport is your feet! - The faithful companion: the backpack
How to put it together? That’s up to you! Our backpack never lacks a passport (the traveller’s best friend!), camera, multi-use sarong (it’s the most versatile item in the world!), travel notebook, laptop and mp3! Keep in mind that it’s a backpack, not Mary Poppins’ bag, but above all, remember that you will be the one who will have to carry it day after day, not the other way around. If you are travelling in summer or hot countries, 10 kg is more than enough! Anyway, I can always fit my mini hair straightener, backpacking, yes, but in style! No, it’s better not to say this. - The real luxury
When you travel as a backpacker, you understand that the real luxury is not the 5-star hotel but lying under the stars. It’s walking barefoot on the grass, and it’s improvising every day what you want to do. It’s living an adventure where you are the one who writes the pages. The days are not numbers and stop being Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday to become the day I met a happy-happy monk, a giant lizard crossed my path, and we got stuck in a Thai mountain without petrol and many more! But the real luxury is to be a boss, not a slave to time. - Do you speak English?
Knowing English helps, that’s for sure. If you don’t speak English, don’t worry, because we have a natural communication talent: we speak with our hands, and what speeches we make! They understand us even in Burundi, the important thing anyway is not to have a good accent, or to know a language perfectly, what the locals appreciate the most is that we are interested in their culture, that we learn some basic words: hello, how are you, mmm very good, very expensive (with this they laugh for sure!), what’s your name, goodbye. But ok, speaking a little bit of English is very important, look at some techniques to learn English in a fun way. - Yes, you can!
The first step always be the most difficult: “What if I’m not cut out for travelling? What if the plane crashes? What if the rucksack falls on my foot, and I break my little finger? What if…” We’ve all been through this phase, but travelling has made us meet hundreds of people who have been afraid, and thanks to that first timid step, have been able to open their minds, eyes and hearts, and have been able to live their dream. If your dream is to travel and see the world, you can do it! We don’t know of anyone who has ever regretted taking that step.
