I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa • Hacker News Board

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#121

Post by forgotpwtomain » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:29 PM UTC

todd8 wrote: post #97

lasfter wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps try Doctors Without Borders? It is more of a long-term kind of travel, but you will be doing real good and definitely living an adventure. They need people with all kinds of backgrounds, not just medical, so it might be worth a look.

As a simpler, less ambitious adventure, suitable for people that don't want to quit their job, you might try Habitat for Humanity. There are international builds where you travel somewhere and work on building homes in areas where there isn't adequate low-income housing. You get to meet and work with locals for a couple of weeks. I went to rural Hungry. I had one friend who also went on the build. He talked me into d…

> There are international builds where you travel somewhere and work on building homes in areas where there isn't adequate low-income housing.

I highly advise against this. There is no shortage of unqualified labor in underdeveloped countries. Most of these projects are just 'feel good charity tourism'.

If you want to make a difference you are much better of donating 20% of a US salary which will employ many more underqualified locals who actually need the job.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#122

Post by enraged_camel » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:30 PM UTC

sumang wrote: post #49

colmvp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! I've travelled to remote parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and the only times I ever experienced getting robbed or deeply fearing for my safety was in Barcelona and Philly.

Barcelona really? I am from Barcelona but never thought people are scared to be in Barcelona. I heard people get robbed in Las Ramblas years back but now its quite safe. You will never get mugged in Barcelona according to my experience.

My grandpa was visiting Barcelone about 3 years ago and he got mugged in broad daylight. He's 80 years old. One mugger put him in a chokehold while the other emptied his pockets.

My grandpa lost consciousness and had to be taken to a nearby hospital.

After he woke up, he said the people around the incident just ignored them, even though he called for help. He said he got the impression that it must be an everyday occurrence.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#123

Post by RogtamBar » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:30 PM UTC

codeduck wrote: post #53

maxerickson wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've missed their meaning. https://www.drivesouthafrica.co.za/images/home/slides/landy-...

No, I know what it looks like. A hyena will hop up onto the bonnet of that landrover and sniff / gnaw at the canvas up front, and if there's something inside it wants good luck.

Hiding a 12ga inside a car bodywork is easy peasy lemon squeezy and slugs from that reliably put down grizzly bears, which are I believe the toughest land predator currently in existence.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#124

Post by wyager » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:32 PM UTC

nojvek wrote: post #120

overcast wrote: post #3

I envy this sense of adventure, but a lot of Africa is such a volatile place. The countries there are consistently in the top 20 most dangerous places to visit, and placed on do not go lists. Definitely takes a special person to deal with all of that, on top of all of the obstacles they ran into. Looks like they could have avoided most of the transportation issues, by investing in a true land rover type vehicle, inst…

With Africa and I guess a number of other places around the world, being white helps. You can feel a difference of how they'll treat a white person. It can be the opposite too, being overcharged. I know I'll probably get bashed with comments.

According to several friends who travel or do charity work in Africa, being white makes you more of a target for robbery. It makes sense; they know you probably have note money than the locals, so they're going to approach you accordingly, whether that means being nicer to you or targeting you.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#125

Post by RogtamBar » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:32 PM UTC

sickbeard wrote: post #56

The most dangerous thing in Africa is running into an armed rebel group or corrupt police/army. The vast majority of strangers you meet will mostly be sympathetic to your cause and help you when they can. You'll also be SOL if you are not handy.

Not in Congo though.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/50799-Democrat...

Multiple times, the travellers found spots where locals would make traps for cars and then ask for money to get the cars unstuck.

The only people who were invariably helpful were priests.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#126

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:36 PM UTC

oska wrote: post #75

sickbeard wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno man. The wildlife in Australia scares the shit out of me

There is very little to worry about there. Having your car break down or get bogged in a remote location is a much greater danger, but one that lots of tourists ignore.

[deleted]

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#127

Post by forgotpwtomain » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:37 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #87

jonstewart wrote: post #70

There have been so many of these self-congratulatory I-quit-my-job-to-travel-the-world posts that the New Yorker published a satirical piece on it: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/why-i-quit-my-jo... . TFA doesn't even have any geek discussion of build details, design trade-offs, problems encountered on the road and how they were solved, etc.

> problems encountered on the road and how they were solved, etc. The solutions seem to be "someone else fixed it". >> Our truck weighed over 10 tonnes fully laden, and whilst driving through some marshland just before we got to Senegal we broke through the hard crust into boggy clay below. >> We were very lucky to be just ahead of the Amsterdam Dakar Rally, and they helped pull us out. It took about 4 hours of diggi…

You forget the timeline involved. There is nothing surprising about getting stuck 3-4 times on dirt roads over the course of 19 months.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#128

Post by RogtamBar » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:39 PM UTC

prawn wrote: post #8

It pains me that so many beautiful sights on our planet are in what is reasonably dangerous territory or at least perceived as such. I would love to see all of Africa, but have only been to Morocco, which seemed very safe at least.

Freedom means you're free to succeed or fail on your own merits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanzelka_and_Zikmund .. these guys travelled the world widely in late 1940's. I've read the African book, and it's very funny reading these days.

The both despised the colonialist administrations, and the book frequently mentioned all the injustices done on the native populations. Yet the factual descriptions of Africa at that time make it look a far safer place.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#129

Post by enraged_camel » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:40 PM UTC

oska wrote: post #75

sickbeard wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno man. The wildlife in Australia scares the shit out of me

There is very little to worry about there. Having your car break down or get bogged in a remote location is a much greater danger, but one that lots of tourists ignore.

Um, Australia is home to some of the most poisonous snakes and spiders on the planet. And outside of major cities, they crawl into people's homes and cars on occasion.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#130

Post by pyre » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 3:41 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #99

overcast wrote: post #3

I envy this sense of adventure, but a lot of Africa is such a volatile place. The countries there are consistently in the top 20 most dangerous places to visit, and placed on do not go lists. Definitely takes a special person to deal with all of that, on top of all of the obstacles they ran into. Looks like they could have avoided most of the transportation issues, by investing in a true land rover type vehicle, inst…

> I envy this sense of adventure, but a lot of Africa is such a volatile place. This generalization is so broad as to be useless (akin to "America is a racist, xenophobic place"). Africa is 54 countries and 1 billion people and countless cities and neighorhoods, painting with a broad brush is unhelpful. Only a handful of countries have active conflicts or instability, it is easy to avoid them on a trip such as this o…

To be fair, this is about travelling across Africa rather than visiting a specific locale, that makes it more likely that you will need to pass through some of these "dangerous areas". Much as the other commenter here was mentioning getting robbed in Philly.