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

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

#131

Post by ghshephard »

jdavis703 wrote: post #52
kochthesecond wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add anecdotal evidence, I have travelled a lot in Spain and never felt unsafe nor been robbed.

Same I've been to Philly and Barcelona, and live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed. I guess at the risk of being downvoted for victim blaming, "don't be stupid." It wouldn't surprise me if people let their guard down when they felt they were in a "safe" area.

Depends on when you lived in Oakland, CA. When I lived there (Lake Merritt and 17th) in 1998/1999, it was a total war zone. Absolutely nobody went out a night, and cars would typically drive through red lights rather than stop.

I visited it recently, and the entire Lake area has become gentrified. Almost like an entirely new city, with lots of people out at night. And I wasn't too worried about being robbed. Of course, I was robbed at gunpoint just a few years ago walking home from work in Redwood City - so it just goes to show it can happen almost anywhere. Except, of course, Singapore. Gotta be the safest city in the world.

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

#132

Post by pendu »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #55

This looks like a nice experience, but I'm realizing that I don't want to do anything like this. I thought I did, but I guess not. That includes driving an RV around America or New Zealand, hiking the Appalachian trail, or any other kind of journey where you travel from A to B and see a few things along the way. I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me. I do wan…

> 'but I'm starting to realize that you can't just be a spectator, you have to be a part of something bigger. Maybe by trying to solve a problem, investigating an issue and creating a documentary, or fighting for something important.'

That's so true. Once you are a part of something bigger, the experiences, adventure and thrill land up on their own. This applies not only to travel, but every part of life.

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

#133

Post by _9vpl »

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…

> building homes in areas where there isn't adequate low-income housing.

Silicon Valley could also use some help here (tongue-in-cheek).

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

#134

Post by atmosx »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #55

This looks like a nice experience, but I'm realizing that I don't want to do anything like this. I thought I did, but I guess not. That includes driving an RV around America or New Zealand, hiking the Appalachian trail, or any other kind of journey where you travel from A to B and see a few things along the way. I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me. I do wan…

> I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me. I do want to visit places like Ethiopia and South Africa, but I think I'll take a plane.

You're missing the point. It's the adventure, not the trail, not the road you'll chose or the destinations... It's the adversities on the trip, the people you meet, the broken cars, that bus/airplain/boat you didn't catch that will make the difference, a point vey well made by my favorite Cavafy poem[1].

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n3n2Ox4Yfk&list=RD1n3n2Ox4Y...

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

#135

Post by theptip »

forgotpwtomain wrote: post #121
todd8 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 und…

This is a very important point that a lot of charity givers miss -- what's the marginal value of your charitable contribution? By taking a construction job, you might just be displacing a local from their job.

https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ has some detailed analysis of how to best make an impact, depending on your interests and skill set.

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

#136

Post by kingofspain »

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.

Last year I was mugged away from Las Ramblas, guy ran up to me, pushed me from behind and got my phone while I was on the floor. I had my hand on the damn thing at the time too! This was on a busy street around 1am. So while perhaps not typical it does happen.

Bastard ran up £3k in premium rate calls by the time I got back to the hotel to cancel it. Luckily I was refunded for those!

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

#137

Post by bshimmin »

gmunu wrote: post #119
kochthesecond wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add anecdotal evidence, I have travelled a lot in Spain and never felt unsafe nor been robbed.

I've been to Spain once, went to Barcelona, and was robbed. I'd still go back to Spain and Barcelona though!

I've only ever been robbed in Italy, but I've been back a lot in the hope of meeting my robber again (he was Italian, he had dark hair, medium height, and was somewhat unshaven - anyone know him?).

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

#138

Post by dragonwriter »

atmosx wrote: post #134
nathan_f77 wrote: post #55

This looks like a nice experience, but I'm realizing that I don't want to do anything like this. I thought I did, but I guess not. That includes driving an RV around America or New Zealand, hiking the Appalachian trail, or any other kind of journey where you travel from A to B and see a few things along the way. I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me. I do wan…

> I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me. I do want to visit places like Ethiopia and South Africa, but I think I'll take a plane. You're missing the point. It's the adventure, not the trail, not the road you'll chose or the destinations... It's the adversities on the trip, the people you meet, the broken cars, that bus/airplain/boat you didn't catch that will…

> You're missing the point.

No, I think the GP is fairly and explicitly disagreeing with what you describe as the point, which is very different than missing it.

Clearly you think what is desirable and worthwhile is...

> the adventure [...] the adversities on the trip, the people you meet, the broken cars

Clearly, GP disagrees that this is desirable and worthwhile, when writing:

> I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me.

Not everyone has insufficient adversity in their daily life such that they need to take on additional and avoidable adversity for recreation.

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

#139

Post by softawre »

forgotpwtomain wrote: post #121
todd8 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 und…

Interesting. What about the US local he is displacing by taking the job here?

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

#140

Post by mb_72 »

enraged_camel wrote: post #129
oska wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Australian here. What you say is true, but avoid long grass (snakes) when out walking and check under the toilet seat (spiders) before sitting and you'll be fine. More importantly, make sure you look up constantly when around gum trees to avoid sudden and violent drop-bear attacks. The exact number of deaths and injuries caused by drop-bears is keep secret by the Australian government to avoid putting off tourists, but could well be more than zero.
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