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Indefinite Backpack Travel

jeremymaluf.com

411–420 of 429 posts

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#411

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Yeah, when we stop moving, it's so easy to start hoarding. I lived in Mexico for 10 years with just two duffelbags of clothes and essentials. I could carry both on a plane unchecked and be anywhere with nothing left behind, and I loved it. Now I look around me in my apartment I share with my girlfriend and have things I wouldn't have even conceived of, like a gaming PC with two monitors (for what??) and a closet full…

You can’t even carry one duffel bag unchecked on a budget airline anymore, unless its a very small one. Some of the cheaper airlines even charge extra for overhead luggage.

That might be true for domestic US flights, which I don't have experience with, but every airline between US and Mexico, or inside Mexico, has an option for 1x carry-on and 1x "personal item" where the personal item just needs to somewhat fit under the seat in front of you.

This goes for Mexico's budget airline Viva Aerobus too.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#412
post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, when we stop moving, it's so easy to start hoarding. I lived in Mexico for 10 years with just two duffelbags of clothes and essentials. I could carry both on a plane unchecked and be anywhere with nothing left behind, and I loved it. Now I look around me in my apartment I share with my girlfriend and have things I wouldn't have even conceived of, like a gaming PC with two monitors (for what??) and a closet full…

I'm assuming you didn't cook much if at all during that time?

I cooked. Everywhere I've lived had a pot, pan, cutting board, knife, etc. And I'm sure I bought some so-cheap-its-disposable kitchenware from time to time.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#413

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>Where does the money come from that allows one to sleep in hotels, ride in rental cars, travel in airports, and eat in restaurants for years on end? If you keep your standards modest, the math isn't as bad as it intuitively seems. A $100 hotel per night is the equivalent of a $3000 mortgage/rent. And if you're living out of one bag you don't necessarily need that and probably have cheaper options like hostels (or te…

In other words, it's not a problem if you're one of the wealthiest people ever to exist in human history.

Well, their example budget is $100/night just in rent.

My apartment in Guadalajara was $200/mo.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, when we stop moving, it's so easy to start hoarding. I lived in Mexico for 10 years with just two duffelbags of clothes and essentials. I could carry both on a plane unchecked and be anywhere with nothing left behind, and I loved it. Now I look around me in my apartment I share with my girlfriend and have things I wouldn't have even conceived of, like a gaming PC with two monitors (for what??) and a closet full…

I met a family who had just moved to Wisconson from Italy last week. The four of them (Mom, Dad, ~14yo son, and ~12yo daughter) packed everything they were going to bring with them into a backpack and two checked bags each. Incredible! What would you pick? I have a garage and a shed (OK, fine, it's a 24x36 barn) and a basement and a home office that barely contain the enormous quantity of my stuff at home. And yet I…

Yeah, a 28yo on a 'permanent holiday' has a very different life than someone like you who is doing, say, renovation work in the house you own. They are opposite stations in life in many ways.

As for your final question, I was living in a cheap country. Rent was $200/mo with roommates. Taxis/Uber was cheap. Food was cheap. I made a modest wage in software.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#415
post #159

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People freak out about this, but all it boils down to is bringing enough socks, underwear, and shirts for ~5-6 days, 2 pairs of bottoms, and (depending on weather) or a combination of 2 and/either sweaters and an outer shell. Wear the biggest stuff (pants/sweaters) on the plane. After that be willing to do laundry, which will often put you in a position that's outside the tourist mainstream and force you to slow down…

> Freak weather events can be used as an excuse to shop for clothing, too (the best rain jacket that I ever bought was in this situation in the Netherlands - it was expensive, but I'm still using it a decade later - a fantastic souvenir that people always complement me on when wearing it). This doesn't make any sense. Going going to a random shop to buy a rain jacket is inevitably going to be worse than doing careful…

> This doesn't make any sense. Going going to a random shop to buy a rain jacket is inevitably going to be worse than doing careful research and ordering from the cheapest retailer. Moreover after you bought your first rain jacket, then what? Buy another next time it rains? If not, why not just buy it ahead of your trip and pack it?

That means constantly planning for every eventuality, which means always carrying an over-sized/over-stuffed piece of luggage. If you travel enough, you want to minimize that. Weight adds up, especially jeans and pants.

No, I don't always go and buy a rain jacket. Most of the time the forecasts are decent enough for most trips that I'll buy a cheap umbrella, wait it out, or something if things go sideways. But it did cause me to browse through some stores I'd never have bothered go into. For me, unexpected things can sometimes result in delights like that.

I saw a jacket that felt very nicely made, had nice materials, had a lot of high-quality seams (my wife's friend was a seamstress and taught us what to look for in quality clothing), and was a perfect fit and colour.

I'm far more willing to buy sweaters or other things that keep you warm, though.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#416

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You couldn't survive with just a backpack if other people "overcame their materialism" and didn't own all of the capital that allowed you to survive, like providing you your equipment, food, knowledge, and emergency rescue if it came to it. Criticizing "hedonism" is its own kind of hedonism, or in common parlance, a first world problem. It is a luxury that cannot be indulged by poor societies.

There might be some version of a future where robots take care of managing the industry for our benefit in a post-scarcity setting, allowing us humans to live as simple a life as we want, knowing that when a material need arises the robots will be willing and able to quickly fulfill it for us. I don't think that's where we're headed, but I like imagining.

Do you know that in History every increase in productivity is appropriated by the ruler class?

Your future isn't realistic.

Just workers organization and democracy prevents it

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#417

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While true, it's functionally irrelevant. Humans are animals, animals procreate. Telling people not to do it because reasons is going to be about as effective as telling them not to eat or sleep. What I would like to see is a norm on numbers of children. Personally, I think that having more than the replacement number - i.e. more than 2 - is straightforwardly unethical given the stress our planet is under. But by the…

But humans can actually make conscious choices beyond their base animal pressures. We use prophylactics even though those go against our animal pressure to procreate. We help strangers even if it won't improve our own situation and without any expectation of future reciprocation. We have to eat and sleep to live, we don't have to have children. We also have cultural pressures, which can shape individual behavior. We…

Worse, than that, if you preach antinatalism it has any chance of catching up with people of some knowledge and reflection, leaving the Earth to the children of those of less knowledge and reflection.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#418

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check out Wide Open, new line of wider socks from DT

Still not wide enough. If anybody has wider reccos in big sizes other than "oddball" brand, I'm all ears.

I have wide feet and Smartwool socks work for me.

(I hate all the weird color combinations and designs that a lot of companies use, but thankfully Smartwool has a good deaign with their Hike Classic Edition Ankle Socks)

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#419
post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You couldn't survive with just a backpack if other people "overcame their materialism" and didn't own all of the capital that allowed you to survive, like providing you your equipment, food, knowledge, and emergency rescue if it came to it. Criticizing "hedonism" is its own kind of hedonism, or in common parlance, a first world problem. It is a luxury that cannot be indulged by poor societies.

> Criticizing "hedonism" is its own kind of hedonism It's like kink-shaming being someone's actual kink. Criticizing "hedonism" is its own kind of hedonism because you are overindulging yourself in your own sense of pride and smugness for "being better than everyone else" Not that the author of TFA is doing this, but claiming that you have overcome materialism while at the same time posting about it on instagram with…

"criticizing hedonism is its own kind of hedonism"... ok by this logic it seems youve totally insulated the idea of hedonism from being criticized?

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#420
post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming you didn't cook much if at all during that time?

I cooked. Everywhere I've lived had a pot, pan, cutting board, knife, etc. And I'm sure I bought some so-cheap-its-disposable kitchenware from time to time.

Makes sense, I was thinking even a minimal kitchen setup is about a full duffel bag worth.
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