Vagabonding
June 15th, 2009 at 6:16 am (Travel)
I recently picked up Vagabonding (by Rolf Potts), a quick, enjoyable, and inspiring read. It is about the process of changing your mindset to allow yourself the freedom to be an explorer. Vagabonding involves generally longer trips than one might take for a regular vacation, permitting immersion and exploration and true learning about the world and yourself.
“Your travels are not an escape from your real life but a discovery of your real life.â€
Many lament not having the opportunity or the money to travel, but this book points out that in fact we all have (or can create) both things, and that often what’s really needed is a mental shift in attitude, to embrace simple living and be flexible and open to unplanned experiences. When you make the decision to embark upon adventure, you “… begin to look at maps with the narcotic tingle of possibility.†Oh, I know that feeling!
Vagabonding recommends doing research and preparation for your trip—but not too much of it. Some joys arise purely from surprise and discovery, and some disappointments come from overly built-up expectations. The book also recommends not being too tied to your guidebook, instead encouraging you to approach locals and experience the place directly. It even advocates refraining from any travel plans beyond getting you to your first destination, reserving later plans for after you’ve arrived, to preserve maximum freedom (and often get better deals locally—again if you’re flexible). Here the difference between vacation and vagabonding manifests; they operate on different timescales. And they have different goals: the book emphasizes freedom as vagabonding’s ultimate aim (and not just during the experience, but in how it frees and changes you as an individual).
“A vacation merely rewards work. Vagabonding justifies it.â€
This has been an excellent book to read on the plane right now, as I travel to Canada. This isn’t vagabonding by any means—I had to reply “for business†when the Customs agent asked my purpose for entering the country—and yet the same open, flexible mindset is useful no matter where you go or why. On my first solo vacation trip, to Hawaii, I planned out where I’d stay each night and pre-booked everything. On my second trip, to Japan, I pre-planned the first part and then deliberately did not book anything for the last few days. When that time came, I grabbed my rail pass, stepped on a train, and went wherever I felt like, finding places to stay each night as the need arose. And indeed, it was a fun adventure (even if a little scary at times), and everything worked out despite the language barrier, and now? I think my next trip will involve even more of that delicious feeling of freedom. Perhaps someday I’ll even take a true, longer-term, vagabonding trip.
As the Indigo Girls say:
“Get out the map!
Get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down —
Let’s leave the figuring for those we pass on the way out town.â€
jim said,
June 16, 2009 at 12:23 am
One of the highlights from my New Zealand trip was a side-trip based on the recommendation of some locals I met, so I’m very much in favor of non-rigid itineraries. However, I really do need some structure, as I’m prone to forgetting about the basic necessities (a place to sleep, food) while I’m exploring.
You sound like you have regrets about your trips?
Terran said,
June 16, 2009 at 3:08 am
I have to admit to being of two minds on this front. I love exploring for the sake of exploring, randomly wandering and trying to find new, off-the-beaten-track things. On the other hand, it really stresses me out to not know where I’m going to sleep each night. Or, more precisely, to not know that I have a good process for figuring that out.
Back when I was in grad school, I took a couple of summers to essentially be a vagabond in this sense. Took off in an old, beaten-up Ford Escort, handed-down from my father, and headed for the Canadian Rockies. (Back when you didn’t need a passport to cross that border. :-P ) Had no idea where I was going or what I’d find when I got there or where I was going to sleep each night. But I had a tent and a cookstove, so I figured I’d be ok. I discovered that lots of little communities have tent camping zones somewhere if you keep an eye out, so I developed a process for finding where I was going to sleep each night. I could be happy getting up each morning and heading off semi-randomly, because I knew that I could find a camping spot with high probability each evening.
Now, though, while we’re wandering across Europe, I find it much harder and more stressful to be quite such a free spirit. We’re living in the cities (mostly), and there’s no good place to pitch a tent, even if we had one. They tend to frown on you sleeping in the train stations, so you have to find actual lodgings. And that’s where it gets a lot more murky to me.
Recently, Susan and I took a spur-of-the moment trip through Germany and the Netherlands. We didn’t really know where we were spending each night, especially toward the end. We did find lodgings, and we sort-of knew that it was highly probable that we would. But it was still a bit more stressful than either of us would have liked. :-( We couldn’t really relax each day until we knew where we were staying that night. There are visitor help centers that are set up to handle this case, but we managed to pull into Amsterdam after they had closed for the evening.
So I guess I haven’t yet figured out a “housing with high probability” algorithm for city-based travel. And that means that I find myself uncomfortable heading out unless I’ve done some reservations and research ahead of time.
wkiri said,
June 16, 2009 at 6:34 am
Jim: No regrets at all! In fact the positive experiences I had have encouraged me to strike out even more independently.
Terran: Yes, this is what I was most apprehensive about in Japan. I was told that in fact there is excellent support for solving exactly this problem, and happily, this turned out to be true. You get off the train, walk up to a booth, and ask for a room for the night—and the people there call around and find you lodgings! I don’t think we have anything like that even here in the US (or I’ve just never been aware of it); instead you’d end up walking from hotel to hotel to inquire, or making phone calls yourself (difficult if you’re not fluent in the local language). So I agree with you that having a reliable process for getting basic needs met is critical. There’s also the issue of time; do you want to spend (waste) time working out local logistics when you could have done it prior to your trip and had more “free” time to experience the place? I think everyone has to decide where to strike that balance, given their own interests.