Travelling

[j-sh]

So my gap year's rollin around in about a months time, and i'm currently just planning what to do with just over a year of freedom!

Working over the summer isnt really optional, but beyond that im hopin to do a lot of travelling - so i was just wondering if anyone has any tips or suggestions

I backpacked around eastern/cental europe last summer and loved it
I've been thinking vietnam, laos, cambodia, thailand - but due to complicated visa issues and general political instability in cambodia and laos i'm kind of going off the idea. Not to mention laos has THE biggest spiders in the world and i hate the fuckers.
Also considering China, but it's so huge i think it's kind of hard to travel over land, and i cant afford to fly.
Perhaps India, but i kind of wanna get off the beaten track, and India stikes me as one of those places where all the middle class white people go to 'find themselves'

Anyway, anyone got some thoughts on these places?

[osky]

how old are you? 18?

[j-sh]

how old are you? 18?

I am indeed

[osky]

ah rite same. i was gonna say go america if u were over 21, thats what appeals to me tho. i dunno if ur all about going asia i wouldnt know. im going aussie nxt year asia hasnt really appealed to me for some reason i think its the mix of the food, sweaty climate and how cramped it is that puts me off.

how was central/eastern europe? sounds interesting

[did]

I've heard South America can be amazing.
And Outlook festival in Croatia is a must

[j-sh]

ah rite same. i was gonna say go america if u were over 21, thats what appeals to me tho. i dunno if ur all about going asia i wouldnt know. im going aussie nxt year asia hasnt really appealed to me for some reason i think its the mix of the food, sweaty climate and how cramped it is that puts me off.

how was central/eastern europe? sounds interesting

I dunno why i wanna go to asia so badly, i think its mostly for the culture shock. Like i wanna be somewhere that's completely different to the UK, definetely not an english speaking country. And there's definetely something appealing about being a country thats so cheap i dont really have to be on a strict budget. Food and travel appears to be so cheap you can just sort of soak it in, instead of eating bread and cheese on the roadside like i did round eastern europe lol

But yer, eastern europe was a fucking bomb. I went to poland, hungary, slovakia, czech republic and slovenia and all of them where amazing.
Really cool culture and atmosphere.
If anyone's thinking of visiting eastern europe I could probably share some recommended places.

[osky]

yeh i guess it wud be cool to be in a completely 'alien' place. anyway big up the oxford kruuuuuuu!

[j-sh]

I've heard South America can be amazing.
And Outlook festival in Croatia is a must

yeh same, ive heard its pretty dangerous though. My friend's parent's friend (tenuos link i know) got raped and her throat slit on a bus crossing a border in Brazil, she survived but i'm still a bit

but still im sure thats like an extremely rare occurence.

[osky]

I've heard South America can be amazing.
And Outlook festival in Croatia is a must

yeh same, ive heard its pretty dangerous though. My friend's parent's friend (tenuos link i know) got raped and her throat slit on a bus crossing a border in Brazil, she survived but i'm still a bit

but still im sure thats like an extremely rare occurence.

dunno you hear a lot of stories s.america is pretty dark but u also hear of kidnappings and other horrible shit in cambodia and stuff. basically any poor country you go your gonna have these issues anyway

[j-sh]

I've heard South America can be amazing.
And Outlook festival in Croatia is a must

yeh same, ive heard its pretty dangerous though. My friend's parent's friend (tenuos link i know) got raped and her throat slit on a bus crossing a border in Brazil, she survived but i'm still a bit

but still im sure thats like an extremely rare occurence.

dunno you hear a lot of stories s.america is pretty dark but u also hear of kidnappings and other horrible shit in cambodia and stuff. basically any poor country you go your gonna have these issues anyway

yeh yeh definetely just shook me a bit when i heard that one!
I think most countries are all right if you've got your head screwed on and you cant exactly go around terrified all the time lol

[did]

I've heard South America can be amazing.
And Outlook festival in Croatia is a must

yeh same, ive heard its pretty dangerous though. My friend's parent's friend (tenuos link i know) got raped and her throat slit on a bus crossing a border in Brazil, she survived but i'm still a bit

but still im sure thats like an extremely rare occurence.

dunno you hear a lot of stories s.america is pretty dark but u also hear of kidnappings and other horrible shit in cambodia and stuff. basically any poor country you go your gonna have these issues anyway

yeh yeh definetely just shook me a bit when i heard that one!
I think most countries are all right if you've got your head screwed on and you cant exactly go around terrified all the time lol

My mate lived in Chile for a few years and he said it was fine, only ever really had people trying to scam him but you get that in pretty much all poor countries.

[groucho_marxx]

Ive been lucky enough to travel to many countries in europe, ive also spent some months in India and Brazil.
I hear what your saying about india, but remember its a huge place, many good places to go, the indian people are some of the kindest in the world (english spoken by almost all was a help to us).

I have more of an interest in South american cultures than asian cultures (and girls/music) thats probably why i would say Brazil, in almost 5 months, we travelled everywhere by coach and on occasions with some friends there, and it was the most incredible journey of my life.
we took in Rio, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Gramado, Espirito Santo and Salvador Bahia for the carnaval (worlds bigest party and, DAMN)

Dont believe the hype about the negative stories concerning a wonderful counrty like Brazil, we roughed it and could sit here telling you stories about how we had to spend 3 nights sleepin rough (ish) or how we saw gunshots at Baile Funk parties in Vitoria (terible at the time, but charechter building stuff!), but im still here, and all the better for it.

[karmacazee]

San Francisco. Work your way south until you get to the antarctic ocean....

That's still my dream.


Taking a year out is the best thing you'll ever do.

I spent the majority of mine living on the floor of a friend's house
with my girlfriend, doing a crappy office job I hated so I could afford to go to Uni!

But it was still one of the best years of my life, somehow.

[fretn]

As above I had the luck to have parents who like to travel around the world.

So far the most beautifull place i've ever been what Thailand, but there's lots of others too, you might conside visitting Sri Lanka, the southern part isn't dangerous at all, and it's a real garden of eden (but beware of the spicy food, it does cause diarrhea ).
Cuba is nice too, although the differences are huge the moment you step out of your hotel.
Also to consider is Croatia as stated above, it's one of the last places in the northern part of the meditteranean that is mostly unspoiled by big flats and drunk brits & germans (no offence ). I could advise to islandhop it, there's a great ferry system that links the island. Most of them are still pretty basic fishing villages flled with nice cosy restaurants and bars. Also the water is crystal clear, the air is fresh and beer/ wodka is cheap. Croatian people are very friendly and helpfull and most of the young people speak English. I would suggest flying to pula and take the ferry to the south stopping at some islands (i highly suggest Losinj, Vis, Krk, Dugi Otok, brac and the national park of kornati and if you're more the nightlife man stop in Mali Losinj, Split, Zadar & Dubrovnik)
don't hesitate to pm me for more details!

Future plans for this year: a week of diving in Egypt or Croatia, and going to the US for the first time.

[willis]

I've done a fair bit of globe trotting and i have to say S.E Asia is definitely my favourite place.

There's absolutely no need to worry about political instability in places like Cambodia and Laos, i'm off there myself in a couple of weeks. It's the best place to be, if you're a rich foreigner of course. You can live like a fucking king, premo quality drugs and BARE girls but there's a lot of HIV out here so you need to wrap up tight every time. Also if you get into any shit with the old bill then slip em a few us dollars and you can skip pretty much any charges. Philippines are all good too, people can be a bit fucking mental though, a few friends had some mad scrapes out there recently.

Would also strongly recommend a detour to Japan if you've got a lot of spare change. The woman take a lot of extra effort (or money) but there worth it believe me. The night life is quality and if you can catch a back to chill night in Tokyo you would love it. Linking some sniff or something like that can be a bit of a mission though.

Only thing that bothers me out here is the threat of malaria or dengue fever. Most of the built up areas are clear but if you go off the beaten track then you have to take all kinds of shit to prevent you pissing blood for the next 6 months.

Anyway, hope that helps mate and enjoy your trip

[kay]

You'd probably be reasonably safe in southeast asia to be honest. Especially since you're quite well travelled. There're some pretty cool places to visit and you've got the whole mix to pick from, from high tech cities to deepest jungles. Make sure you get your shots before you head out there though. Not that anything will protect you from dengue (I knew someone who died).

Have always wanted to visit south america but keep putting it off. My impression though is that it's a place you'd want to go to with a bunch of mates as opposed to alone.

[missedthebus]

I spent my gap year travelling in Mexico. Amazing country, absolutely loved it and been back there again since. On my gap year went through Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas, Campeche Quintana Roo and Yucatan (basically along the south of Mexico) Its an amazingly diverse and picturesque part of the world, which I literally feel I hardly scraped the skin of. Oaxaca Yucatan and Chiapas probably my fav parts. all very different. The cenotes in Yucatan are amazing. Thousands of underwater lakes connected by tunnels cover the whole peninsular. They all have this light blue florescent water and go down for miles.

Like these



DF as well (the capital city) the biggest urban sprawl on the planet absolutely amazing city. One of most impressive things Ive seen was flying out of Mexico city at night and all you can see, for as far as you can see are lights!


If I can muster up the cash in a year or so I want to travel further into South America. Want to go to so many other places as well..... I need to win the lottery!

[Coppola]

I have been going caving since i was 4 but honestly i have never seen anything close to those formations in the UK. I would love to see that shit.

Dubloke is traveling round some part or asia atm. ask him when he returns...

[osky]

haha fuck mexico