Gunther Holtorf and his travels

I have an American friend, Nicole (27 at the time) Who was on a tight budget during her stay in India a couple of years ago. She tried the whole Couchsurfing experience. Of course a lot of the time you're not sleeping on the couch but more often, in a spare room. One of her stays was with a family in Rajasthan. They had a jewellery business, were quite wealthy, and during the day for example, Nicole had the use of the Families Chauffeur driven car to take her around the town, wherever she wanted to go! The family derived great pleasure from having her stay with them and the whole cultural exchange experience. It was a sad day for her and the family when it was time to move on.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Possibly more fun for the surfers than the surfees.

And unless they start giving hospitality out as well as taking it, there's a word for couch surfers. It's 'parasites'.
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I actually enjoy hosting more than "surfing".

I've hosted around 40 couchsurfers from a dozen or so countries in my apartment in Stockholm, and surfed a few times. Nothing but good, often great, experiences. Some guests have become very good real-life friends. But then I'm also very careful with whom I accept (well-written request? Interesting profile? Anything in common? Good references? Do I have time? Etc.)

If you don't want people who couchsurf but never host themselves, it's easy to ignore them, thanks to Couchsurfing's reference system.

Of course some people abuse Couchsurfing, but on the whole, I think it's fantastic. It has certainly enriched my life.
 
andersju said:
I actually enjoy hosting more than "surfing".

I've hosted around 40 couchsurfers from a dozen or so countries in my apartment in Stockholm, and surfed a few times. Nothing but good, often great, experiences. Some guests have become very good real-life friends. But then I'm also very careful with whom I accept (well-written request? Interesting profile? Anything in common? Good references? Do I have time? Etc.)

If you don't want people who couchsurf but never host themselves, it's easy to ignore them, thanks to Couchsurfing's reference system.

Of course some people abuse Couchsurfing, but on the whole, I think it's fantastic. It has certainly enriched my life.
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Thanks. Sounds good. The problem is probably with how it's been reported n the few pieces I've read...

Cheers,

R.
 
rbrooks said:
Wasn't this answered in the video? It mentioned that they sleep and cook in the G Wagen.

Having said that it does cost real money to travel even if one has an eye toward frugality...
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Para 1: I was referring to the post about Japan, not the G'Wagen man. Sorry for the lack of clarity.

Para 2: No argument.

Cheers,

R.
 
i see there's a very huge disconnect (age related?)

some of you aren't willing to give up comforts to go travel. so you can stay at home or spend a few thousand dollars every few years to go somewhere exotic. that's fine!

or if you don't mind being frugal then you can go and explore the entire world on a very small budget. people in their early twenties do this kind of thing all the time. they eat local cheap food, they don't stay in hotels, yeah they even "mooch" accommodation as some of you put it.

if couch surfing and eating cheap food makes you uncomfortable then i guess you'll just have to stay at home or spring for a vacation trip every once in a while..! everybody has differing levels of tolerance for that kind of thing i suppose.

as for my trip through japan, i started 4 years ago and it's still ongoing. i still travel far from tokyo at least once a year. i have a road bicycle that can get me +100km in a day if i bike hard. camping, couch surfing, staying with friends i've made in the past or online, etc.

last year i went to okinawa (being an island the airfare was the biggest expense) and paid no more than about $15 a day including accommodation, food, drinking and clubbing (HEAVY drinking and clubbing!) etc. two years ago i went to a place called mie and stayed for free for about 4 days. ate like a king. it was fantastic. mooching? no, i don't expect people to put me up for free but if they do, then i appreciate it, and it's always a fun experience for both the people i'm with and myself.

and as for starting a business or investing not being for everyone, i disagree with that. anyone can start an ebay business or some other kind of business that can be run entirely from a cell phone IF they put in the effort and research. everyone has SOME kind of marketable product or skill that can be used to generate income in some way or another. i know of a couple that sails around the world and their only source of income is the money they get from having a mobile sail repair business they own on their boat - they have a sail sewing machine on their boat and do sail repairs at every marina they stay at. they're making a great living and i've seen them complaining recently that they're too busy to sail anymore with all the orders they have..!

i highly recommend taking a step outside your comfort zone and just trying out something new! life's too short to get hung up about "mooching" accommodation or eating cheap food
 
As author of the mooching comment, let me explain that many of us older folk seem more aware of personal responsibility and paying our own way. An unbalanced "tally sheet" (either in or out of our favourite) makes us feel uncomfortable. My comment had nothing to do with putting down cheap food and accommodation in order to afford travel.

Other than that, I agree with your philosophy that life is short.
 
paradoxbox said:
i highly recommend taking a step outside your comfort zone and just trying out something new! life's too short to get hung up about "mooching" accommodation or eating cheap food
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How big is your 'comfort one' and how old are you?

Life's too short to rely on others paying your way for you. Children do that. Adults pay their own way.

You may also have missed the point that this thread was about a retiree travelling in a Mercedes, not about some kid bumming floor space and living on the cheapest street food available. Anyone who believes you can travel with your own vehicle to numerous countries on $10 a day is severely out of touch with reality.

Lots of us have done a lot of travelling. In our 'teens and twenties, and for that matter later, we may have relied on others. That's fine. But when you start to grow up, you realize sooner or later that you can't do that all your life. Well, not if you want to retain any self respect.

At university, and for a good few years afterwards, I was half-way to a couch surfer. At university, how does 7 beds in 10 days sound? Or after university, weeks imposing on friends? In 1981 I met my wife when I was staying for 15 days with a friend in Los Angeles: I was living in Bristol at the time. In the Himalayas, as late as my 30s, I've slept for nothing on schoolroom floors and in Buddhist temples, and for a few rupees in a village inn where there were no toilets in the whole village, let alone in the inn. But now I'm in my 60s, and have just celebrated my 30th wedding anniversary. Our lives change, often in ways we can't anticipate, but also, quite often, in ways we can anticipate.

Most of my life, I've put up friends (and friends-of-friends) and I've been put up by friends and friends-of friends, all for nothing. But that's a two-way street, not just take, take, take. Sooner or later, you have to put something back. Right now, you are talking patronizing rubbish to people who have almost certainly done rather more than you have.

I hope, too, that your business succeeds, and succeeds ethically, without exploiting others. My own little business bumps along steadily, without ever making me a fortune, but allowing me lots of time to travel, and without ripping people off. I've known others who've gone spectacularly bust. Especially, now I think about it, those whose high opinion of themselves is not universally shared. Businesses can fail as well as succeed: a widely accepted figure is that at least half of small businesses fail within 5 years, and some put the figure as high as 80%. For that matter, big companies fail too. Remember Kodak? If you're feeling energetic, check how many of the top 500 companies from 50 years ago are still in business today.

In other words, the 'age disconnect' you talk about may be rather more of a disconnect between experience and inexperience.

Cheers,

R.
 
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Roger Hicks said:
With a big, thirsty 4WD?

Staying where? Eating what?

I completely agree about changing your life if you don't like it. But on the other hand I don't want to sleep rough and live exclusively on dhall, chapatis and onions. Nor am I convinced that 'investing' (or indeed starting your own business) is an option for everyone. Yes, I've worked for myself for over 30 years, and I've travelled a lot during that time. But time spent working your arse off, in the hope of early retirement, is time not spent travelling. I've preferred to enjoy life as I go along, rather than planning for an uncertain future.

Cheers,

R..
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People would be wise to consider this early on. 😉

After putting myself through 5 universities, working as a professional city/town/regional planner, surveyor, engineer and land developer since the late 60s, all of my plans died in less than 30 seconds in 2008 and absolutely buried shortly thereafter with my own bride's serious medical problems. This at what was supposed to be the peak of my career. All assets are now gone.

A 10-page resume and 40+ years of experience are worth absolutely nothing now while all of those former bosses, developers, builders and contractors I worked for are sitting on a beach in the Bahamas living it up, I wait each month for a small government check like a dog awaiting a pork chop bone to be thrown out in the backyard after supper.

Time is short, Shorter than you think! Plans are just that, plans for most of us with little security in reality. Enjoy yourself as I have stated in a related thread here recently on RFF!:angel:

I like Roger's approach myself. We should have known each other decades ago and it would have saved me a lot of wasted time, effort and money.😱
 
Anyone heard of WOOFers? Workers On Organic Farms. I've met some people from distant lands who are doing this. Working for room and board. Excellent way to travel affordably.
 
I did something similar years ago, but I did no mooching. I did odd jobs such as moving furniture, cleaning horse stalls, and washing cars. In exchange, I usually got a meal or two, and a place to sleep. I got to see most of the states in America this way (from Miami to some small Alaskan town, the name of which I can no longer remember). As with any endeavor, you simply need to go out and "do it".
 
dave lackey said:
People would be wise to consider this early on. 😉

After putting myself through 5 universities, working as a professional city/town/regional planner, surveyor, engineer and land developer since the late 60s, all of my plans died in less than 30 seconds in 2008 and absolutely buried shortly thereafter with my own bride's serious medical problems. This at what was supposed to be the peak of my career. All assets are now gone.

A 10-page resume and 40+ years of experience are worth absolutely nothing now while all of those former bosses, developers, builders and contractors I worked for are sitting on a beach in the Bahamas living it up, I wait each month for a small government check like a dog awaiting a pork chop bone to be thrown out in the backyard after supper.

Time is short, Shorter than you think! Plans are just that, plans for most of us with little security in reality. Enjoy yourself as I have stated in a related thread here recently on RFF!:angel:

I like Roger's approach myself. We should have known each other decades ago and it would have saved me a lot of wasted time, effort and money.😱
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It's never too late to start again. At 40 I had to make a fresh start, my employer went bust after Lehman and Bear Stearns Went down. Whatever assets I had were canceled out by my debts, and I walked away with nothing. No debts, but also no money, no house, no car, and no job.

I skipped off to Japan, and got a part-time teaching job. My employer provided a small apartment, and a few extras, it was enough to get me on my feet. The money wasn't great, but I used part of it to set up a small online business (my initial outlay was $10). I have also begun doing a litle consulting related to my previous career, and as of now, things seem to be working out.

The world is a big place, and it is easy enough to go out and see, the only borders are in one's mind. I am now thankful that I lost my old job, it forced me to move outside my comfort zone. People can adapt to any situation when the need arises, yet most never do. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you don't want to look back on your life one day and wonder what might have happened had you done it.
 
Frontman said:
It's never too late to start again. At 40 I had to make a fresh start, my employer went bust after Lehman and Bear Stearns Went down. Whatever assets I had were canceled out by my debts, and I walked away with nothing. No debts, but also no money, no house, no car, and no job.

I skipped off to Japan, and got a part-time teaching job. My employer provided a small apartment, and a few extras, it was enough to get me on my feet. The money wasn't great, but I used part of it to set up a small online business (my initial outlay was $10). I have also begun doing a litle consulting related to my previous career, and as of now, things seem to be working out.

The world is a big place, and it is easy enough to go out and see, the only borders are in one's mind. I am now thankful that I lost my old job, it forced me to move outside my comfort zone. People can adapt to any situation when the need arises, yet most never do. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you don't want to look back on your life one day and wonder what might have happened had you done it.
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Sounds cool! Photos and a story behind those would really be neat.

These days, my full-time job is as 24/7 caregiver for my wife. Borders that cannot be moved. I have been able to squeeze in a bit of time here and there for my documentaries, not that they pay anything, I am simply putting together a body of work while producing documentaries that may be important to someone in a future time...

Then, again, we have been fortunate to keep the grandkids this summer providing some wonderful bonding as we have enjoyed them very much. So, life goes on. Two tears in a bucket for me.🙂

Apologies to the OP, so now we must get back on topic.
 
Interesting thing about life: what happens to you is partially in your control through smarts and hard work, and some of it is pure blind luck, whether good, bad, or indifferent.
 
FrankS said:
Interesting thing about life: what happens to you is partially in your control through smarts and hard work, and some of it is pure blind luck, whether good, bad, or indifferent.
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Exactly. Anyone who thinks that their success is entirely the result of their intelligence and hard work is arrogant and hard of thinking.

I've mostly been lucky, and I've helped the luck along by decisions I don't regret. Arguably the only definition of an intelligent decision is that with hindsight, you probably made the right choice. And the older I get, the more I appreciate the role of luck, in my life and in others' lives.

And for many, many years I've lived by the old Spanish proverb: "Take what you want, and pay for it, saieth the Lord." Of course, the phrase "pay for it" does not refer only to financial costs.

Cheers,

R.
 
the above sounds like an obama speech i heard a few days ago...heh

anyway, it's clear there are very different lifestyles, just keep in mind that the guy in the original story sleeps in his car!

go now or go never
 
"One can walk, ...................... The problem for most people in the US is they simply do not have the time off from work to travel long distances slowly."

Fred, I think you are getting very close. The key is not traveling long distances but simply how slowly one travels. There are great experiences right around the corner that most miss because they don't slow down or simply believe there cannot be anything interesting there because it is so close. We hear of someone who said they drove through XXXXX and thought there was nothing there. Yet, when we went to XXXXX, we spent time walking around and found it very interesting.

I love the Charles Kuralt quote: "Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything."
 
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