Thu 10 Jul 2008
AONC Frequently Asked Questions – What’s On Your Mind?
Posted by Chris Guillebeau under Site UpdatesIf you're new here, you may want to learn what this site is about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for free email updates. Thanks for visiting!
Greetings, friends and readers. As part of the continuing development of the project, I will be creating a Frequently Asked Questions page here on the AONC site.
I get emails and comments throughout the day now, and I’ve noticed a fair amount of repetition in the questions that are being asked. Hopefully, the FAQ page will provide some needed background for all our new readers. Before I create it, however, I’d like to know… what’s on your mind?
Some questions I already have on the list are listed below:
- How do you pay for your travel? (I have discussed this briefly before, but some people are asking for more information)
- What will you do after you’ve finished visiting every country?
- If everyone becomes a nonconformist, then won’t everyone be conforming?
- Why so much talk about world domination?
- What did you do in Africa from 2002-2006?
- How do you find volunteer opportunities?
Those have come up a lot, but I want to give everyone a chance to add their own questions as well.
Please post your questions in the comments below (click through if you are using RSS, and I will use many of them as the basis for the FAQ page.
Thanks in advance!
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Stephen Hopson
July 10th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Ok, Chris, how about these:
“What made you start traveling around the world? What were you doing before you made that decision?”
“When you first started traveling like this, how did you know what to do or where to turn to? Of course, you’re experienced now and can share a wealth of experience but you got started someplace. Who did you turn to for help?”
I look forward to airing our interview over at my blog in August!
Daniel
July 10th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Would you be so kind as to share your typical packing list of stuff you pack for any trip? Just the items you take and a short note as to why you take some special ones would be greatly appreciated in order to learn the art of packing less than the typical tourist.
Alex Fayle
July 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am
How do you offset the environmental impact of your travel?
(if you answer this one, you can ignore my comment from the other day)
Saxtor
July 10th, 2008 at 11:31 am
I’d like to know a little more about your living situation at home. If you rent or own, how do you manage to budget for and make make your payments while away for extended periods?
Michal Mitrega
July 10th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Daniel’s question is hot. You can also take a photo of equipment when you’ll pack your baggage next time.
Sudhakar
July 10th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
How and when did you come upon this philosophy of life?
Varun Prabhakar
July 10th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
How difficult is to manage your personal life with the amount of travel you do? How do you do it? What’s the mantra :)?
Rob
July 10th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I’d like to second [third? fourth?] “How do you pay for your travel?” even though you’ve already got it on your list… How much of your budgeting is done for trips? Do you have to focus on always keeping costs down when not traveling? Do you rent/own? Two incomes? One? I know some of this is kind of personal, and you absolutely don’t have to answer, but curiousity, and wondering what aspects I could personally implement are driving it…
I’m also curious what your goals/ideas are after you finish visiting every country?
GREG
July 10th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
How is an approach to non-conformity achieved without arrogance? I know it’s a basic question, but many who follow such a path do so because they “know” there is no other correct path in life. How necessary is humility in the pursuit of non-conformity?
Saravanan
July 10th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Hi Chris,
I am an Indian and living in India and thinking about traveling around the world is not impossible but it is quite a challenge. I have few questions for you. Here are those:
1. How do you plan your travel?
2. What do you do after visiting that country/city?
3. How you visit places around the city?
4. How do you keep a balance between personal life and others?
5. Suggestions for me to travel the world. Remember I am an Indian and I earn less than $1000 per month as of now. I don’t know when I can touch that figure. I am a software engineer, one of the highly paid jobs in India. I know its not difficult but I am just 24 and I don’t know how exactly things work. I would appreciate if you give practical suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
Saravanan.
Geek Meister
July 10th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
How would you recommend for someone to balance paying off debt quickly with starting to pursue their goals?
Llama People
July 11th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Hi Chris,
A question that popped into my mind the other day was - what do you actually do while travelling to these countries? Sometimes seeing tourist attractions, ancient buildings, hanging out with travellers from the hostels, and so on, becomes a bit boring.
Chris
July 11th, 2008 at 12:09 am
@ Everyone,
These are great questions — thank you all. I’ll answer all of them one way or the other, either in this thread later on or on the FAQ page for the ones that apply to a lot of people.
At the moment I’m in Sofia, Bulgaria after three days in Warsaw. This is the last stop before heading back home via Asia. On Friday (about 8 hours from now) I’ll post the trip report from my secret stopover last weekend.
Please keep the questions coming; I appreciate that you all are interested.
Chiba
July 11th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I would definately love to hear your experience you had in the Bulgarian capital.
It would probably be very controversial. Mixed feelings, right?
Can’t wait to read.
Cheers.
Chris
July 12th, 2008 at 2:20 am
@Chiba,
Sofia (Bulgaria) wasn’t controversial at all, and no mixed feelings. Well, I got lost for about two hours trying to find my hostel, so that wasn’t fun… but otherwise, I enjoyed my visit there.
Frances
September 1st, 2008 at 11:37 am
How do you decide your travel itineraries. They seem all over the map to me.
Your next trip is the middle east, se asia and south america?
the wYman
September 1st, 2008 at 1:07 pm
New book “The Art of Nonconformitive Living” Fits your branding. Wyman