The reality of long-term travel

The journey is long but it won't necessarily make you a better person. Picture: Lonely Planet Source: Lonely Planet

IT'S the all-important question: Why do you want to travel long-term?

It's something travellers need to ask themselves or at least ponder before they pack it all in for a life on the road.

Travel is at times thought of as this almost mystical experience, like some sort of magical shortcut, a kind of spiritual "hack" that will solve all our problems. It's a bit like travellers get a Porsche 911 while the rest of humanity are stuck driving your mum's Daewoo Lanos.

When I chat to fellow travellers I hear quite similar stories about why they decided to leave their daily lives in the first place (long-term relationship just ended, hate their job, looking to "finding themselves" overseas) and while I love that fact that people are out there, seeing the world, I keep coming back to a single response.

Travel is not a magic bullet.

Leaving the normal world to travel is often seen as an answer to any number of lifestyle problems. There's this misconception that long-term travel will instantly make you a better person or leave you changed in some remarkable way in much the same manner as we imagine a near-death experience might leave us forever grateful to be alive.

But there's no such thing as a magic bullet. They don't exist. Want to lose weight? Eat less, run more, it's going to hurt and you're going to have to work at it.

If you travel the world to seek easy answers in my experience they're unlikely to come. If you travel to solve a personal problem, it'll be there when you get home. If you travel to become more spiritual it's probably not going to happen... I don't care how much vegan food you eat or how many nose piercings you have.

Sorry to throw a giant spanner in the works, but you're chasing imaginary wolves with magical bullets. 

I've found that travellers single-mindedly looking for something specific from their journeys often come home a little disappointed after not experiencing this overnight mind-altering event they were seeking.

It reminds me of something about a donkey chasing a carrot… or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Those who travel long-term may experience many cool, interesting and humbling things but it's not the blue pill Neo swallows to take him further down the rabbit hole. 

Expectations are unreliable guides to follow in almost anything, travel especially.

In my opinion:

The experience you're seeking will not be the experience you have and the experience you have, will not be the experience you expected.

- This can be a really good thing.

Travel will not fix your problems, will not fix your relationship, will not make you happy with yourself, will not change you overnight for the better or make you a wizened Dumbledore type fellow people named "Daisy" seek out for astrology advice.

The reality is more subtle and ultimately more interesting. You might answer questions you never knew you had.

You may grow but in an unexpected direction. Encountering new ideas and meeting new people may challenge your beliefs and opinions. Change is inevitable and rewarding but unpredictable.

There are no werewolves or magic bullets, just experiences (and that's a good thing). 

How to quit a career and travel the world

Reasons not to do it

Peter Shaw is a full time travel blogger, photographer and Australia's 2nd best chandelier cleaner, he's currently wandering the globe and will be posting his updates each week, you can follow him here or via the below:

Blog: nomadicalsabbatical.com/
Facebook: facebook.com/NomadicalSabbatical
Twitter: @nomadsabbatical
 

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The reality behind Australia's 'best job'

Tourism Australia is hiring again with their marketing campaign to give winning contestants the six 'Best jobs in the world'.

Tourism Australia is launching its "Six Best Jobs in the World" campaign.

• Tourism Australia new dream jobs announced
• They don't all involve relaxing on an island paradise
• Read more about the "best jobs" on offer here

IT'S one of Australia's newest dream jobs, but be warned, if you're expecting to relax on an island paradise sipping cocktails and watching dolphins glide through the water, you're in for a surprise.

Tourism Australia has just announced its newest mega-campaign, the Six Best Jobs in the World. It aims to showcase the best tourism attributes of (almost) each state and territory - minus Tasmania and the ACT, who chose not to participate.

Most of the positions on offer echo the role that started it all - the famous island caretaker "dream job" in the Whitsundays scored by Englishman Ben Southall in 2009.

There's swimming with sea lions in South Australia, sleeping under the stars in a Northern Territory bush camp or eating your way around Western Australia. Our you could patrol Queensland's stunning beaches or capture Melbourne's hip café and restaurant scene in photographs.

They're all pretty enticing job offers, right? Oh and don't forget, they all carry six-month salary packages worth $100,000.

Wait, there's also this one: "Chief Funster".

Exciting title! But what exactly does the role involve? Well, I'll tell you what it doesn't involve - relaxing on a beach.

The role is essentially a social media commentator who'll attend tourism launches, PR events and industry functions.

Yep that's right, you'll get to travel NSW and attend some of its most famous events and festivals. But then there are the meetings, the blog posts, the functions... the actual work mixed in with the fun.

There's absolutely no doubt this job is incredible, but it stood out like a sore thumb amongst the other more laid-back, outdoorsy Aussie offerings.

Here's the full job description:

NSW Job name: Chief Funster

Duties: Review festivals and events, Tweet, #tag and post your thoughts, be a Sydney VIP

Job description: If you're the life of the party, always in search of the best events and coolest festivals, then why not do it for a living? We're searching for someone to do just that, as the Chief Funster for NSW. The lucky applicant will be based in Sydney, travelling the state as the social media commentator for NSW, appearing at all the major tourism launches, PR events and industry functions. You will assist to promote events all over the state including food festivals, lifestyle, sports, cultural, entertainment and arts events. Work behind the scenes of Sydney Festival, Mardi Gras and Vivid Festival, all leading up to the spectacular New Years Eve fireworks on Sydney Harbour.

Read more about the "best jobs" on offer here

The successful applicant will be English-speaking and ideally have experience in media/communications, social media or be from an agency.

They will attend pre-events but will also get to watch the event and go behind the scenes. It's expected roughly 50 per cent of their time will be spent in Sydney and 50 per cent travelling around other areas of NSW.

Tourism Australia is launching its "Six Best Jobs in the World" campaign. How about being a park ranger in Queensland? Source: Supplied

Key events they will attend  include the Mardi Gras, open-air opera, New Year's Eve, the ARIAs and country events such as the Tamworth Country Blues Festival.

They'll need to spend some time in Sydney catching up on their blog posts and working with the digital team at Destination NSW on how best to leverage the Facebook network as well as meeting with industry stakeholders.

"They'll definitely be part of the Destination NSW team, they'll be one of us."

So there you go, don't say you weren't prepared - unlike Ben Southall who found out the island caretaker role involved a lot more work than he'd anticipated.

"It should have been called 'the busiest job in the world'," he told the BBC.

The UK'S Telegraph has already had a dig at the new dream jobs, calling the Chief Funster role "dubious" and offering up a list of other jobs they believe are better than those put forward by Tourism Australia.

They include being a pool attendant in Las Vegas, a superyacht driver, hotel reviewer and a dog surfing coach.

YOUR SAY: What would you have picked as a dream job? Are these the best jobs in the world?
 

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