10 Years On The Road: How Have I Changed?

9th June 2015.

I left my home in the UK to go travelling for a few months.

10 years later I’m still travelling and have never gone back to live in the UK.

This post is part of a series recounting what’s happened, what’s changed and what’s stayed the same during those 10 years.

How have I changed?

I think it’s obvious that everyone changes somewhat in the span of 10 years. Add to that a period of someone going from their mid 20’s to their mid 30’s and those changes can be even more pronounced.

Yes a few grey hairs have started to appear. Yes most of my friends are married and are having kids. And yes, most of my friends have bought houses which means they’re very much in the settled category.

But this is a travel blog, so how have I changed when it comes to travelling?

Backpacker v digital nomad

I started off travelling as an ultra budget backpacker. I would always stay in the cheapest hostels and take incredibly long but cheap buses and trains to get to where I needed to go. I would have everything I needed in my backpack and take it with me as I moved on every 2-4 days.

Now, as a digital nomad, I like to stay in destinations a bit longer, normally for a month. This allows me to work regular hours during the week but still gives me enough time to explore on the weekends and some evenings. I do still travel with a backpack but as I know I’m living somewhere with a washing machine, kitchen and other normal amenities, I don’t need to take as much stuff.

Also read: Backpacker vs Digital Nomad: What Are The Differences?

I still enjoy travelling and I do often take short trips and mini holidays around the countries I stay in. I love the backpacking lifestyle of travelling without a plan and just a few nights in each place. But that style is now only for a week or two per year instead of full time.

I now also value convenience over cost as I know I have to work. When I started travelling, I would wait for public transport which may take an hour to get somewhere. Now, I will happily pay for a taxi to make it a 15 minute journey instead.

Which brings me onto my next point…

Budget v Bougie

As a backpacker, I was always in ultra budget mode. Everywhere I went, I looked for the cheapest option as I didn’t value comfort, only cost.

My cheapest hostel was just over £2 and the pillow felt like a sandbag. I had a private room in India for £4, took a 42 hours train for £4.20 and spent 8p (yes really £0.08!) on a beer in Vietnam.

But now I will sometimes stay in places that are a bit nicer and cost a bit more. I’d rather spend a night in a nicer hotel if it is only £5-10 more expensive than other options. I still enjoy cheaper street food but I don’t mind going to a rooftop bar afterwards.

And I’ve also been fortunate enough to fly business class on a few occasions which I would never have even dreamed of doing 10 years ago.

Adventurous travel v “safe” destinations

When I first started travelling 10 years ago, I had a Lonely Planet guide to Vietnam and thought that was a crazy adventurous country to visit! Who had been there!

I had plans for India and Thailand as I knew people that had been there, but Vietnam was this crazy place that no one went to!

Ironically, before I got to Vietnam, I visited Myanmar and China, which are arguable a lot more off the beaten path to backpackers than Vietnam is!

Since then, what I consider adventurous travel has broadened significantly.

When I was in Australia, I visited Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

When I was in New Zealand, I visited Vanuatu and Samoa amongst other Pacific Islands and also took some time to go on a tour of North Korea.

Since then I’ve visited other places that tourists don’t normally go to. Nicaragua, Mauritania and the one that shocks the most people; Iraq.

My tolerance for risk has also grown in that time, as you would expect as someone that travels to those sorts of places. There are now very few countries in the world that I wouldn’t travel to no matter how “unsafe” they may seem to other people that don’t go to those sorts of places.

Travel v Living

When I first started, I would only spend a few days in each destination and at max, a few weeks in a country.

I then ended up “living” in Australia for two years, even though I didn’t consider it living there at the time as I often moved from job to job.

It was only when I went to New Zealand and got a job for 3 years that I felt I was properly LIVING in a country. Know the traditions and the seasons when they come around, talking in their slang, treating the local currency as my own instead of converting back to pounds.

And now I travel as a digital nomad, I’m that sort of in between person.

I live in a place for a month or two. I’m not on holiday or travelling. I don’t go out every evening.

But I do go on some tours and see the local tourist sites.

Then I go home, go to my local supermarket and cook at home and enjoy a night in chilling in front of the TV.

It’s a weird existence where I don’t fit in with tourists that are only in a city for a few days, but I don’t fit in with locals that are living there long term.

Technology and travel

When I first left home in 2015, I went with two hefty books, each containing over 500 pages.

One was a Lonely Planet Guide to India and the other a Lonely Planet Guide for backpacking South East Asia.

They were to be my bibles for the next 6 months telling me where to stay, what to do and what time to get to the bus station. If the books didn’t tell me, then I had to ask a human how much a bus would cost and buy a ticket in person.

I walked into hostels and got recommendations of where to stay in the next town from other travellers. I got work through word of mouth. I had to ask a hotel reception where the doctors was.

Now, technology does all of that for me.

I travel with my phone where I can book my plane tickets, my bus tickets and I can earn affiliate income from it as well.

If I want to find out what restaurants are good close by I look on TripAdvisor and find reviews from hundreds of people.

If I don’t want to go out, food can be delivered to my door in minutes in almost any country I go to.

I plan my route with itineraries on blogs, not in books. I no longer walk into hostels asking if they have a room but I make sure to book one in advance using an app on my phone, making sure I get credit card points where I can.

I would send a text message to my parents saying I will be out of contact for a few days, maybe a week, because I’m doing a tour of the Himalayas. Now, I message friends and family on WhatsApp almost all the time with an eSIM.

Technology has made travel so much easier and it has made me miss the sense of adventure that came with figuring stuff out on your own.

I enjoy it for its convenience but that is why I like going to places like Mauritania which is more of an “old school” style of travelling.

Summing up how I’ve changed in 10 years of travelling

Everyone changes in 10 years. Even when I look at my friends that went to party islands as lads holidays 10 years ago, they are now going to family resorts with their kids now.

And I’ve changed in the way I do things and travel as well.

My budget has changed as I’ve gone from broke backpacker to working digital nomad. The world has changed and places that I could travel to, I no longer can, such as backpacking Myanmar in 2015 or visiting North Korea in 2019 and its borders have been closed since. And the opposite is also true as there is no way I could have visited Mosul and Iraq in 2017 when it was controlled by ISIS, but I went a couple of years ago.

Technology has had the biggest impact and this is where it will continue to change in the next 10 years. I’ve already spoken to one person who planned his entire two week trip using Chat GPT.

I wonder what technology will be able to do and what travel will be like in 10 years time…

You may also like:

Dan

Dan is an avid traveller from London. His first big adventure was in 2010 living in Malaysia for 3 months. He has been on the road almost constantly since 2015 travelling to destinations that aren’t on the mainstream tourist trail and working full time and travelling since 2021.