Many of us dream of a round-the-world trip, but not everyone is able to turn it into reality. The well-known Ukrainian traveler, writer and blogger Orest Zub, for his 29 years, visited more than 80 countries. In his plans until the end of the year to increase this number to 100 countries, and throughout his life to visit all countries in the world.
How to it: most of his time to travel and work simultaneously Dobovo asked from Orest before his flight to the 88th country on his list.
Traveling is difficult, but it’s worth it.
How many countries are there in your list? By what principle do you choose the country for your trip?
My goal: to visit all countries of the world. For today I have already visited 87 countries. When planning a trip, I always bet on those countries where I have not yet – hence the large number of countries on my list.
How many times a year do you go abroad?
I do not even count how many trips a year I have: it can be 2-3 large trips abroad (in which I spend several months), and maybe 10 trips – but they will be more short-term.
If you summarize all of the above for my personal travel experience for the last 5 years, then I spend more than 150 days annually in Ukraine.
Is it difficult to be constantly on the road?
Of course, physically travel can be tiring. In addition, every trip has its price: both material and performance. But when going on a trip, everyone should know for themselves, which is sometimes difficult. For example, in my native Lviv, it is much easier for me to get together and work in coworking, which can not be said about trips to exotic places of our planet.
But the advantages in travel are much greater than the minuses (smiles).
Work and travel at the same time – its possible. The question only in self-organization
The most unusual country in which you were?
One of the most amazing countries I have visited is Iran. It is very underrated by modern media, so many people get the impression that terrorists run there and kidnap people. In reality, they have very developed infrastructure + people are very educated and open to communication.
Another interesting country where I visited and which is still unknown to many Ukrainians is Guinea-Bissau. There I met a guy who worked for 3 years in Dakar for a very meager salary just to buy a refrigerator for my mother. Such stories from the parallel world remind us that the circumstances in which we live can be completely different – do not forget about it.
Do you work during travel – tell me how to tune in to the working mood when you live on the coast?
It is hard to work when you travelling. In my case, time management helps me very much: in the morning, for example, I do things that are aimed at the development of my activity. And only then I do current affairs. That is, without self-organization to work and travel at the same time is almost impossible.
As for me, I once chose for myself the formula for time management and still adhere to it.
How much money is spent on 1 journey?
In many respects it depends on the journey to which you go: there are expensive, and there are cheap countries. In cheap countries it is easy to live on 1000-1500 $ a month. You can count on this amount, going to Eastern Europe, South-East Asia and most of Latin America.
To expensive countries, I can include Western Europe, the United States, Japan, Australia and, oddly enough, Africa. This is due to the fact that there (in Africa, – aut.), There is no average level of tourism. Here you can count on or on the standard of living in which the majority of the local population lives (which does not suit the tourist from Europe at all), or you will be offered a level of high service, as for a wealthy tourist. In this case, prepare for the receipt to go up.
Usually, when I travel together with my wife, we try to stick to the budget in the amount of 2000-2500 $ per month. But, of course, the situation is different.
Traveling is not fashionable. It’s necessary
Have there been any force majeure situations during your travels?
There were several such situations and it is possible to talk about them for a long time. Once I was robbed in Mexico and closed access to my bank account. Once I got sick for three weeks in Bali. Force majeure happens to everyone who travels so often and stubbornly as I do.
In your opinion, is it a tribute to fashion today?
In the 21st century, the attitude to travel among many people has changed dramatically. If earlier it was quite expensive, today almost everyone can afford to travel to another country. It’s not as fashionable as necessary. This allows you to feel part of the modern world and compare your life with that of other people. At such moments comes the notion that we live quite well.
When traveling, you stay in an apartment or rent Hostel / house / room?
The type of housing depends on the trip itself. If we move all the time, then short-term rent is a priority: hotels, guesthouses, hostels. There are travels to the countries where we live a month or more: in this case we rent either a separate room or a separate house. The main thing for us in this case is comfort, availability of a desktop and a good Internet.
What advice can you give to those who are just starting to travel?
The simplest advice is just to start. You open any site to find tickets, buy a ticket and fly out for a time to another country. Try it, feel it and definitely “sit down” on this topic. That’s exactly what happened to me.
How to combine work, travel and writing?
Start a blog or start any other form of online business. The main idea is that you broadcast valuable content through online media. It can be social networks, own resource, youtube channel, etc. Create around yourself an aura of a person who understands a particular topic. This will allow you to build a brand around you in a separate topic, which will permanently be heard.
Which country is next for the visit?
My 88th country will be Finland – there I fly out on June 1. So I plan to visit all countries of Europe by the end of 2017. And besides that, I want to close 100 countries in 2017.
And read how to travel budget in our review How to save money on travel.