As requested: IAmA boy who traveled with a broke single mother to 28 countries before i turned 16.

I wanna go see this movie.

made my night.

You seem like you have a good head start on becoming the most interesting man in the world. Don't let us down.

Edit: I went ahead and did it. Here.

I'm in a MEME!!!! Scratch all this other shit, this is the highlight of my life.

I don't have a question and I rarely do when I read AMA's. Somehow in a stupor I found myself reading your story. To be honest, it cheered me up and warmed my heart. It is amazing what your mom did for you. Your experiences are equally amazing. Your answers and stories are awesome, and do me one favor, when you see your mom, just give her a big ole hug. She sounds like the best mom ever.

i never really realized that it was such a strange and amazing experience until this AMA i guess. it was just something i did...

dont know if that makes sense...

Do you wish you had experienced a normal childhood?

i loved traveling i learned so much, i didn't go to school until 7th grade, but when i did i tested into advanced math, and held my own in my other classes (except for science, but as soon as i got a laptop and discovered bill nye and carl sagan that was remedied).

I feel like grade school is more for learning social skills than academic ones, and that i did have a problem with when i returned to a typical american school. I had grown accustomed to only talking to backpackers around 18-28 and local kids, so it was hard for me to get used to american kids my age. While traveling i met refugee kids, street kids from every country, one 9 year old Tibetan kid who's mom died giving birth to his little brother while they escaped China and was fucking raising his brother with the help of his older brother. And yet, i never met any kids as unhappy, insecure, and straight mean as American public school kids. It was hard getting used to them. But by the time highschool came along i had found my stride and have had a pretty successful time of it. Just got into my top two college choices with nice fat merit scholarships (a lot of which is due to the fact i traveled so much).

So do i wish i had experienced a more typical american childhood? Noooooope :)

edit: added some juice

Your reflections of your experience returning back to American schools is so telling of our educational system and societal values, I believe. I think you are SUPER blessed to have the childhood experiences that you had. If I were ever to have children, I would love to give them that.

i count myself pretty lucky, thanks for stickin around and checkin out this AMA :) i think you've been here since the beginning yeah?

Yeah, I caught your original story in the other thread.:)

a true OG

This guy is going to get laid so damn much in college.

who say's he doesn't already?

Just poking a bit of fun, but the part about you coming back to public school in America could be the plot from Mean Girls with less boobs.

less boobs? :(

amazing story!

1- were you ashamed to ask the tourist family to let you eat the leftovers?

2- did living in poor conditions effected your self esteem?

3- and since your mom made you do it - did you feel disappointed or less-proud of her since she couldn't provide you with better conditions?

i ask only because i've been wondering about such questions for a long time! so thanks for answering. much respect!

i never went without a meal, i always had a mattress to sleep on, i got to experience the world, those are pretty good living conditions for most of the world.

As a clarifier for that story, it was a very fancy restaurant. My mom and I were both really excited about the idea of eating fancy western food again, i mean the food in asia was amazing, we had the money to go buy a brautwurst on the corner but we had a terrible craving for fancy food, so we figured: why not give it a shot?

and the only time i had self esteem issues was dealing with public school kids in America. I met refugee kids, street kids from every country, one 9 year old Tibetan kid who's mom died giving birth to his little brother while they escaped China and was fucking raising his brother with the help of his older brother. And i never met any kids as unhappy and straight mean as American public school kids.

that's awesome man!

kudos to your mom. she looks like a lovely and lively woman. props to her for having the courage to do what she did. a rare gem indeed

i read her what you said, she said: "they're right!"

First of all, it's so cool that your mom was able to turn an undesirable situation into a memorable time in your life, if nothing else.

What valuable lessons did you learn from living abroad?

i am an incredibly fortunate person.

the chinese government's policies concerning Tibet do not agree with me. (only intended towards the government concerning the Tibet controversy, not meant as an inflammatory statement.)

people who dont have money are just as happy if not happier than those who do.

everyone has a story.

young israeli backpackers fresh out of the army can fuck shit up. they can also be the most interesting and enjoyable travel companions.

if your visa expires and you can't afford to get out of the country/renew it, you might end up stuck there for a loooong time. (didnt learn that personally, just from talking to people it happened to)

i also learned how to sleep ANYWHERE.

edit: took out "fuck china"

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i think i saw more Israeli backpackers than any other nationality. forgive me if i'm getting the facts wrong, but i'm pretty sure men and women are required to join the army for a few years once they graduate high school. many of them are eager to see the world after completing their service, and since they are freshly out of active duty they can be... tense, or disagreeable sometimes. Same thing that happens to any soldier after active duty. I also became friends with one or two such folks though, and they had some reallly interesting things to say about the conflict. (not about to go into that)

Can you elaborate on the "FUCK CHINA" bit? I'm interested.

i spent a lot of time with Tibetan refugees, became best friends with this boy who had escaped China over the himalayas and got very invested in the whole Tibet China conflict.

This is the first AMA I have ever read in its entirety. Ever. First of all, very cool of you to reply to e v e r y c o m m e n t. Secondly, your Mom's a badass, and she raised a badass.
bravo-- keep sharing your experience with whomever will listen. Maybe it will make others thirsty for travel. Does a person good.

well i didnt have any homework tonight, and i'm having a blast talking about all this stuff.

and thanks for reading, i'm really glad people are enjoying this.

may I ask how old you are now? how long you've been back in the states? If you have kids (if you don't already), how would you choose to school them?

i'm 18 :)

Favorite country? Country with the best food? The hottest women?

Which country would you like to settle down in?

Hottest women: czech republic (Prague has the hottest women in the world.)

Food: Well the best meal i ever had was spaghetti carbonera, but it was made by street kids in Cambodia. So do with that what you will.

no favorite country, but i have a favorite town...

And what is that town?

oooh boy!

it was a magical place:

We were in Laos, taking a busses from town to town, when late at night we arrived at this town that kind of looked like it would fit in in an old western movie. I was exhausted so i fell asleep the second we got into our hotel. When i woke up i walked downstairs and the first thing i saw was this: everyone was eating pizza, the television was playing "friends". It turned out that there were ten "pizza cafe's" all playing different seasons of friends 24/7 and serving exclusively pizza!

To top it off there was a body of water that sort of circled the town, so you could get in a tube and float around, take a nap, whatever and not worry about getting lost. On the shore there were all these contraptions for jumping, and swinging, and zip-lining into the water, and there was always a party going on full of awesome people i could just get out of the water and talk to, they taught me how to hacky sack, play volley ball, ping pong, and the words to a lot of snoop dog songs.

We were only supposed to stay there for a night, but we ended up staying for a week. Holy fuck i watched so much Friends.

Vang Vieng, very cool place. How was the happy menu?

I'M SOO HAPPY YOU KNOW THIS TOWN! i forgot the name and have been trying to remember it for the longest time. Do you know if it is still the same?

I was there about 4 years ago and it was just like that. And I am pretty sure it still is. Lots and lots of young tourist go there, it's famous for the tubing and the drugs you can buy in all those pizza places.

i was there seven years ago, i was too young for any drugs though. however i very much want to go back!

Yep Laos is a magical country. Well worth travelling to. Unbelievably poor, but beautiful friendly people. Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang were my two favourite places there.

i spent some time in Luang Prabang, first time i ate blood jello. yicky.

I live in Thailand, right now. Have visited Laos and Cambodia. I really love the people and culture in Laos, they have so little, but are so welcoming, and generous. It's also a beautiful country, and it helps that it's a bit cooler than Thailand.

Sometimes I think about living there longterm, but I think I'd miss the constant distractions and Blade Runner-esque qualities of Bangkok.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this, maybe it's because of the shared experience. I'm not surprised that Laos made it onto your favorites list. There's definitely something amazing about it (for me it's drinking a dark Beer Lao, and watching the sun set over the Mekong).

too many active landmines are still in laos for it to be a place to settle.

how is it living in bangkok? i was only there for a few days.

Are you serious? I'm not talking about settling out in the jungle, I'm talking about living there long term in one of the larger cities like Vientiane or Luang Prabang.

Living in Bangkok is awesome. Lots of people love it at first, hate it at first, or love it, then come to hate it. The most frequent complaint is that it's a "concrete jungle", but I've been through all three stages, and am now certain that I love it.

It's got the perfect mixture of massive world city, but also with many small peaceful neighborhoods. You can easily go out and party all night (I've literally stayed out drinking at street bars until 8am)...or 24/7. If you're smart you can find a nice quiet area to live, that is still near the MRT or BTS (subway or Skytrain), so when you don't feel like going out you can relax at home.

Delicious food is everywhere, I haven't cooked once since moving here. I can go see new movies in incredibly fancy theaters, go to technology malls (I'll admit tech stuff is overpriced here...but repairs are cheap), join a rugby club, lacrosse club, softball club, whatever. Pretty much anything you want to do you can find here. But the best part is, on top of all this "western" stuff (minus the food), the entire city is full of Thai culture. You see monks in the morning going out to get food from people, smell incense burning at the little spirit houses, see street vendors selling all kinds of foods, and you'll always see banners or decorations of some sort on buildings and temples for a holiday, or some important event (there's always something to celebrate here).

Finally, if you get tired of the city, you can easily make a 2 hour drive to a near by beach, and just relax near the ocean.

Sorry, that this is a bit rambly, I find it hard to describe my feelings about Bangkok. I guess the simplest way to put is, everyday I'm here, I feel happy that I'm here.

yah i was mostly jokin about the landmines, although i personally like to go on long walks in the woods and such, so that could be a problem for me.

i wish i spent a little more time in bangkok, but it sounds like a place you have to live in to appreciate.

OMG that place sounds awesome.

Awseome AMA. I love hearing about other countries. Thanks!

/will jump from a height into water until deliriously exhausted

you'll like it here: http://www.reddit.com/r/AdrenalinePorn

What did they look like?

soo beautiful. i'm convinced europe shipped off all the fat ugly folk here because when i went there everyone looked like they could be in a movie.

i do have one good hot girls in prague story (this was when i was 15, traveling with my friend, not the year long trip.):

we were walking through a park in prague when we came to a clearing, in the center of that clearing was a water fountain. in that water fountain, were 15 oh so sexy ladies. "we have found the lesbian fountain." my friend said to me, and we sat there and watched the sexy, wet, tank top clad girls play in the fountain for the rest of the day. the next day we tried to find the same place, yet just as mysteriously as the lesbian fountain appeared, it disappeared. perhaps to go enrich the day of some other young boys.

Dammmmmmmnnnnnnnnn

sometimes when i'm sad, i remember that day... and it warms my heart.

Spaghetti carbonara, Dee-Stefano's Restaurant, Indiantown Florida. My favorite meal, greatly missed.

bacon :)

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It was my first week in India. My mom wanted to go to a teaching the Dalai Lama was having. We were in a tent village with 100,000 monks and 20 white folks, in a 1000 person town in Andhra Pradesh, which is one of the most impoverished states in india. Not only that, but since there was such a huge turnout for the Lama they bussed in hundreds of beggars, lepers, cripples, kids who had been purposefully deformed at birth to make more money, pregnant women, some serious old testament shit.

Anywho, one night we woke up in our tent and the floor was wet, we hurried to get our bags off the floor and noticed a nasty stench. Turns out all the sewage from the out houses had flooded. In a straight line. Effecting only a hundred or so out of the thousands of tents in the camp. Pretty shitty day.

edit: I'm going to go and try to find the picture.

edit 2: couldn't find it but i found this which is the tent the day before the shit storm.

Did/do you know your old man? What's the hairiest/most dangerous thing you experienced abroad?

never met him, skipped town when i was born. but he started sending small checks when i was around 8. so that's nice of him.

most dangerous thing i experienced... we didnt have many dangerous encounters, or my mom hid them from me very well... there was one time when a train station in Varanasi got bombed ten or fifteen minutes after we left it.

i just talked to my mom and she said that she always felt pretty safe, she says it has a lot to do with the fact she had a kid with her. nobody wants to hurt a mom and a little kid. although whenever we went to smaller towns large groups of men would follow us around, but that was more of a cultural curiosity thing i think. or just plain boredom.

made for some funny pictures though

How much "stuff" did you have as you travelled? Did you have any special things you always kept, or did you not think things were that important if you were always shifting around?

Also... why were you travelling around so much?

oh right, "stuff"

my mom had me carry everything that i needed for me, so i had a backpack about as big as i was (an 11 year old boy). it was mostly just clothes, a blanket, toiletries, a 5 pound first generation ipod that got stolen in serbia :( and around 4-5 books at a time, i was a total bookworm.

my mom had another backpack, about twice as big as mine, i guess i never really payed attention to what was in there, just mom stuff.

How much do you wish you had a kindle back then with a few 100 books? :D

i kind of liked finding new bookstores, talking to the owners and trading my old books for new ones. my favorite book while we were traveling was The Stand by Stephen King.

well when i was really little my mom took me on small (month or less long) trips a lot, for a bunch of random reasons. we were invited to a wedding or something in peru when i was 6... we won an all expenses paid trip to europe, it was only for a week though... So my mom, being the clever devil she is, got them to extend the return flight an extra 3 weeks so we could go off on our own after the tour and see europe the right way. then we went on the big year-long trip which i explain above.

Any advice for a would-be backpacker?

sticking to the plan is overrated.

you can get the cheapest tickets in the world if you go to bangkok first.

people in asia know more english and are generally more helpful than those in europe.

this. absolutely this.

best trips ever taken are the ones where you know nothing more than where you're landing, and where you're flying out of.

amen

Dude, that is an amazing story with memories that will last forever. I thought I gained an incredible worldview by going to Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq...but you my friend, must have such a great outlook on different cultures.

Never lose the drive to continue exploring.

thanks man! i would have loved to go through the middle east, but alas never made it.

It wasn't really a vacation type trip or anything, it was a military deployment. But I will say this, I loved the Iraqi people, and the hospitality of most villages we interacted with. Iraqi people are some of the most generous, caring people I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with for the most part...unfortunately bad apples exist in any culture. Kuwait wasn't my favorite place, didn't have a great amount of interaction with the people, it was way too hot for my tastes and we were in a fairly remote area, so about all I got to see were lots and lots of camels.

camels are assholes.

I'm assuming that you weren't accompanied by a translator how did you cope with the language barrier? Also how long did you stay in each place?

about a month in each country, then 6 or 7 months in india. In asia everyone speaks english, europe was a bitch harder to do things, but since it was so similar to home we didnt have much trouble.

If you were broke how did you travel so much

my mom owned our house, she rented it out for profit and we mostly lived off that. we traveled to asia partly because she couldn't afford her mortgage and the cost of living in asia is ridiculously low. i got to get out of school for a year and see the world, my mom got to live out her lifelong dream and save up money to regroup when we returned home.

Is your mom in the CIA?

she's too flakey for that.

Sweet, 184 comments. Maybe you'll see mine! I HAVE A CHANCE!

Okay, I did a quick CTRL+F, didn't find anything..

1. How has all of this shaped your outlook? Are you an optimist? How do you see the average human (intrinsically good, selfish, greedy, etc)?

2. Where do you live now? If you're NOT still moving around, does it feel weird to stay in one place?

3. As someone who has traveled in the western hemisphere (north and south) but not at all in the east, do you think it's essential? Seems like you've visited all four quadrants.

Rock on man, this is amazing.

you can be the last one i answer tonight, gotta get some sleep :)

1. I definitely see myself as an optimist. Traveling helped me get through high school without ever taking it too seriously, because i know there is so much more out there. I think the average human is uncertain... other than that there is too much diversity.

2. New England! yeah its hard to stay in one place (talked about this elsewhere)

3. Eurasia is a must. The culture there is so old and so rich and so untainted.

i might have energy for a few more before passing out...

I'd like to get your opinion about long term travel w/ kids internationally. You went when you were 11/12. It seems to me that the middle school years 11 to 13 would be a pretty good time for such a trip w/ family. Much older than that and your cutting into the high school years that are so important for developing identity, building peer relationships, etc. and by 14 or so kids start wanting to be with friends instead of parents.

Of course being an older teen and going with friends would be cool too, but for a family trip it seems those middle school years would be best.

What do you think are the best ages for such a trip?

i know i was primed for it at that age. i had traveled a little bit so it wasn't completely new to me. I was young enough that i was still very adaptable and old enough that i could carry my weight and know how to take care of myself to a certain extent. I definitely think it is good to go before you get into highschool, for the exact reason you said, high schoolers hate their parents :P

we ended up traveling with a large family from texas for a while, who was doing the same kind of thing we were. Their kids were more highschool age but they had siblings so it wasn't as bad.

did your mother travel a lot prior to having you? what are your grandparents like, did you know them? were they also travelers? and where in the US are you originally from?

i look forward to your presidential campaign.

my mom traveled a bit yes, my grandfather was a second gen italian immigrant living in NYC, he only traveled during the war. and once before he died when my mom found his long lost family in italy. we brought him out to see them, it was beautiful.

What was the weirdest/most different food or foods you tried when travelling?

i ate guinea pig in peru.

i ate alligator, cat, and dog in cambodia.

When i visited some long lost relatives in italy they made us "American Pizza" which was pizza with hot dogs (in the bun) and french fries on top.

Did you have any reservations about eating animals that are widely regarded as pets in the west?

yes, until i tasted them :P

What are those animals in the net?

live rats.

Unrelated (sort of) College Choices now? and Do you have a hard time finding things exciting or new now?

i'm planning on going to Bard.

I am still pretty easily excited, i recently fell in love, which is exciting. i've learned a few instruments, become a paid artist. there is always more to do. i just don't see how life can get boring.

What do you want to study?

i'm somewhat of an artist so i'm thinking of going more into that, but i'm not quite sure yet, i'm going to take whatever classes interest me and decide from there.

Beautiful! Do you find yourself inspired by your travels?

certainly, a lot of the sights i've seen such as himalayas, never-ending deserts, jungle, rain forests, ancient ruins, huge crazy modern buildings, mother fucking taj mahal, all continue to inspire me on some level. although i am more inspired by things that are more current in my life, i don't spend a great deal of time thinking about the past. i'm too young for all that nonsense :P

Amazing story and life experiences. I'd love to see some more of your pictures and read more of your story if you've posted it somewhere please link.

Can't think of a question that hasn't already been asked, but good luck at college.

uploading some as we speak, you think its ok to have my face in em?

you think its ok to have my face in em?

That's your call. Personally I think the face is okay, but wouldn't want to put my real name online.

Actually, I think you should write a book. I'd certainly buy it.

http://imgur.com/Y98Ma,7jWtp,W6fnJ,oGD6o,fgldI,bv15J,LAzJ5

my life hasnt been exciting enough to make a book, barely exciting enough to make an AMA

Cool pictures. Thanks.

found some more decent ones!

http://imgur.com/MMzLt

http://imgur.com/7ulSB,iK2Sp,QrlQX,MKLaf,9cTxH,F9OWE,IcjYt,L9TTZ,lchI3,hPGQ5,e7bE5,jWgsV,7MjBT,cR2MX,f6hgk

Thanks, nice pics.

Ah...what exactly were those kids doing squatting on the road? Relieving themselves? Where was that?

poopin.

what is picture 15? something furry trapped

live rats.

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all over the place, highlights were: Stayed at an ashram in Tiruvannamalai for a week, i had an awesome time on a train for 2 days straight (not really a "place" but it felt like its own place since i would see the same people every day and explored a lot), Dharamsala (where Tibetans set up camp after fleeing China) for a few weeks where i was lucky enough to trek a bit in the Himilayas, Varanasi for a bit (but then there was a bomb and we had to leave), and when we got to Rishikesh we got sick of traveling and stayed there for a month and a half until it was time to leave.

This was a brilliant idea on your mom's part! I think a lot of people, myself included, think that getting to travel and being on a low budget are mutually exclusive, but as you guys proved, it could actually be financially smart AND you get to see the world.

I was wondering if you could talk more about your social life while traveling, especially with your mom. Did you/do you get along well all of the time? Did your relationship strengthen or get challenged during your year of backpacking?

we were pretty tight, just because we had to be. But she also was good about letting me do my own thing, i read A LOT, and made friends quite easily with local kids and backpackers. Backpackers are kind of a community, i would meet some people, leave the country and find them again in a new country months later, really interesting group of people.

Do you still have the travel bug? Has your upbringing killed it or inspired you to do more?

i definitely intend to travel more, perhaps take a year off after my freshman year of college and see where the road takes me. i have an amazing girlfriend who has expressed interest in such a thing, i really hope it happens.

and i do get restless if i am in the same place for over a year, that has only happened a few times in my life, but i dont like it! stagnancy is not for me.

Since you travelled alot, did you pick up any other languages, as in can you now speak more than 1 language fluently?

Also, where are you now, i mean like are you currently still travelling or do you and your mom have a settled place now ?

now i cant, then i could. i picked up around 15 words in ever country i was in for over a month. in india i began speaking the language somewhat by the end of the 6 months. i also adopted the "indian head wiggle" something i still do to this day. it is infuriating.

What's that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eJ0SuD_ulVk#t=25s

WhEre snouts in Thailand did you travel? What did you think of Thailand?

spent about a month living in Chiang Mai, the food was so incredible, Kow Soy is something you can only really find in that part of Thailand and it is in the top 10 things i have tasted. I also got some dental work done for dirt cheap. The most memorable thing for me about Thailand though was this one bar i used to go to a lot, i would order a smoothie and play pool with some local guys. I got very good. I ended up learning more about Thai culture from my friendships with those drunken bastards than i did about most of the other countries i went to.

edit: i realize some of my answers might seem unrealistic, i didn't just stumble into some bar, my mom brought me there and checked it out before she let me go there alone in the afternoons. I'm just slipping a little back into the mindset i had back then in order to remember all these stories.

Travel is probably the most important thing one can do in order to gain a broad perspective of the human experience.

Where do you feel you still must visit?

AFRICA. and new zealand just because i love LOTR. and if i ever get the chance to hop on a space shuttle to anywhere, i will be a happy man.

Awesome story! What made your mom want to stop travelling and move back to the US? How many years were you away travelling in total?

total i probably spent 2 years of my life on the road, one of those years was in one chunk, the other was split up into 4 or 5 separate trips.

A lot of your photographs are pretty spectacular. Who shot most of them? You, your mother or maybe a few friends?

The shot of you and another boy at a fair is absolutely phenomenal.

e: Great story as well. Thank you for sharing it!

yah my mom took most of them, we also traveled with a professional photographer for a short time, and then met up with him again 4 months later, he might have taken one or two of the pictures in there.

Interesting. The world is such a large place, but you still manage to run into the same people from time to time.

This is the best AMA I've ever read by the way. Completely solidified my need to travel.

do it.

What was the most useful item you carried with you on your travels?

Did you have a towel?

Would you list what you carried; how many changes of clothes, shoes, water bottle, etc?

probably my ipod, i got a little bit of music from every place i went, and got very good at the brick breaker game. If i didn't have that ipod i dont know how i would have survived all the long train plane and automobile rides.

How old are you now?

18

What were the biggest problems your family encountered while traveling? Any low-cost traveling tips? Did you need special documentation for not being an adult?

http://www.couchsurfing.org/ THIS!

not only does it eliminate housing costs, but you really get a sense of the culture since you are living with a local. i couchsurfed with everyone from a rich fellow who owned a villa, to a young couple in the midst of the anarchist movement in greece.

OMG INDONESIA! TELL ME ABOUT INDONESIA! (im american indonesian)

lots of monkeys, i met hugo weaving there. really beautiful place. i'm sorry i'm half asleep right now.

Considering all the places you've been, did you or your mom ever get really sick or come down with any diseases?

What's the most frightening/scary/anxious experience you had?

we didnt, which was surprising since we didnt get any shots before hand and we were in the midsts of a malaria outbreak twice.