Long term travels involves rigorous economic self-discipline, you must learn how to manage your money. To stay around the world for long periods you must save as much as possible. A rule also applicable to everyday life: it seems obvious but the best way to continue to have money is to avoid spending as much money as possible and in particular avoiding debts. Do not be dragged by the impulse to buy useless things!
There are cheaper places than others, especially here in Asia where most of the countries of the Southeast are at a good price while moving more to the East (Taiwan, South Korea and especially Japan) prices go up, a factor tied to a cost of life. Usually backpackers traveling for months or years are more present in places like Thailand or Vietnam and are going to decrease while going towards Japan.
A first way to save money is to find cheap accommodations, such as guest houses with basic (but often beautiful) rooms or hostels where you sleep in dorms with other travelers.
Another way to save money while traveling is to avoid international or luxurious restaurants, using local cuisines that are usually good and cheap. Trying to pay attention to what you eat, it happens even in small kitchens that too much chemical crap is added.
The third factor influencing a traveler’s pockets is transports. You can usually choose between various classes of trains or buses and opt for “shared taxis” cutting the bill with other travelers. You can travel on vehicles a little slower and a bit old but the cheaper solution, aside from bicycle or go on foot, is hitchhiking. I do not consider it only a method to ask for a ride, but it is for me above all a pleasant adventure and a way to socialize with the locals by making really interesting meetings!
Traveling hitchhiking has always given me a feeling of total freedom: you do not have to follow any schedules, you do not know what time you leave or when you arrive, you do not know who will give you a ride, you do not know if the journey will be short or the distance traveled will be up to destination, you do not even know where the ride will send you! You must let go all the worries and be transported by luck to the goal.
Taiwan is one of the countries where it was simpler and more useful to use this “technique”, which unfortunately I know can not be advisable for security reasons, everyone assumes the risks of their actions!
Transportation is more expensive on the island of Taiwan than I was used to paying in the rest of Asia I had visited. So when I had to decide how to deal with transports for visit the country, I decided to follow the advice of a traveler who came to the hostel hitchhiking and told me to try to get on the road and try my luck.
In this unforgettable experience that took me all over the Taiwanese island just hitchhiking, the most difficult part was to find a cardboard and write on it (or to draw) the name of the next destination in Chinese characters, here they speak Mandarin. Just standing on the street and lifting your thumb waiting for someone to stop is not always understood as sign of request for a ride.
The Asian calligraphy requires some efforts: it is not easy to respect the proportions of the signs that build the ideograms, but the final result has usually been quite good! Above all considered the raised thumbs and the smiles of consent received from the local staff of the receptions of the various hostels that I was about to leave when requesting an opinion on the readability of the sign just finished.
Usually you do not start hitchhiking in the city, you should (almost) always take a public transport to get out of the downtown traffic and get as close as possible to the entrances of one of the freeways or motorways.
Only a couple of times I managed to stop the cars in front of the hostel where I stayed, as happened in Dulan, on the east coast of Taiwan. The village is crossed by the main road that leads from North to South. From here it was easy to find a ride to Hualien, given to me by a friendly guy who was returning home in Taipei that send me to my destination.
The most interesting thing about getting a ride by the Taiwanese is that usually those who are driving also begin to take care of those who got into the car. It is not only going from point A to point B, but often becomes a guided tour of the area crossed. It happened to me several times that I was accompanied somewhere a little out of my destination to visit some local attractions, like when a family asked me to join them for a visit to a marine museum in the area and then end the day together on a beautiful beach nearby, before being taken to my destination. Often it happened to me to stop for breakfast or lunch with the car’s occupants. We went several times in areas not usually frequented by tourists, often catching the attention of the locals.
You share hours in the same car, so if you can speak English or the local language is better, to avoid embarrassing moments of silence in which unfortunately you can not exchange a word. Probably the most exceptional experience that has happened to me was in Kaoshiung asking for a ride to Tainan: I was in the street and a car stops a dozen yards away from me, an elderly lady comes out of the car and beckons me to join her. She was probably around seventy but she had no fear of getting me on board on her vehicle, it was really incredible how she could have gave so much trust to a stranger without any problems. Unfortunately she didn’t speak a word of English and I can’t speak almost nothing of Mandarin. The only way to communicate was through phone calls that sometimes were made to the daughter who spoke a bit of English, although most of the time we did not say anything. She was a lady who had a unique charisma, she certainly had a lot of interesting stories to tell.
In some cases the total distance to the destination is not covered in one shot, but need some intermediate stops and change cars. Sometimes it can be better because you know different people and you do not run the risk of ending up the conversation topics. Interesting feature of who gave me the various rides was the kindness and willingness to go the extra road only to send me in front of the place to reach. Usually I always ask for a lift to the nearest train or bus station, to the city center or wherever the driver is comfortable based on his route. A public transport usually cover the rest of the distance that separates me from the arrival. But I often found in Taiwan admirable and friendly people who did not want to drop me off in the middle of an unknown road and therefore almost always accompanied me to my destination … they were probably afraid that I would’ve been lost.
Important when you are in the street and get up the sign to start stopping cars is the visual contact with who is driving. You must try to stare in the driver’s eyes and show off the most friendly and genuine smile to encourage him (or her) to stop. In Taiwan I have never had long waits: the longest stay in the street I had was at Kenting, where I think I waited no more than 15 minutes. The average was around 5-10 minutes before someone stopped and invited me to get on board. This made me think a lot about how welcoming and friendly the Taiwanese are to tourists.
The last trip was to Taipei, a nice family consisting of a father and his two daughters gave me a ride ending up in a great restaurant on the coast to share the lunch with delicious sashimi and fish soup. A truly unforgettable people and experience.
Upon arrival at the train station of the Taiwanese capital, before saying goodbye, they told me to wait. One of the daughters opened the trunk and took out a box, inside was a traditional cake from their hometown, the last moving gift of this fantastic hitchhiking adventure around the island of Taiwan.
