[Fractal]

Hola RVF,
this is my first real post but I have followed RVF quite a bit.
This summer I am planning to travel for 3-6 month, maybe longer.
Thus it will be awesome to hear your opinion and perhaps help me with making decision where to travel. My goal is to boost my personal development, broaden horizons, have great time and of course to get some notches. I like good nightlife but will not go party every night.
Just some background: I am 5 '11 tall, dark hair, blue eyes, athletic build. I traveled in Thailand and Indonesia for 2 month before and even though I was not into Game and done only touristy stuff, I managed to score with local chicks quite a bit. I also traveled Europe and eastern Europe quite a bit but never for longer than a week.
I am considering to travel either do South America or South East Asia. At the moment I am studying Spanish. Because it is great for personal development to learn a new language I consider is as a plus to be forced to speak Spanish in SA.
In SA I am considering Colombia and maybe Brazil. In SEA I am very curious about Vietnam, Philippines and maybe China. I am not sure yet which cities to pick.
The arguments in favor of SA are: learning Spanish and new experience. Following arguments are not in favor: relatively expensive and dangerous, Spanish could be a hurdle with local chicas in the beginning. On other hand SEA is relatively cheap and safe but I have already been there and it is hot and rainy season.
It would be awesome to see some opinions about places and cities and maybe your personal experiences how traveling contributed to your personal development. What do you do while traveling for personal development? Learning Languages, Freelancing, Volunteering?
Cheers
Fractal

[Ambact]

(05-08-2015 11:05 AM)Fractal Wrote:  

Hola RVF,

It would be awesome to see some opinions about places and cities and maybe your personal experiences how traveling contributed to your personal development.
Cheers
Fractal

how traveling contributed to your personal development.

For starter, traveling contributes to: banging lots of feminine, thin women - which in turns contributes to your personal development (by making you more confident, go-getter and alpha).

By the way could you tell us more about your traveling "in Thailand and Indonesia for 2 months before and even though I was not into Game and done only touristy stuff, I managed to score with local chicks quite a bit". Can you compare Thailand and Indonesia as far as women, quality of life, costs...

[Agreddor]

When you travel by yourself you learn how to do things on your own. The precarious situations you might find yourself in will inadvertently teach you how to be street smart, something no book can teach you. As cliche as this sounds, experience is the best teacher.

[mau man]

I think that traveling in itself is personal development. In fact, I think that traveling (OFF THE TOURIST TRAIL) is the fastest way to becoming more intelligent. You will have to navigate unfamiliar situations and push yourself past your comfort zone.

[Fractal]

(05-08-2015 11:05 AM)Fractal Wrote:  

Can you compare Thailand and Indonesia as far as women, quality of life, costs...

Its a bit off topic but I will elaborate on it short. Woman are nicer in Indonesia imho. Its a mix of Indian, Asian and Arabian beauty. I really liked those cheeky Java girls. Balinese women can be cutest things you ever experienced. They are a bit drama queens, hyper sensitive and very beautiful. However depends on the place you go, Thailand can be cheaper than Indonesia and have nicer places to live. So for me it is a trade off.

For the personal development part. I my opinion it is important not to fall in "get wasted every night routine" I just simply will try to learn new things like surfing, diving, dancing lesson, language etc.

[RagnarLothbrok]

First of all you should decide how long you want to travel to be able to plan your budget. You might also consider to stay in one city for a longer time (minimum a month) and rent an apartment there.

Philippines are great for surfing, diving and girls. Plus, I had the impression that other travelers (especially backpackers) are much cooler than in Thailand or Vietnam. I made more interesting friends in the Philippines than in any other country I have been to.

[Fractal]

(05-09-2015 03:17 AM)Dipar Wrote:  

Philippines are great for surfing, diving and girls. Plus, I had the impression that other travelers (especially backpackers) are much cooler than in Thailand or Vietnam. I made more interesting friends in the Philippines than in any other country I have been to.

its rainy season in Philippines with pacific typhoon risk between Mai and October. Does not sounds like fun.

[Jetlagged]

Is it really may through October? That sure is a long fuckin time. Planning to go in July.

It seems like you're pretty well travelled so I guess you already know what I does. Learn about other cultures, meet girls and have them take you to cultural shit. Talk to whoever you can. I bought a bottle of red wine from a store in china on Friday and ended up bullshitting with store owners through a translator and drinking a gallon of high quality Chinese tea and some banging ass fruit. Random memories of people and culture like this are what make travelling for me.

Just throw some bangs in there too.

Personally I'm going to Philippines after this trip to develop my approach and pick up skills. I have a thing for pinas and they seem to have a thing for me so it's all good. It's a mix of my two favorite races Spanish and Asian.

Careful with the ladyboys though I already checked one out on FC and was fooled on first sight.

It also provides sweet ass bait and stories for back home, especially if you travel for work.

[RagnarLothbrok]

(05-09-2015 07:46 AM)Fractal Wrote:  

(05-09-2015 03:17 AM)Dipar Wrote:  

Philippines are great for surfing, diving and girls. Plus, I had the impression that other travelers (especially backpackers) are much cooler than in Thailand or Vietnam. I made more interesting friends in the Philippines than in any other country I have been to.

its rainy season in Philippines with pacific typhoon risk between Mai and October. Does not sounds like fun.

It is a big country. Are you sure that there aren't any places to surf/dive that are good at that time of the year? Places for surfing are Siargao, Baler, San Fernando. Diving can be done almost everywhere.

[Orson]

(05-09-2015 02:37 AM)Fractal Wrote:  

(05-08-2015 11:05 AM)Fractal Wrote:  

Can you compare Thailand and Indonesia as far as women, quality of life, costs...

Its a bit off topic but I will elaborate on it short. Woman are nicer in Indonesia imho. Its a mix of Indian, Asian and Arabian beauty. I really liked those cheeky Java girls. Balinese women can be cutest things you ever experienced. They are a bit drama queens, hyper sensitive and very beautiful. However depends on the place you go, Thailand can be cheaper than Indonesia and have nicer places to live. So for me it is a trade off.

For the personal development part. I my opinion it is important not to fall in "get wasted every night routine" I just simply will try to learn new things like surfing, diving, dancing lesson, language etc.

It sounds like you don't even need contrary input. Yoiu've already decided that SE Asia is cheapest and lovelist.

My only "butt-in" consideration is that Spanish is more likely to help you make money.
That said, and considering long-term career development, why not suck up the somewhat higher (but still cheaper) costs of Columbia, etc? Go find the beauty there for a while?

SE Asia is vast. It will wait a while for you. But S. America is closer to your roots and culture. Drink deep there first, before you move on in the Wanderlust of life!

[speakeasy]

(05-08-2015 11:05 AM)Fractal Wrote:  

It would be awesome to see some opinions about places and cities and maybe your personal experiences how traveling contributed to your personal development.

For me, it pushed me outside of my comfort zone in every way. I had to get over fears of being robbed in 3rd countries, fears of eating foods that looked funny, fears of getting lost and not being able to speak the local language to find my bearings, fear of getting deathly ill somewhere with no one to look after me. Fear of sleeping in a room full of strangers that might run off with my shit while I'm asleep. Having to get used to places where comfort is a luxury, not a necessity(like in America). For example the most uncomfortable I'd probably been in my life was a 24 hour bus ride on a dirty, freezing cold bus traveling across Brazil. I was miserable, but now I look back at it with nostalgia. Those kind of things help you grow and you learn to complain less about trivial shit later on. You stop taking things for granted. The glory of travel is that it makes every thing you do a novel experience. Just walking to the grocery store in a new foreign country can feel like an adventure in a way that it can never be back in your hometown. I totally get why people become addicted to travel. It's that ability to see the mundane with fresh eyes and novelty. During that time, the world seems like it's in full vivid color, not black and white as it can be at home.

But the good thing is you bring some of that mentality back home with you. Then you start looking around your home city in a new way, imagining how a foreigner might view the things you take for granted at home. How they may find the same excitement in the home town you are sick of. So even taking a but trip across the Midwest as I did a year ago to Chicago made me think about bus trips I'd taken across Latin America and enjoying the experience through the eyes of an adventurer, even while at home.

So I'd say what it did for my personal development is make me more at ease and less fearful in uncomfortable and unfamiliar environments. It made me more street smart. It made me not take small things for granted, thus I'm very unlikely to ever be truly bored. It expanded my mind to give me a greater perspective. And another thing I almost forgot that's important. Places you have visited become real to you. I feel a bit guilty saying I've paid almost no attention to the Nepalese earthquake. It's sad, but I've never been there, I don't know anyone from there and I have no connections there. I don't want to say I don't care what happened, but I certainly didn't lose any sleep over it. But when it comes to a country I've visited and have friends in, such as Chile, when the earthquake happened there, I was gripped by it. Wondering if my friends were alright, how much of the infrastructure was destroyed. Since I'd been there I now had a personal history with the place and it made it seem more real to me. Visiting more countries definitely tunes you into what is going on around the world even long after you get back home. Now you actually care about those places and the people that live there in a way you might never had before.

[Chaos]

The best thing for personal development?

Well, then you should step out of your comfort zone. And I mean really stepping out.

Aim for this.
You know you are in the right place when it feels like you could be in trouble 90% of the time.
You should stay excited through out the day and have no idea about what's going to happen in 5min.

This is where development truly happens.
If you feel comfortable in your enviroment you know you are in the wrong place and you are only fooling yourself.

[Fractal]

Thanks for this great input. At the moment I am leaning towards SA/Colombia and maybe a little Brazil. Learning a new language, dancing salsa, improve the game and see the other continent is just too compelling. How do you achieve better results? Backpacking, moving around, sleeping in hostels or staying at one place for longer, rent an apartment?