Dec 30 2007
Contemplating a Potentially Costly Change of Plans
The thing I’m looking forward to most about my fast approaching trip is my almost complete lack of plans. I’ve got a one way ticket to Manila and have to be in Beijing for the Olympics but everything in between is up in the air.
One of the things I want to do for sure this time around is volunteer. This is something I’ve never really made time for during my past travels for whatever reason (ie. too much time spent at the pub) and I think if I can find the right opportunity (ie. no religious affiliations and no ‘admin’ fees) then I’ll jump at it.
Well it looks like I’ve found it in an organisation I mentioned in a previous post. Hands On Disaster Relief offer support to communities that have been affected by environmental disasters. It looks like they’ve done some great work so far working on a handful of projects and a new one is starting on January 5th in Bangladesh to help out communities ravaged by a major cyclone.
Well I want to volunteer and I want this trip to be an adventure and I really cant think of many places more adventurous than Bangladesh! So I’ve been in touch and I’m doing some research about visas and flights and if all goes to plan I’ll be rocking up in Dhaka, Bangladesh in mid February to get my hands dirty and hopefully be a helpful part of a team of interesting people.
I’m all for this and will do it for sure barring any visa problems but the problem I’m faced with is a lack of internet access for my entire time there. The village they’re in has no connection so I won’t be able to add any new content or monitor my sites in any way for six to eight weeks. Plus I’ll be working six days a week and will probably be too knackered to write content for my sites. So in web publishing terms, going to Bangladesh will be two months of career suicide!
But it will be a hell of an experience and I’m willing to abandon my sites for a couple months… how many businesses can you even think about doing that with? It might cost me but even if it does I doubt very much that I’ll regret my choice!
Happy New Year guys, here’s to an exciting 2008 for us all!
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go.
The world is always better with another helping hand…and bless your heart for making it a part of your journey. I’m sure you will come back with more wonderful stories, and undoubtedly a lot richer in many ways!
I have to agree what a great thing to do
You are carving out a path which is very close to what I want to do.
Aside all that your worried about leaving your sites for a month or two
sounds pretty normal lets think it through though
That I know of you only have one site thats needs updatin this one preview the readers & your cool to leave it alone.
Your going to a place I deem to be the capital of internet owners their has to be more Indians on DP than any other nation I’d start a thread over their reaching out to site owners local to where you are going you just might get lucky & one is not to far away from where you are going & may be able to help you.
Whats the worstcase scenario you arrive your host goes out of business
same day your sites are down for two months bad but not life threatning
also quite solvable with a little up front plannig & backup find a reliable friend give him/her your pass words & backups to your sites ask them to monitor & act if needed. More than happy to help if you want
I think you could also use a backup host I belive you could load all info to say https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ cost maybe 1-2 dollars a month unless live say 10-20 Mod your nameservers to nearlyfreespeech if the first fails thats why their is 4 lines I belive Chances of both going down Zero.
What else could happen you need to respond to emails set an auto responder sayin what your doin & when you will respond
I think if you reach out on DP you will have access to the internet at least a few times during the 2 months & if not well its a great way to test the waters and will allow you to broaden your areas of travel knowing that things will run just fine with out you, read tim ferris’s book the 4 hour work week he has proven its ok to just disapear & things work just fine.
My goal has allways been to have sites that need no attention so I can go to remote areas & truly travel Your post earlier On the advantages of traveling in very cheap areas with no modern conviniences & the ability to come back to a whole chunk of change cause your costs are negligble reinforced my resolve to be able to leave my sites alone for weeks at a time.
I think doin this so early on will alter the way you think of traveling & what can be done most nomads dont go far from the internet & by doing so limit themselves to visiting only a handfull of places you will know this to be false & reap enourmous rewards in all areas.
One thing you should know about disaster areas “we have had a few hurricanes here” Keep your laptop away from small generators never never work off power coming from a small generator it can fry your computer & probably will Small generators less than one that powers a gas station or a supermarket or a yacht emit whats called dirty electric the current fluctuates & is deathly to computers You may be able to charge your battery but that should be done only if its out the computer be very carefull.
Since none of your site except this one are sensitive to timely updates I’ll say not to worry about it. Just take lots of pens n´paper with and I’m sure you’ll come home with plenty matterial for a updates and/or for a new site or two. Taking a break from the glare of a computer monitor will do you good.
WordPress has a cool feature where you can publish posts with a future date so they appear while you are on holiday!
Awesome, I think you should definitely do this! How exciting… I’m a little jealous
Ya I’m not really worried about everything crashing and burning but it is a bit scary leaving my sites unmonitored for weeks at a time even though nothing is likely to happen.
Sites that need no attention is my goal too, Free Directory. Thanks for the tips!
I’m trying to buy a ticket to Bangladesh to seal the deal but Travelocity doesn’t want to work for me. Hope the price is the same whenever the site decides to let me buy!
…all i’ve got to say, lovely woman, is that you are lovely.
I think this is very commendable Kirsty.
I must admit that I used to think it would be impossible to leave my sites for a week let alone 2 months but I have realised that this could stop me doing shit like this.
I used to even worry if I left sites or three days!
If you think about this way of working then it kind of goes against the freedom thing if you are tied to the web.
Been thinking for a while about doing some voluntary work myself. Perhaps a few weeks away from the web would n’t do me any harm!