Oct 30 2009
I Could Be Going Offline For Awhile
It’s that time again! I’m off for another open-ended travel stint with only two things on the schedule: volunteering in Indonesia straight off the bat and running amok at the World Cup in South Africa in June, 2010. Other than that, plans are very loose. I have no must-sees, no onward plane tickets, no accommodation booked and no plans to make plans.
I’m not sure what the internet situation is in the village I’m heading to in Indonesia but early reports point to bad. That means I could be taking a break from the internet for awhile. In my volunteering experiences i Bangladesh and Haiti I realised that, even though I had decent net connections, being exhausted after each day meant that I didn’t spend much time working. Plus there are always lots of interesting people around and the last thing I will want to do is spend my time staring at my computer.
I’m really happy with the amount of work I’ve put in over the past 10 weeks I’ve been home. I think I’ve done more work in this two and a half months than I have in the past two years! No kidding. I know that things don’t fall apart when I’m away from the internet for a couple of weeks at a time… now it’s time to see what happens when I’m away for a month. I have neglected my sites before without disastrous results so I’m hoping this time around things are no different.
Indonesian visas are good for 30 days and then I need to leave and return to get another one. The idea is to leave the country and spend this time somewhere nice in Malaysia glued to my computer to catch up on things. Sort of a 30 days off, 5 days on kind of arrangement. I really like short, focused work stints and I think this could work well for me. I won’t be spending much money in Indonesia so that takes a bit of the pressure off as well.
I can’t wait to get to Indo. This is the type of travelling that really gets me excited and I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and getting my hands dirty again. I’m not so looking forward to bucket showers, squat toilets, mysterious food and a lack of ice cream but the good by far outweighs the bad. Replies to emails will be a bit slow and posts on this blog might be few and far between because, for the next 30 days, I’m on vacation!
Have any of you ever spent long stints away from the internet? Has it effected your earnings or do things just keep rolling along as normal?
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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. 
Best of luck. I’ve found that I have my best ideas during or after a long stint without internet.
Wow I’m so jealous. The idea of being off line and working manual labor for a months seems awesome. I need to get out more lol
Good luck with it, you’ve got me interested to do something with the org you are going for in the future. I mentioned Samosir in Sumatra in my latest post, if you get an opportunity I would check it out.
good luck and take care… keep us posted..
Good luck with the project. I have been to Padang before, but it was before the earthquake. There are some nice places to visit around there. Samosir is also great, but about 10 hour bus ride from Padang. Flights are cheap though. If you need a break, you can always come to Bali
I would recommend applying for a 60 day tourist visa in advance. The 30 days will go pretty quick.
The longest I’ve spent away for the internet is about 2 weeks. It hasn’t affected earnings too much but when you run a forum, like I do, you have to keep an eye on things.
Hope to hear how Indonesia was for you in soon.
I took about a month off of my blog and traffic continued to rise about 50 visitors a day.
I wouldn’t worry too much abotu taking time away from the internet, clearing your head of it a while will do you good and may give you more ideas for the site - which is very good.
Sorry to hear that you will be away from your blog for a while, but I am sure you will be having a great time. I am really jealous to hear of all these amazing places that you travel to.