Driving around africa in a truck for 19 months isn't exactly environmentally friendly. How many miles to the gallon do those things do?
He also didn't probably use as much electricity as you do at the moment which is likely generated mostly in non environmentally friendly way. Ignoring the fact that many parts of your equipment came on ships from China. From factories which generate a lot of pollution.
Also, if you want to be perfect better-world-optimizer, it is really hard. Even if the earth would get ever slightly more polluted by this single car, the impact of thousands of people reading the story could still be positive. It makes them think about nature, probably slightly increases their well being, and so on.
1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-1...
I'm just trying to point out that we're doing more damage demanding brand new phones every year, demanding that every shop around has fresh produce from every corner of the world etc etc etc. Him driving around africa has probably lower impact than an average tourist flying somewhere for holiday.
I've traveled quite a bit, but I feel like up until this point I've just been consuming experiences and meeting people. It's nice, but ultimately not very fulfilling. I would like to experience some real adventure and end up with some interesting stories, but I'm starting to realize that you can't just be a spectator, you have to be a part of something bigger. Maybe by trying to solve a problem, investigating an issue and creating a documentary, or fighting for something important.
The reason I'm writing all of this is because I also want to quit my job and go off on some kind of new adventure, but I'm not really sure what I should do. As Rep. John Lewis says, maybe I need to get into some "good trouble".
Reread your first paragraph, then reread your second paragraph. To paraphrase them both a bit: "You would like to experience some real adventure, but getting stuck in the mud doesn't really appeal to you". Hmm?
The only way you will experience something that is really fulfilling to you in this way, is if you go do something that you are not really all that comfortable with. Go do it and feel how you are not only a better version of yourself, because you know that you can now "do this too", but it also changed your view on the world just a little bit. It broadened you character and your perspectives a bit and THAT is fulfilling.
It doesn't have to be mud in Africa, but it does have to be one of those things where some part of it doesn't really appeal to you. The only fulfilling adventures are the ones that change you, and an experience can't change you if it is designed to only give you what you already know and like.
You don't have to do that one big thing. You can do a series of smaller things instead. As long as they challenge you it will be fulfilling overcoming that challenge.
Rich westerners save a bunch of money then go see the sights then come back and tell their friends!
These experiences are purchased, the equivalent of visiting China world at Epcot.
It treats travel, people, culture like an amusement park or even worse a status symbol...have YOU been to Africa?
The OP wants something more meaningful I think.
"First, I'm going to deliver this case to Marcellus, then I'm just going to walk the earth."
The counterpoint to this stance is that there's something about ground travel (and "slow travel" generally) that's very different from the usual airport → city center → airport drill. Having to do with being continually in contact with the earth, and experiencing the slow transition from one geology, climate, and local culture to another. Not to mention some of the stunning, accidental scenery you'll be exposed to (and some of which I can still see, as if before my eyes) that you just won't see from a plane... and certainly not during the (significant) times one spends stuck in, or on the way to and from airports.
There's a significant time investment involved, of course, and a life devoted only to sightseeing would be very boring. Bu it's an experience that puts us in touch with the world more the way it actually is, and -- at least I find -- literally helps me feel more "grounded", even many years past the experience.
Traveling can be fun, but also alienating. I met many people who renounced to their trip around the world after a few months. It can become boring after a while and you start to wonder what is the point of it. And you don't really build anything while traveling. Maybe not everyone has this feeling, but I'd like my life to have an other purpose than just roaming...
Nowadays, the way I like it is to travel from 3 to 6 weeks at a time. It's long enough so that you can go at a relaxed pace, but not so long that you feel you're wasting your time. I also like try to do something constructive a few hours a day (especially if I travel for a longer period of time).
As far as adventure goes, I find it more rewarding to live and work in a different country than to go to the usual backpackers circuits.
"Adventure" is what you get when you don't get what you expected. Such as breakdowns. ;)
–G.K. Chesterton
If you want adventure without things going wrong, you want play. So... go play, if you get bored with that, you'll be ready to try adventure.
It is more of a long-term kind of travel, but you will be doing real good and definitely living an adventure.
They need people with all kinds of backgrounds, not just medical, so it might be worth a look.
There are international builds where you travel somewhere and work on building homes in areas where there isn't adequate low-income housing. You get to meet and work with locals for a couple of weeks. I went to rural Hungry. I had one friend who also went on the build. He talked me into doing it with him, and I'm glad he did.
I've lived in a few places in Asia and really liked that. Spending a few months to a year in a place, making friends, getting to know the locals. It felt good, though it limited the kind of work projects I could do. (I was an English teacher rather than a programmer or other independent worker at the time)
In some ways the digital nomad lifestyle, which is related to what I was doing, is very appealing. I know a programmer who has been bouncing around Southeast Asia working on programming projects, some contracted some independent, for the last year or two and learning languages.
Is that or something like it what you're looking for?
Of course, the beauty of nature is a huge part of the trip, but being taken out of your comfort zone is what makes it extra special.
If you're not prepared to step out of your comfort zone, then everything will seem run-of-the-mill and ordinary. Because it is.
Just be prepared (we could survive for 2 weeks on our own at any point) and take the right safety precautions (don't drive into war torn areas).
You get a different experience from "outside looking in activities (travel, overseas volunteer work, habitat for humanity) than you get from activities where you see yourself as being a member of the group you're trying to help or create something with. Both kinds of experiences can be useful, though it's important to understand the limits of each.
That's so true. Once you are a part of something bigger, the experiences, adventure and thrill land up on their own. This applies not only to travel, but every part of life.
Do it.
You're missing the point. It's the adventure, not the trail, not the road you'll chose or the destinations... It's the adversities on the trip, the people you meet, the broken cars, that bus/airplain/boat you didn't catch that will make the difference, a point vey well made by my favorite Cavafy poem[1].
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n3n2Ox4Yfk&list=RD1n3n2Ox4Y...
No, I think the GP is fairly and explicitly disagreeing with what you describe as the point, which is very different than missing it.
Clearly you think what is desirable and worthwhile is...
> the adventure [...] the adversities on the trip, the people you meet, the broken cars
Clearly, GP disagrees that this is desirable and worthwhile, when writing:
> I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me.
Not everyone has insufficient adversity in their daily life such that they need to take on additional and avoidable adversity for recreation.
It transforms the way you enjoy traveling. Every landscape you go through, you start having a real connection to the biology and ecology because you are actively thinking about the organisms that live there, and you are somewhat knowledgable about it. It makes you a biologist, and scientist as you're traveling. The choice of birds is for two good reasons: (1) other than plants and humans they are the easiest macroscopic organisms to see, anywhere in the world; (2) they are beautiful. It brings you into contact with areas of science -- evolutionary biology, genetics, conservation biology. It makes traveling through wild parts of the world so much more interesting than it would be otherwise.
I decided I didn't want to sit at a desk for 30 years to pay off a mortgage, so I'm not going to. Dumping my life savings into this likely means I'll never have a new car, big screen TV or new iPhone, but I'd rather have this experience than those things.
In 2009 I spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina too.
The details on the Jeep I built into my house are here: http://imgur.com/a/OLK3o
I'm filming a YouTube series as I go:
http://youtube.com/c/theroadchoseme
And you can follow the adventure in real time across social media:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/theroadchoseme
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theroadchoseme
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dangrec
And my website: http://theroadchoseme.com
Las Ramblas is a large interesting boulevard through the middle of town and is a lot of fun to see. However, in any location where there are tourists, there appear to be very talented pickpockets targeting them; be careful.
I'm an amateur (very amateur) magician so I was fascinated to see the street scams based on the classic shell game being performed openly on Las Ramblas, complete with confederates winning money etc.
My research in Africa was around Energy and the many forms it presents itself. I only encountered a handful of negative experiences:
[1] Getting jailed at the border in Mozambique for refusing to pay a bribe.
[2] Nearly getting kidnapped in Musoma, Tanzania by the biggest Tanzania I have ever seen in my life. He proceeded to grab my arm and pull be down and ally proclaiming I was to come with him and play the drums.
[3] In Nairobi during one of the worst storms in the past 25 years.
I just spent that past 11 months backpacking South America. This time, my research was focused on Drones and Last Mile Distribution.
Africa is a magical place - I've been fortunate enough to go for a reasonable period twice - also worked in Tanzania for three weeks in 2004 - but it's certainly not for the faint hearted; I'd not want to go there without serious mechanical skills as there isn't the level of support that you get in Europe, and the fuel supply is hugely variable; indeed some stations have a reputation for deliberately supplying poor fuel to travellers to allow them to try to buy the vehicle for a low price (this actually happened - dodgy diesel from a barrel, and then 5 minutes later the vendor was saying he'd buy the car off the guys we were with. Needless to say we fixed it). Anyway, the memories will last a lifetime, and perhaps more importantly the lessons learnt there (such as how fortunate I am to have been born by chance into a wealth, stable democracy) have shaped my life ever since.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_killing_of_French_tourist...
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/53eqlt/i_quit_my_job_...
Reddit thread has NSFW tag for source pictures
I would love to see all of Africa, but have only been to Morocco, which seemed very safe at least.
or https://www.truckafrica.com/tour/london-to-cairo-trans-afric...
which does much the same route as in the article for approx £8k
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanzelka_and_Zikmund .. these guys travelled the world widely in late 1940's. I've read the African book, and it's very funny reading these days.
The both despised the colonialist administrations, and the book frequently mentioned all the injustices done on the native populations. Yet the factual descriptions of Africa at that time make it look a far safer place.
Try getting a small group together and do like the author did. I loved Africa.
The vast majority of strangers you meet will mostly be sympathetic to your cause and help you when they can. You'll also be SOL if you are not handy.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/50799-Democrat...
Multiple times, the travellers found spots where locals would make traps for cars and then ask for money to get the cars unstuck.
The only people who were invariably helpful were priests.
Frankly a lot of their problems related to getting stuck was not having a 4x4
Friendly people everywhere I've been - in fact much more so than I was expecting.
Just today I was talking to a guy who agrees he feels much safer and more welcome here than he would if he showed up in a random city in the USA or Europe.
Are you in communication with the local governemnts about your travel.
How do you know what areas are ok to travel to? Do you have to register your vehicle in these countries?
Who do you ask for permission to park your car.
How are you on the internet right now?
How do you communicate with locals, do they know English or do you speak what ever local language there is?
Have you hooked up with any other travelers?
How about any of these tribal women?
How do you pay from stuff. Do they take U.S. Dollars or Euros or do you have to get a billion Zimbabwe dollars for candy.
What are you eating.
When you get sick from eating local food what do you do?
Are you armed?
If so did you have a license for your weapons?
How do you cross the Sahara. Do those sand dunes move around and block roads or do they just stay in one spot. Or are these trucks able to ride over them without sinking into the sand.
If you are in Sahara and water runs out what do you do?
wikioverland.org/Overland_Frequently_Asked_Questions
> Do you need a drivers license?
The one from your home country is enough, sometimes you will be asked for an International Driving Permit, so you may as well get one from your home country (the AAA, or CAA or whoever in your country will issue it for about $10)
> Are you in communication with the local governemnts about your travel.
Local ones? no. They don't care.
> How do you know what areas are ok to travel to?
Talk to locals, talk to travelers, read online from other travelers, read government travel warnings - i.e. checkout Mauritania right now - mostly OK, some red. I'll stay out of the red :)
> Do you have to register your vehicle in these countries?
No. It stays registered in it's home country, and I'm given permission at each country to "temporarily" be there with the vehicle. Usually 30, 60 or 90 days. I MUST take the car out again.
> Who do you ask for permission to park your car.
Depends where I am, but in cities there are paid lots just the same as you are used to.
> How are you on the internet right now?
There is a lot of infrastructure here - 3G is everywhere so I caved and bought a $20 smart phone that I now tether to. I'll buy a new Sim for $1 in each country.
> How do you communicate with locals, do they know English or do you speak what ever local language there is?
I'm trying to learn French as fast as possible, which is the generic language of West Africa. I can say a few words in a few local languages, but it keeps changing when I change countries. I want to learn more Swahili, which I'm told will be useful in many countries in South/East.
> Have you hooked up with any other travelers?
(assuming you mean met/hungout with) Yep, there are other people getting around in cars and on bikes and motorbikes, and there are backpackers, and tons of UN ex-pats.
> How about any of these tribal women?
Dude, keep the questions SFW please.
> How do you pay from stuff. Do they take U.S. Dollars or Euros or do you have to get a billion Zimbabwe dollars for candy.
There are ATMs in the capitals where I can take out the local currency, otherwise I'm changing USD and Euro to the local currency on the street - getting the black market rate is fun :)
> What are you eating.
I'm trying to cook as much as possible to save money - so oats, toast for breakfast, usually buy rice with some kind of sauce for lunch from a street vendor, and maybe cheap street food or cook rice/pasta for dinner. Food is a couple of bucks a meal when you eat on the street.
> When you get sick from eating local food what do you do?
Suffer. I'll be writing about the worst case I've ever had on my blog soon...
> Are you armed?
No. crossing an international border with a firearm is a serious, serious no no. I would spend many years in jail if they found it, and they've searched well enough already to find all my "hidden" stuff like my money stash, so they would find it.
If so did you have a license for your weapons?
> How do you cross the Sahara. Do those sand dunes move around and block roads or do they just stay in one spot. Or are these trucks able to ride over them without sinking into the sand.
There is a road from Morocco to Mauritania - the sand blows onto it (think drifting snow) it's passable.
> If you are in Sahara and water runs out what do you do?
Why would it run out? why does water magically run out because I happen to be somewhere hot? I have a 13 gallon tank, I make sure it's full as often as I can. Also there is traffic on the roads, I would flag someone down if I had major trouble.
Just this week I've bumped into three different people who just came North on the West Coast from Cape Town, including a guy from South Korea on a bicycle, alone, who doesn't speak a word of French and very basic English.
They all loved it :)
installing diesel instead of perfectly fine gas engine looked like typical mistake of a software engineer - we don't really need it, but it would be sooo cool to try!:)
But enjoy your time away, the creature comforts will still be there when you tire of not having them, and anyway, you will appreciate them more. ;)
Sympathy? I think you're confused. I'm living a life dream, no need for any sympathy.
> the creature comforts will still be there when you tire of not having them, and anyway, you will appreciate them more.
Last time I drove Alaska->Argentina, and since then I've been living in the Yukon. I'm in no hurry to get back to creature comforts, trust me :)
i think he's already made up his mind.
70% of French criminals are of Arab origin. Maybe Arabs are better behaved in the Arab world than they are in France?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1135...
Maybe it's because the French are really soft on prisoners. That Coulibaly guy was furious they confiscated his playstation. I doubt Morocco or Algeria would have ever allowed him one..
This generalization is so broad as to be useless (akin to "America is a racist, xenophobic place"). Africa is 54 countries and 1 billion people and countless cities and neighorhoods, painting with a broad brush is unhelpful. Only a handful of countries have active conflicts or instability, it is easy to avoid them on a trip such as this one.
[Edit] Here's a fun game that was featured on the Daily Show: see if you can you tell if a photograph was taken in Africa or the US[1]
https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/21421/circumna...
If I really wanted to understand Africa I'd pick a city and go work and live in it... Not drive through it in an army truck.
The only major mechanical issue they had was caused by dirty diesel, and if they'd had some sort of pre-filtration setup they could have probably avoided this.
Their major issues were simply down to the weight of the vehicle and poor route selection.
This sounds like received wisdom. Is there any evidence to support it? Why would one believe that a land rover's engine requires more maintenance than the average engine found in all the aggregate "old trucks"?
Which could have been solved by using a landrover instead.
The tent was on the roof so it should have been safe from most animals:
The solutions seem to be "someone else fixed it".
>> Our truck weighed over 10 tonnes fully laden, and whilst driving through some marshland just before we got to Senegal we broke through the hard crust into boggy clay below.
>> We were very lucky to be just ahead of the Amsterdam Dakar Rally, and they helped pull us out. It took about 4 hours of digging, and 3 trucks to get us out - 2 pulling forwards, 1 sideways to make sure we didn't topple over!
[...]
>> We ran out of diesel, and all the crap that had been floating on top clogged up the entire system.
>> For 3 days we were stuck in the middle of nowhere, unable to fix it ourselves. We were travelling in convoy with another couple and they were able to drive to a small village a few hours away where they found someone who knew a guy in Congo who could help us! So he took our friends to a spot where he could illegally cross the border and smuggle his mechanic friend across.
[...]
>> Turns out the dry river beds weren't so dry after all, and the weight of this truck made it sink right through to the mud below.
>> It took 2 days and the help of a nearby village to dig us out.
I'm kind of surprised there isn't a buddy comedy movie about something similar. (I guess Into the Wild, although very much not a comedy, is similar.)
I love the idea of _Heart of Darkness_ filmed as a buddy comedy.
Hit the nail on the head. It's all quite amazing and awe-inspiring as well; I don't want to take away their achievement. However I can't deny how self-congratulatory it feels.
My first few months roaming the world were life-changing. Every day, I updated my Instagram with photos of my favorite sights: cones filled with scoops of glistening gelato; my hand lightly resting on a café table, near an early edition of “On the Road”; selfies of me hugging depressed tigers too stoned on sedatives to drown themselves.
i hate to admit this but im a photographer and have been dreaming about quitting and traveling just for opportunities to take photos. not sure i'd ever put photos of food/sedated tigers though.. but still hits close to home
As another photographer, remember exotic places are always tempting and can be very fun, but travel doesn't make good photos. You make good photos, and you can do it close to home.
So if you want to take beautiful photos of tigers you do have to find tigers, but you also have to be able to take beautiful photos. The tiger won't solve that for you.
(Now, if you're already a great photographer, good enough to sell your works, then you have the skills, so by all means devote yourself to pursuing subjects)
P.S. The OP is nothing like the satirical post you linked. It's an imgur album with fairly modest captions.
One possibility is to take up a job at such a firm, and then do your traveling while you work. I think it beats stressing out about finding a new gig every few months, at least. It's also easier if you happen to travel in the same/similar timezone.
Can you enumerate the dangers that the two friends will face in Africa - sudden malnutrition? If you are referring to armed conflict or the danger of being abducted by the local African warlord[1], then you might be happy to know that such dangers are highly localized and the high-risk areas easily avoided; after all, Africa is a large place (larger than the US, China and most of Europe. Combined[2].
1. Common trope
2. http://io9.gizmodo.com/africas-true-size-will-blow-you-away-...
*: more like I was looking in the exact direction but not actually seeing what was happening.
I wonder why Mark is building satellites and custom drones if 3G is allready wide spread
I have also heard one too many stories of post-college kids doing cross-country bike rides for similar reasons and getting run over and killed, and that upsets me.
Do you propose they sit at a desk instead, and be scared to actually live?
But some folks will figure out what works for them eventually. And admittedly it's probably not for everyone.
I highly advise against this. There is no shortage of unqualified labor in underdeveloped countries. Most of these projects are just 'feel good charity tourism'.
If you want to make a difference you are much better of donating 20% of a US salary which will employ many more underqualified locals who actually need the job.
https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ has some detailed analysis of how to best make an impact, depending on your interests and skill set.
That might be the nathan_f77's apparently stated goal, but nathan_f77 also states they do not really know what they want. Charity tourism is just disgusting racist white savior paternalism that exploits POC-in-former-colonies poverty for white-people-from-former-colonizer-countries ego inflation. You use the word 'safe' in quotes so I assume you know this: the phrase "safe adventure" is literally an oxymoron (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adventure). Charity tourism might just turn out to be one of those unfulfilling consumer experiences the poster is looking to avoid, wrapped in a feel-good veneer.
Obviously, professional construction workers would build homes faster and better than us amateurs. On the surface, it appears that I could simply have done what I am good at (software) for two weeks and pay professionals to do the building in Hungry instead.
While working in Hungry I had time to reflect upon this for two weeks. Most of the volunteers there did it because they wanted to help people, and most didn't think about the economic efficiency of they way they were doing it. A few of us (some Stanford MBA's and I) talked about it.
In retrospect, the issue is more nuanced. Habitat for Humanity is the world's largest non-profit homebuilder [0]. They require the future owners to contribute a significant portion of the effort in construction of what will become their home. This, they claim, results in better care for the home after they move in. If so, it seems like a useful model (but see the criticisms of Habitat for Humanity on the cited Wikipedia page).
Couldn't this be done using professional builders and not volunteers? Perhaps. However, let me relate something that was said to me in the small town where I was working. We were building a home for a family of Romani Hungarians in eastern Hungary. These people, sometimes called Gypsies, are not always treated well in rural areas of Hungary[1].
At one point, I met a townsperson that spent some time speaking to me. He said that at first the townspeople couldn't understand why people from the USA had to go to Hungry to find work. They were surprised that we were not being paid but instead had to pay for the privilege of working in Hungry (there are local trade's people involved with the construction that must be paid, construction supervisors, electricians, plumbers, cement companies and materials have to be paid for by our donations).
He told me that the concept of charitably taking care of someone not a family member was unusual there, and the whole town noticed us being there and doing it. We were well treated and the people were very friendly to us. One benefit of the trip is that we gained an appreciation of a different culture and so did they.
The remarkable thing was that he (the townsperson) described to me how seeing us volunteering to help people we didn't know in his own town inspired him to do the same; he had actually taken time in the past to work on the build too after seeing the volunteers from the US doing it. I realized that it isn't just about economic efficiency.
I still have mixed feelings about Habitat for Humanity, but overall I continue to believe that it is a form of "volunteer tourism" that has pluses and minuses but ends up being a net positive.
I don't see what is wrong with a tourist feeling good and doing something charitable.
Admittedly, this assumes both a labor shortage in the technologists field and a labor surplus for unskilled workers in the foreign country, but I think both of those assumptions are supportable.
Silicon Valley could also use some help here (tongue-in-cheek).
Africa is really, really huge - it has almost 4 times the landmass of the contiguous US. Avoiding specific locales is pretty easy.
Edit: Can those lighter bikes take panniers? I guess you're not going a long way with a rucksack?
Then it's not so much fun any more.
https://www.drivesouthafrica.co.za/images/home/slides/landy-...
Rarely, you may have a winch and can anchor to something which can support the vehicle's weight, but certainly not 'dig yourself'.
Also, perhaps, don't drive a 10 tonne truck?
"ain't the same fuckin' ballpark, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same fuckin' sport."
Yes, the toxicity on paper of Australia's animals is sky-high, but that's not the full story. You're far more at risk of heatstroke than animal problems when travelling Australia.
Food in a foreign place is always different than what you can find at home
Something tripped my alarm and I ripped the hand out of my pocket before I lost anything, that dude was gone in a flash, the other two urged me to go through the gates as I would lose my ticket.
Then I remembered the recommendation to swear angrily in Russian at them and came up with a few of those I knew and the other two took a hike very quickly. Apparently they are very afraid of Russian speaking people.
Anyone who doesn't look Spanish is likely to get pickpocketed on Las Ramblas. I've heard multiple stories and seen it myself despite having only visited a few times.
I wouldn't feel unsafe there, but the risk of getting robbed is very high.
I'm surprised this is not common knowledge among people from there, maybe try 15-20 minutes people watching anywhere along Las Ramblas and see for yourself. Busy, sunny days with lots of people and police around are the best times to spot the thieves. You'll also frequently see tourist couples speaking to police reporting the robberies. You can watch the body language and gestures from a distance and it is very obvious.
The place is also fairly well known for robberies of tourists in rental cars on the way to and from the airport. We were cautioned about this and rented a car from the other side of town instead.
My grandpa lost consciousness and had to be taken to a nearby hospital.
After he woke up, he said the people around the incident just ignored them, even though he called for help. He said he got the impression that it must be an everyday occurrence.
Bastard ran up £3k in premium rate calls by the time I got back to the hotel to cancel it. Luckily I was refunded for those!
Is that the goal of life?
> And admittedly it's probably not for everyone.
Of course, that's the point. If someone wants to quit so they can ride a bike across a country, that's as valid a choice as yours is to keep going to work. Nobody is wrong, everyone is just making their own choices.
i've sat at a desk my entire career, almost 15 years, and it's starting to get old. it's starting to make me feel old, and i'm not old, not by a long shot. it's starting to affect my social life and mental health. 3 months ago i decided to make a change, and have started to implement it. hopefully will be done within a year.
i promised myself if it seems like i'm being sucked back in, which happens when lots of money is involved, i'm going to cut and run on my 35th birthday. there's no fucking way i'm going to sit at a desk all day (a little is fine) at the mid-way point of this decade before 40.
I visited it recently, and the entire Lake area has become gentrified. Almost like an entirely new city, with lots of people out at night. And I wasn't too worried about being robbed. Of course, I was robbed at gunpoint just a few years ago walking home from work in Redwood City - so it just goes to show it can happen almost anywhere. Except, of course, Singapore. Gotta be the safest city in the world.
Unless things have improved a lot in the last fifteen years, it's really pretty easy for a tourist inclined to walk between touristy areas in Oakland to wander into an unsafe area. I wouldn't blame that on stupidity, it's not as if the city puts warning signs up.
Maybe you don't know what the feeling is like? I mean, how long have you lived in Oakland? If you grew up in the city with the 3rd highest crime rate in the US, maybe your barometer isn't calibrated the best?
"There is at least one HN account, used by at least one person, who claims to believe he went to Spain and did not get robbed."
A normal clean toilet is no danger, same as everywhere else in the world, but if you're going to the loo in one of those ramshackle open-to-the-elements rustic outhouses, you might want to check the seat.
The reason I made my original statement is that old, frequently ex-military trucks and old busses form the backbone of a lot of central and northern africa's transport networks, and the local mechanics are incredibly ingenious and experienced at performing "bush repairs" or fabricating spares to keep them going.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_(vehicle)
http://www.newsweek.com/why-rebel-groups-love-toyota-hilux-7...
The more correct way of characterising both would be that they will continue to run and function without ongoing maintenance (the proper level of which is way above a modern vehicle) until they break in a spectacular and often terminal way.
To attempt to answer your question, I think the general implication is that "old trucks" are designed for high maintenance intervals whereas Land Rovers, especially as used by the military, are designed to perform a function for short intervals with the long-term aid of a logistics chain.
One bloke had his Citroen die in such a way in Africa... and had to rebuild it into a motorcycle to get out of where he was
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168061/French-elect...
https://m.thevintagenews.com/2016/05/18/emile-leray-built-wo...
I find this fascinating. To a layperson like me all combustion engines seem like they must be uniform. Thanks.
I have a 2001 Nissan Xterra that's been sitting in my driveway for almost 4 years with a blown head gasket because of the combination of lack of spare time, other available vehicles that I could drive, and the complexity of disassembling the engine to remove the heads. The seats and hatch area are now full of engine parts and I still have to finish taking off the passenger side head.
Contrast that with my 1987 Toyota pickup: I would have had the entire job done in a weekend with time to spare.
[1] http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-65646.html
