#精品长文创作季##环球旅行##江苏大哥##裸辞旅行#
This is the 3,536th real story we have told
I was born in Gusu District, Jiangsu, and now everyone around me calls me Brother Xiaoma. My father was a watch repairer in a state-owned enterprise, and my older brother now works in a state-owned enterprise.
Logically speaking, I should also go to work in a state-owned enterprise like my family, but when I was a child, I especially liked to listen to a radio station in Shanghai, which featured all kinds of pop songs and travel bloggers telling books. So I was very eager to see the outside world, and I hated the ordinary life of my family.
After graduating from university, I worked for a few years, then became a system engineer, and then worked in a well-known Fortune 500 company.
After accumulating a certain amount of resources, I resigned decisively, set up another portal, and opened my own information service company. During this time, because he loved to travel and was good at traveling, he simply opened a travel consulting company.
But three years after the pandemic, I broke up the two companies and now have a long-awaited global travel plan.
I plan to play like this for at least two years, and after two years, I will reconsider my life plan.
(Bike to Salt Lake)
I'm Brother Xiaoma, born at the end of the 70s, and I'm still single. My father is a watch repairer in a state-owned enterprise, and my brother currently works in a state-owned enterprise. Although my family of origin had good material conditions, I realized from an early age that I didn't like this kind of unstable and ordinary life.
When I was a child, I especially liked to listen to a TV program in Shanghai, which featured all kinds of popular songs, and travel bloggers who talked about interesting things during the trip. So, since I was a child, I had the idea of going out and seeing.
I went to university in 1996 majoring in foreign trade, and I learned English quite well. But after graduating in 1999, I didn't work in foreign trade, but in computer hardware, because I loved tinkering with computers when I was in college.
Although I did not work in foreign trade, the English I learned during school helped me a lot in my future work and travel.
For several years after graduating, my job was average and my salary was average. Later, I realized that it was not okay to mess around like this. I still want to go out and have a look, how can I get out with so little money?
(Pyramids in Egypt)
In 2008, I studied and took a certificate at my own expense: W Software System Engineer. I have to say that learning skills to improve yourself is a sure thing. Because of this certificate, my professional ability has been greatly improved, and I have successfully entered a Fortune 500 company.
Working in this company has brought me many benefits: firstly, my salary has doubled, secondly, I have been able to take advantage of the opportunity to travel around, and most importantly, after working in this company for a few years, I have accumulated certain resources and experience, which has laid a good foundation for my later entrepreneurship.
In 2012, I started my own business. Someone asked me, you make a lot of money starting a business, right? Actually, no, it's just better than going to work and getting a dead salary. Now that I think about it, if I had been in the real estate industry or software programming at that time, would I have achieved financial freedom a long time ago?
But there are no ifs in life, and sometimes I have to believe that everything is natural and destined.
Entrepreneurship has brought me both good and bad changes. The good thing is that I have more money to support my travel expenses. Also, I am an introvert, and during my business start-up, I had to force myself to become more extroverted and talkative in order to get a list of entertainment.
(in Junk City)
The disadvantage is that because I often have to socialize and play in the bubble bar with friends, my health has become very bad. Finally, one day I drank myself down, and I was sent to the hospital for a lot of tests, medicine, hospitalization, etc., which made me very scared, and gout was caused during that time.
In the blink of an eye to 2019, my IT information software company business is becoming more and more difficult to do, and the industry has become very volatile. After the outbreak of the epidemic, it was even more miserable.
Starting a business is a stressful thing to walk on thin ice, and after the epidemic, you can't make money staying in Suzhou, so it's better to completely let go and travel completely.
Although I have been traveling a lot since around 2010, at that time I was always running out to play between work, and I didn't have a lot of fun, after all, the company had something to deal with, and I had to go back at any time.
(At the ball game)
Since my career is not going well, why don't I go out for a walk and give myself a long vacation? In 2023, I will gradually clean up the affairs of the information service company and cancel the travel consulting company. I'm going to give myself a two-year vacation.
Speaking of this travel consulting company, I would like to introduce it well.
When I was at work, I was tricked into traveling to Hong Kong with a group, but after I went, I vowed never to travel with a group again. It is a well-known fact that during a tour guide taking tourists, tourists only spend one-third of their time looking at the attractions, and the remaining two-thirds of the time are forcibly taken by the tour guide to the closed shopping area for shopping.
That's not all, I was woken up at four or five o'clock every morning during the trip, and after a day outside, I came back exhausted. Personally, I don't like this mode of travel at all, because there is no physical and mental pleasure at all.
(Tea by the pyramid)
Later, as I traveled more and more, I became more and more experienced, and in the process, I also met a lot of tour guides and witnessed how they worked. So, I decided to start my own travel company and make some money while traveling.
I can say without modesty that I am more professional than the average tour guide, especially for some foreign tours, I am very good at it.
If someone wants to travel abroad, the domestic tour guide receives you, collects your money, and gives you a customized route from a travel agency. But as soon as they take you abroad, they are approached by a foreign travel agency, and it is a different group of people who take you to play.
I don't do it that way, for example, when I started a travel consulting company, one of the most popular travel routes for the company was the Kenya Safari Park. From contacting customers to finally taking customers to Kenya Safari Park, I followed and accompanied them throughout the process.
(in the Valley of the Kings)
My travel company is different from many travel companies in China, in addition to being a private customized travel itinerary, in the process of traveling, we take customers in a pure play mode, and never take them to buy, buy, buy, buy. Because of this, our profits are not high.
After the epidemic, I cancelled the travel consulting company, and the private customized niche travel itinerary really didn't make money. For example, we planned a safari trip to Kenya, which started in March to get customers to collect money, and only ended in August.
During this period, if there are 15 customers, each person receives 20,000 yuan, each person has to spend more than 10,000 yuan to buy air tickets, accommodation tickets, etc., and the remaining 5,000 yuan or so, there is about 70,000 yuan of income, but the company divides half of it, and the partners divide it evenly, and in five or six months, there is not much money in their hands.
The only thing to be thankful about when we started a travel company is that when the epidemic happened, we didn't start collecting money from customers, so we didn't have money to pay foreign travel companies, so naturally we wouldn't face the problem of losing customers' money.
(Lying flat on the beach in Egypt and swiping your phone)
After the outbreak of the epidemic, many travel companies closed down because they collected money from foreign docking travel companies, but domestic customers could not go out and would ask for refunds. And the domestic tourism companies have no money to refund, because foreign companies will not refund the money, they can only allow the postponement of consumption.
From 2010 to the present, I have been to many places and seen many exciting scenes, both at home and abroad.
For example, in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, I bought a ticket for the opening ceremony. A lot of people shoot a video of the opening ceremony in front of the TV and send it to their friend Q, but I am part of the opening ceremony and shoot a video to send my friend Q on the spot.
In 2019, I went to Los Angeles to watch James' Lakers game. The great migration of the Masai Mara animals in CCTV Animal World was completed on the spot as early as 2016. I've also swam with whale sharks, seen blue tears waves on Pool Island, and hiked through an active volcanic crater in Indonesia.
(New Year's Day in Egypt)
I was interested in witnessing the most interesting wonders on earth. Now, I also look at the pyramids and the masks of Tutankhamun. Many times, I was happy to bask in the sun on the beach in Egypt and scroll through my phone.
Of course, travel is not all good things, after all, in a foreign country where you are not familiar with life, there will also be some moments that make people nervous and anxious.
For example, when I was playing in Thailand and was celebrating Songkran with the local people, I was getting carried away when I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder, and my heart tightened, and I immediately checked my backpack, and sure enough, I found that there was a cut on it, and my mobile phone, passport and wallet were all stolen.
I instantly had a feeling of collapse, no way, the collapse can't be too long, I have to make up these documents immediately, otherwise it will be really difficult to move an inch.
(in Morocco)
After this incident, I became very cautious, no matter how much fun I had, I had to keep my financial security in mind.
Another time, when I was visiting a tourist attraction in Turkey, a friendly looking foreign young man came up to talk to me, and I thought he was also here to play, so I chatted with him without defense. Later, he suggested that we eat at a restaurant together, and I readily agreed.
Unexpectedly, after taking a seat in the restaurant, when ordering and eating, a woman poured wine on our table. Alarm bells suddenly sounded in my heart, and there were similar wine and meal trays in China, so I immediately got up to check out and leave.
The young man who invited me said that he had spent $400 on dinner, and I knew that was the beginning of the fraud, and he had a few male accomplices around. How do I get out? It's useless to call the police, because the food has already reached the stomach, and there is no way to prove how much it spent.
(Dinner with Egyptian children by the salt lake)
I told them in a hurry that I didn't have that much money with me and that I had to go to the bank to withdraw it. Because in other countries other than China, electronic payments are rare, and the vast majority of countries must use cash.
I had $2,000 in my backpack, and if they found me, I'd be doomed. They agreed that I would go and get the money, and they sent a big man with me to follow me, and I walked forward quickly, throwing him a few meters away.
Then, I quickly pulled out the $100 bill from my bag, immediately turned to him and said, I only have so much money for you, this meal can't cost so much money, you have to earn. If you don't agree, I'll call the police or go to the Chinese embassy for evaluation.
The big man was stunned for a while, then took the money and left, my back rippled with cold sweat, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
(in Casablanca, Morocco)
Therefore, I would like to remind those who travel abroad not to get too close to those who take the initiative to talk to you, or to go out of their activities unguarded. Because they usually claim to know you, saying that they are the chef or waiter in your hotel, and when you let your guard down, they will cheat you out of your money.
Through this time, I also raised my vigilance. Everywhere I go, I can see people walking towards me quickly with the peripheral eye of my eyes, ignore such people, and try to avoid them.
At the end of 2023, my country is in the freezing season, and I flew to warm Egypt for the winter. Egypt not only has a warm climate, but also the price is really cheap, a large box of strawberries costs dozens of yuan in China, and only four or five yuan in Egypt.
But at the same time, Egypt's economy is very backward, this situation has lasted for a hundred years, and the quality of people is not high, and I have experienced the moment of being cheated by them.
(Basking in the sun on the balcony of a house in Egypt)
One day, I was waiting for a bus on a street in Egypt when a taxi offered me if I wanted to take it, and said it would only cost 30 Egyptian pounds to get from the starting point to the hotel. I'd heard before that Egyptian drivers like to rip off customers, but I'd love to see how they do it.
Before I got in the car, I videotaped my conversation with the driver. Sure enough, when I arrived at my destination, I gave 30 Egyptian pounds, but the driver disagreed, so he had to pay 30 dollars. I was furious, showed him the video, called the manager of the hotel to testify, and even threatened to call the police.
The taxi driver may not have seen such a skilled passenger and obediently accepted the 30 Egyptian pound fare.
I would like to remind visitors to Egypt not to stop their cars on the side of the road, as it is easy to get killed by the driver. The online taxi client can also be used in Egypt. It's best for us to call a taxi on the software, clearly mark the price, and not be deceived.
(at Luxor Temple)
Another point is that many tourists think that Europe is a strong country and that security will be very good, but this is not the case.
In recent years, for various reasons, there have been a lot of immigrants and refugees in Europe, and there have been more and more thefts and robberies. So when we go there to play, we have to be quite careful.
For example, when taking the train, our suitcases cannot be placed on the shelves on both sides of the head, but must be locked on the shelves with steel wires through the boxes. Otherwise, you'll find that when you wake up, your box is gone.
(at the Egyptian Museum)
Although there will be some twists and turns from time to time during the trip, in general, as long as you don't go to the kind of country where the security is too bad, and pay attention to precautions, the process of the journey is quite enjoyable.
For the cities and countries I like, I follow the idea of going again, and I must stay for seven days so that I can fully appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of a city. I love Egypt and have been here for two months.
Because the scenery in Egypt is good, and the price is very cheap. The rent of the house I rented was 50 yuan a day, about 20 yuan per meal, and about 150 yuan a day, so I could live well in Egypt.
Someone asked me, have you been traveling like this? Of course not, I just don't have a family to drag me on now, and I have some savings to cover the cost of traveling for two years.
In the future, I may start a business again or find a job, get married, have children, and follow the usual path. In the past, I would be anxious about whether I was abnormal, because my classmates and friends around me were living a life of hot kang heads with wives and children at my age.
Later, as I met more and more people and things to see during my travels, I changed my mindset. Travel not only broadens people's minds and horizons, but more importantly, we see things from different angles.
Although I am currently traveling alone, I will start a family in the future. When my friends are in their fifties or sixties, they will have time to travel like me. Our life experiences are just reversed, and in the end we will end up in the same place.
(Search MAXX to follow the protagonist in a travel)
[Dictation: Little Brother Ma]
[Editor: Niu Weiwei]
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(*This article is based on the oral statements of the parties, and the authenticity is the responsibility of the oral narrator.) Friendly reminder from this account: Please identify the relevant risks by yourself, and do not blindly follow the trend to make impulsive decisions. ）