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He set out to walk around the world. After 27 years, his quest is nearly over

(www.washingtonpost.com)
169 points wallflower | 3 comments | 07 Dec 25 16:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.71s | source
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mykowebhn ◴[12 Dec 25 07:23 UTC] No.46241694[source]▶
A couple of Youtubers who are also round-the-world travelers whom I enjoy watching, one a Dutch motorcyclist and the other a German cyclist.

Noraly, the motorcyclist, has already traveled through South and North America, Africa, and Asia, some multiple times. Currently, I believe she is in Tajikistan about to enter Kyrgystan.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEIs9nkveW9WmYtsOcJBwTg

Max Roving, the cyclist, has already cycled through Afghanistan and he is currently trying to ride Africa north to south. He just completed Algeria and is about to enter Morroco.

https://www.youtube.com/@MaxRoving

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_rpxpx ◴[12 Dec 25 11:38 UTC] No.46243163[source]▶
There is nothing so wonderful that it cannot be ruined by turning it into a youtube channel... The really brilliant people I've met doing things like this always absolutely refused to mediafy their experience. Turning your adventure into a continuous TV show is great way to kill the adventure. We're now so used to everyone running their own shopping channel we don't even notice it. Read Thesiger's books for an account of real experience. The film I urge everyone to watch is Cronenberg's Videodrome - truly the film of our times.
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yawpitch ◴[12 Dec 25 12:14 UTC] No.46243417[source]▶
I’ve met some really brilliant people who only finished the challenges they gave themselves because they had a community’s encouragement.

Seems to me you might want to relax your filters a bit and meet some of the other brilliant people.

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1. _rpxpx ◴[12 Dec 25 13:55 UTC] No.46244169[source]▶
I think the central message of that article is precisely that he is completing the adventure only because of community encouragement - but that that is the assistance of all the incredible people he met along the way, strangers on the ground who supported him and helped him on his way, and his friends and family at home. The community is the real people on the ground, and it is the real and living community of the humans who inhabit the entire world. The commercial transmissions with you as TV star are totally unnecessary, and actually only get in the way... Thesiger said that the greatest thing about his adventure across the Arabian Desert was his comradeship with the Bedouin. You just can't have that while waiving a selfie-stick and grinning into the camera...
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2. yawpitch ◴[12 Dec 25 14:12 UTC] No.46244314[source]▶
There are incredible people along the way, there are also incredible people watching and cheering on people who vlog. Communities can — and very much should — be much larger than just who you happen to have found yourself physically near.

And yes, I can assure you, you can absolutely have both while engaging in blogging, vlogging, serialized writing, or any other form of serialized expression.

Not all of vlogging has any relationship to your straw man.

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3. _rpxpx ◴[12 Dec 25 15:19 UTC] No.46244923[source]▶
I can only say that, in my own experience, you can't. Traveling pre- and post-smartphone are two completely different realities. The thing tethering you to a gigantic global faceless 'community' has the cost of weakening or blocking your engagement with real immediate physical people, and chance events and immediate experience. There is definitely a trade-off, no matter where your preferences lie. The last time I stayed in a hostel it was in Lima, Peru. It was mostly young people traveling. On every bunk in the room, a guest staring silently into their glowing palms. The joy of traveling used to be having very intense and focused encounters with completely new people who you would probably never speak to again...