Gap year - choose it for me

ThunderBiscuit

ThunderBiscuit

ThunderBiscuit

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Joined
22 Feb 2010
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25
Location
London
Hi all, I end college this year and most of my friends are staying put here in the UK… I’m not entirely down with that, so looking at going on a gap year, what do you reckon? I’ve always been into adventure type stuff like skydiving (craziest buzz ever)

Anybody happen to fit into the same category as me, or is keen to smash some destinations this way? Will reward you with a smilie of your choice
 
Australia? Yeah it's the place everyone goes but if you are short on money you can work your way round and make some. :)
 
Indonesia is awesome for scuba diving and the like. Very cheap relativily unspoilt by the suitcase brigade. Failing that the philipines are very good. Once you've spent 4 months doing that, head to Darwin in Oz to replenish your funds and then head down the east coast it your adrenalin junkie. Or if you like unspolit coast head down the West coast of Oz
 
SoSolid said:
The Indonesian's don't like westerners.
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Utter rubbish :p They are some of the most niceset people I have ever met.

Sure some far flung parts of sulewisa have a few dodgy parts , but all the way from Flores to Java awesome diving , awesome people!

You either don't know what your talking about or had a very short trip there. I spent 7 - 8 weeks there literally 10 weeks ago.
 
shroomz said:
And there's almost a civil war going on in the Philippines
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Again I spent 2 months there lovely place , granted I got lucky with a few typhoons :p But the people are good and speak english. Some of there sound systems have to be seen to be believed:p

Still I suppose its comments like shroomz and sosolid which will hopefully keep places like this as beautiful and pleasent as it will scare certain typesof people away ;)
 
choose it yourself.

to many people on these forums can't live their life without it being "specced" for them.
 
I spent 6 months working and 6 months travelling. Best time of my life. In my gap year after uni I was also a skydiving instructor and spent several months out in the States thinking I could earn a decent living from it - I couldn't, but damn I had fun! :D

You need a plan. IF you're keen on doing it, you need money. So you're going to need to work (and not always brilliant jobs), and then just go for it. You may have to do some temp jobs in the places you go. In Antigua I did some bar work and some day work on yachts to build up enough cash for the trek across the States and down to S.America. I was hoping to hop back over to Oz but never saved up enough and was having too much fun and spent too much money :o

You have to have the "get go" about you and be self motivated - alternatively do it with some friends. I started alone but ended up making lots of friends on the way which was great fun. :) You have to be self reliant too and pretty street wise and savvy. There were some miserable times, of course, but over all it was good fun and whilst I ended up poorer financially I earnt some experiences that money cannot buy and made some friends that can't be replaced, and learnt about cultures that book cannot teach.

Do it - but you have to approach it the right way. :)
 
Freefaller said:
I spent 6 months working and 6 months travelling. Best time of my life. In my gap year after uni I was also a skydiving instructor and spent several months out in the States thinking I could earn a decent living from it - I couldn't, but damn I had fun! :D

You need a plan. IF you're keen on doing it, you need money. So you're going to need to work (and not always brilliant jobs), and then just go for it. You may have to do some temp jobs in the places you go. In Antigua I did some bar work and some day work on yachts to build up enough cash for the trek across the States and down to S.America. I was hoping to hop back over to Oz but never saved up enough and was having too much fun and spent too much money :o

You have to have the "get go" about you and be self motivated - alternatively do it with some friends. I started alone but ended up making lots of friends on the way which was great fun. :) You have to be self reliant too and pretty street wise and savvy. There were some miserable times, of course, but over all it was good fun and whilst I ended up poorer financially I earnt some experiences that money cannot buy and made some friends that can't be replaced, and learnt about cultures that book cannot teach.

Do it - but you have to approach it the right way. :)
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Couldn't put it better myself , when travelling your going to have **** times but like FF has said you learn so much about life whilst having fun. I mean I learnt in SE Asia you have to plan when you want to have a **** otherwise you could end up wiping your behind with your hand then washing your hand with salt water and no soap ....... then eating .......:o:p
 
divaboy said:
Utter rubbish :p They are some of the most niceset people I have ever met.

Sure some far flung parts of sulewisa have a few dodgy parts , but all the way from Flores to Java awesome diving , awesome people!

You either don't know what your talking about or had a very short trip there. I spent 7 - 8 weeks there literally 10 weeks ago.
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Well my best mate is from Indonesia and he says that Westerners are not popular at all.
 
Amp34 said:
Australia? Yeah it's the place everyone goes but if you are short on money you can work your way round and make some. :)
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That's true, almost seems like a safe option on the face of things though. I do like the distance away it is though, getting far away will be a cool challenge. Do they have much in the way of adventure type things there?

divaboy said:
Indonesia is awesome for scuba diving and the like. Very cheap relativily unspoilt by the suitcase brigade. Failing that the philipines are very good. Once you've spent 4 months doing that, head to Darwin in Oz to replenish your funds and then head down the east coast it your adrenalin junkie. Or if you like unspolit coast head down the West coast of Oz
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Sounds interesting, a lot of people recommending Oz. What sort of jobs are there in Darwin?

stulid said:
choose it yourself.

to many people on these forums can't live their life without it being "specced" for them.
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Haha easy on there cowboy, we're keeping it at destination smashing at the moment. Would feel a bit odd having someone from the internet choose the entire thing for me for sure

Freefaller said:
I spent 6 months working and 6 months travelling. Best time of my life. In my gap year after uni I was also a skydiving instructor and spent several months out in the States thinking I could earn a decent living from it - I couldn't, but damn I had fun! :D

You need a plan. IF you're keen on doing it, you need money. So you're going to need to work (and not always brilliant jobs), and then just go for it. You may have to do some temp jobs in the places you go. In Antigua I did some bar work and some day work on yachts to build up enough cash for the trek across the States and down to S.America. I was hoping to hop back over to Oz but never saved up enough and was having too much fun and spent too much money :o

You have to have the "get go" about you and be self motivated - alternatively do it with some friends. I started alone but ended up making lots of friends on the way which was great fun. :) You have to be self reliant too and pretty street wise and savvy. There were some miserable times, of course, but over all it was good fun and whilst I ended up poorer financially I earnt some experiences that money cannot buy and made some friends that can't be replaced, and learnt about cultures that book cannot teach.

Do it - but you have to approach it the right way. :)
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Wicked post thanks heaps for that. Skydiving instructor sounds like something whack I'd be keen on. And the working on yachts, sounds like you rolled it :cool:

Yeah I'm pretty happy to be going by myself, should be a good enough challenge if I choose a nice friendly place to boot. Plus there's a couple of mates I found out doing similar things, so will probably meet them over there. What kind of work were you doing before you left Freefaller? I'm working at a glass bottle packing factory, at least it will pay some of the bills :confused:

If you guys were to choose based purely on mountains tell me which country you'd choose out of A,B & C (possible new strategy)

A
wwsdn31.jpg


B
view-up-the-mountain.jpg


C
article-1030680-052595830000044D-603_468x343.jpg
 
ThunderBiscuit said:
That's true, almost seems like a safe option on the face of things though. I do like the distance away it is though, getting far away will be a cool challenge. Do they have much in the way of adventure type things there?
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Normally I'd say go to South America, however I am considering heading over there on a working holiday visa in the near future, depening on how much money you have Oz (and NZ) are probably the best places to go and work whilst you travel and finally you mentioned adventure things and Oz and NZ are pretty much the places to go for that sort of thing.:)

ThunderBiscuit said:
If you guys were to choose based purely on mountains tell me which country you'd choose out of A,B & C (possible new strategy)

A
wwsdn31.jpg


B
view-up-the-mountain.jpg


C
article-1030680-052595830000044D-603_468x343.jpg
Click to expand...

Randomly, I have no idea where they are but from those photos I'd suggest A is Australia (or maybe South Africa, but probably Oz), B is the Alps (Swiss) and C is the Rockies?

Probably totally wrong but good to guess. :p

As for choosing based on them I'd go B, if you are interested in walking then they look the best option for that. A are too "low" and look like it will be mostly flat and C are too rockie, maybe a bit to wildernessy for the average traveller. B though, just right, nice and steep in places but with a bit of walking space too.:p
 
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