Vagabonding is an amazing travel site, the story of one man’s solo journey through 15 amazing countries, including Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, Tanzania and Malawi. Along the way, Mike Pugh benefitted from the kindness of strangers; made friends; slept in hostels and hotels; did a lot of waiting for trucks, trains and buses; got worms; saved lives; got mugged; learned a lot about the world and his place (and his country’s) in it, and had a hell of a time.
The entire website is astounding: well-written travelogues, a ton of excellent streaming video, amd beautiful photographs make it the deserving recipient of the Forbes award for best online travel blog. The site is without doubt an inspiration for people who plan and dream of their own future vagabond travels, especially since Mike did it comfortably for $12,000.
For those of us who have been there and done a bit of that, one of the best entires is the one Mike wrote about returning to the US and seeing his own country in a different light: the grocery stores, the cars, the homes, the pace. It’s a reminder that culture shock can be a two-way street, and coming home can be as surprising as any destination.