How much money should you have on you?

If you think it is impossible to do without lots of money in a foreign country, you are mistaken. On the contrary, you will gain a lot if you don't have much on you. You will be forced to have a taste of common poor natives' life and so will learn about the foreign country in its most typical way.

The following rule of proportion could be applied there: the less money - the more experiences. The greatest items connected with travelling are usually transport and accommodation. Your left hand or right hand thumb is the only thing you need to get even to the remotest ends.

When looking for a hotel, I follow a simple judgement. The more stars the hotel has, the better it is. Then, the one with millions of stars above my head has to be the best one for me and it is simply priceless.If you stint yourselves a bit, you can travel for months in this way without the need of pockets stuffed with money.

Why hitch-hiking?

When I choose hitching to be my means of transport, I meet a number of interesting people over the day. They are people of various professions and mostly they are kind, friendly, liberal-minded and absolutely easy-going. Well, by the way, who else would give a hitchhiker a lift?Like this, I happen to reach such places where you would never see any public transport coming. It is no rarity to be invited over to people's homes, sometimes also to stay over night.

In the morning when I get up, I have no idea where on earth I may sleep the following night. I let myself be blown away by the wind of fate and chance. Everything is a challenge for me. A challenge that I do not fight in any way and I am in sweet awaiting of the new day surprises and interesting people to meet me. And that is the charm of it all.

Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-c' had once written that the right wanderer has no itinerary and does no care about his comeback. The more you stick to this precept, the freer you feel. A thoroughly detailed plan, a long list of sights and time schedule bound you and stress you only. When hitching, there is no easier thing than to say: "I like this place so much. Could you stop your car and leave me here?"

Why alone?

Well, it is a bit harder to travel alone as it requires more independence. But you get rid of problems concerning agreeing on a mutual plan. There is no fear you would start getting on somebody's nerves or that somebody would get on yours. And, you are your own lord.

By hitching alone I am quicker on the road than a group.

When alone in a foreign country, you are more open to all the new things than when you travel with more people around. You chat with people in the street instead of talking to your friend. There is a minimal distance between me as a foreigner and a native when compared to being a member of a group. And minimizing this inerpersonal distance is what you should be looking for when wandering.

Is this kind of travelling dangerous?

The biggest danger in independent travelling is that you can become addicted to it for life. The feeling of absolute freedom, joy of getting to know the strange and remarkable world and escaping the stereotype of everyday life - well, that is power equalling a dose of heroin. One longer journey and you will find you have had it.

Another big danger is the fact that thanks to travelling you can see through the virtual game played on us by our society and advertising.You will scramble your present values. You will refuse to agree that with the general requirement to consume everything that has ever been produced, the requirement to be compelled to work so that you could enjoy the privilege of consumption.

The incoded myth of life-style deriving its happiness from the biggest possible consumption and accumulation of absolutely useless things will collapse.Seeing through that all is more dangerous than coming across a snake, diarrhoea due to excitement before a journey or the real chance to you step into an elephant's shit.