This makes sense, and a another good argument against monoculture farming.

Anecdotally, we have friends in a inner suburb of Tokyo who say there's been a surge in Tanuki hanging around the neighborhood. Apparently they've been attracted by people land-banking - growing small quantities of permission trees on vacant land so it counts as a 'farm' to avoid vacant land taxes, then not harvesting the fruit because it's not economically sensible... the fruit then attracts wildlife.

I'm not afraid of death, I'm in love with life.

Yeah,we did Vancouver BC to Tijuana and I think about half the drive time was going into and out of LA.

This is the plot of an episode of The Middle.

That sounds great! We wanted to do the Beijing to Ulaanbataar railway this year but couldn't fit it in (maybe next year!). Portland is also a lovely place, we had friends in Vancouver WA across the border we stayed with for a couple weeks.

Botswana is also high on our list but we were tossing up between south America or southern Africa and Americas has won for now. Scotland is amazing and I'm sure you'd have a blast. Canada we've only done BC and Alberta and would love to see the rest (maybe when the USA is less hostile to foreigners we'll spend more time in North America).

The monkeys were very chill, but also quite shy, when we spotted a group, they'd spot us too and slowly retreat away from view.

We flew here from Yogya! It's a lovely place, indeed - have been there twice now and can imagine going back. Probably one of the better towns for tourism in Indonesia, but for daily living I probably prefer Jakarta, Makassar, maybe Denpasar if there wasn't so much traffic.

We just hired a boat yesterday to cruise around the mangroves looking for proboscis monkeys - saw four groups, which was fantastic, but the trees were quite thick so not clear views. An hour boat ride cost 17usd which we split with another couple. Tomorrow we're going to try and see the new capital city that is being built in the middle of nowhere - afaik construction has halted since the recession hit here but a lot seems has been finished... another failed mega-project in the making I'm sure.

Hope you're enjoying your trip! What part of the world are you in at the moment?

We both only speak two languages fluently - English, which is very useful, and Japanese, which is only useful in one country (but as a result can understand a lot of written Chinese, which has come in handy a few times).

We can both manage a simple conversation in Greek, but again that's a language without many speakers (and I'm waiting to go to Cypress until I'm 50, so I don't have to do mandatory service!).

We learned to read Cyrillic, which is super useful in eastern Europe and the 'stans. Korean, too, which is very easy to learn, and there's a lot of Japanese and English loan words in Korean so can understand a surprising amount there. Tried to learn Thai writing but that's a challenge for another time - I think you'd need dedicated language classes just to get your head around the writing system. My wife learned to read Arabic and swears it's easier than it looks, but there's not many words we can understand with our linguistic background, even if we could read it fluently.

I'd say it's easier with a partner, but it really depends on your relationship. We get along very well, which is important because travelling we spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week together, and have done so for 10 years now. We have made some full-time travelling singles we've become friends with and I know they've all found it hard some times when they've struggled to make friends in a new city and can get quite lonely - but it can make making friends easier, especially in countries where people only tend to hang out in same gender groups.

Financially, it's often cheaper to hire a double occupancy room or even a studio apartment than two single beds in a dorm, and sometimes cheaper to hire a ride service than public transport when you share costs.

Thanks, I'll be sure to peruse your community and absorb your tips!

I must say though, seeing 'Japan' and 'sim card' in the same sentence gives me nightmares... so glad we have esims/global sims now and don't have to deal with the 'tourist sim' nonsense.

As a comparison, I checked the esimplus plan for Indonesia (where we are currently... hi from Balikpapan!) . 15 gb for 30 days costs 2245jpy. On esimdb.com I found StellarSecurity has 10 gb for 1.70eur, which is what I'm using now... I know the yen is in the toilet at the moment, but that's still only 304jpy.

Living ultra-frugal and saving as much as possible, my wife and I quit our jobs 10 years ago and have been travelling (almost) non-stop since, celebrating our 100th country 2 months ago.

Slow travel is certainly an affordable way to live. Weekly and monthly discounts on accommodation are not a joke, and reducing the number of flights you take is good for your wallet and the environment. Same with taking public transport everywhere rather than having a car. We balance short stays in expensive countries with long stays in cheap countries.

Staying in short term rentals found (mostly) on agoda, booking.com or airbnb makes bills easy because.. there are none. For phone data, we've been using esimdb.com to find the best value esims in each location. Don't use global esims, they're a waste... 10 years ago you could go without phone data but that's not the world we live in now (you save a lot more money being able to look things up on the go and finding the best value).

The best thing about full time travel is you're never stuck in a routine. As a result, the past 10 years has felt twice as long as the previous 15. Where we go to next largely depends on what deals we find, where we haven't been, but more importantly what my stomach demands.

The kiwi.com 'anywhere-to-x' flight finder is helpful, as is google flights, but that's only x-to-anywhere. Setting a max price and zooming out on map view on accommodation sites is also great for finding bargains.

Pompidou!

Well, you can't sit on your own arse.

This post just made me realise I haven't been to the UK since these were introduced.

Recycling practice changes from country to country (and regions within countries) so much. You're not a true "citizen of the world" unless you know which places you remove the lid, the lid and the plastic ring, or leave both on.