The traveler who’s been globetrotting for almost 10 years

(CNN) — He set off on a round-the-world journey in December 2012 and, almost a decade later, traveler Tom Grond remains to be globetrotting.

The Dutch blogger, who beforehand labored for the Netherlands authorities, now describes himself as a nomad and says he has no plans to return to his former life.

Grond has traveled to round 130 totally different nations, together with Syria, Jordan, Colombia and Burkina Faso, and as soon as took 58 flights in a 12 months.

Earlier than setting off on his ongoing journey, he’d saved sufficient cash to maintain a lifetime of journey repeatedly for round three years, and set himself a $30 a day funds.

Like many backpackers, Grond, referred to as “Traveltomtom,” stayed in hostels and lived as frugally as he presumably may to maintain prices down.

“Individuals assume you will need to have come from a wealthy household,” he says. “Sure, I am very privileged. I am from the Netherlands, so I’ve a extremely good passport.

“And I saved some huge cash to go touring. However I restricted myself to residing on a funds. That’s what really saved me on the street for therefore a few years.”

Nomad life-style

As social media started to evolve within the 2010s, and platforms like Instagram gained traction, Grond realized that he may earn cash by writing and posting about his adventures world wide.

“I used to be already touring and posting photographs of cool locations anyway,” he notes.

Grond launched an Instagram account in 2014 and rapidly constructed up a major following, gaining round 30,000 followers in a comparatively brief area of time.

Again then, though journey running a blog was positively not a brand new phenomenon, “journey influencers” who make a residing by sharing their globetrotting experiences on social media and private blogs or vlogs have been rising in prominence.

Because of this, Grond discovered himself being approached by lodges and organizations providing free stays and experiences in change for promotion.

“I could not consider my luck,” he admits. “At first I beloved it. Individuals would acknowledge me, which is basically cool.”

However Grond started to wrestle with the stress of getting to always produce content material for social media and located this explicit life-style was not sustainable for him.

“The weblog is the key of being a full-time nomad [for me] actually,” he admits. “I am tremendous joyful.”

This in the end means he is developed from a backpacker to what he describes as a “mid-range traveler,” and his days of staying in packed dorms are behind him.

“I did it for 3 or 4 years, in all probability, and I beloved it,” he says. “You meet so many attention-grabbing individuals, you get impressed by different vacationers.

“It is a good way of exploring nations. You will have probably the most superb adventures. I form of miss these days. However I do not wish to sleep in a dorm room anymore.”

Continuous goodbyes

His lodgings could also be fancier now, however Grond says his method to journey hasn’t actually modified.

“I nonetheless wish to discover and meet native individuals and see what their life is like,” he says. “With out this ardour, I might have stopped doing this a very long time in the past.”

In fact, it isn’t simply the social media panorama that has modified whereas Grond has been on the street. The worldwide pandemic led to the world being just about delivered to a standstill in 2020, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has introduced but extra uncertainty over worldwide journey.

However whereas restrictions meant he was lastly compelled to remain in a single place for various weeks, Grond hopped on a airplane as quickly as he was capable of, touring to locations like Mexico and Turkey, the place Covid-19 restrictions have been much less stringent.

Though he is dedicated to the nomad life-style, Grond factors out that one of many downsides to always being on the transfer is that relationships is usually a wrestle, admitting he is turn into extra aware of this as he is gotten older.

“It is inconceivable to keep up a relationship,” he says. “Certain, everyone seems to be inside attain with WhatsApp and social media these days, however I am shifting to a brand new place each couple of weeks, generally each couple of days.

“It may be troublesome in case you meet somebody that you simply like to hang around with. You are mainly all the time saying goodbye. Each few days, I am saying goodbye to individuals. It has been a wrestle.”

And whereas he is had primarily optimistic experiences throughout his travels, there have been a couple of setbacks alongside the way in which.

Grond says he was lately detained by immigration police in Gabon, a rustic situated on the west coast of Africa, as a result of a misunderstanding, and the ordeal made him all the extra conscious of simply how far-off he’s from his family members.

Nevertheless, he stresses that the positives far outweigh any negatives, and he is always in contact together with his household and associates again dwelling, in addition to the chums he is made on his travels.

“I haven’t got time to overlook individuals,” he says.

Altering perceptions

Of the numerous locations he is been to, Grond says it was Syria that had the most important affect on him.

“It was a extremely costly journey,” he explains. “I needed to pay for safety and all types of issues, however it was all value it. Among the cities have been utterly destroyed.

“There was nothing left however a pair buildings. The whole lot was simply utterly in ruins. However seeing the dedication and the boldness that the locals we met nonetheless had was simply insane.

“They’d nothing left, however they have been decided to construct up their lives once more, and assured that the whole lot may return to regular. That was a visit that positively formed me in some ways.”

After his go to to Syria, Grond traveled to Pakistan and Iraq, and was struck by the response his on-line posts acquired from these with preconceptions about these explicit locations.

Though he’d already been touring for seven years, it was at this level that he determined he needed to go to each nation on the planet.

“It is really cool to go to those locations and alter perceptions,” he explains. “In order that acquired me impressed rather a lot. I needed to go in every single place to point out individuals what it is actually like in these locations.”

However Grond is in no hurry to finish this explicit problem. In truth, he plans to take his time, and is disheartened when he comes throughout different vacationers who seem like racing their approach across the globe with a purpose to tick nations off their bucket listing.

“I left that rat race of life by way of getting a level, getting a job, having a profession and a household,” he says.

Steady adventures

“However after I see all these individuals on-line making an attempt to go to each nation on the planet, it feels prefer it turns into concerning the quantity [to them]. Each individual is asking ‘what number of nations have you ever been to?’ I do not wish to be a part of a rat race once more.”

He says he is been to at the very least 71 of the almost 130 nations he is traveled to greater than as soon as and can typically return to locations he is significantly keen on.

“I have been to Pakistan 4 occasions,” he says. “I went to Thailand 17 occasions and I am going to Turkey a pair occasions a 12 months. I really like Istanbul.”

Grond tries to not plan too far upfront and infrequently has no concept the place he’ll be staying, or the place he’ll be in every week or so. He is at the moment in Panama, however shall be flying to Bogota within the coming days after which shifting on to Paraguay.

“The tough plan is to spend a few weeks in South America, and somewhat little bit of time in Central America. Then I will really go to see my household [in the Netherlands].”

He’ll even be heading to West Africa within the coming months, and plans to spend eight weeks touring to locations like Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, in addition to Equatorial Guinea.

“I am actually excited to return to Africa,” he says. “It has been a extremely, actually attention-grabbing a part of my travels within the final two years.

“Individuals all the time ask me after I’ll go dwelling. However I haven’t got a house, and I do not know after I’ll cease touring.”

Grond will formally have fun a decade on the street in December, so will he be marking that day in any particular approach?

“I have not actually thought of it,” he says. “I do not even know the place I am staying within the subsequent couple of days. Quickly I’ll have handed 3,333 days of steady journey. In truth, it might have already handed. I am probably not certain. However it’s a cool quantity anyway.”

Prime picture: Grond in Burkina Faso. Credit score: Tom Grond