Before I start I need to say l that I’m far from a natural at writing this sort of biography. Hopefully you’re interested enough to get through my poor description of how this all came about and where it might be leading (not that I really know myself).
The very short version is that my name is Alistair Roweth and since September 2017 I’ve been travelling abroad trying to see, meet and experience as much of the world as I can.
Who I used to be:
To most people who have known me for more than a few years my current lifestyle, goals and attitude come as a huge surprise. I was never much of a traveller! I grew up focussed far more on academia, studied Chemical Engineering and went to work for an Oil and Gas Consultancy in London. A university reunion in 2018 demonstrated just how huge the change was in just a few years, noone had remotely imagined that I would have left it all behind.
How my backpack and I became friends:
I first went backpacking straight after university with an Interrail ticket, a flight to Milan and absolutely no clue what I was doing or where I wanted to go. It was chaos, insanely random and I found myself in Budapest rather than Barcelona as expected. And I absolutely loved it!
From then on all my holidays became backpacking trips. I did 2 week trips to Central America with a friend and Southern Africa following a work placement. I then planned manically busy short trips in the Baltics and Morocco with the rest of my leave. But it was all part of the career life and the idea of quitting to travel full time was a typical “amazing but never going to happen” life dream.
When the plan failed:
Many people still ask me what my plan is for the next 5 years. I usually grin, shrug and point out I barely have a plan for the next 5 days!
My whole life plan failed due to timing and insufficent personal motivation. I joined a small oil and gas consultancy in 2015 following the oil price crash. My experience and interest was in that sector and I either ignored or brushed off the warning signs of job losses and companies folding throughout the industry.
It would all be fine……It wasn’t!
The projects I had were fascinating but were in short supply and getting steadily rarer, with nothing to fill the gaps. For the final 6 months I had no projects at all.
Personal motivation could have saved me at any stage, I could have made the most of the free work time, moved jobs, sectors, careers or found the drive in my personal life to make a boring job worthwhile. Frankly I did none of these things and languished, stressed and totally disillusioned with my life. The only positive thing I’d done was pick up some tutoring in the evenings to give my brain something to do.
This ended up being one of the best decisions I could ever have made.
The switch was flicked:
You know those family events most of us have? If there is a single question that is always asked, it has to be “How’s work?”
Well I have a large family and there was a summer barbecue and the conversations all went something like this:
“How’s work?”
“Well I had a great project in Mozambique 6 months ago but things have been completely silent since.”
“Oh that’s a shame, are you looking for other jobs?”
“Yes” and proceed to rattle off a couple of options I had vaguely looked into without much interest or commitment. 12 times! In one afternoon. I went to a friend’s party that evening and felt utterly miserable.
And it finally hit me… It will be obvious to anyone reading this but it was a lightning bolt to me at the time. I didn’t care! Not even a little bit! Not about a single thing I’d said that day about my life, career, ambitions, none of it!
I handed in my notice within days, booked a trip to Paris to see a friend and a flight to Berlin with only a vague idea to head East and not the slightest real plan! The company announced it was shutting down anyway in my notice period but I’ve always felt grateful that the choice was made positively on my terms!
Who I am now:
I’m not sure I know but I don’t let myself worry about that too much.
I know that I love my life and enjoy just about every day of it and I can’t stress enough how much that matters to me.
I’ve met the most incredible people, even without sharing a culture or language with many of them. I’ve filled journals and photobooks with experiences and memories that I always want to keep. Maybe it’s not sustainable, maybe it will all go wrong but I can’t imagine ever regretting the choice!
Where I’m going:
One of the joys and tortures of backpacking is you never run out of destinations, there is always someone who has done something you’ve never thought of before. I’ll keep working my way around doing things I want to do with people I want to be with until this lifestyle no longer works or another appeals more.
Where does the money come from:
Very few people can do a trip this long without income and I’m not one of them. Instead I got very lucky with an incredible opportunity!
The tutoring I had been doing in London, mostly just to stay sane, led to a job in Monaco tutoring maths and science. I spent 6 months there in 2018, returned for 3 months in 2019 and will hopefully be going back in 2020. As well getting the chance to work with some wonderful colleagues and students this has been enough to sustain my adventures so far!
Why I wrote this:
All travel blogs need an about page…..
But seriously I made the website because I wanted an outlet for my stories and opinions of the places I travel to.
More importantly I didn’t want to lose the knowledge I’ve gained about these places. At the time of writing this I had been travelling in China for nearly 6 months and spend a lot of time in hostels giving advice on where to go and how to do things. That knowledge fades fast as you move onward and particularly for China I didn’t want that to happen. The country was a challenge, focus, drive and fascination for me for a long time and it would have been a huge waste.
I hope anyone who reads this agrees that it was worth it and finds the information useful for their own travels!
