If you’re backpacking on a budget, or travelling with a tour, get ready for many hours sitting on cramped buses, trains and ferries. Taking the cheapest options from A to B often can lead to a whole day (if not more) spent in transit.
Naturally, you try to link up your long transit days with an overnight trip so you can save money on accommodation too. However, this isn’t always an option (especially when travelling on a tour).
How do you survive long travel days?
Other than stocking up with essential snacks and getting in a well needed nana nap, there are a few things you can do to stay entertained.
Movies & Music
If you’re on a tour, the easiest way to stay entertained is to convince your guide to provide a steady stream of movies and music.
In case your guide isn’t a movie or music buff or your travelling solo, have your own device ready to go with some noise cancelling head phones. Since you’re on a budget, some of your vehicles may not have the quietest of engines…
Travel Games
Some long haul bus trips I’ve endured have had a guide / host who have provided entertainment to passengers, from bingo to never have I ever.
One of the great things about backpacking, there is often always like minded travellers around that speak your own language. So a good old game of “I Spy” can definitely be used sporadically to break up the boredom of your journey. After a while though, you will run out of anything new to “spy.”
Technology has definitely changed the way we travel. Thankfully, it has provided new forms of entertainment (other than music and movies). If you haven’t already downloaded the game Taboo to your device now is the time. Similar to the board game Articulate, Taboo provides substantial entertainment when you’re in a group. It’s also a great icebreaker and a way to make new friends on your journey.
A fun (highly stupid game) we came up with during a tour in Turkey was: extreme water pouring. You probably won’t appreciate this one until you’ve spent days on buses and trains with nothing to do. When you reach this point in your trip, it’s time to break out extreme water pouring. How do you play? Purchase a 5L water bottle of water and grab a few empty 1.5L bottles. You can probably guess the rest… but the aim of the game is to see who can fill up their bottle the fastest. It’s highly likely there will be some major spillage and you will get soaked. After all, you are in transit rounding bends and hitting pot holes and speed humps .Still sound stupid? Trust me, this will seem more enticing towards the end of your third 10 hour day of driving.
What to avoid?
Like in your hostels, tours and other travel social situations it is essential to avoid debates on these long haul trips. You will always have the one guy who wants to talk about political issues, but deflect and move onto more peaceful topics. Debates can get very heated, especially when people have been crammed into a small space for hours, tensions will peak.
Learn a language
If one thing is certain when you travel long term on a budget, you will spend a lot of time in transit. So what a perfect use of the time is there than learning another lanuage? It is definitely a favourite long haul hobby of mine. How to do this? Download apps and language CD’s or podcasts to your iPod or smartphone. Just make sure your device is fully charged, and bring a power pack to keep your device charged. Having a separate device for this definitely saves battery power as you listen to language programs and practice. In a busload of people, you’re also highly likely to bump into someone wanting to learn the same language as you or even come across a natural speaker of the language to practice with.