Nomads Ditch the Mundane & Travel the World in Search of Adventure

Jasi Schläfer was only 25 years old when she married. Within a few years she had a PhD and her dream job at an international magazine. It was the life she wanted. The life she planned. But not, it turned out, the life she would lead.

“I would walk along the park to work with my coffee-to-go in hand and think, ‘wow, you are doing this again today. Do you really want to be doing this every day?’” Schläfer said she soon realized the answer was “no”. She quit her job and joined the rapidly growing number of people using modern technology to bring back an ancient way of life.

There is no specific data, but those who follow trends believe the number of modern-day nomads stretches beyond 100,000. Figures out of the very first International Digital Nomad Conference estimate there will be 1 billion digital nomads in less than 20 years. These are people who work remotely while traveling the globe.

Others travel with little to no money, joining groups on social media to help them find a place to sleep in exchange for work.

“I have my hammock with me here in Asia and I try to camp anywhere to save money,” said Terzia Van de Kuil, who is from the Netherlands. When we spoke, she was trying to figure out how to cross overland from Thailand into Myanmar without getting stuck on the other side of the border. Hammock in hand, Van de Kuil said she’s ready for anything. “I just ask a guesthouse if they have two trees available instead of a dorm . . . other days I just walk outside the village and hang my hammock in the forest nearby.”

A surprising number of nomads are women travelling alone. Of those I spoke with, every one said they had to let go of fear. LA Shaw says traveling alone as a self-described “exotic, black queer woman” has been, “as painful as a face full of spit in Serbia, and as joyful and loving as three grandmothers trying to rub me clean in a Greek front yard.”

Shaw was a banker in Hollywood, California. Following 9/11, she quit her job and hit the road. So far she’s travelled through 45 countries and has no plans to stop.

“We are few but powerful, and I hope to see more people of color, women, transgender, disabled, and non-Christians refusing to participate in the status quo,” she said.

“I have a lot of amazing stories from climbing one of the world’s biggest mountain passes to meeting the Dalai Lama,” said Jeremy Noronha, who had $200 in his pocket when he left his home in Goa, India. He kept costs low by hitchhiking, couchsurfing, and building websites for extra money. Now he finds he’s able to cover travel by travelling: “I started a travel blog and grew it and now it pays for all my expenses,” he said.

Aline Dahmen also uses her travel experiences to help cover costs. This young German woman started living what she called a “location independent” lifestyle four years ago. She soon realized most nomads travel alone and have a hard time finding love. Nomad Soulmates is an app she created that matches people by location, interest, travel plans, and sexual orientation. Dahmen said, “nomads love to remain flexible when it comes to their travel plans, and this is a point we want to emphasize.”

All nomads have two things in common: They love to travel and they love adventure. Some move constantly, others stop in locations for several months before moving on. Maria Do Carmo Correia discovered she needed to “go with the flow” shortly after leaving her home in Portugal.

“I’m adjusting to my new lifestyle, all this wonderful freedom, and a million possibilities. Each day is a big adventure to the mysterious unknown,” she said. Right now the Azores are calling her heart. After that? Who knows? “I feel my soul is being called to be true to itself.”

That’s a sentiment Schläfer agrees with. She said, “you can do anything you want to do even if you don’t have the money. That just makes you more creative. That’s what happened to me.” The former magazine executive is now a self-described multi-talented artist who finds herself creating something every day. While in Nicaragua, she’s made money doing everything from making and selling jewelry to building instruments from trash.

“I have the feeling I’m on a huge playground, and I love playing every day.”

Photo provided by Jeremy Noronha