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Nomadic Travel

Flying harms the environment. In fact, a round-trip international flight can burn around one ton of gasoline (1). So to lessen our environmental impact, we ought to reduce the number of miles we fly each year. The best choice is to not fly at all. And for the most part, I’ve stopped flying in order to practice conservation. But when I need to visit family overseas, I’ve decided to practice nomadic travel. The basic idea is to carry all your belongings with you when you travel, so that there’s never a need to return home.

By not having a home base, I won’t be in a rush to leave. I can stay longer each trip, reducing the total number of flights each year. As a nomadic traveler, I intentionally avoid owning a house, a car, or extra possessions at home. I also take my work online, which gives me greater time and flexibility while traveling. I hope to spend months (even years) in the same country, and when possible, I try to get around using slower forms of transit (rail and bus instead of flying). By staying longer and flying less frequently, I can help conserve fuel, which lessens the impact of travel.

But nomadic travel does more than just protect the environment. By flying less frequently and staying longer, I immediately save thousands on plane tickets alone. Less flying also means less time spent in uncomfortable plane seats, and more time to experience the country first-hand. I can learn the native language, meet new people, and see more sites. Vacation is more relaxing when done slowly since there’s no need to see the entire country in a single weekend. Instead of staying in expensive hotels, I can rent an apartment. These slower experiences will be far cheaper, more meaningful and more authentic.

To become a nomad, you need to adjust your traveling mindset. An average tourist is limited by all the possessions he has back at home–his house, job, and car. As a result, he’s bound by a tightly fixed schedule, which limits his flexibility to travel slowly. For a nomad, however, home base is wherever he’s currently staying. There’s never a rush to “return” when you travel with everything you own.

Giving up a permanent dwelling isn’t as painful as it sounds. Permanent assets can feel like deadweight. There’s the cost of paying for space you’re not using, and the emotional burden of caring for your possessions. Without a fixed dwelling, the cost of traveling can actually be cheaper than the cost of living back home. This is because of you’ll likely rent a cheaper apartment and own fewer possessions.

The major difficulty with the nomadic lifestyle is finding work on the go. In the past, being a traditional nomad meant you were confined to a life of tending sheep and raising cattle. But today, it’s possible to start an online business or find telecommuting work. Programming and design jobs are probably the easiest to find, but you can probably find online work in marketing, accounting, and engineering. Freelance Switch has compiled a monster job board you should check out, and FlexJobs looks promising as well.

Once you make the leap to become a nomadic traveler, you’ll find traveling to be a lot less stressful and expensive. You can travel once and stay put for months (years) at a time. And if you can get to your destination by bus or train, then you’ll literally save a ton of fuel.

Of course, if you can avoid it, don’t travel at all. That’s always the greenest (and cheapest) option available. When that’s impractical, try to take the train or bus instead, since both options get far better mileage than flying. But when you must fly, consider becoming a nomadic traveler. You don’t need to become the yak-herding shepherd type, either.

According to Michael Bluejay, a plane averages around 43.0 pmpg (passenger miles per gallon). The one-way distance between Los Angeles and Taipei is 6800 miles, so the round-trip distance is 13,600 miles. This in turn gives 13600 ÷ 43.0 = 316.3 gallons of gasoline burned per round-trip. Gasoline is about 6.073lbs/gal, and there are 2000lbs./ton, so you’ll end up wasting 0.96 tons of gasoline per passenger per round-trip flight.

How To Thrive Without A Car

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The Miaoli Train Station in Taiwan

With a little effort, you can live a happier life by not owning a car. Here’s how:

Borrow a car. Rent a car, hire a taxi, find a carpool, take a shuttle — whatever form you choose, you can borrow a car instead of buying one. Borrowing a car is extremely handy when you only need to drive occasionally.
Ride a bike. Bicycle commuting is extremely practical in biker-friendly cities, which include Portland, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, Boulder, and even New York City (1). The city of Irvine has an amazing network of bike paths. Look up your city on Google Maps to see what bike paths are available.
Run. It’s obvious, yet often overlooked. You can run four miles in about half an hour 45 minutes. If you run to work, you can ditch your treadmill.
Bus / Subway / Train / Metro. This heavily depends on where you live. Taiwan has great public transit, while California’s transit system is mediocre.
Move closer to your work or take it online. Telecommuting also gives you the freedom to work anywhere in the world.

The most effective tactic is to simply commute less. Try to shorten your commute by moving closer to your work. Often, you can combine multiple errands into a single trip. Lastly, avoid unnecessary trips to the mall, department store, or restaurant. When you must shop, you can order online and have it delivered to your door, bypassing the need for a car (2). But often, there’s no need to shop at all. When you shop less, you’ll reduce the need for a car while saving money and time.

It’s helpful to make the transition slowly. Test-ride your bicycle for a few weeks while keeping your car parked in the garage. Weaning yourself off the car should be a gradual process; it takes time to get accustomed to bicycle commuting or riding the bus. And remember, even if you don’t want to live totally car-free, any reduction in driving will save money and gas.

Most importantly, don’t get discouraged easily. Commuting without a car will take longer, but don’t let it test your patience. Always remind yourself of why you sold your car in the first place. You’re protecting the environment by conserving oil and metal; you’re exercising more, freeing up garage space, and avoiding repair hassles. Think about the tens of thousands of dollars you’ll gain each year by selling your car, cancelling your auto insurance, and by not paying for rising gas prices. The trade off is definitely worth it.

Not only is living without a car possible, it’s actually enjoyable. I’ve lived for 18 months now without owning a car, and I’ve never looked back. With a little patience, you can join me, too. Together, we can show the world that life doesn’t have to depend on gasoline.

Can you thrive without a car?

1 Here’s the top 15 biker-friendly cities in the world, and here’s the top 50 US cities. Some cities on the US list aren’t truly biker-friendly; they just have a lot of dedicated cyclists.

2 Online shopping still wastes gas and often contains a lot of packaging. Still, it might help you sell your car.

Greenimalist in Taichung

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As I mentioned earlier, Hsinya and I are traveling overseas to Taiwan by bringing only carry-on luggage. It’s an experiment in minimalist travel to help us save money, time, and the environment. Hsinya and I landed at Taoyuan airport around midnight on Sunday. It was a cramped, 14-hour international flight, but Hsinya’s family was overjoyed to see us when we arrived. Thanks to our minimalist luggage, we didn’t waste any time claiming baggage, so we checked out an hour earlier than other passengers. Her parents were confused about our minimalist luggage (That’s all you brought?), but they were definitely glad to leave the terminal so quickly.

A total of 4 bags will last us for 3 months.

My wife’s hometown, Taichung, is in the center of the country. Like other cities in Taiwan, Taichung has an aura different from any city I’ve seen in the United States. Taiwan is an industrialized nation, and Taichung is a vibrant commercial center. Of course, the locals import foreign brands like Pizza Hut or 7-Eleven, but even more impressive is their ability to adapt and create their own local versions of stores. Last night I visited Save & Safe (literally “Big Buyer” in Chinese), a multi-story shopping center triple the size of my local Walmart. At night, Taichung becomes a city of lights, since many stores–and their shoppers–never seem to sleep.

Trains run through the city.

Being a Greenimalist in Taichung will be a challenge, but I think the challenge is what makes living here exciting. In Irvine, it was easy for me to buy organic food or to ride a bicycle. In Southern California, sustainable living has entered into mainstream consciousness. Sustainable living, however, lags behind in poorer parts of the world, since the priority of rapid economic growth trumps everything else. But Greenimalist living should be universal; it should be just as practical for someone who lives in downtown Mexico City as it is for someone who lives in Irvine, California. Now that I’m in Taichung, I get a chance to experiment.

Like other international cities, most of Taichung is accessible only by roads, which are often dominated by fast cars and motorcycles. Trees are scarce, and fresh air is scarcer. Smog in Taichung is a serious health issue, and based on my experience, it’s much worse here than in downtown Los Angeles. I definitely won’t go cycling without a gas mask, but I probably won’t go biking at all because I’m afraid of getting flattened by a reckless driver.

At the same time, there are new opportunities here in Taichung. The farmers markets are more lively here because Taiwan has preserved part of its traditional food culture. It’s also very easy to live without a car, since the public transit system is excellent. There are trains, buses, and high speed railways that can take us practically anywhere in the country. Lastly, since Taiwan is a tiny island with scarce resources and space, water and energy conservation is stressed here far more than in America. Failure to recycle is punishable by fines.

So while green living hasn’t become popular just yet, I’m encouraged to discover it’s at least possible here in Taichung. If Greenimalist living is possible on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, it may be possible wherever you live, too.

Is it hard to be a Greenimalist in your city?