Tom Grond does not follow the number of countries and territories, but goes to any favorite place, many places, many times.
Tom Grond, from the Netherlands, has been traveling around the world since December 2012 and continues to explore new lands. Over the past 10 years, Grond has visited 130 countries and territories. He used to work for the Dutch government, but now he lives a nomadic lifestyle and does not want to return to his old life.
Before he hit the road, Grond saved enough money to cover the first three years with a $30 daily spending limit. Like many backpackers, Grond rents motels and lives simply to keep costs down. He shared: “Many people assume that you grew up in a rich family. I have the advantage of being Dutch, so my passport is easy to travel. I save for travel, cut my own expenses to live with my family. little money. That kept me going for many years.”
Grond in Burkina Faso, a West African country. Photo: Tom Grond
As social networking began to take off in the 2010s, platforms like Instagram attracted a large number of users, and Grond saw an opportunity to make money from writing and posting travel information and photos.
In 2014, he opened an Instagram account, built a personal image and has 30,000 followers. At that time, although making a travel blog was not new, “travel influencers” – making a living by sharing trip experiences on social networks, blogs, personal vlogs – became a new profession and Highlights.
Many hotels and organizations approach and give Grond free experiences in return for being introduced on his social networking sites. “I didn’t believe in my luck. At first I liked it and people recognized me.” But then Grond faced many difficulties and pressures when he had to constantly post ads. He found this approach unsustainable.
He launched his personal blog Traveltomtom from 2016 to share your trips, and monetize it to pay for travel expenses. In addition, he still uses Instagram and TikTok to post travel information, and currently has a total of 300,000 followers on the platforms.
Grond backpacked and frugal during his first three years, meeting interesting and inspiring people. However, he shared, “Although it’s a great way to explore the world and have many valuable experiences, I no longer want to have to sleep in a dormitory room.”
Later, when the place was a bit more luxurious, Grond’s way of traveling did not change much. “I still want to visit the place to learn about the local people’s life. Without this passion, I would have stopped long ago.” In the past time, social networks, the pandemic have caused travel to stop for a while in 2020 and recently the Russia-Ukraine conflict has also made world tourism unstable. But Grond was only at home for a few weeks before he got on a plane as soon as possible to go to countries that opened early like Mexico, Turkey…
He must admit that the downside of the nomadic lifestyle is that it is very difficult to maintain a long-term relationship. “I move from place to place in just a few weeks, sometimes a few days, so it’s very difficult to date, meet the person I like. So every few days I have to say goodbye to everyone.
And no matter how smooth the travel, Grond sometimes still has problems on the road. He said he was detained by police in Gabon (a country on the west coast of Africa) because of a misunderstanding. At that time, he realized that he was far away from the people he loved. At that time, he kept his spirit positive by keeping in touch with family and friends in the Netherlands as well as people he met on the road.
Of all the places he’s ever been to, Syria is the country that has had the biggest influence on Grond. Tourism is discouraged in Syria because of conflicts, but he still found a tour company willing to take care of his visa and take him away.
“It was an expensive trip. I had to pay to secure everything but it was worth it. Many cities were almost completely destroyed, leaving nothing but a few buildings. Everything was like rubble but the people here are very steadfast and confident. They have nothing left but still believe that they can rebuild and continue to live as normal. That trip reshaped me a lot,” said Grond about the trip. 2019.
After Syria, Grond went to Pakistan and Iraq with the desire to gain new perspectives and show the world what life really is like in these places.
“Many people are trying to go to every country in the world just because of the numbers. When someone asks ‘how many countries have you been to?’ I answer that I don’t want to be in that race” . Of the 130 countries and territories he visited, there were at least 71 places where he went more than once and kept returning to his favorite places. “I’ve been to Pakistan four times, Thailand 17 times and Turkey alone several times a year because I love Istanbul.”
Grond doesn’t plan so far and so carefully that he often doesn’t know where he’s going or where he’s going next. He is currently in Panama but will fly to Bogota in the next few days and then continue on to Paraguay. Preliminary planning would be a few weeks in South America and briefly in Central America. He then returned to the Netherlands to visit his family. In the following months he could be on his way to West Africa again, spending about eight weeks in Senegal, the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea.
“I can’t wait to go back to Africa. It’s been one of the most exciting parts of my trip in the past two years. Everyone asks me when I’ll be home, but I don’t even have a home and don’t know when. I will stop traveling,” he shared.
Khanh Tran (According to CNN)
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here
