 The talk was a two, so recitation is going to be as polished as I'd like it to be. But anyway, I just wanted to share my stories with you and hopefully encourage everyone else to do something as stupid as I did. It seems to be working. So my slides are online, you can just look at them. There's nothing too special about them in these pictures. So I'll begin now. My talk is basically about encouraging other developing developers to go travelling and hopefully give some tips about the places I visited and some stories and hopefully some feedback from the rest of you all. So these little things are where I've been. So about three years ago, I travelled from Finland across Russia, the middle of Russia, down through Kazakhstan, across to down to Pakistan, all around India for several months, then to Southeast Asia, then where was I? Then I went to Indonesia, then I went to Japan, then back. Then I went to Japan, then I think I went back to Asia, and then I went back to Australia, then I travelled around Australia, then I think I went to the Polynesian Islands, and then I came back to Australia and then I went to Korea. And then after Korea I went to Europe to see my parents because I haven't seen them for several years sort of thing, and then I went to South America. I've seen a bit of the world, and of course I come from South Africa, I'm born in South Africa, so I have a bit of experience. And what made the whole thing a lot easier was, because I guess I was a daily developer, I don't think I sound crazy, but anyway, I'll talk more about that. So, yeah, I started in Finland and it's a good place to start. I mean, I did some previous travelling and travelled around Eastern Europe, but I'm not going to talk about the travel, basically my travel, the really cool travel started and I took a train there to Russia. So it's a really nice place to start your travels, you can get on the train and throw yourself into the big, wild world, really. And also, gee, I recommend Finland to go travelling. I'm very grateful to Finland. The University of Helsinki gave me an education. Well, the next thing after Finland, after taking the train into St. Petersburg... Check out! Bye! So, anyone, any thoughts about going to Russia? No? Come on, you're in Russia. Anyway, I went into Russia and it's a really amazing place and it's pretty big and I recommend going there. And it's really, it's pretty safe. You can do it a couple of different ways. You can stay on the train and that's the way it's like really no risk. Or you can get off the train like I did every so often. And I did a language course there. And, you know, Russian is quite a geeky language. I think it's worth slaying around with it. It's really good. And I enrolled in St. Petersburg State University, learned Russian. So, yeah, this is where it gets crazy in Russia. And the only problem now is that it's getting expensive because, you know, the oil prices are going ballistic and St. Petersburg was a lot cheaper a few years ago than it is now. And, yeah, the visas is something, yeah, Russia is a start when visas get a bit painful because I love the place but I always have to like leave it all the time every month or something because of the freaking visas. And I would have loved to stay studying there but, again, it was because of the visas that I had to move on, basically. And then, oh, yeah, Kazakhstan. This picture here was taken in Kazakhstan, actually. And, yeah, Kazakhstan was probably the last place in the world I would ever thought I would ever be. But it's pretty cool. And there, I actually, with my debuts, got a job and I was working for a media company. So, you know, sometimes if you just go out to these far-fung places you can find people and get a job and this is where it really started. And any questions about Kazakhstan? Do you matter, Borat? No, I'm afraid not. Kazakhstan is not quite like Borat country. It's very rich. There's the Caspian Sea, they've got oil, they've got gas. And there's, yeah, a bunch of smart people there. It's pretty good. And you leave quite an interesting life, trust me. Go there, if you have any questions, if you want to know some people, maybe I can hook you up. Then I ended up, you know, in Kazakhstan I was drinking a lot. You know, I was womanizing a lot. I was having a great time, actually. But then all of a sudden I was in an Islamic country, Pakistan. I was in Ramadan. I was fasting. I wasn't drinking and I wasn't looking at women. So it was pretty tough. It was pretty tough, actually. I also got food poisoning on my first week there. So it was really, really hard. But they gave me some drugs and okay, it was okay. So in Pakistan I travelled all around there with the help of people that I've met at university, not quite deviant. But as again, you know, you use your network. I know someone out there, so you really should go to Pakistan. It is freaking amazing out there. It is, wow. And the Islamic, it's the first case of the Islamic sort of country I've had. I don't know what you guys, but I didn't have a clue about Muslims and the culture. I was damn interested with 9-11 affecting us all as it has. But if you go to Pakistan you really start to really get hardcore educated basically about the different sides of the world. Yeah, I did actually work in Pakistan. I was helping a friend of mine arrange a deal with a fiber optic cable. Anyway, it was a bit of a stupid thing. I'm not going to get into it, but you know, people look at you far on it and they usually think like, this guy's smart, this guy's got a degree. And they usually just bring you in to do something and it usually can work out pretty well for you. So, hey guys, you're really in a good spot. Don't forget that. So, after Pakistan I was into India, India's massive place. I spent like six months there. I have a ton of stories about it. But of course, when I was thinking about India, I was thinking Bangalore, you know, the new IT, you know, Silicon Valley of the East. Of course, when I got to Bangalore and I was thinking, oh my God, I'm going to have a fantastic time with the geeks here. It wasn't quite what I expected. I don't want to be too dismissive and too general about it, but the way that Bangalore works isn't quite like Silicon Valley. And I wrote a blog about it so you can just read it really. But the jobs they do out there aren't very innovative and things like that. So don't quite expect yourself to have a lot of fun out there. It's not that good. Bangalore was actually like a new city. It was built in the 60s or the 50s. So it doesn't have a lot of culture. So I mean, the big thing about going to Tripoli is to see other culture and things like that and Bangalore was just like a bit of a mess. But you know, I had a good friend out there who worked for a company for a year. He did feel a bit crazy afterward, but I think it was a cool experience. So after India, I went to Southeast Asia. And to be honest, I don't think I worked in Southeast Asia. I'm not too sure. No, actually, I didn't work. But Southeast Asia is a pretty strange place. It's quite hot. And the internet isn't too good except in the big cities. And I don't know what I can say about it. It's more about holiday in there, I would say. More than working and things like that. It's pranks to see there. But from a deviant perspective, there isn't that much cool stuff happening. I expect a lot of components get made in Thailand, but you can't really get cool components out of the markets there. It's not like Japan. But Southeast Asia is a good place to find English teaching work. I know a lot of you people aren't English native speakers, but you can just lie. Even you Marco. If you do want IT work, you'll probably end up in Bangkok. I used to hate it, but now I actually kind of like it. It's a really good place. It's like the London of the East in some ways because it's really cheap to travel from Bangkok to different places. That's how I like to think of it. I always ended up going to Bangkok about 11 times because it's just the best place to get your flights. It's just in the middle. You can just go to Australia cheaply. You can go to Vietnam cheaply. You can go to Japan cheaply. You can go back to Indonesia cheaply. So it's really a good place to actually base your operations from. And if you need tips to where to stay and things like that, I'd be happy to provide them. So I ended up in Japan. Whoa-ho-ho. Whoa-ho-ho-ho. Because I've been travelling around the East. I've been travelling around Asia. And a lot of people are poor. A lot of people are a bit backward. A lot of people are just like, what are these people like? They're just so... But when you go to Japan, I arrived there basically with some Indian garb and just like old t-shirts and some horrible old pants. And then when you go to Japan, everything's so modern and clean and everyone's so dressed so smartly. It was quite like a shock to me. And Japan is like... I mean, I thought it was like going to be maybe like, I don't know, Europe or something. Or maybe like Italy or something. You know? Not that advanced. But it's pretty damn advanced. Sorry. And the Japanese people are really hospitable. And I wasn't... I'm not even a Debian member, but I said I just work at Debian. Oh my God! A Debian person here in Japan. And they checked me out for dinner for like, three or four times. And they gave me a laptop. Like I came there and said I didn't have a laptop. I said I want to take one. So I had a laptop. I had food. And I'm not talking just like, you know, taking it out from McDonald's or something. I'm talking like, the best freaking food you can get. Like really expensive stuff. I was too scared to look at the bill or the thing. And actually, the free software people in Japan have this like office there. And you can go in there anytime you want. Or then I'll be able to go there anytime you can go and hack. So it was like really like a dream come true. I had like a laptop. I had this like cool place to go. And the view from there was just freaking amazing. And I really enjoyed it. And the accommodation is expensive but my sister was teaching English there. So I was basically standing at my sister's going there, looking around Tokyo. And in Tokyo, it's just like geek paradise. You know, Akohabara, you get like, you know, tons of weirdo stuff there. It's just incredible. It's absolutely incredible. So if all these places are going to show you, if there's one place you just have to go to, it's Japan. You'll love it. You'll absolutely love it. And everyone's a bit geeky out there to be honest. So yeah, I went to Japan. Yeah, I've been trying to get work in Japan. And there is work. I have a few friends that do work out there. Mainly for graphic design. I think I mentioned that. But I was supposed to do... I am contacted like this sort of recruitment firm. And there were jobs for me, but nothing I really liked. And basically in the end I thought to myself, Japan's too expensive. And anyway, I decided to go to Australia. Long story. So in Australia, I basically arrived with like zero dollars. Zero dollars. In Melbourne. Absolutely nothing. I was like going, you know, this is pretty bad. I can't quite even afford to get a bus into the city. This is pretty bad. But I did have teens with me. I managed to call my sister again. And say to her, do you know anyone that lives in Melbourne? She just said, I know someone who knows someone who knows someone. Anyway, I stayed with her. Who knows someone who knows someone. For the first couple of days. And I was lucky enough to get a job in like my second or third day. I got that through a recruitment company. And they pretty much deranged everything. And I was what? Deployment manager. There's a bit of a story to that. Basically a deployment manager or release manager for a lot of companies in a contracting world means that oh, our project is running late. It's over budget. It's basically screwed up. We need someone to deliver it. So it's not the greatest job to have. So when I arrived in Australia, I was super stressed because I didn't have any money. Super stressed because the product that I was supposed to deploy was not very good to put it mildly. And it was for an airline. So it had to work. It was definitely an education. And I was so stressed. I tried to join a gym just to keep in shape and stuff. And the gym actually wouldn't allow me to join because my heart rate was too high. I had to go and get a doctor's certificate. So it's pretty mad. But anyway, a lot of people did help me and it's definitely developed out there. Russell Coco who I would like to thank a lot. He's a really smart guy. He's really helpful. And he's also a great Linux users of Victoria. They're a great bunch of guys. They meet every week or two weeks. And really nice. So in Australia, it was pretty desperate, but there's some nice people out there. And since just so far away from everything, I think at least they helped me. But the big problem with Australia was that I've been in Asia. I've been doing crazy things all the freaking time. And getting to Australia, it is a bit boring. I must say. But I give it a chance. Australia is a really nice place. And I think it's like the best sort of place that I would like to move to perhaps in the future. But it is a bit boring. I'm warning you. Asia is really fun. So, well, there's a long story why I left Australia. But I'll try to briefly give it. Visas are your big problem when you're travelling. And basically I got suckered when I was working in Australia. Because being an immigrant or a foreign worker, you have a few problems, right? Getting a sponsored visa, for example. Not easy, but I got one. But what happens when you get a sponsored visa? You're not allowed to work for another company. The company who sponsored you basically has you for two years. You can't move around. You're basically screwed for two years. And two years. I've done a lot of contracts in my life. Two years in a contract. And no raises, no future. You don't know where you're going. It's not a great situation. So I got a bit fed up. Because I did deliver the product. And basically I had disagreements with my boss. And I left the firm. And since I didn't have a sponsored visa, Australia is pretty strict. You have to leave the country in a few days. You don't have a visa. You don't have a right to be there. So I learned pretty hard there. It was a pretty tough lesson I learned. And I had to leave. I had a job offer, sort of something going on with Silicon Graphics. But I had to work out. So I had to leave. It's pretty bad. Because I had an apartment. I had a girlfriend. I had a freaking life out there. So you've really got to pay attention to sponsored visa and you've got to watch out. So in the future, maybe if you really... Anyway, that's the risky one. So, what the hell do I do now? I went on to those French Polynesian islands. From a geek perspective I wouldn't recommend. There's no internet out there. It's freaking terrible. If you like beaches, yeah. Beaches are really great. But there's only so long you can stay on the beach. And the French Polynesian islands are just really literally thousands of miles away from civilization. I'm sorry. It's been maddening. So my sister, who was basically teaching in English in Japan, basically moved to Korea. So she said, why don't you come and teach English in Korea? I did that. So I went to Korea, a bit of a broken man, a bit upset, leaving my girlfriend, leaving my life in Australia and all that stuff. And then I'm in Korea. And Korea isn't quite the same as Japan. It's a bit rough and tumble there. But I taught these kids for a month. And I always said to my sister, teaching English is so easy. Kids, they're no problem. And I had a four-hour shift every day. I thought, four hours with kids is going to be great fun. Those... I'll tell you. Even though I had internet connection, fabulous internet connection at my sister's place, I got home after these kids applied. I was just sleeping. They were just destroying me. I had to play with them in the playroom and stuff. Jesus Christ. Anyway, it's fun. It is fun. It's an education. And that's one thing I really recommend you guys try. I'm not saying I do IT jobs in these foreign countries. These are the other options. You can work in a hospital. You can teach kids. And teaching kids was really rewarding. Really rewarding. And I've wanted a few posts about it. So if you're interested in that, you can have a look at my posts. So I did teach kids for a month. But the great thing there was, is that I was looking around what you've got to do. I was in a country and I was looking around for local English groups, see who's in the Linux game, and see what's going on. And basically, I got in touch with my boss, Thomas Park, or my good friend too. And I joined a startup and I spent nine months working for the startup. And it went really, really well. And we got... And I was working on a project like Honolux, which is like an Ubuntu derivative. And yeah, we did really well. We got bored by a Japanese company. I ended up working in Cubicle. So it was really quite an experience. But there's a long story to this, and I'm going to go into it. I really want to hear it. So basically, we got acquired and I wasn't very happy, so I decided to get back on the road. And that took me to... Well, yeah, that took me to China. Well, yeah, China. I did some business in China, but that was kind of when I was basically in Korea. Anyway, China's cool. Japan is like really advanced. Korea is in the middle of China. And China's just like... I wouldn't say that it's super advanced, but they're super up and coming. And they're building... Beijing is like... It's just crazy. And the cool thing about China is that it's super cheap. You can go there with no money at all and you will survive. And there's really like a pumping... There's a bit of a spirit there, you know? You go to... You move into your European place and there's no boom. But China has got the oomph. You'll meet people and say, what are you doing? What are you doing? Do you need a job? Actually, I'm working for this other company right now. It's really lots of opportunities there. So I think I should really go back there, to be honest. But there are some downsides, like the pollution and things like that. It's really quite bad and the language is a bit bad. And I got kind of like tired of living in this bubble. You live in this bubble in Korea and you probably live in this bubble in Japan. You feel a little bit helpless after a while because you're not really communicating with these people. You basically come to this point where you say hey, I'm Western. I'm not going to become a Korean. I'm not going to become a Chinese. I'm not going to fully integrate into society. So I thought to myself, yeah. It's good for so long, but I decided to move on. But I have friends out there. You should check it out. It's amazing. So after the whole Asian thing, I ended up back... I ended up basically in South America. And there's quite a surprising... I mean, you've seen it out here. There's quite a surprising like, what do you call that, free software movement going on down there. So you're bound to meet some like-minded people sooner or later. And I met a whole bunch of people in Buenos Aires. And they were very very helpful and they got me they just gave me lots of tips. And I really like Argentina. In fact, I wanted to work there, but the money was just too bad. I was like earning, I don't know, I was like earning 80 grand, $80,000 a year in time for money in Asia, tax free. I'm not going to talk about my visa. But in Argentina and the economy is coming up, but it's still like pretty low to what I'm used to. And yeah, maybe I was a bit snobby because to be honest, I'd rather be there than here. It's much better. And as you can see some really like, there's hot girls out there. It's a really good place, South America. It's got a lot to offer. I need to do some work in Brazil but it didn't quite work out. But in Brazil, there's some big ugly cities like São Paulo where everything happens. I don't want to cause great events. São Paulo isn't where you want to be. Trust me, there's nice places in the world. So please, guys if you want me to span anything, if you want to say anything to say something now. And all just email me. And yeah, what I basically did is like, yeah, I want to visit this country, let's see if there's any Debian developers there in search. And then contact them. Yeah, but there's other ways to contact Linux type people. I mean, yeah, you got to do it. And not only will you usually find someone that helps you and yeah, you can usually find work. It's traveling and it's actually just going there and spending some time there and it's totally different and working and it's totally different. And yeah, be wary of the visa and try to learn a bit of the language. Any questions? You've traveled a few places in Europe. Yeah, I've traveled all around Europe but I don't want to talk about Europe. Are you? No, but everyone knows Europe is easy. Europe is easy. You don't have to worry about going across borders. There's no fear in Europe, I think. But I've traveled all around Europe except maybe the southeast which I'm going to do. I mean, I'm this Hungarian guy I think, or Bulgarian guy, I've already made contacts so I'm going to go out there. So that's what you should do. You see some guy from a strange country, just don't go like oh my god, he's weird. I've never been to a country, can I come visit? That's the kind of attitude you've got to have. So, any other questions? Yeah, sure. What are you doing now? Are you still traveling or are you working? Well, what I'm doing now is pretty depressing. I'm just living in London, playing high rent. I mean, you can earn high amounts of money but everything's so expensive in London, yeah. I'm living in London, I'm not enjoying it. I'm thinking of being to Italy or back to China Just anywhere except London. I don't know what I'm doing, really. Like in Korea I was saving so much money I wasn't hardly not spending any money at all. I had this wonderful apartment I had this wonderful kitchen I wasn't even using the kitchen because I was going out every night for breakfast, lunch and dinner actually. In London, if you want to go for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you're mad. You're absolutely mad. You'll be either eating crack food or you'll be eating too expensive food. So yeah, I'm a bit of a life crisis here. Help me out guys. Give me some tips. So, yeah. Any other questions? I encourage you to travel or I might put you off. Anyone who got to China? Me, I want to go to Tokyo. Tokyo? Yeah. Excellent. Daniel? China at some point. Yeah, it's cheap. And the food is fantastic. Food is fantastic. And it's really like it's pumping. Any place you want to go? Where are you from, by the way? Croatia. Hey, I want to go to Croatia. You do that. Maybe you'll know how to get around if you know some Russian. Similar, but no. But it's nicer. No such mafia stuff. Yeah. Well, the mafia stuff can work out for you. Because in Kazakhstan I was working basically my friends were saying you're under the roof. They were going, okay. You are ours. Yeah, so there was a bit of relief after we were in Kazakhstan. But to be honest, it was really good. I liked it. I had my own driver, my own bodyguard. And my friend Misha was saying, do you know about internet cafes? I said, well, yeah, I've been to one. We need an internet cafe in Almaty. I'll try to help you with that. And then you'll be going, do you know anything about night clubs? Yeah, I've been to a night club. Yeah. And I said, you had night clubs? Yeah, but we don't have western night clubs. We're going, yeah, you don't have western night clubs. So you asked me to design a western night club. You're like, me designing a night club? You're crazy. So it's good. But Croatia, tell me about Croatia. What should I be going there, huh? Nice coastline, quiet, secure country. Internet? Well, it's all right. We're in Europe, so internet is just fine. And the rents? I don't know. I think by your standards, well. Even in the capital, which capital? Zagreb. Do you think I might be able to get work? You get a problem. Problem, problem. So you should get out there. When you go to Hungary, just cross the border. Croatia. And this. And it's across the sea from Italy. So. Two hours by car. I can come to your place for food. Also, let's look for patches. Already? Yes. That sounds really good. Oh my God. It's like the national tourist board hired us. Croatia. You should try Brazil, perhaps, but not Sao Paulo. Yeah, perhaps Bahia, or Valor, Bel Horizonte. Okay. Bel Horizonte is especially cheap in terms of rent and the wood. Internet? Internet's very good. You go and point that out to me on the map. Brazil is pretty good. It's pretty good. Rio de Janeiro is freaking amazing. So I don't mean to badmouth Brazil. It's just that the work opportunity didn't work out there. But it's pretty good there. Really good. I don't really like Rio de Janeiro either. Okay. Well, I like it. You see these things on the beach that are pretty good. Oh, but it is better. It is better. Yeah. Oh, five minutes. Jesus. I mean, a lot of you probably, I don't know how much trouble you guys have done, but when I was born and raised in South Africa, in the wildest dreams I've been in place of Moscow, never mind Kazakhstan. What am I doing here? Why didn't you tell us about South Africa? South Africa, well... It's probably boring for you. What do you want to know about South Africa? The same stuff you said about all other countries. Well, South Africa is to be honest, I'm no expert anymore because I left there when I was 17 or something like that. But South Africa isn't something I like to talk about because, you know, we've been going through some really big changes in the last 15 years. And South Africa, for at least for mine, sort of a white middle-class family was, you know, quite secure and peaceful and we were having a good business so we were like happy as as can be. But about 15 years ago, the country trains a lot. But not for the better of our particular family. So we had to move. But I hear good things about South Africa all the same. There's lots of opportunities there. We don't have oil, but we have pretty much any other natural resources. So I think the side of the thing is that the rich and poor has got a lot bigger. And yeah, there's lots of opportunities. I don't know how... I don't think you should worry too much about the visas to meet weirdo people there. French people, Italians, Russians, they're all there. And Cape Town is unfortunately really expensive because every criminal and dog has got a place there. But, and where I'm from, Durban is... I'm not going to talk about it. You gotta go out there, go to Japan. Have you all thought about going to Japan? Have you been out there to Asia yet? No. I wish I ended here now. I'm exhausted. Anyway, Croatia, I'm serious. I'm hoping not to worry about it. Can you take some of my stuff there?