You did it wrong. I mean, everyone is different, so if that's the kind of thing you like, then whatever, but it sounds like you didn't really enjoy yourself. If you spent your time shuffling along with other tourists like cattle, then you missed what's really special about living in another culture. If you do it again, try going for longer (culture shock can last up to six months), learning the language, and living as much like the people of that culture as you can stand. Rent an apartment (or a room in one), not a hotel room. Eat at street vendors, not at western restaurants. Go to the food markets, the places of worship, the villages where real people live. Drink it all in, the good and the bad. If you're going to just go look at a bunch of tourist attractions and try to preserve your lifestyle as much as possible, save your money and go to Flickr.com.
I've got to second this -- what makes extended time in other countries so much fun isn't going to a tourist trap and buying kitch. The fun part is getting drunk as hell with a restaurant owner because you're (a) the only foreigner he's ever met, (b) you can say 'thank you' and count to ten, and (c) you ordered the local delicacy.
Or running into a birthday party for a bunch of people you've never met and being invited.
Or sleeping on a park bench because you missed the train.
Or getting yelled at by the check-out lady because you are too stupid to understand the fruit-buying process (thanks for that one, David).
It's the weird stuff and the hardships, the jump outside of your comfort zone, that make time abroad a worthwhile thing.
It's been a long time (over twenty years) since I've been to India but it sounds like things haven't changed all that much. Travelling in India can be gruelling, especially if you don't have the money to travel first class and stay in fancy hotels (and there's not much point in going to India if you're just going to isolate yourself from the place). If I ever did it again, I'd find rent a little hut in an obscure mountain village and spend a few months watching the sun and moon and letting my rhythms adjust to village life. The thought of tearing from one tourist destination to another fills me with horror.
I have "mini-retired" several times and I have to say that OP just glossed over the most important thing: you must do your numbers!
Most people have no idea how much they spend. As long as $ is coming in, everything's OK. But you will probably be stunned at how fast it goes away if nothing is coming in.
Figure out how much you need to live each month, then double it. Better yet, triple it. Then give yourself at least 3 months to find your next gig. If you don't, you'll probably be sorry. Running out of money changes a mini-retirement into an emergency, believe me.
better titles: "i had a bad vacation", "my mini-retirement misconception"
i appreciate this person's thoughts, they're very insightful. but to try and use his individual situation and experiences to represent the set of all mini-retirements is fallacious.
This guy had vacations, he had a trip, but he did not travel. He just brought his "occidental" mental conception of living elsewhere, he didn't even seem to have really met and lived with other people.
What's with this trend of calling a vacation a "mini-retirement" anyway? Three months may be longer than average for a vacation, but lots of people have taken that sort of time out between jobs without needing to call it a "mini-retirement".
i think its a misconception (see what i did there?) about the concept. "mini-retirement" is supposed to refer to a longer period of time where you're taking a break from your primary career, but you have plans to go back. i'd define it as at least 6 months.
it doesn't have to involve travel, and you don't have to stop working or engaging yourself in projects. just like being actually retired.
I think it's part of our culture adapting from the idea of one career and a retirement at the end of it, to several, with breaks in between. The semantics are interesting: it probably would have been called a sabbatical 20 years ago.
That's a good explanation. I quite like the concept of calling a break between careers a mini-retirement. In this case, though, it doesn't seem to have been anything like that, but just a simple three month extended vacation.
it still can be referred to as that, except, in my experience, there's an understanding that with a sabbatical, you're arranging things so that you come back to the same job. i don't think thats necessarily the case with a mini-retirement.
It sounds like this guy got enormous return on his mini-retirement investment. He found true wisdom. We've all heard the things he's saying about life and happiness, but now he really grasps them. All for a somewhat unpleasant three-month trip to India.
It is a pity the author thinks 6-8 weeks is the ideal duration for such a trip.. yes that is about when the inital novelty wears off and it doesnt feel much like a regular "vacation" any longer. As much as the tourist/traveler characterization is a cliche, this is where you stop being the former and start being the latter...
I can recommend going at least 6 months abroad, if you can make the time.
