10 YEARS OF TRAVEL // BEST vs WORST Moments

packing packing packing packing packing you think you'd get better at this 10 years ago today exactly today i quit my job sold all of my possessions and started living out of ---- you this this backpack i have been traveling full-time for 10 years unbelievable do you see this part here where it's cut down and has been re-sewn i fell asleep when i was drunk one time in malaysia and i woke up without my backpack somebody had stolen my backpack in the middle of the night and i had it locked but they cut through here and stole my camera and all my money and my credit cards it's not the first time that happened but i did manage to get my bag back and i re-sewed it and i continued traveling for another eight years okay what's the pack what's the pack definitely another hat maybe this one actually better in this video i thought we would do a countdown of the best and worst moments from the last 10 years of traveling this is going to be awesome but first up i am on a mission because i have got a few flights to catch because if i do not get myself to the other side of the planet immediately i may just regret this for the rest of my life i've got to board this flight so i'll catch up with you in a bit in the meantime shall we get on with that countdown 10 years of travel a flipping decade this is one of the most exciting and raw experiences any human can ever have very few people take the time to experience this kind of free space it can be and often is life-changing for those who do every single one of us owes it to ourselves to take some period of time in our lives and invest it in ourselves to give ourselves the opportunity to pursue something that we want to do not just what we have to do everyone has different dreams my personal dream was to travel and explore the world but i'd be the first person to tell you not to travel for 10 years travel yes definitely but not too long the longer you go the harder it is to maintain valuable human connections and it has been proven that connections with our fellow humans is the true key to happiness this past year i have failed massively in this area as those of you who've been watching our travel series will know my girlfriend leah and i have spent the entire year building our new off-grid mobile studio but to launch our new travel series here on youtube we've had to put the project first and in doing so we haven't looked after what really matters the connection between us so it's been a pretty challenging year if i'm honest what was the highlight i'm actually on the way to do the best thing that i've done right now so we'll come back to that at the end of the video worst moment of the year was saying goodbye to my girlfriend leah she has moved to the other side of the planet i have made this mistake before i probably shouldn't have let it happen again but i did and it totally sucked the whys and hows are part of our new series i highly recommend you go and watch that i spent 2017 living in north america between baja california and vancouver island british columbia canada i was searching for our next adventure rig the highlight of the year was probably the off-grid ranch that i found in baja california where i stayed for a week with leah honestly we don't want to leave we have everything we need we could just be here off-grid forever side note guys i made a second video which is unlisted on this channel it's basically an in-depth intimate tour of capito our previous combi it's 27 minutes long it goes into lots of detail of how we made life possible in that combi what was in all of the cupboards and where we stashed everything because it has our important equipment for filming we also have an extra lock on the side here which is hidden as it when it comes down so it's a bit more secure that video is available to members of the combi crew i'll link it below go check it out it's a really cool little bonus video exclusively for you guys thank you very much for supporting our content we couldn't be doing this without you worst moment of the year was definitely giving away my combi to one of our subscribers um grant's a great guy it was very nice to meet him but man seriously giving away your home it sucked in 2016 i drove to the arctic i finally completed the pan-american road trip saw polar bears kayaked into an ice cave don't forget the glorious northern lights oh yeah it's the year i fell in love too too many to mention 2016 was an awesome year but it was also the year that i got officially banned from the which as you know was later reversed because of our subscribers and the incredible power of when you combine british moaning with social media that is a force to be reckoned with 2016 was also the year i had my combi totally destroyed in a freak fire those of you that saw that episode will know how much that sucked best moments of 2015 was living aboard a sailboat for two months up in alaska and canada oh hang on a second no i'm gonna stick with the sailboat worst moments of 2015 was arriving in alaska having spent four years trying to get there only to have my combi die on me in the first town that we got to and having to abandon it to the cruel alaskan winter yep that totally sucked 2014's best moment was moving to mexico for the winter or maybe having my family come out and visit me that was pretty cool actually i think my best moment of 2014 was going to cuba it's an incredible place i'm so glad that i did that i had a brilliant adventure totally recommend you guys go to one of my favorite places 2014's worst moment getting strip searched by a mexican oh no no i've got it breaking up even if relationships aren't meant to be breaking up totally sucks wouldn't you yep i totally agree ben i made it to london by the way sorry make that china we're almost at our final destination can you tell where we're going yeah hey ben surely 2013 was a better year wasn't it no not really ben 2013 was the year that i was stuck in costa rica and i would say that that was the worst moment i mean it was when i was dealing with engine rebuilds number six and seven i'd bought a new engine and it blew up also within 10 miles i would say that was the worst moment of the year but that was also the year that i spent five months in a mexican garage yeah 2013 totally sucked although it was also the year that i spent surfing every single wave in el salvador living mainly off mangoes and pupusas so that was good every cloud 2012 was the year that i met this little beauty to be honest i have zero regrets about saving this one from her predictable life on the streets of lima she has been a highlight in every year that she's been in my life and all of you guys that have dogs will know exactly what i mean thumbs up for dogs right 2012 was the year that i spent christmas on my own uh trying to rebuild my engine for the first time under a tree in panama in the rainy season and that was a really really crappy time ben where are you now that is 28 hours of travel and about six hours remaining we are somewhere above the equator right now where are we up to 2011 that is back in the day that's the first four years of my travels way back before i was a filmmaker footage is definitely sketchy and very rare but let's have a look how it went down first thing that comes to mind in 2011 was doing a snowboard season in queenstown new zealand love those kiwis i actually got a job i even got to ride the park in a sumo suit true story 2011 was also the year that i flew to south america and bought my first combi but neither of those two are the highlight of the year the highlight was when i hiked up the andes mountains between argentina and chile and spent the night alone away from the gringo backpacker trail it's where i had the space and the clarity to decide to do something different from everybody else something that scared me something that put me out of my comfort zone that hike that moment led to everything that came after it so that was my private highlight of 2011 you can read more about my undocumented adventures in our south america book you can pay what you like in 2011 i had another breakup which was definitely the worst moment of the year until i went traveling i was actually quite good at relationships but relationships are actually really difficult to maintain whilst you're traveling did i mention that i hate breakups i think i did in 2010 i spent three months working and the rest of the year driving around that tiny island called australia it was the year that i bought my first van and i shared it with around 40 other travelers that i met on the road life was affordable and definitely fun if you're under 30 you need to make sure that you use your working holiday visa in australia it will be one of the best years of your life and you'll probably make more money that year than you would at home 2010's worst moment getting bitten in the ass by a monkey yeah i totally had it coming in 2009 i spent almost the entire year in southeast asia i spent 6 000 us dollars in the entire year i absolutely highly recommend anybody to go backpacking if they're on a budget in southeast asia it is the best place to have fun my highlights include living with a monk hanging out with wild orangutans making my own adventures working with tigers i know i used to work with tigers it was one of the coolest experiences i've ever had the connection that you have with those animals is phenomenal they're like cats combined with dogs i honestly think that experience is what helped me train and have such a good relationship with alaska my dog honestly i don't talk much about those days of travel because that experience and those years of travel was a gift to myself 2009's worth moment being offered dinner options of bat or rat that's kind of crap i also got hospitalized in cambodia after attempting to hitchhike across the country which wasn't really the smartest thing that i've ever done but it was memorable i managed to check myself out of that hospital early luckily they gave me the medication so that i could get better unluckily it was vaginal medication and it gave me the weirdest hallucinations of my life honestly i wish i'd been a youtuber then the worst thing about 2008 was i spent the entire year working saving to go traveling i had to make sacrifices like not going out not going on vacation and basically minimizing all of the fun that i had it was a bit of a crap year but personally i think it's worth it for the rewards that you get from travel you can save up an astonishing amount of money if you just cut back on some basic spending and just tighten the belt a little bit live on a shoestring budget and then just enjoy in that one year of saving money you can travel for a ridiculous amount of time if you go somewhere cheap like i did to southeast asia and then across to australia where i was making money you can travel for a very long time like and it's definitely worth it because in 2008 the best moment of travel was the moment that i quit my job and headed out the door on an adventure can you actually imagine what that's like to quit your job and have nothing but the unknown and unlimited possibilities in front of you if you go traveling i can almost guarantee that you will have a special connection with at some point they could be the one but the reality is whilst the excitement of travel can bring people together different itineraries visas and budgets make staying together long-term almost impossible a few months ago leah moved to the other side of the planet i shouldn't have let it happen but i did and since exploring has not been the same without her as you can probably see 10 years of travel just like life in general is full of ups and downs and many of these downs were caused by me i've made a few mistakes but then that's all part of growing right i figure you guys can relate to me on that one right now there's a mistake i'm trying to avoid some people are just too special to let them slip away leah and i have got some catching up to do thank you so much for joining me on this adventure and hopefully we get to see you in the next one wherever that might be until next time happy travels