My name is Ramon Stoppelenburg (1976). Let me tell you about the story of my life.
I traveled the world for almost three years without spending any money.
On May 1, 2001 – I was 24 – I left my journalism student dorm room in The Netherlands, with a backpack filled with clothing, a digital camera and a mobile phone.
From May 2001 to July 2003 (a time way before Youtube, Facebook or even Twitter existed!) I travelled the world WITHOUT ANY MONEY, visiting people who invited me over through this website. I crossed distances hitch hiking or with help of sponsors and supporters on the road. In return for all support I wrote about this all in my daily reports on this website.
Thanks to global media support and helpful sponsors I could travel to other countries and stay with people who invited me over.
“Cyber-Begging Bags Man a World Wide Bed”
– ABC News
“Hitching a World-Wide-Ride on Web”
– Wired.com
“Un holandés da la vuelta al mundo invitado por internautas de 67 países”
– El Pais
I shared popcorn with Geri Halliwell and shook hands with Steve ‘The Crocodile Hunter’ Irwin. Many magazines, newspapers and websites wrote about me and my adventures.
American and Australian television networks followed this website about the ‘notorious Dutch freeloader who travelled the world since May 2001’.
Millions of people from all over the world read my reports. My hosting provider had to adjust the server quite a few times and wanted warnings ahead if I would be on television somewhere. “Don’t you get on CNN without telling us, your website would not survive it.” When I arrived in London, Oslo, Sydney or Vancouver, I would already have a full mailbox of media requests.
From 2001 to 2003 I had travelled through 18 countries, personally met over 10,000 people on the road, slept in 500 different beds, ate some 1,500 meals and had some 600 showers.
People had the strangest reasons to invite me over at their place. Out of simple hospitality, or because they have travelled around themselves, or because they loved to meet a Dutch person.
Every single day on the road I took loads of photos and at night I sat down behind my host’s computers (later with my own laptop) to write a thorough daily report. The next day it was up and go again.
I continued for almost three years:
Moving from one place to another, meeting strangers and updating this website for the online audience that would express themselves on its guestbooks and various forums. This resulted in over 7,000 photos and over 550 reports and two years of weekly synchronized columns for a few newspapers.
You might understand now that I sometimes felt trapped in a cage that I had created myself. When I wanted to get out, I knew I simply couldn’t. It was like having a full time job and the website was the family I had to support. If I didn’t do my thing well enough, my kids would complain.
In July 2003 I arrived back home after a 22-weeks trip through Canada. It had become clear to me that I had run out of gas. That was it. I couldn’t handle it any more.
I know some people can be very happy with one job in a lifetime, but I didn’t see me travel the way I did for a very long time. I am even surprised that it took me so long!
I look back immensely happy about the amazing feat I have accomplished with the little help of the internet and I am still VERY thankful to all the hospitable and friendly people out there that made this all possible. It is because of them you are actually visiting this website…
What happened next?
I wrote the Dutch book Letmestayforaday, zonder een cent op zak de wereld rond about my travels. It had to be in Dutch as that is my mother tongue and the best language to really express all my experiences in.
Because I could easily talk everybody’s head off about my travels, I was offered to host the travel show Weg Met BNN on Dutch NPO Radio 1 and while doing that I was a commercial model for Max Models.
Since June 2008 I organize treks up Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, with my own Expedition Kilimanjaro, offering an adventure of a lifetime.
And from September 2010 I even moved from The Netherlands to Cambodia, where I lived in a palace with a bamboo hut on top and where I ended up running three art house movie theaters in Phnom Penh for 11 years! One certain pandemic incinerated that experience and I moved on, tried Tbilisi in Georgia, Casablanca in Morocco and ended up being really happy in Lisbon, Portugal! Who would have ever guessed that! More?
Regards,
Ramon Stoppelenburg
During my trip through Canada I was able to record and publish one-minute movies. One 15-seconds file could fit on one floppy disk and together I could edit one little movie every week. They have been stored on YouTube forever.
Now, let’s go for those daily reports or check the photos!
Nowadays, you can find me on the intergalactic cyberspace on social media like Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon (Dutch). I also have my own digital space stations here (English) and here (Dutch), something with traveling and go here if you wish to hike up the Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Regards,
Ramon