INTERVIEW

BY KRISTER KIVI, EESTI EKSPRESS.

This interview was published in Estonian weekly Eesti Ekspress on Thursday April 16th, 2009. Here is its unedited version in English. Many thanks to journalist Krister Kivi for his interst and questions.

How long have you been traveling?

Over one year and nine months, but out of these I have been on the road just 140 days

Which were the countries you traveled? Where was the longest and the shortest stay?

I started my journey in Estonia in July 2007 and at first went as east as possible: through Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia and China to Japan. That trip took me 58 days. From Japan I went to South Korea for a month when my six-month trainee-visa ended, but then returned to the Land of the Rising Sun, this time with the regular three-month tourist visa. Altogether I spent nine months in Japan – from September to December 2007 I was studying the language and making research in one Language Institute based in Osaka with the scholarship of Japan Foundation. The following two winter months I worked as a WWOOF volunteer helping out a family in Chiba prefecture and did not travel much. During my brief stay in South Korea, I taught English, also as a volunteer. In April I returned to Japan to become a traveler again.
I do not know if “staying” would be the most suitable term, but from all the countries I visited, I spent the longest in Japan.
The next chapter of the trip began on June 26, 2008 on the American continent, as I started journeying from Los Angeles towards Alaska. I reached my distant goal a month later – on July 30th I took a dip in the Arctic Ocean and already on August 2nd I swam in the Pacific on the Kenai Peninsula in Southern Alaska. In September my direction changed to the South - I traveled across Canada. A good thought of seeing also the Eastern part of the States was unrealized due to my visa being annulled at one border crossing. I flew to Mexico at the end of October thanks to one kind Indian chief who used his air-miles to get me a ticket.
Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama – looking at the map Central America seemed like a bridge uniting the North and the South American continents. I thought it would not take me over a month to cross it, but it went otherwise – I traveled and lived in different parts of that bridge for nearly half a year.
I journeyed Mexico for nineteen days, spent under a week in Belize, was two weeks in Guatemala, four days in El Salvador, traveled Honduras only for these few hours that it took to get from one border to the other, and did the same in Nicaragua, spending under 24 hours in that country. Thus these two have earned the title of “the shortest stay”. After that I lived in Costa Rica altogether three months, traveled Panama for one. On March 26th 2009, crossing the Caribbean with motor boats, I reached the continent of South America in Colombia.

What did you do before you started your journey around the world?

I worked in the Kadriorg Art Museum, branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, as a curator of education, was in charge of a children’s art studio, gave classes as an educator in the Museum’s Palace School and at the same time studied in the Estonian Academy of Theatre and Music for a master’s degree in Arts Management. It was a beautiful life – I had a job that was both interesting and filling as well as gave me many opportunities to travel. I had great colleagues and a wonderful boss who allowed me a three months vacation every year with one and only term - I had to come back.

It is not your first trip – before you’ve hitchhiked from Estonia to the Atlantic Ocean, traveled the Japanese islands of Kyushu, Honshu and Hokkaido, journeyed the round-road of Iceland also on the thumb. What is it that you like about traveling so much?

Why do you drink?
Because you’re thirsty.

I am a traveler.
That is why I am on the road.

When at one point you should feel thirsty, try to forget about it. Focus on something else – a comfortable sofa you are sitting in or a pretty view from the window of your living room, a conversation with your friend or an interesting article in the fresh paper. All that time there is a glass of water right next to you. You are thirsty but try to forget about it.

My thirst is to travel, and my glass of water is the road. The time that I lived nine months in one place, I tried to forget about it. When you are working, you should not think about the road, but focus on other things. These long still short journeys that I did during my three-month summer vacations, seemed like a drop of water on my return – instead of taking the thirst away, I wanted to drink more and more.

For me traveling is not a vacation or something that I do to alter my everyday – it is my life. Thus I can not answer the question what I like about traveling with less than EVERYTHING.

Is it easy or difficult to travel alone?

“Would you like to travel with me?” - Usually it is a rhetorical question.
Hitchhiking is considered dangerous; I have no idea where I shall spend the night, I do not have a plan – that makes the suggestion to travel together not very attractive.
I do not have a destination, or a timeframe, or a wish - I do not control my road but obey it. I want to see what people show me, go where I am taken, eat what I am given and sleep where the night finds me. I have arrived; I am always where I want to be, because my destination is to be on the road - to wherever, it does not matter. All the places are equal, all the paths lead somewhere, and in every person you can find kindness if you seek it.

Travelers I sometimes meet are mostly those who go by a book – they know where they want to go, what they want to see there, how much the entrance fee is, what foods they need to try, which restaurants offer these, how much is charged, which hotel they shall after all that sleep in and what the price is. And of course they have a timeframe, because they need to go back. Traveling for them is a temporary state of being, a short and expensive vacation that they have worked for and that has been planned well. Often I find them in a hurry, rushing to see all the sights

I could not go with them even if I wanted to. I am not in a hurry, besides I am attracted to what they fear – uncertainty. I also would not be able to allow that kind of traveling. The feeling is mutual.

I am rarely alone – hitchhiking I always meet people. No, I do not have anything against traveling alone. Everywhere I go I am used to being a stranger - only to become a friend, being small I grow, being deaf and dumb in the new language space I learn to hear and then speak. When I am alone I am humble, I look at the world as a child – eyes wide open and can not get over the awe of how beautiful it is. When I am alone I do not have anyone but at the same time I have everyone.

I also have nothing against traveling together. A travel companion, no matter who he or she is, if they had guts to come along, I am happy every day seeing them by my side. “Me” becomes “we”. The slower one picks up pace, the faster one walks slower – only this way we can travel together. Travel companion is special because we had a common yesterday and we can think back at it. When I am alone I am like wind, no-one really sees me. At one point I am here, and then gone - just a story is left behind, if anything. A travel companion reflects the paths we walked together: the hardships, beautiful views and miracles of the road are not just a story of these, but a shared experience.

Actually I really like traveling together.

Would you like to come along?


How did your parents and those close to you react to your plan of traveling the world?

Everybody knew that at one point I would go. It was just a matter of time. No-one was surprised, except for the parents of the kids in the art studio. There was sadness on the day of departure – that too was a natural feeling.

Your journeys have been sometimes dedicated to somebody – one to Lennart Meri (Estonian traveler, writer and later politician and president), the other one to your grandmother. How about this one?

If I knew, I would say. Perhaps it is too early? Perhaps I shall find out the reason later for whom or for what I am on this road? Sometimes I think that perhaps it is for each person I meet and I guess most of all for myself.

Which places have impressed you most?

-Those that one can not see with the eye. Those that are hidden inside people, that one can see in their deeds, words, attitudes. There are beautiful places everywhere, but this journey is not for those, it is for the people. That is why I have chosen to travel by hitchhiking.

If it is not too personal, how do you manage to finance your trip?

I did not put away money for this trip. The only reason I collected money was to pay the bank back the loan I had taken for my studies. When this was done, I took what was left, and left. I think I had about 15 000 crowns (Estonian currency = ca $1500 or about €1000). It has not really ran out, third of it is still on my bank account. I have never had to ask for money or food, everything has come according to the need. I have only worked as a volunteer.

Hitchhiking is not too expensive – transportation is free, the ride often includes a free meal. I have a tent - buying it was a one-time expense two years ago, a sleeping bag and a mattress are also included in my equipment. I hold my shelter. What should I spend money on? -Clothes? I still have those I brought with me from Estonia, some things need repairing. Also I always have to think that I need to carry everything –therefore I do not really feel an urge to buy souvenirs. Postal expenses - yes, I do sometimes send postcards or small packages home, but not too often.
Many people have contributed to this trip, I can not and should not deny it – because of them I am here. Without them this journey would have been impossible.

I seek from the world what money can not buy – for sincere and selfless kindness. To find it I can not be too rich. The world takes what you can give. If you have money, it takes money, if you don’t, asks for something else. I worked for five years with children. Everywhere I go, I am surrounded by kids – we laugh, play and create dollhouses together, paint, I teach them to swim and ride bicycles. Every person has something to give – that is why we have gifts.

It is not too difficult to give what you already have – a part of the distance, if you are going that way anyway, or your yard for the traveler to camp in, if it has space. It does not mean much to you, but a lot to me. I have been walking in the burning sun for a long time, seeking for shade under a palm tree and now in the trunk of your car, squeezed between the boxes of live chicken, I appreciate your deed.

“Why you do not travel by bus, it is so cheap here?” people often ask me, offer me some money for the trip. I do not take it. I have made my choice. I want to experience the kindness of people, no mater how impractical and unreasonable it may sound, but there is something so real and human about it. Good Luck comes into play always when you expect it the least and gives you an indescribable feeling of being on the right track.

To travel from Asia to America, the Japanese people in the town of Wakkanai organized several fund raising events and collected money to buy me a plane ticket.

poster of the event

All what you need is given and what is given you need. I have received also financial donations, especially traveling North America and Japan. For example to travel from Asia to America, the Japanese people in the town of Wakkanai organized several fund raising events and collected money to buy me a plane ticket.

I often find people helping me out more than they had had in mind in the beginning – taking me further than they are going, buying me food and water, taking care of where I sleep, giving me contacts of their friends, making presents. I often feel that I am doing something that many have wanted to do, but never dared or that they ran out of time, when family and work responsibilities came along. Now they are a part of this trip. They are as happy to meet me as I am to meet them.

I read, that once you had left home with 260 crowns (ca $26 or €17) and returned with 180 (ca $18 or €12). How did you manage that?

I spent the money on stamps.

How much money do you spend in a week? Which have been the foods and shelters of the poorest periods, what was the greatest luxury?

One day I decided to walk. I was in Japan in Nagano prefecture and started to journey across the mountains towards the Sea of Japan. The road I was walking was called the Salt Road. Centuries ago that road was used for carrying salt from the sea to the central part of the island.

I had nothing but my feet to count on – my pace depended on how they could walk, the food I carried I lived on. The journey took me ten days, I ran out of fresh food on the fifth. Every night I went to sleep without dinner – thought that I would be just as hungry in the morning anyway.

In the city it is easy to find warm food – everywhere you can ask for a cup of boiling water to make an instant soup or porridge. Although doing that you get a bad feeling of being a hobo. When sleeping in the woods in the lap of nature, yes even on an empty stomach, I feel I belong there – I sing or make poems about freedom, take a swim in the lake or a river.

In the nature I feel rich – I fall asleep in a place with a beautiful view, my roof is the sky of stars. Often I do not even put up my tent – I want to see them.

In the city I creep like a shadow, I am the only one to know my secret camping spot - behind the bush in an empty parking lot. So what if my stomach is full. In the city I feel poor.

On the road everything always changes. At one point I am standing under the bridge, it is raining, my feet are cold – I feel poor, I feel miserable. In the next moment I meet a fantastic person who takes me home to his family, where I live the whole week, I go sailing with my new friends, celebrate my birthday and see only sunny days – I feel rich. Then somebody writes a newspaper article about me and suddenly I become famous. But that too does not matter, for I shall leave tomorrow and no-one will know who I am and where I come from.

What is luxury? The apples that I received from a Mexican lady selling fruit in the street are equal to a lunch in an expensive restaurant that some businessman bought me. The feeling of gratitude is equal. I sleep alone in a two-room suite of a five star hotel or in my own tent in somebody’s yard – the feeling is equal. I am very grateful to the kind helper. The fruit seller and the businessman both gave what they could give.

I remember how after a long and tiring journey I bought myself some hot chocolate in Guatemala City. I decided not to go ask for boiling water with my own cup but allow myself the “award” – I had been on the road for 24 hours without sleep. I bought bread and ice cream too, and then wrote the experience down in my journal to remember the feeling. At that moment it felt like the biggest luxury I should not have permitted, but I really wanted to.

Staying in cities takes a lot of money, but otherwise I do not really spend too much. I’ve experienced many weeks where my expenses add to zero. In these times I am somewhere far away from “civilization”: for example in Japan I was often helping out on farms during the spring season. In Alaska I lived for a month in a community practicing macrobiotic cooking. In Costa Rica I was a pottery apprentice living for two months with the indigenous people of the area and later helped out in the kitchen of one permaculture farm based in a rainforest. During these times I hardly spent any money. On the contrary, some expensive weeks may take up to 500 crowns (ca. $50 or € 30). For example when I traveled in Panama for some time with a group of four – we used busses and bought our own food.
Strangely so in more expensive countries I actually tend to spend less money than in those that are cheap – when you travel with an understanding that you can not afford anything, you do not really feel like shopping.

When did you last have to travel with public transportation, because it was not possible to hitchhike?

When I crossed the Caribbean. Three out of six boats were so called “public transportation”.

Where do the kindest people live?

Everywhere. I have not yet been in the place where I have not met kindest people. Sometimes I think that they compete in kindness, but it is still a draw.

The most interesting story heard from the driver who picked you up?

One young priest who helped me out a few hundred kilometers along the way on the Japanese island of Hokkaido (actually he did not have to go anywhere that day – he traveled for me as far as the gasoline allowed him the return trip) to my question how does one become a priest told me that he had left home at the age of 12 and walked 100 yen (ca $1) in his pocket for thirteen years from one temple to the other. When he had finished his journey the 100 yen were still there. His father, also a priest, had started a similar pilgrimage at the age of nine.

Standing very close to it is the story of one Swedish truck driver, who at the age of fifty went to have a vacation on the Philippines (he had chosen the spot with eyes closed placing a finger on the map), got married there to a Philippine woman, went for a walk with her one night and found a crying baby in the garbage, adopted it. In a very little time the family had another child – that one someone had placed behind the door in a basket. Now the happy father was showing me pictures of his wife and children – in total he had adopted nineteen orphans. To provide for the household, he worked for five months in Sweden as a truck driver and the other seven lived with his family in the Philippines. At that time it seemed to me I had met the happiest man in the world.

The most peculiar animal you have seen?

In Alaska, near the Arctic Ocean I saw the Musk Ox that live in the arctic tundra.
Wolves in Russia, camels in Mongolia, foxes in Japan, elks in the States, bears in Canada, gigantic moose in Alaska, big and small snakes, alligators, all kinds of monkeys, huge iguanas resting on trees, exotic birds of all kinds in Central America and much more I have also encountered in nature. Though they are not too peculiar in their own surroundings, still for a city-person coming from a small northern country they are very curious and special.

Has there been a country that you still a bit regret leaving from?

I do not regret leaving for I want to be here. Sometimes I feel I have not really left anywhere. The places I had reached, I stayed in, at the same time moving on. I look at the map of the world and think how strange it is being in Colombia and feeling so close to Alaska’s glaciers, Hokkaido’s flower fields or Estonia for this matter. Siberian swamps and the hot Gobi desert are also not too far away. The places I have visited feel closer than for example the neighboring country Ecuador or the city of Cali in the Southern Colombia that I have never been to.

How safe is hitchhiking for a young woman? Have you been in risky situations? What are your suggestions for secure hitchhiking?


A girl I met in Mexico City asked me the same question once. I asked her in return if working on a pirate boat for a year had not been dangerous then. “That was the price to pay for freedom,” she answered her own question.

There is no such thing as safe hitchhiking. With the understanding that there might be no tomorrow, I live. Truth is that it is not so different from your life – you just never think about it in your everyday. The everyday feels safe – but in reality? In the similar way anything can happen. Read the paper if you don’t believe me.

I try to be awake in every moment. On the crossroad of our meeting I peek into my co-travelers book of life and feel grateful that his experience can now also become mine. Notice and value the moments for what they are, never judge anything or anyone – is the highest purpose.

My life before and now can be compared to a walk on the country road. It is spring – there are puddles under my feet. Instead of being in the moment I think myself home, drinking tea with my family. I am wearing rubber boots – I do not even notice the puddle as I walk through it. The phone is ringing; I reply and suddenly am in a completely different world – the secretary asks me where the documents I wanted the copies from are. Suddenly I am back in the office.

When my journey began, I took the boots off and refused the phone. Suddenly I felt the cold road under my feet. I started walking slower, paying attention to my footsteps and arrived – no, not home, but right there on the road. What mattered now was the road, the puddle, the stones and the sky above.

I have been afraid, I have felt cold and it has been difficult. Still a year, nine months and a day alter I left home, I am alive, healthy, well fed - even gained weight on the trip, no-one has tried to harm me or wished me evil. I consider myself a happy person – despite all the difficulties I look back and smile – the road has been worth it!


Fear and danger are not always connected. You may sleep alone in your tent feeling that someone is walking around your fragile house. You sit still, trying to listen into it for a while, then gather yourself and look out. It was just the wind.

Courage accompanied by caution; joy that walks together with reason; to trust and to be trustworthy, though always present and aware of everything; flexibility that does not deny being true to yourself, honesty and respect towards yourself and the other; kindness, good manners and patience – these qualities one should have along – have proven to be more useful than a compass.

How long do you plan to stay in Colombia?

Colombia is the title of a brand-new notebook I started writing in the day I arrived. I shall leave when the last page is full. Though I must say that I have no clue to how many pages there are.

When did you last hear Esonian language (before Bogota)?

I heard Estonian when one kind Colombian host allowed me to use his computer to speak with my mother through Skype about a week ago. The last Estonian I saw before coming to Bogota was on February 26 2008 in Tokyo on a performance of Leigarid (an Estonian folk-dance group).

How long is this journey going to last?

I usually answer seven years – then I have plenty of time to look around without hurry. In reality I do not know.

Do you plan to publish a book about this journey?

I have many diaries – feelings and thoughts in one, hitchhiking statistics in the other, detailed chronicle of the trip with costs, sleeping places, traveled distances in the third, quotes from people I met and books I read in the fourth. I do it not to forget. I do it when it is hard – writing my feelings down makes hard times easier, lucky coincidences and miracles of the road are also there. When I stay in one place for a longer time and forget what it feels like being a traveler, I read my journal and upon road’s calling I do not fear moving on.

I do not have plans – how could I with a life like this. It is too early to say what happens in the future – if and when this journey ends, would the things in my journal be published. I could only imagine, but in reality I do not know.

Where next?

Forward.