Backpaking lifestyle
‘round-the-world travellers’. In addition to trips to Asia, many of this study’s participants had
backpacked through Africa, Latin America and Oceania, while a few had ventured to the
Middle East. Time in the ‘rich north’ (primarily Europe, North America and Australia) was
typically spent in casual employment aimed at financing extended periods in the ‘poor south’,
reflecting an asymmetry of mobile economic power (Gogia, 2006). Periods of backpacking
uninterrupted by return visits ‘home’ to work and/or see family and friends ranged from three
months to two and a half years. Participants regularly resumed backpacking.
Supporting the work of Maoz (2007), participants often identified life crises, such as
failed relationships, career disruption, the divorce of parents or drug dependency as catalysts
for both their initial and continuing travels. These mobilities are embedded within a discourse
annaabi.ee 
