A Free-Flight Hitchhiking Adventure Home For The Holidays. A #HowToBudgetTravel
One of the things travel has really made me come to appreciate is family. In my 27-years I have only missed two December holidays with my family. The first time was in Goa, India, 2011 – two months into what would be an 11-month backpacking trip around South East Asia. The second time was this […]
Hippie Van Man 1-Year-Pan-American-Road-Trip Anniversary: Looking Back Part 1
Wow! Has it been a full 365 days already? It seems like it was yesterday that my 1979 Volkswagen Transporter (aka The Hippie Van) was packed to the brim with the gear of four people heading to Burning Man in Nevada, USA from Toronto Canada. Within the first two hours, due to complaints of one […]
DIY: Reupholster your vehicles sunvisors
I am a huge fan of DIY (Do It Yourself) projects. From auto mechanics to costumes, I love working on and building things by myself (with the help of the internet for guidance). I want to start sharing my DIY projects a) To help others do similar projects and b) To show by example that […]
Soft Launch of HippieVanMan.com
I am truly excited to announce the soft launch of hippievanman.com!! After lots of hard work and persistence, I managed to get the site up and running, with a few blogs and some content to get things going. The van was purchased back in April of 2011. However I only got the idea in the […]
Reminders of Carpe Diem; Lessons from a fallen friend
For those of you who took the time to read through the About page, you will have read about one of the people I have dedicated this project in memory of, Jim Sissakis. Jim sadly passed away in mid-2012 after a year long battle with cancer. I posted this facebook note shortly after, and thought […]
Alex Currie a.k.a Runt’s Paint Job on The Van Finally Complete!
Despite our best efforts and community involvement, we were unable to complete the paint job on the van in time for Burning Man 2011 as we had originally hoped to do. We had a couple set backs due to other maintenance and an unexpected rain which caused the not-dry paint to run. Nonetheless the van […]
Community Involvement to Help Paint The Van @ Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market
Only weeks before we were scheduled to depart for Burning Man 2011, the vans paint job was still not complete. It is after all a rather large canvas and to this point only Alex Currie a.k.a Runt (you can read more about him on the About Page), the artist responsible for the rad paint job, […]
Fuel Line Replacement Leads to Engine Drop
One of the number one things people recommend when you purchase an old VW is to replace the fuel lines. VW used rubber fuel lines in their early models. After 30-sum-odd-years these rubber fuel lines become dried out and cracked thus making them susceptible to leaking. When you have gasoline leaking around an engine that […]
The Automobile I Always Wanted
From time to time I browse a classifieds-website called Craigslist. Sometimes I browse it because I’m looking for work or I need to buy something or want to sell something, and other times I browse out of sheer boredom. One day back in April I came across a 1979 Volkswagen T2 Transporter Van (aka VW’s […]