Late 80s early 90s when did my backpacking I used to love meeting folk in some random hostel in Sydney and them telling you about some boozer in Bangkok and they would be there some week in about 3 months and then walking in 3 months later to see them sitting there and them going here we got you a pint but your late was some buzz,whilst the Internet is fantastic I'm glad I missed it in my mega travelling days .Hostels and Irish pubs were the Internet
If you fancy the states I did this for a year and drove coast to coast 7 times in total
https://www.nichepursuits.com/get-paid-to-drive-a-car-across-the-country/