This is part, don’t forget what happened so write it all down and part for everyone who said you wish you could do this, here’s some of our tips and tricks so you can too.
Flights
We got a steal of a deal plane ticket, from my mom’s friend Mai. She’s a travel agent in Tucson and would love to help you plan your next trip. She’s from Taiwan, of Vietnamese heritage and she has a lot of languages under her belt to help get you the best deal. Let me know if you want her information!
- $338 plane ticket Hong Kong Airlines
- $50 agent fee
- 16 hours
- Free 3 night layover so we could see an extra country with no additional flight cost
- 2 delicious meals and lots of snacks, Hollywood new releases, games, all included in ticket
- Hospitality and customer service unlike what we are accustomed too. The young woman checking us in for our flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok looked at Zachary up and down a few times and tore up our boarding tickets and gave us the emergency exit seats.
We flew from LA to Hong Kong. And took a bus from Phoenix to LA to save money. Not glamorous and added quite a chunk of time to an already long travel day(s). But we spent $40 on two Flix Bus tickets plus $13 for an Uber to the airport instead of $160 to fly PHX –> LAX, saving – or adding an extra 2-4 days to our trip, depending how hungry we are those days.
Resources
- I love the book How to travel the world on $50 a day. It’s an easy and empowering read.
- Travelfish – great blog!! No dates on posts so somethings may be out of date, they said a bus we took at 4:50 stopped running at 4:00, we crossed our fingers and it all worked out. Well logic really, if a train arrives and your station is the pit stop to the city all the tourists want to visit, there’s going to be a bus because who wants to miss good business.
- Kathmandu and Beyond also a great blog!
Credit Cards
Savings & Checking Accounts
Headspace
Still going on about the book… most importantly to me it talked about the American mindset and travel. I continue to realize how much negative speak I have in my head. I can’t do that, I don’t have a job where I can take more than 2 weeks at a time. All the extra work before and after almost makes it not worth it.
I know what it’s like to get over that mental hurdle. I don’t mind going all preachy on this one because I really do believe in positive energy, speaking it into existence, what was that craze… THE SECRET. Any of us who have a US address are in a place of privilege. If you have the desire to travel I promise you there’s a way. It may not be exactly what Zach and I are doing, but you are able to do it on terms that make you proud and happy.
About that job, have you asked? Start there. It may not easily fall into your lap. I saved for a while and I’m lucky because my boss was in my corner. I quit a career job and was able to work retail to make ends meet for several months while planning this trip. I’m lucky, blessed, privileged, but I also made this happen.
Savings Mentality
This may get preachy too. I’ve carried credit card debt – and I still do starting from my DC days and habits picked up then. Getting rid of debt was a big focus of mine. For over a year now I haven’t carried a new monthly balance over and I keep moving my debt around – about $12,000 still – using 0% balance transfer offers. When I didn’t get an offer I contacted my local credit union and they gave me one.
I never called myself poor growing up but well, single mom, minimum wage work, etc etc. So I know the feeling all too well of ‘I’ll never afford that, that’s out of my league.’ I just worked minimum wage for 3.5 months with no dependents. I can’t imagine how single parents do it, thank you mom.
We can do it because of spirit and resourcefulness. Have you read Michelle Obama’s book? She learned about a school trip to Paris and didn’t tell her parents, they found out from another kid’s mom and told her those aren’t her decisions to make – they figure out the money. Well if you have kids figure out how to show them the world and together – it doesn’t have to be Paris. Go to London Bridge in Arizona. Travel shows us so much about other people and most importantly about ourselves. Being uncomfortable is a corner stone of growth. And if you don’t have dependents GET OUT THERE NOW! If you have furry dependents and some scales, I promise no matter where you are I will take care of them while you travel.
Do you have a monthly budget? Something like 70% of us don’t. If you’re not at least updating it weekly you don’t budget. And I know why, you don’t want to know, ignorance is bliss. Start adding things up. I swear you will be uncomfortable and cringe and say oh god, but do it. Look at your spending for what it is. I started to look at every little thing in terms of days traveling. I could have Starbucks or buy this cut thing at MADE with my employee discount or… I could save it. And once I started to save it got easier and easier to.
I’m tracking every bhat we’re spending, because I am – and it helps me remember what we did and saw.
Day 11 Spending
All costs are for both of us
- Airbnb Lodging $14
- Breakfast $0.62
- Bus to Old Sukhothai $1.90
- Entrance to UN UNESCO World Heritage Site $6.25 (13th century ruins – amazing!)
- Fee to ride bikes in the site $0.62
- Bike rental $1.90
- Lunch, 2 smoothies and 2 dishes $11 (tourist trap)
- Tea and Italian soda break $2
- Bus ride back to New Sukhothai $1.90
- New 3 gallon water jug to refill H2O bottles $1.25
- Fresh delicious papaya $0.62
- Dinner 4 dishes $3.90 (at the best street food stall yet)
- Best delicious mango passion fruit smoothie $1.6
- TOTAL = $48.66
That’s 2 people indulging – if we had to spend less we absolutely could.
Another big boost to my travel fund was 3 years of tax returns. I didn’t touch them (I also submitted them all at once). It’s so easy to think about what you’re going to spend your return on when you get it in the spring. But saving it either for a rainy day or something exciting pays off (or paying of debt). Saving my returns for travel fueled my saving mentality.
Lodging
Okay what else… booking lodging online gets you special deals. We didn’t use Mai for any lodging but she could help you with all that too.
- Red Planet is a Hotel chain in Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Philippines. They are awesome, become a member (no fee) and always get 10% of going rate, book 21 days in advance for even cheaper rates and stay with them during your birthday month for 25% off! They always have promotions too. Thanks Zelda for the recommendation!!
- Always book online if you using your credit card with no foreign transaction fees (really most credit cards now)
- South East Asia uses booking.com. Quiet a few places you’ll find on Airbnb are on here for cheaper
- If you think you’ll be someplace for say a week book 2 nights at a place online but then wander around other areas – there are still many places that aren’t online. A list we found is coming soon. I still need to type it up.
- Guest houses is the European fancy version of hostels. Find these! A private room in a Chiang Mai hostel was $53 a double room in a guest house $27 they’re comprable, maybe a bit older crowd but you get the shared common area where you can swap stories and next designation recommendations.
Food section coming soon-ish
That’s all for now – I’ll keep adding to this as we learn.
WHERES THE BATHROOM 