Travel Affordability

Two freelance film crew members (married to each other)

 attempt to explore Southeast Asia (SEA) in "100 Days" 

on a shoestring budget.

Day 1: Vicky and Mike's last stateside selfie from LAX

We call ourselves "Checkpoint Chanislawski." It's a mash-up of our surnames: Chan and Stanislawski. One year of planning and saving is how we turned a dream into reality. One year that also cost us twelve months of rent in Los Angeles, bills, student loans, more bills, five round trip flights to our hometown of Chicago, nights out with friends, and probably a cumulative four months of unemployment between the both of us. So how do we AFFORD to travel this magnificent Earth? Here’s how WE did it:

SET A DATE

Day 9: Sunlight breaks through some clouds 

over Wat Pho in Bangkok, Thailand

Just like planning for a wedding, we chose a date in the near future that would serve as a deadline for setting aside funding. From our previous backpacking excursion through Europe in 2014, we could reasonably predict that it would take us one year to save up for SEA, especially since the cost of living is considerably cheaper there.

LIMIT CONSUMPTION
As Americans, we’ve been indoctrinated from birth to buy, buy, buy. Starbucks every day. A bigger TV. The newest iPhone. The latest fashion. Instead, we brew our coffee at home. Most of our furniture is bought second or even third hand off of Craigslist. We rarely update our wardrobe, but when we do, we turn to thrift stores. Thankfully, the L.A. scene provides us with a quick turnaround rate on name brand digs for dirt cheap.

BUY ON A TUESDAY, FLY ON A TUESDAY
(or sometimes Wednesday)
From reading travel blogs and being avid travelers, we’ve noticed that airfare tends to be cheaper on Tuesdays. This makes sense because most 9-5ers only have the luxury of taking off Fridays or Mondays to travel rather than mid-week, thus driving up prices on those days. Also, the prime time to buy is 5-8 weeks before the desired departure date. This is what I call “The Golden Period.” It’s the brief window of lower fares offered in between purchases made by the overly-prepared vacationers and the last-minute seat fillers.

Day 10: Silhouette of the majestic Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia

WATCH IT GROW
Our savings account dedicated to our trip, that is. Like a home-grown tomato plant, we nurtured our savings account to fruition. Instead of water and sunlight, though, we used portions of our paycheck. Sometimes we could only transfer $10, other times we were able to throw in hundreds. But the more we invested, the more worldly experiences we could envision. And so we watched our savings grow.


FOREGO LUXURIES WHILE TRAVELING

Day 39: Abseiling next to a roaring waterfall in
  Da Lat, Vietnam

We budget for hostels, street food vendors, and ground transportation. Our goal is to average $30/day/person for our entire trip. A low-key day of walking around, hanging out at public parks, and people watching can help off-set an expensive day of canyoning through forests and waterfalls.

 Accommodations: A hostel bed or budget hotel room can be found for $5-$10 USD/night, even with A/C (for my husband who is covered in fur, it’s necessary in SEA). We occasionally find deals on Agoda.com for accommodations that include a complimentary breakfast.

Food: A hearty meal at a food stall on the street corner can cost $1-$2. Beer can be found for 50 cents in some areas!

Transportation: We tolerated a thirteen hour coach bus ride from Bangkok to Phnom Penh for $9 each, whereas a one-way/one hour flight costs roughly $60/person. As with many things in life, it’s either time or money. Our $49/person open tour “hop-on-hop-off” sleeper bus through Vietnam has proven to be most rewarding. That’s quite a deal for exploring seven cities in one month across the expanse of over one thousand miles.

 

Day 32: A steaming bowl of Vietnamese pho noodle soup
warms the soul!

We booked our Vietnam open tour bus
through TM Camel. We'll hopefully post
 a complete guide to surviving a sleeper
bus before the end of our trip.

LET'S BE HONEST
Through a series of fortunate events and life choices, we can afford to travel because we have fewer financial responsibilities than others and an extremely flexible work schedule. We don’t have dependents or children. We rent, so we don’t pay a mortgage. We are relatively healthy people. But we’ve earned every penny and we live modestly. Some travel articles will boast that anyone can travel the world. Traveling is not for everyone and not everyone can afford to travel. However, by sharing our experience, we hope to encourage the daydreamers to wake up and see that world exploration is possible.

Day 44: Maybe the grass (or rice) is greener on the other side?
Luscious rice paddy fields in Hoi An, Vietnam

And now we leave you with ten more tips that we actually follow...

PRACTICAL POINTERS FOR SAVING MONEY
At home or abroad

1. Sublet your apartment or rent out your house.
2. Suspend your cell phone plan while traveling. Free WiFi can be found most anywhere.
3. Share a meal with your partner/friend when eating out. It's a diet plan too!
4. Get a reusable water bottle with a filter and stop buying plastic water bottles.
5. Do your research. Spending extra time comparing costs can save hundreds.
6. If you like going to the movies, opt for a matinee screening for half the price of a normal ticket.
7. Check up on current exchange rates before you enter a different country. Knowing the value of things can defend you from scam artists.
8. Carpool. It's a great excuse to sing-along together to your favorite guilty pleasure pop songs.
9. If there is something expensive you want to have, whine about wanting it for the next six months. If you still want it, get it. Or don't get it, save the money, and whine for another several months.
10. Volunteer to do something that's enjoyable to you. It's a free activity that also gives back. Play with kittens at a no-kill shelter for four hours? Don't mind if I do!

As We Prepare to Leave Thailand...

Three weeks have passed since we arrived in the lush, sprawling landscape that is Thailand. Each individual experience thus far has, like all our travel experiences, so enriched our lives that it would be nearly impossible to do them all justice in one blog post.

Vicky gazes over the Bangkok landscape.

From playing with urban monkeys in Lopburi to eating countless varieties of cheap, fragrant street food. From enjoying the comfort of a taxi ride to relishing the experience of a modern mass transit system like the Metropolitan Rapid Transit (MRT) or Bangkok Rapid Transit (BTS). From the beaches of Koh Semet to the temples of Ayutthaya, Thailand has so much to offer anyone with at least one working sense. That being said, as we prepare to depart this unique locale, let's talk about our chosen base of operations: Bangkok.

First things first. Thailand is hot. Thailand is extremely hot. Be prepared for heat when traveling here.

Not sure liquification is covered by our Traveler's Insurance.

Plenty of sunscreen and bug repellent. The city is covered in concrete and that seems to make the heat even more intense. As you traverse this urban jungle and make your way through the thick forest of telephone poles and concrete stanchions, be sure to enjoy the hospitality of the locals. The Thai are truly a friendly people. A couple of choice learned phrases like, 'Hello,' (sa-wat-dee) 'How much?' (tao lai) 'Excuse me,' (tona kop) 'Thank you,' (kop kun) go a long way to ingratiating yourself to the local population (of all nationalities). Forgive anyone trying to push merchandise on you because for every one of them, there are two people who are going to cook, prepare and plate a meal for you for a little over $1USD, and do it with an honest smile.

Children playing near Wat Pho.

 Bangkok is not the easiest place to get around, especially if you choose to go without a cell phone data plan (as we do when we travel). However, you have a veritable buffet of transit options when it comes to getting around Bangkok and the surrounding areas. First, for those of you sans data, I would recommend an offline, GPS-based mobile app like MAPS.ME for your location needs. Other than that, old school is always the best school. Physical, detailed maps and planning routes ahead of time. This is not the death of spontaneity, just being sure of your steps until getting acclimated with a given area. Not a day goes by where Vicky whips out a map and looks at me with crazy eyes and says, 'IT'S LIKE WE'RE ON THE AMAZING RACE.' Whether it be by rail, taxi, tuktuk, bus or walking, Bangkok has a sight to see on every corner (usually next to a 7-11). The rail system is not terribly widespread, but very efficient and cheap. Taxi service varies depending on location and time of day. Don't feel bad about sending one away if they deny your request to use the meter. They will try to quote a price that usually is in their best interest in that event. Haggle with them if you don't want to go to the trouble of finding a metered taxi. A good cabbie always deserves a tip, but since it isn't 100% customary to tip, just round up to the easiest 20฿ (Thai Baht).

Watch out for the wobbly sidewalks.

Walking the streets and sidewalks of Bangkok require strong ankles and good peripherals. Don't have your head buried in your phone unless you want to be stunned by a motorcyclist whizzing by, mere inches away. Yes. A motorcyclist. Traffic here is... dense. To alleviate some of the congestion (or just get around it), people will ride on the sidewalks, weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic and harrowingly navigating the makeshift array of cables, poles, and hawking stands. Because of this use, the sidewalks are uneven at best, broken obstacle courses at worst. Be. Aware.

While on the subject of navigating the streets, let's talk about why we're all really here. FOOD. Bangkok has us up to our ears in delicious street foods. Some familiar, some not so much. Rice, noodles, wantons, fried dough, meats on sticks, whole fishes, pork soups, sticky rice, curries...

I seem to have forgotten my point.

Normally, we try to go light on our eating throughout the day and eat out once in a great while. This is to save money and to keep us light on our feet to traverse each city with energy and agility. However, here it is actually more expensive to buy groceries and cook yourself than it is to buy a meal for two at least twice a day. It's horrifying and amazing at the same time. The abundance of choices and aromas is intoxicating and stupefying. Just snack throughout the day and sit down to a takeaway meal in the evening.

7-11 is a resource that should be taken advantage of. When you get money from an ATM, you get it in 1,000฿ increments. Many vendors and taxis simply don't carry enough cash to change that out, so every now and then, go get a 14฿ (about 40¢) Thai milk tea and use those large bills to get ALL THE SMALL CHANGE. 7-11 has cash for days.

7-11. Resource.

Like any major metropolitan area, the traffic is horrid, the air is almost unbreathable, and to find any semblance of serenity, you need to travel at least an hour away from the city's borders. However, there is an experience in every step, an event near every bus stop, and just enough reminders of home to make Bangkok an ideal place to dip your toes in the Southeast Asian waters comfortably. It is an enormous pond teeming with life. From the vibrant colors and angular lines of the architecture above to the stratified layers of food, grime, and drinks spilled from clinked glasses of the streets below, Bangkok is a city unlike any other. Nearly familiar on its surface, yet unique in its heart. We'll see you on the streets, so sawatdee for now.

Until next time...

Crossing the Date Line...

Well, Checkpointers, we're here! Sawadikap, from Thailand! We made it across the Pacific to Japan and onto Bangkok. After an 11 hour flight to Tokyo, meeting up with our friend Ashley from Chicago, and a 6 hour flight to Bangkok, we were understandably wiped and confused.

"...AH-WHAT. NOTHING... Sorry?"

Sufficed to say, we were ready to jump in a taxi and let them do all the work.

However, that was not to be. This is not Europe and English is not the near-guarantee we got used to there. In Europe, we were able to get away with attempting the local languages and our politeness would be recognized and often appreciated. Here, you had better be ready with your dictionaries (we weren't) because not many of the locals speak English. Attempting to flag down a cab that would take us to our address (printed in English, of course) was not easy. Even with our friend's phone navigating us, it was still an adventure.

Once we found our accommodations for the night, our brains had been so forcibly woken up to deal with the transportation issue that I had a little trouble getting to sleep.

The body was willing, however the mind...

Eventually, sleep was achieved and rest was found. Let's discuss our first couple of days in Thailand in one of the only efficient means I know how; photographs.

Bangkok.

What.

We got to Bangkok under cover of night. The streets we walked were quiet and devoid of commerce. First impressions of the city were hard to come by as it would take a while to mine through the stratified layers of character and grime alike. Upon sunrise, the vendors begin to peel back their shutters and the nostalgic aromas of cooking oil and charred meat overpower the smells of a hot, humid urban center. It's at this moment that Bangkok achieves the apex of it's charm.

Taken in that rare, fleeting moment in Khao San when traffic is light.

The city's countless motorbikes weave expertly in and out of traffic or simply skip traffic altogether and hop onto the sidewalk and hope pedestrians are paying attention. Cables carrying electricity, phone lines, or just drying laundry wrap around every surface like a strangler fig. The motto of this burgeoning town seems to be, 'Just keep building.' Every surface is built upon. If a structure is still standing, build on it or add to it. Pop up vendors who have found themselves a spot to call their own improvise with whatever building materials are at their disposal. Need a place to eat our delicious noodles? There is some sheet metal attached to a fence, a telephone pole and the side of a 7-11. Guess what?

...

It's perfect.

Just eating food I'll never tire of at a price I'll never believe we got away with.

"Sà-wàt-dee kráp?" "Tâo rài?" "Kòp kun!" As is the case anywhere, use as much of the local language as possible. The locals appreciate it and it's hell of fun. Having spent only a few days here thus far, I'm sure my appreciation and admiration of Bangkok will only continue to grow. The first impressions were meant as a way to safely jump into the coursing river that is Bangkok. Once acclimated, we'll open ourselves to the historic temples and landmarks that are nestled in this ancient and ever-adapting city. Until then, I can only say we've waded out and the water seems inviting...

Wires, girders, and signage. Oh, my.