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!

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.

Still More Glorious Adventures Await...

Hey, Checkpointers! First off...

Seriously, though, with my knees, we won't be jumping this much.

 

Welcome back to Checkpoint Chanislawski! It's been almost two years, but we're finally paddling out for yet another adventure. The original plan was to explore Europe for 100 days, come back to L.A. and work enough to rebuild our travel fund and head out for 100 days in Southeast Asia in early 2016. The Chanislawskis are happy to report that the latter part of that prediction remains 100% factually accurate! However, and this brings me to our 'secondly,' while in Paris in 2014, we received word that our European excursion was to be cut short due to work-related reasons. Instead of coming back stateside in June of that year, we had to come back over a month earlier. That, in turn, made us decide between continuing the trip as we had been (at least a week in each city) and only see another country or two, or moving through Europe at breakneck speed, catching six more countries, but only spending a few days in each place.

DECISIONS.

 

 

 

Considering that we do not wake up each morn on luxurious bedding made of the monies of our enemies, we were unsure as to when we'd be able to see Europe again. Thus, we chose the sprinting option of taking in each place for mere days at a time in order to make footprints in as many locales as possible. In turn, we had less downtime to dedicate to things like updating the blog (or recovering from pains, sickness, exhaustion, whatever). So, as much as we're sure you've all been salivating these past two years to know how the rest of Europe was (post-Netherlands), you'll have to be satisfied with the same thing I've been telling myself everyday, 'I'll try to get to those blog entries on the cities we missed when my memory is not only pictures.'

...I'm sorry, but it was fantastic and want to do it justice.

In any case, we're here to announce our travels to Southeast Asia! In exactly one week, we'll be getting on a plane across the Pacific, stopping over in Japan for a minute, then landing in Bangkok, Thailand for the first leg of our journey.

After returning from Europe, we spent about a year saving enough money for this trip and bought our tickets to Thailand in November, thus cementing this endeavor in reality. A post soon will itemize as much as possible to help any of you wondering how this trip can be a reality for anyone. For now, this is just our announcement, slipped into the ether, that we are heading out! Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, and Japan here we come...

Dam Good City...

A few days (weeks) late, but I think it’s about time Checkpoint Chanislawski updated you all on their travels through the capital of the Netherlands. After the wonderfully quiet respite that was Bruges, we decided to dive head first into the canals of Amsterdam. Directly upon entering the city, you feel the difference in vibe the place has to offer. It is packed with locals and transplants alike. This obviously is a double edged sword sometimes, but Amsterdam has found a way to make it work. We were, for the most part, treated very kindly and on more than a few occasions, people would go out of their way to make sure our time in their city was a memorable one.

We wanted to get the touristy stuff out of the way early, so first on our list was to (surprise, surprise) taste a world-renowned beer from its source. Off to the Heineken Experience we went. As are all tourist traps, it was overpriced, but did include plenty of tastes of the beer and fun, interactive things to do (a trait Amsterdam is quite fond of) regarding the brand . A brewery tour is a brewery tour, but it was still enjoyable and we now have two commemorative beer glasses to boot.

Vicky Chan, Heineken model.

Later in the first night, Vicky had a strange (albeit completely shared) desire to see the Red Light District. Now, fair warning. Like all major cities, Amsterdam is going to feel like one giant tourist trap. This was the overriding feeling as we strolled through the city center and canals and Red Light District during the day. A lot of cheap (but not nearly cheap enough), terrible food, a lot of tourists (mainly young white dudes – totally, bro), attempting to scour the city for the perfect ‘coffee shop,’ and a lot of waiters desperately trying to pull you into their restaurant, no matter how many times you say, “No” or “Ask me again and I will beat the crap out of you before you can say, ‘truffles.’” Sufficed to say, our hopes were not high (unlike some of the city’s patrons) that we would enjoy it much more at night.

Yes. The buildings bow like that. It is amazing and terrifying, much like many experiences in Amsterdam.

We were proven wrong. Amsterdam comes alive at night in a way that I have not experienced in most cities. There is a musical quality to the chatter that goes on. What was a lazy staccato of people meandering during the day becomes a vibrant, shimmering aria of humans moving in unison. The canals and narrow alleyways become veins and arteries of a city, pumping with life. Every street corner oozes with personality and one can only imagine the stories that have been created there and relished in for a lifetime afterward. I’m not going to go into detail on the stories we created, but you can imagine how far the vivid colors of the city coupled with a friendly and helpful store clerk can go for someone asking, “What do you know about Truffles?”

"DON'T POINT AT THE GROUND. PEOPLE WILL THINK YOU'RE CRAZY."

Amsterdam has a plethora of parks around and in the city from which you can choose to rest your weary head after a night of stories. This is something we Chanislawskis appreciate most about any city. We need a decent place for naptime. After a filling and delicious meal of authentic Dutch cuisine at The Pantry and more than a day of ducking and weaving through the bicycle traffic (seriously, this place is run by cyclists), we needed a place to rest.  Europe loves to lounge in its parks. Amsterdam is no different and it is glorious. After being serenaded to sleep by the sounds of a non-English-speaking busker muddling through half of Nirvana’s catalogue and some teenaged girls trying to play ‘chase the pigeon,’ we awoke refreshed and ready to move on to bigger and better things.

Pannenkoken and a combination of hutspot, zurkool, and stamppotten.
Top this off with a ludicrously high alcohol content Trappist beer. Seriously.

Having had enough of street performer versions of my favorite music, we headed off to the Bibliotheek Amsterdam (their National Library) to check it out. The beautifully blended modern building fits well within the riverfront landscape. The interior is something that would make Stanley Kubrick’s world of 2001: A Space Odyssey proud. Clean and efficient, yet with a definite touch of style, all the while, being laid out in a user-friendly way. Personally, I got lost in the music section where you can stream every song they have in the library as well as browse similar works. It’s like spending a day on AllMusic.com and then being able to take a copy of your new discoveries home with you after. This place, like much of Amsterdam, also deals with the concept of young education extremely well. This place is not a fortress of forced learning, but an inviting, safe place for kids to explore what interests them.

"This place has a stream-able version of DJ Shadow's 'Entroducing?' I approve of this library."

Down the riverfront from the library is the NEMO Science andTechnology Museum where the concepts of children learning and children playing become so blurred, that you can hardly tell one from the other. Just floor after mind-expanding floor of interactive education. If you ever visit (and you should) be sure to check out the section on sex. Up front, honest, and respective of adolescents’ minds. No censorship, but at the same time, fun and engaging without being too gratuitous. Just an incredibly progressive approach to a museum and a damn fun place to hang out for a morning.

"Wait. Sex isn't supposed to be terrifying and embarrassing?"

This Chanislawski would be replete not to mention an excellent bar we visited our last night in Amsterdam. After visiting the ‘coffee shops,’ (best line from a local on those, “Yeah, I guess you can get coffee there, too.”) we decided on a much more ‘us’ evening outside, on beanbags, under a windmill. While in Amsterdam, check out Langendijk Cafe. Great local brews and an intoxicating vibe. Why wouldn’t you want to drink under the largest wooden windmill in Europe?

It was a jam-packed few days in Amsterdam. Between using the public transit and public parks to their fullest extent, getting ‘coffee’ and ‘truffles,’ and touring the canals and Red Light Districts, Amsterdam is a beauty and beast with no comparison. Quaint and demur by day, brash and sultry by night. The city and it’s locals are open, inviting people who only want you to do what we did on our short time there: enjoy yourself and remember the way back home as best as possible. If you can only do one of those, however, there are plenty of parks in which to sleep off any excursion.

A lasting image of Amsterdam. The commercials are right. A Dam Good City.

Doing Some Good...

An easy misconception about taking a big trip such as ours' is that it can often be mistaken for one long vacation or holiday. While it may seem that way, especially at the beginning, the purpose of this trip is to live life in another country. We want to experience what another culture has to offer and that can be difficult when limiting yourself to the tourist traps as they are catered to making things easy for foreigners. This, of course, doesn't mean to avoid the tourist spots all together because, let's face it, places like the London Tower are sights for that exact reason. They are meant to be seen and marveled. Avoiding Trafalgar Square is to avoid experiencing a major part of London's history. Just don't rely on tours of said places for your reaction to all that you can see while abroad.

Trafalgar Square. This place is SPECIAL.

The human mind is an incredible tool. It can process information and stimuli in a way that can be reinterpreted in endless other forms. A monolith of stone and mortar like the London Tower can be seen as a link to raw historical data or even as an abstract representation of an emotion such as pride. Crossing the modernistic twists of metal that is the Millennium Bridge can cause you to think of a specific human that engineered it or possibly conjure memories of crossing it on a previous trip with family. The fact of the matter is that we have sharpened this tool of ours to a point where it allows us to do amazing things. One of many reasons I like to experience things for myself before getting another take on it.

On the Millennium Bridge from St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern.

Vicky and I experienced a lot in these past couple of days. From gobbling down a traditional English breakfast to walking across the Thames on the Millennium Bridge. After which, we went on a crosstown trek between two British museums. The Tate Modern in the morning and the National Gallery in the evening. In between, we stopped at Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square and witnessed the fever pitch that is a living, breathing city in full bloom of a Friday night. From pints of ale in Leicester Square to pints of lager in East End, we made full use of the Tube and the double-decker night buses. We drank and danced with some locals and some not-so-locals. Saturday night, however, we cemented the fact that this is not just a vacation to us. We agreed to volunteer with the Catholic Worker.

My brother and his wife are frequent volunteers with this movement that, in a nutshell, provides meals and shelters to immigrants in search of political asylum. Some of these poor souls have been waiting to be made legal citizens for over four years. Taking a break from our whirlwind travel plans to help cook and serve meals to refugees is not something you take into account when planning a trip like this. However, for Vicky and I, when the opportunity arose, we couldn't refuse. Neither one of us are religious in any way, but one thing we do agree on is the concept of being selfless, even if it something as seemingly insignificant as introducing Mexican cuisine to a man from Burundi and seeing the wonder in his eyes at our use of such 'exotic combinations of food.'

Cookin' veggie fajitas with Spanish rice.

Complete thug cookery.

This is another great thing about opening yourself to all that surrounds you when traveling. Sure, we could have sampled another bitter or stout at another one of London's countless historical pubs on a Saturday night, but what better way to make this trip part of life instead of part of a vacation? By helping to enrich a few people's lives, we are enriching our own. We are living life. We just happen to be doing it in a place I've never been. To me, that is truly doing some good...

The view from the bottom of the Emirates Airline on the Greenwich Peninsula.

At the Terminal...

Here we are. On the precipice of another life event. So many of these take place in an airport. Not much time to wax philosophical on this one, as we're boarding soon, but just wanted to say goodbye, America. We'll get you something neat from the duty free shop in Europe!