I'm always curious.
I wanted to see the world as much asI can and experience it for myself
... what's it like to travel in foreign country for such a long period of time , before I make drastic decision on selling everything I owned , leave my steady 9-5 job at Hewlett Packard and travel for good. Yeah, that was my original plan few years ago... To travel for one whole year either by volunteering , hitchiking, house sitting or couchsurfing .
I've covered few Asean countries like Singapore , Indonesia , Thailand & Cambodia but usually it was a short trip , less than 1-2 weeks vacation.
Back then (Year 2010 to be exact) ,
I heard so much about couchsurfing & woofing, so I travelled the whole South Island of NZ for 3 weeks. From Kaikoura , I make my way down south to Dunedin & then fly to Sydney from Christchurch and a lil bit of solo travelling in South Yarra & Melbourne for 5 days before transit to Singapore and return back home. So, I did one month of travelling with paid leaves, instead of one year.
I can say that I learnt a lot.
Here are the things I learnt from my travels, that have changed my perspective :
1) No pain no gain
Lots of cash for a traveller means explosion of rainbows and unicorns :)
It means heaven !
It means , you can live another day in another city , ride that hot air baloon that you always wanted without worrying how much the $ RM conversion will be charged on your credit card , eat what you want , shop till you drop and pray that you'll live like this forever and never go back to your old apartment , job & life . Well..sorry to break your bubble of dreams ... you first gotta work hard to earn that cash. In translations : OT, long hours, extra income or jobs for a huge lump sump of savings.
You still can travel with less money or no money at all but you gotta sacrifice certain things like time, energy, comfortness, luxurious lifestyle over necessity, wants vs needs & be extra cautious on spending habits & even people on what's their motives & intentions , coz you wouldn't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere when they robbed & leave you with nothing.
So, it is all up to you..
Some people are willing to do whatever it takes to be on a fully sponsored holiday cruise ship-all expenses paid, if they can lock that 2 million insurance target sales & some are just happy to stay in a budget hotel , eat cheap buffet food, less shopping & lots of selfies just to get a glimpse of sunrise at the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro.
Though, it doesn't mean no money, no fun. You still can enjoy life with the simplest thing like making your own picnic sandwhich or dinner using mini rice cooker that you bought from Lazada or borrowed iron . It'a just a matter of choosing what makes you feel good and most importantly you enjoying the process.
2) Not everything you see , hear or think is the truth . Certain things are far fetched from the truth.
In Malays there's a saying; "Indah khabar dari rupa". In TED video "How to travel with no money , the happy go lucky Croatian guy , Tomislav Perko quoted ; Don't believe in everything you hear or read ...
Especially blogs nowdays with all contents specifically built for traffics , likes , instant popularity and gratification & tailored for targeted audience. And that's one of the main reason I wanna see it myself before I signed up for any WOOF,volunteering or tutoring. The reality , it's not that super awesome as it may sound .
Some days were amazing ,
some days aren't smooth sailing & dangerous too especially if you're a women and travelling alone. So, my advice just be careful whenever you are. There's a lot of scams and dirty tactics out there. Better be safe than sorry.
3) 3 Rules of travelling :
1- Plan your itinerary.
Always plan, ask, do research & survey.
2- Plan the unexpected.
-Back up plans .
-Save emergence cash &
phone numbers too like the embassy's , overseas bank hotline number in case of stolen /lost credit cards & atm cards, contacts on local police & your insurance company in case of accident and evacuations.
- Know your way in and out.
3- Enjoy the ride , even the plans doesn't work out the way you want it to be. It's all about the journey, not the destination.
