On the First Day OF Christmas...
My true love gave to me, 12 tips for travel that I’ll give to you for free.
On the 2nd Day of Christmas...
My true love gave to me, a tip on packing lightly, that I’ll pass to you from me.
- Everything that you think you’ll need while traveling, you’ll be able to find wherever you are going. When we first started to travel, we packed much more than we needed because we thought, “What if we can’t find this particular thing when we get there?” We soon realized that we were carrying a lot of stuff that we never used. And in most cases, the country we traveled to had everything we needed anyway. In those cases where it didn’t have exactly the item we needed, there was a suitable substitute.
On the 3rd Day of Christmas...
My true love said to me, “I recommend possessing two credit cards if you don’t want to be without money!”
- The worst thing that can happen to you while you’re traveling is not having access to a credit card, or losing access to your bank account. This can happen either because your card was compromised, or if the bank decides to shut if off because it thinks fraud is taking place. (This happened to us in Bali last year) To alleviate this concern, we recommend having at least 2 different credit cards, and 2 different debit cards. When Michelle and I are out, she will normally carry a debit card from one bank, and I will carry a credit card from a different bank. That way, if either card gets compromised while we’re out, we still have access to the other one. On occasion, we will switch our cards. In other words, she will take the credit card and I will take the debit card. This also gives us a chance to each use our cards so that we don’t go months without using one, thereby giving the bank a reason to shut it off. We recommend the Charles Schwab debit card because they reimburse all ATM fees no matter where you are traveling. This has saved Michelle and I a lot of money at ATMs.
On the 4th Day of Christmas...
My true love said to me, “We get discounts if we stay for a month in this beautiful AirBnb!”
- AirBnb’s are expensive, normally at least the price of what you would pay for a hotel. However, if you stay for 28 days or longer in most AirBnbs, there is a significant discount that will make it cheaper than the hotel. In addition, most AirBnb’s have well stocked kitchens and appliances where you can cook food at home. This is a huge savings in most cases over eating out at restaurants. In rare occasions, we’ve also been able to reach out to the Airbnb host prior to making a reservation, and ask for a discount. Two times we’ve gotten this additional discount. There’s no guarantee that this will work, but it never hurts to ask!
On the 5th Day of Christmas...
My true love calmly said, “Don’t be on the internet Randy, without your VPN!”
- While full time traveling, we are constantly logging on to either public wifi, or airbnb wifi routers. It’s simply not safe to conduct any kind of banking transaction or any other transaction that requires you to enter your personal information unless you’re using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) while you’re using public wifi. You just don’t know who may be accessing your information. With a VPN, you are protected from that because everything you enter is encrypted. It’s also a useful thing to utilize in order to watch TV channels from your home country. With a VPN, we are able to watch shows that we wouldn’t have access to overseas. We simply set the VPN to reflect that we are in the U.S, and then when we log on to our television provider, we can watch shows from the U.S. We use Surfshark as our VPN because it allows us to have as many devices as we need logged in under one account. By that I mean we have it loaded and use it on our fire sticks, our tablets, our phones and our laptop. Every other VPN limits the number of devices that you can have logged in (normally 3 devices at a time). With Surfshark, we don’t need to worry about that limitation.
On the 6th Day of Christmas...
My true love said with taste, “It’s worth spending a little extra to get a good suitcase!”
- Full time travel means living out of your suitcase. It will be dragged around through airports, tossed on conveyor belts, thrown into the luggage compartments on buses, taxis, and trains. It will get wet and it will take a beating, so we recommend getting the best ones that you can afford. Don’t skimp on this! Travel days are stressful enough without having to worry about your suitcase breaking open. Murphy’s law says that this will happen at the worst possible time, so get a good suitcase with good reviews. We recommend “Osprey” luggage, and “Monos” luggage. You can thank us later!
- And while we’re on the subject, make sure to get a suitcase that you will be comfortable with, especially your carryon luggage, because you will most likely carry that one the most. I like the “backpack” type of carryon luggage, but Michelle doesn’t. She likes the one that you can roll along. Pick the one that you will be most comfortable with.
On the 7th Day of Christmas...
My true love looked in to my face, “Traveling can be stressful” she said, “so go to your happy place!”
- Travel days are always stressful! Will my flight be on time? Will it be late? Will my taxi arrive in time to get me to the airport? Will I make it through security this time? Where did I put my passport? These are all things that you’ll think about as you travel to your next destination. And there will be delays, and traffic, and you’ll probably get harrassed like I always do at security. Then, you’ll be crammed into airplane seats that aren’t quite big enough and you’ll be thirsty, hungry, and tired most of the way. Then you’ll have to sit next to a person who feels confident enough to tell you that she’s been sick all week with fever, and hasn’t been able to leave her hotel room, and now is traveling back home but you’ve come in contact with her just long enough to catch whatever she has so that by the time you get to Thailand you’re sick, with fever too. These are how our travel days normally go and we don’t enjoy them. But, that’s what you have to do in order to travel. It’s in these times that you really do need to just focus on your happy place. Think about why you are doing this. Think about where you will be spending the next month. Think about how blessed you are to be able to go to these places. That will help! Focus on your happy place young grasshopper, and you will be fine!
On the 8th Day of Christmas...
My true love said so sad, “Most places that we go are good, but sometimes can be bad!”
- We have been traveling full time for almost 3 years and we’ve enjoyed almost every minute of it! The goal is always to travel to new a great places. The hope is to enjoy them once you arrive. We’ve done fairly well, but there have been one or two places that we didn’t enjoy as much and could have done without. But you never know for sure until you get there! And that’s part of the fun and excitement of traveling. We’ve found that every place, no matter where it is in the world, has good points and bad points, so if you find yourself in a place that you’re not enjoying as much, try to “meditate” on the good points. When we first arrived in Kuala Lumpur last year, one thing that we found a bit frustrating is that the city is not very walkable. Its sidewalks often end in dead ends in the middle of busy city streets, and many times it forces you to walk in heavy traffic. (That’s the bad point). But the good points to this city make up for it once you figure them out. For example, the public transportation (especially the trains) is top-notch! It’s easy to get anywhere you want to go in the city if you can make it to the train station. Another good point in Kuala Lumpur is the food! Good places to eat are everywhere! When we first arrived, we didn’t like Kuala Lumpur much. That’s because we focused too much on it not being walkable. But once we realized how great everything else was, Kuala Lumpur quickly became one of our favorite destinations that we’ve ever traveled to. And, we can’t wait to go back!
On the 9th Day of Christmas...
My true love said to me, “You may not find McDonalds, but there’s always KFC!”
- There has been a KFC literally in every country we’ve visited! Before we started traveling, we figured that McDonalds would be the American fast food restaurant that we’d likely encounter the most, but NO! KFC seems to be the absolute leader in this department. Even now, we are in Bangkok, Thailand and our Airbnb apartment is located in a very “local” part of the city. There are only Thai restaurants in this area, and none of them have English menus (they are all written in Thai). But just down the street from us, looming large, is a KFC! So if you are a fan of fried chicken (like Michelle is) then rest assured, you’ll never go hungry because KFCs are everywhere!
On the 10th Day of Christmas...
My true love said this twice, “You may not speak their language, but you can always still be nice!”
- One of the most interesting (and sometimes the most frustrating) part of traveling to different countries is the language barrier. It’s not always easy to communicate with the locals and this can be frustrating sometimes. This part of traveling has really opened my eyes to the way I used to be in the U.S. Whenever I encountered a “foreigner” who couldn’t speak English, I would think to myself, “why can’t this person speak English?” Well, now I have found myself the “foreigner” in many countries, and thankfully I haven’t encountered many (possibly any!) people who think the way I thought when I lived in the U.S. Everyone has been very helpful and will do their very best to communicate to us. They are patient when Michelle and I don’t understand and they still go out of their way to assist us even though it means that they are having to come up with creative ideas (hand gestures, pointing, speaking very slowly, etc.) to communicate with us. Not once that I can remember have I encountered anyone who got frustrated with us because we couldn’t speak their language. I will remember this lesson if I ever move back to the U.S. and encounter “foreigners” again.
- One thing Michelle and I always try to do is to learn at least a few words of the local language of the country we are visiting, such as “hello”, and “thank you”. These two words will get you a long way when you are speaking to a local. They appreciate that you are trying and many times they will smile when you say these words to them in their language. It’s simply showing some respect, and it’s a nice thing to do!
On the 11th Day of Christmas...
My true love was quite vocal, “If you only go where tourists visit, you’ll miss the joy of local!”
- We’ve found that our favorite days in the countries we’ve traveled to have been ones where we are truly living local. Sure, there is a time and place for seeing the popular tourist sites, but unless you go down the side streets and get away from the “famous” places, you’ll miss out a lot on getting to know the people of the place you are visiting. In Mexico, we volunteered to walk dogs at the local dog shelter and we got to meet and interact with local people. (We also met people from Russia, Argentina, and Germany who were doing the same thing we were). There was one Mexican woman who was a huge Pittsburgh Steelers Fan (I asked her why and she said that her dad just always liked the Steelers and so she became a fan. She wore black and yellow to show her support!) We were living in Playa Del Carmen about 5 minutes from the beach but our favorite memories of Mexico are the mornings that we got overcharged in a taxi to go to the dog shelter and be part of the local community!
- I’ve written in other blogs about the people we’ve met along the way on our journey. In most cases, we didn’t meet them in the touristy areas. We met them when we stopped in a tiny store on a side street in Hoi An, Vietnam, or walking dogs in Mexico, or getting keys made along the street in Manta, Ecuador. These are the experiences that will stay with you and you’ll remember them always.
- And occasionally, yes, go out and see some touristy spots…but don’t only go there. Veer off the path and see the locals. That will be the best part of your journey!
On the 12th Day of Christmas...
My true love said to me, “What’s the best travel tip I can give you? It’s to have a safe journey!”
- Always be safe no matter where you go. Michelle and I have found that we have felt more safe outside the U.S. than we ever felt in many cities in the U.S. We haven’t really felt unsafe anywhere we’ve been, but we’ve always still been vigilant with our belongings and have been cognizant of our surroundings. We don’t go to areas of any city that we know is unsafe, especially at night. Pickpocketing is a problem throughout the world, so I keep my wallet in my front pocket at all times. We don’t leave our bags unattended at all during travel days. We try not to appear like “rich Americans” that stand out in a crowd. We use ATMs that are in protected, well lit areas and normally only take enough cash out to last us for 2 or 3 days at a time. Michelle limits the amount of jewelry she wears, and we both only wear silicon wedding bands.
- Another good idea is to photo copy your passport, and carry that copy around rather than your actual passport. We’ve done this since we started traveling and it’s never been an issue where someone won’t accept the copy as proof of our status.
- Don’t carry all of your credit cards with you when you are out. We recommend having at least two different credit cards, and two different debit cards, but don’t carry them both with you at the same time. Leave one credit card, and one debit card at home, locked in your luggage in your room. As I said in one of the tips above, normally I will carry one credit card and Michelle will carry a debit card and then occasionally we will switch out. This way, if we were ever to get robbed, the criminal doesn’t have all of our cards. We’ll still be able to access money until we can get a replacement card.
Another excellent informative Blog Post my friend! Thank you so much for taking the time away from your adventures to keep a lot of us informed! I’m pretty sure, “Blogging” at times can be rather time consuming, but really appreciate your prescriptive! Merry Christmas 🌲 and Happy New Year to you and Michelle! 🥂