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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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 Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 6:18 pm Post subject: Re: $15,000 and all the time in the world. Your opinion, pl |
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| tukmax wrote: |
I would like to go to;
Japan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Hong Kong, Singapore, and perhaps Mongolia and Malaysia to name a few. |
Teach in China for 3 months. They will provide the housing, you'll make enough to pay for food, you can work 2 or 3 days a week only (take one of the lesser hour college positions) leaving 4 or 5 days a week free.
Teach in Thailand under the table for two months.
Lots of one-month work to be found in Cambodia.
Malaysia and Vietnam I'm less familiar with.
The point is, you could stretch that $15,000 into a ONE-year trip if you do a stop-and-go tactic of LIVING in an area for a couple of moths at a time inbetween travel. After all, constantly on the go is tiring. And one really gets to know the PEOPLE and a PLACE by living and working there for a time.
Think of your $15,000 as your backup funds, trying to live off of the local currency, for the most part.
You needn't tell the locals you don't plan to stick around long. Basically, plan to stay until a payday or two, then move on when the time feels right.
At the end of it all you'll have gone further, gotten to know more, and hell had a lot of nontouristy experiences inbetween your touristy trips. TEACH ENGLISH AND SEE THE WORLD! Literally. Not like the shmucks who go overseas and stay in ONE place the whole time. Teach with light feet, so to speak. A real adventure. |
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J Rock
Joined: 17 Jan 2009
Location: The center of the Earth, Suji
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| Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 4:16 am Post subject: Re: $15,000 and all the time in the world. Your opinion, pl |
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| Louis VI wrote: |
| tukmax wrote: |
I would like to go to;
Japan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Hong Kong, Singapore, and perhaps Mongolia and Malaysia to name a few. |
Teach in China for 3 months. They will provide the housing, you'll make enough to pay for food, you can work 2 or 3 days a week only (take one of the lesser hour college positions) leaving 4 or 5 days a week free.
Teach in Thailand under the table for two months.
Lots of one-month work to be found in Cambodia.
Malaysia and Vietnam I'm less familiar with.
The point is, you could stretch that $15,000 into a ONE-year trip if you do a stop-and-go tactic of LIVING in an area for a couple of moths at a time inbetween travel. After all, constantly on the go is tiring. And one really gets to know the PEOPLE and a PLACE by living and working there for a time.
Think of your $15,000 as your backup funds, trying to live off of the local currency, for the most part.
You needn't tell the locals you don't plan to stick around long. Basically, plan to stay until a payday or two, then move on when the time feels right.
At the end of it all you'll have gone further, gotten to know more, and hell had a lot of nontouristy experiences inbetween your touristy trips. TEACH ENGLISH AND SEE THE WORLD! Literally. Not like the shmucks who go overseas and stay in ONE place the whole time. Teach with light feet, so to speak. A real adventure. |
Now that sounds like the ultimate adventure. I espically think the constant traveling would become tiring. It would be kinda of like you stop set up shop for a little while plan some things and then hit the road again once you get the feeling. Plus if you really like one or two specific areas you could stay a bit longer if you like. |
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Nick Adams
Joined: 26 May 2005
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| Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 10:01 am Post subject: |
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Time to start an account at: http://www.couchsurfing.org/
With $15,000, a frugal mindset, and a few friends you can do 10-12 months. More expensive now than it was in recent years. |
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carleverson
Joined: 04 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Spend all your time in Korea. You won't regret it. |
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Capo
Joined: 09 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:34 am Post subject: |
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| Nick Adams wrote: |
Time to start an account at: http://www.couchsurfing.org/
With $15,000, a frugal mindset, and a few friends you can do 10-12 months. More expensive now than it was in recent years. |
i used it before, mostly weirdos but met the most awesome host in st petersberg |
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sweet_potato
Joined: 05 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 3:59 am Post subject: |
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cool idea  i'm planning a trip myself and i enjoyed reading all the comments on here and took note of a few thanks folks
as far as your trip, u should go to mongolia first so that u can be there when the weather is nice. don't wait too long. they had snow in september (chuseok) this year. after some research, i realized that i can't do what i want in mongolia, since my contract ends at the end of august :s i'm packing light, so i don't want to have to deal with bulky clothing.. anyway, i wanted to do several treks, south into the gobi for the desert experience, north toward siberia which has a ton of small villages and u can ride horses through the national parks etc etc , and also the east (which hardly gets any tourism)... do a lot of camping, that sort of thing. i'll have to come back sometime.
i also liked the suggestion of taking jobs for a couple of weeks in order to better experience the culture before moving on. i also wanted to suggest that there are a lot of volunteer options available as well. cambodian villages would love to have an english teacher for a couple of days. if wildlife/nature is your thing, there are a lot of opportunities in indonesia/malaysia.
i stumbled upon this website in my own research. http://www.travelindependent.info/
it's got a ton of useful information. don't overlook the packing/before you go sections.
good luck! |
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The Sherriff
Joined: 10 Jan 2010
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| Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 8:19 am Post subject: Re: $15,000 and all the time in the world. Your opinion, pl |
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| Louis VI wrote: |
| tukmax wrote: |
I would like to go to;
Japan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Hong Kong, Singapore, and perhaps Mongolia and Malaysia to name a few. |
Teach in China for 3 months. They will provide the housing, you'll make enough to pay for food, you can work 2 or 3 days a week only (take one of the lesser hour college positions) leaving 4 or 5 days a week free.
Teach in Thailand under the table for two months.
Lots of one-month work to be found in Cambodia.
Malaysia and Vietnam I'm less familiar with.
The point is, you could stretch that $15,000 into a ONE-year trip if you do a stop-and-go tactic of LIVING in an area for a couple of moths at a time inbetween travel. After all, constantly on the go is tiring. And one really gets to know the PEOPLE and a PLACE by living and working there for a time.
Think of your $15,000 as your backup funds, trying to live off of the local currency, for the most part.
You needn't tell the locals you don't plan to stick around long. Basically, plan to stay until a payday or two, then move on when the time feels right.
At the end of it all you'll have gone further, gotten to know more, and hell had a lot of nontouristy experiences inbetween your touristy trips. TEACH ENGLISH AND SEE THE WORLD! Literally. Not like the shmucks who go overseas and stay in ONE place the whole time. Teach with light feet, so to speak. A real adventure. |
OP - I would definitely recommend taking this approach, over blasting through numerous countries each over 3-week time frames. Not necessarily those countries (If you don't want to... It's actually a pretty good route), but that sort of approach to settling into a country, and trying to intimately understand the country's culture, and befriending/getting to know locals, fellow travellers/tourists and expats alike. You'll establish stronger relationships with the people you get to know, rather than transient connections you might make with other tourists you met at a temple. Locals/expats might also eventually take you 'under their wing' to show you the another side of <Country> that you can't see or experience through the recommendations of your lonely planet guidebook.
Anyone who's ever travelled extensively (especially solo!), knows that less is much more. Seeing sights gets boring, and when you see multiple attractions over a short amount of time, each new attraction makes less of an impression. You also get lonely travelling solo - As I mentioned you mostly only meet transients, and when you're in a city/country for such a short amount of time before you have to move on, you barely even get to know them. You might even become depressed/confused because your world travels were supposed to be this amazing experience, but its just not fun for you. What are you gonna tell your friends back home when you have no good stories to tell? Don't go travelling for the sights/passport stamp, go for the experience.
I'll finish this with a cliched quote - "It's not the Destination, but the Journey." |
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Smitty5000
Joined: 15 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Capo wrote: |
| Nick Adams wrote: |
Time to start an account at: http://www.couchsurfing.org/
With $15,000, a frugal mindset, and a few friends you can do 10-12 months. More expensive now than it was in recent years. |
i used it before, mostly weirdos but met the most awesome host in st petersberg |
I CouchSurf all the time. What do you mean mostly weirdos? What's normal exactly? Couchsurfing makes travel SO much better, since you find the best local restaurants/bars/cool stuff and dont get trapped in with the tourists. Not to mention that a CSing vacation costs less than half of a regular vacation. |
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nstick13
Joined: 02 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 4:01 pm Post subject: |
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About the Middle East:
If you want to do Syria and/or Lebanon as well as Israel, make sure you do Syria and Lebanon first. Going to Israel and receiving a visa prohibits you in the future from going to Syria and Lebanon, as they do not recognize Israel as a country. You'd have to wait until you got a new passport. |
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mdsb87
Joined: 16 Aug 2010
Location: Gyeongsangnam do
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| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Smitty5000 wrote: |
| Capo wrote: |
| Nick Adams wrote: |
Time to start an account at: http://www.couchsurfing.org/
With $15,000, a frugal mindset, and a few friends you can do 10-12 months. More expensive now than it was in recent years. |
i used it before, mostly weirdos but met the most awesome host in st petersberg |
I CouchSurf all the time. What do you mean mostly weirdos? What's normal exactly? Couchsurfing makes travel SO much better, since you find the best local restaurants/bars/cool stuff and dont get trapped in with the tourists. Not to mention that a CSing vacation costs less than half of a regular vacation. |
Is couch surfing as it says on the tin? sign up and some person you don't know allows you into there house to stay the night for free? Awesome ! But at the same time how safe ? |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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| mdsb87 wrote: |
| Smitty5000 wrote: |
| Capo wrote: |
| Nick Adams wrote: |
Time to start an account at: http://www.couchsurfing.org/
With $15,000, a frugal mindset, and a few friends you can do 10-12 months. More expensive now than it was in recent years. |
i used it before, mostly weirdos but met the most awesome host in st petersberg |
I CouchSurf all the time. What do you mean mostly weirdos? What's normal exactly? Couchsurfing makes travel SO much better, since you find the best local restaurants/bars/cool stuff and dont get trapped in with the tourists. Not to mention that a CSing vacation costs less than half of a regular vacation. |
Is couch surfing as it says on the tin? sign up and some person you don't know allows you into there house to stay the night for free? Awesome ! But at the same time how safe ? |
You can leave references. You can also be verified and vouched for. Everyone has a profile. Just go to the website to get more info.
I have been hosting couch surfers since early May. 15+ people have stayed here so far and they've all been very friendly and nice. I don't click with them all but some have been fantastic. No complaints whatsoever. |
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winterfall
Joined: 21 May 2009
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| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:19 pm Post subject: Re: $15,000 and all the time in the world. Your opinion, pl |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
Personally I'd recommend going to Syria and Lebanon. Beirut is supposed to be a great, fun city and I had a blast in Syria. Israel is a lot of fun and Tel Aviv is one of my favorite cities.
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Syria was fun and relatively stable. And Beirut was a blast but its kinda like organized chaos and a little pricey. Unless you don't mind eating hommus and kinda like cheese sandwiches everyday it'll be hard to not spend a lot of money. Unless your regularly following the news, stuff there can happen suddenly. I was stuck in the airport when Hezbollah took over the government. No place to go, just sit it out and listen to the gunfire outside. But if you do decide to go. You should stay out of Tripoli and South Lebanon if you can help it. Triploi's well known for sectarian violence and South Lebanon is covered with cluster bombs from the 2008 war and the border with Israel is pretty tense.
If you want to go to Israel while your there, you'll need to get them to stamp a piece of paper. Not inside your passport. Otherwise there's no way you'll get into Lebanon and maybe even Syria too. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:42 pm Post subject: Re: $15,000 and all the time in the world. Your opinion, pl |
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| winterfall wrote: |
| bucheon bum wrote: |
Personally I'd recommend going to Syria and Lebanon. Beirut is supposed to be a great, fun city and I had a blast in Syria. Israel is a lot of fun and Tel Aviv is one of my favorite cities.
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Syria was fun and relatively stable. And Beirut was a blast but its kinda like organized chaos and a little pricey. Unless you don't mind eating hommus and kinda like cheese sandwiches everyday it'll be hard to not spend a lot of money. Unless your regularly following the news, stuff there can happen suddenly. I was stuck in the airport when Hezbollah took over the government. No place to go, just sit it out and listen to the gunfire outside. But if you do decide to go. You should stay out of Tripoli and South Lebanon if you can help it. Triploi's well known for sectarian violence and South Lebanon is covered with cluster bombs from the 2008 war and the border with Israel is pretty tense.
If you want to go to Israel while your there, you'll need to get them to stamp a piece of paper. Not inside your passport. Otherwise there's no way you'll get into Lebanon and maybe even Syria too. |
There is no maybe- definitely not Syria either if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. |
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tukmax
Joined: 06 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 8:31 am Post subject: |
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Hey thanks everyone for the replies! It has been a big help.
A bit of an update:
I agree with everyone who have suggested that I find teaching gigs along the way. I have already thought of working small stints on the road to make some more cash and to experience living in different countries. I don't want to do another one year contract again though. However, I would be open to some 3 month or less gigs if I can find them. I have a TESOL and 2 years of teaching experience. I'm thinking of maybe a couple months of teaching in China while I explore the country on the weekends/off time.
I looked on the job postings but all the jobs seemed to be for one year contracts. Is it easy to find work in China as a tourist while I am there for a couple of months?
Also, I think I might head to Japan as my first travel destination when I'm done teaching in Korea in June. Like I said, I want to be as frugal as possible in my travels so I can see as much of the world as possible. I don't mind splurging on tourist stuff like seeing the sites, eating out occasionally, but I want to save money on transportation, accommodation etc. To me the real experience is seeing the country and the sites, not blowing tons of cash on hotels and souvenirs.
To get to the Japan I am thinking of taking the beetle boat across. It is 13,000 yen for a one way trip. I heard there is an even cheaper, slower boat that goes over night and lands somewhere else besides Fukoka. Anyone know which one that is or have a link to it?
Once in Japan I could do the J-Rail pass. Or there is a bus pass through weiler. It is 14,000 yen for the 5 day pass (can be used on non-consecutive days). http://willerexpress.com/bus/pc/3/top/;jsessionid=28D7BC1C218DA7A3614C824B30007C3D.ap34bus2
I'm thinking of doing Fukoka - Hiroshima - Osaka - Kyoto - Tokyo. Then fly out of Tokyo to wherever my next destination is. Perhaps Mongolia. I'd probably couch surf and stay in hostels as much as I can.
I read a book on Ghengis Khan recently that really interested me in the history of the Mongolian empire. I wouldn't mind going to Mongolia and doing a trip to see the where Ghengis was and trace some of the history of the Mongols. I've heard some good things about staying a Gur (the nomadic hut the mongols live in) Anyone know any good tour companies in Mongolia?
Then after that I'm thinking China next, start in the North and head down the coast. Like I'd said I'd like to find some work while I'm in China to live there for a couple of months and replenish the coffers. After that head to SE Asia Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos. At that point after that if I still have money, time, and my health holds up then who knows.
Oh and this is just a rough guideline. I'm perfectly open to being flexible if someone would come up along the way like I met another traveler who wanted to pull a trip somewhere else like India. I'm also up for volunteering on an organic farm or anywhere else if they provide food and board. Great way to relax and catch a breath while I'm there so it is not such a rushed trip like some of you have talked about. |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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| Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:16 pm Post subject: |
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| You're starting in Japan? There goes your money. |
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