Spring Break is approaching and plans are a being made across all US campuses. From Key West Florida to South Padre, fellow students will be lining up to spend too much money on traveling and drinking, once again, this March. While I realize I have a somewhat different perspective on the world having traveled abroad, I still feel a slight urge to experience 5 days of the ‘American Spring Break,’ which is why I feel like I have the right to rant on why I won’t be getting involved after some temptatation avoiding, rational thinking.

Why Spring Break Sucks

1. Poor Excuse for a Break

First off, while I open a week off from my studies with open arms annually, (more…)

Returning from my 6 months abroad in Asia, I was quickly reminded of the joys of Airport security, especially in regard to US bound flights. Excessive, annoying, pointless, humorous, time consuming, inefficient are a few adjectives my jet lagged delerious self thought of.

My experience, Flying Bangkok - Minnesota:

Leaving Bangkok: United personnel acted as security agents during checking asking ridiculous questions that I did little more than prolong the already painfully slow process at 4:00 am.

Arriving in Tokyo: After a full security check in Bangkok and leaving the plane in Tokyo, travelers continuing on must go through another security check. Not sure where during the flight I found a bomb, but whatever. An hour later of standing in snaking lines, I cleared. Who’da guessed?

Boarding in Tokyo: Before boarding my flight Tokyo-Seattle, you guessed it. Another security check, mandated by the US Government due to heightened terror threats. So not only might have I found a bomb on the Bangkok-Tokyo plane, but also in the waiting area for my flight to the US. Interesting.

After the flight was already delayed 30 minutes, before boarding the plan a 18 second pat down and bag search, serious questioning ensued:

United agent: “Do you have a knife?”

Me: um, no (trying to think of somewhere i could’ve got a knife)

United agent: Okay that’s all.

While I realize my experience was nothing excessive, time consuming, or annoying as many travelers face in the US, it is a ridiculous process that really questions the greater underlying purpose and need for everything.

A recent Wall Street Journal article Undressing the Terror Threat addresses the issue best. In short, he shows the irrationality of our overreaction to the threat of terrorism (especially in travel) when compared to the homicide and traffic fatalities rates, amongst others.

Is our constant beefing up of travel and airport security necessary? Is it justified? Are we wasting funds? Should we be concerned about other more likely threats?

Travelers - ask yourself:

Okay world globetrotters and tax paying travelers. What do you think?

• Do we need full body scans?
• Are you okay with a more cumbersome airport security process?
• Do you feel safe traveling now or is more security needed?
• Would $100 billion more for tighter security be needed or justified?

When it comes to researching travel insurance products to protect you, your health, loved ones, or ipods while traveling abroad on your backpacking journey, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Online, everyone and their dog is willing to sell you comprehensive, cheap travel insurance. Amongst online travel advertisers, I’d have to say travel insurance companies, affiliates, and agents have to be one of most active advertisers eager to get their unique travel insurance in front of your overwhelmed, lost self.

Do you Need travel insurance?

Good question. As a skeptic by nature, i’m not certain. However, the overwhelming consensus online is that travel insurance is necessary. Highly regarded Matador Travel Network property the Traveler’s Notebook says:

Travel insurance is a necessity. You need travel insurance. If you get sick or injured, if your things are stolen, if you need to cancel your trip or if you need an evacuation, it’s essential to have an insurance company backing you up.

Travel insurance is cheap and easy to get. There’s no excuse not to buy a policy. If you’re traveling and don’t have insurance, you should get coverage right now – it takes less than 15 minutes.

So if you want to take their word for it, yes, Traveler’s insurance is important.

Fortunately, I haven’t been in a position to purchase my own traveler’s insurance. My university assigned me mandatory travel insurance for my current studies abroad, and I’m fortunate enough to have a comprehensive health insurance plan at home that would cover everything anyways. Out of curiosity and relevance to the readers though, here are the best authoritative and reliable resources to scour before buying travel insurance. So atleast I’ll attempt to point you in the right direction.

Resources on How to Choose Travel Insurance

• The Guardian
• CNN
• Times Online
• REI
• TravelFish
• TheBackpacker.net

Sponsored Mention - CheapTravelInsurance.com

With that said, CheapTravelInsurance.com is an insurance seller that caters to the Backpacker’s needs. This provider offers packages tailored for backpackers, gap years, etc. The site has a pretty comprehensive set of offerings that give you a variety of options that will probably suit your needs - as long as you know what they are.

As far as its legitimacy goes, its been in operation since 2001 and more can be read about its faffiliations and underwriters on its about page. Overall, with its variety of policy options comparable to industry leaders, a quick online search for quotes using their engine is may make CheapTravelInsurance.com a good first stop in your hunt for cheap, affordable travel insurance.

So I have been a bit vague on where I have been so far on my journeys throughout Thailand and abroad. As mentioned previously, I’m in living and studying in Bangkok, which I’m finding is the best launching pad in maybe all of Asia for traveling. More on this later.

Where I have been

So far I’ve had an amazing experience. I’ve tried to balance my traveling with assimilation into Bangkok since I love the Thai people, city, and culture. If that wasn’t a case, leaving every weekend would happen because everything is so cheap, available, and easy.

• Hong Kong
• Myanmar (Burma)
• Gulf of Thailand Islands - Samui, Tao, etc
• Southern Thailand Phuket area, Phi Phi
• Malaysia

Where I will be going

• Nakhon Si Thammarrat, Thailand (off the tourist trail, finally/hopefully)
• Cambodia
• India

A pretty good list now that I look at it which I’m pretty satisfied with, except for the exclusion of Laos which I will have to travel to on a later trip due to the amazing stories my friends have relayed back to me.

India

I just recently booked my flight to India. I’m going to be making an 18 day journey from Dehli to Mumbai, easily the most ambitious travel venture in my life. I’ll be going alone and zig zagging quite a bit with trains. I’m super super excited, but anxious a the same time.

Overall, I’m so so impressed with Southeast Asia and urge everyone to travel here. While many young aspiring budget travelers opt for Europe out of fear of the unknown, I urge you to reconsider using Bangkok as your hub to Asia. It really is really really easy. I would argue moreso than Europe even.

But if anyone has any great resources or tips for traveling to India, please share!

And finally, get ready for some kickass articles and content when I start to settle down after all of this.

Bus travel is coming back. After the industry has declined for numerous years, the past few have seen a slight resurgence in bus travel which might be offering budget travelers a decent domestic travel option. But when it comes to booking buses, who honestly knows where to start when booking tickets? Neither Kayak, Vayama, nor Expedia tell me about buses.  And call me naive, but I have honestly only heard of Megabus and Greyhound. Compare that to our knowledge of airline carriers, and you get what I’m saying.

So, obviously, I’m going to give you the solution to the problem and tell you how to find low bus fares (and even compare prices!)

BusJunction.com

BusJunction is a bus fare aggregator that’s a self explanatory bus fare search brought to my attention by its founder in a buried email half a year ago which I just rediscovered. Like Kayak, it’s an aggregator, which is an important clarification because this means it is independent of the bus operators, thus offering you unbiased fares and information.

So, naturally, I’m partial to BusJunction (not even having used the service) and would recommend it. If my word doesn’t mean anything, Frommer himself hearts BusJunction in the HuffingtonPost, one of several high profile coverages the site received. The final kicker of BusJunction is its integration of Yelp, another site i’m a fan of.

GoToBus.com

GoToBus.com is the other, bigger and older bus fare search tool. The site features just Chinatown bus routes zig zagging across the US. While also super helpful, it engages in ticket partnerships with the bus companies for profit, thus potentially resulting in worse bus route and fare searches.

As a capitalist at heart, I love to see BusJunction’s emergence on the scene to give GoToBus a run for its money and help out the lowly bus travelers out there. Let’s hope that this increased bus travel trend continues so budget travelers aren’t left out to dry when attempting to travel on the cheap, and so I can feature fewer rants in posts on US budget travel.

Being able to avoid worrying about the small (and medium) things is crucial to having success backpacking and traveling cheaply. Western and American culture teaches us to be skeptics, micro manage, and overplan everything. I had a severe case of worry worts before I came to Asia and for the first few days here, so take my word for it and just Do. Not. Worry. The process of traveling is not hard. So for the first post in my Backpacking is Easy series, some rules of thumb to follow to avoid anxiety and to maximize your time backpacking abroad:

Avoid the Noise
There are a million travelogues and guidebooks on the internet quoting great restaurants, guesthouses, specific train cabins, and giving literal directions to the train station’s men’s toilet. Well, great, but this is all noise that you don’t need to know quite yet.. = NOISE. Just like that clever test from the economics professor that gives you 10 unnecessary variables when calculating RGDP Growth, ignore the noise for now.

There’s no use in worrying about how to do exactly everything quite yet, and trying to keep everything straight beforehand will just lead to anxiety. There’s plenty of time to figure this out later when the time arrives.

Be Efficient and Resourceful
When planning a trip, plan it. When it comes time to do something, figure it out. There’s a lot of time in the day, and there’s internet almost everywhere. So when the time comes (night before), figure it out quickly and move on to enjoying what you came to see.

Furthermore, don’t forget to ask. There are tons and tons of budget travelers around that you’ll meet who would love to tell you their story and share tips. Guesthouse staff will always assist you doing anything. Better yet, ask locals. Most (in Asia for sure) will love to help out however possible.

Be flexible
Don’t prebook all your accommodations if you don’t have to, and definitely do not get pressured into prebooking bus, train, or ferry transit for side trips. There’s always transit options, and always places to stay.

Slow down, be rational, and remember Worst Case Scenario
There will surely be bumps at times, but it’s critical to slow down, take a breath, and think of the worst case scenario rationally. You’re not going to die. Worst case scenario is most often being tired and out some dollars which is frustrating, but being flexible as mentioned above minimizes the worst case scenario in almost every instance.

Forget those sunken costs
You’re probably going to overpay for something, get scammed, or miss a connecting train ride. As a frugal bastard, this is annoying. But these are sunk costs = they cannot be changed. Like accounting, they must be ignored and forgotten. Always easier said than done, but grab a beer, laugh at yourself, and move on.

Be sure to follow and check out the next posts in my budget travel is easy series

1. Stop Worrying. Backpacking is easy. Seriously
2. All you Really Need for Easy Budget Travel
3. Complete, Easy Guide to start planning a Backpacking Trip
4. The Budget Traveler and Backpacking Commandments