Real budget travel and backpacking has always been an interest of mine that I’ve loved reading and researching about, but my actual experience was always a bit lagging. Now I can proudly say that I’m completely qualified to talk about this stuff, and I’ve come to this realization:

Budget travel and backpacking is easy. Seriously.

I repeat, the process of traveling is not hard and is not something to stress over. There are more important personal and career things to worry about than to worry about vacationing. After getting off my ass and taking a few leaps of faith I’ve come to this verdict as I’m sure many other travelers have as well after their first great travel experiences. I’ve developed a series of posts to show how easy backpacking travel is. The series really should give you all you need to get started on your own, leaving you with no excuses to get off your ass as well.

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

All is well in Bangkok, Thailand where I’ll be stationed until December studying and traveling. Excuse me for the lack of posts, but I’ve been busy living, learning, and making the most of Southeast Asia – which is amazing by the way.

But here’s the question I’ve been exploring:
Assume you’ve never traveled anywhere (really not far from reality for many Americans really), and all of a sudden you’ve had the opportunity to travel free to any 10 destinations. What do you choose? International, or abroad?

Well readers here based on the blog’s topic would choose international, but remember – you haven’t been anywhere in the USA. Your homeland and country.

Curious observation
This is just a curious observation I’ve been making note of and am thinking about. It’s a good thing to travel domestically through your own country, but I’d bet 80% of the time atleast most would opt to go internationally rather than stay at home. Personally, I’ve had countless travel convos with many Thai students.

“have you been to the US before?”
“yeah just a couple times. LA, Las Vegas, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, New York, Boston, and Florida of course…..”

In most cases, their own travel experiences in the US are more vast than my own.

When the question is reciprocated to my Thai friends and I regarding travels in Southeast Asia and Thailand, the same pattern re-emerges. They’ve been to Koh Samui once, Singapore, and Hong Kong once. Personally I’ve just concluded that most people do not want to travel domestically.

Why would we prefer international travel?

Mass Media
We are bombarded with news, images, cultural references, stereotypes of everywhere in the US. We study US more than other places. I already know it, and I don’t want to waste my time and resources seeing myself.

Sensitivity
My sensitivity to changes in life, in general, have diminished. Flashy ads, provocative images, and ‘crazy’ stories become dull faster. I have a desire for new experiences, and the more novel stimuli I’m exposed to, the better. Most novel stimuli are easier to find in foreign countries with unfamiliar cultures, ways of life, and language.

High Cost
Feel zero need to waste precious resources on expensive US domestic travel. Reconsider with cheap railways or buses, but not practical and may never be. Hostels? Guesthouses? Bed and Breakfasts and cheap motels exist, but not quite the same atmosphere as a good guesthouse or hostel.

I’d love to hear others’ comments on the topic and to see if I’m way off base with my observations, since my anecdotal evidence really is the worst way to back any argument. Input is appreciated.

Just a quick update as I’ve been really busy lately with poor/non reliable internet access the past few weeks. Here are some quick updates I’ll use an excuse for my lack of updates recently - My 4 night trip in Hong Kong went pretty well and I arrived in Bangkok the 1st of August to stay at a guesthouse near Khao San Road for a few nights. Once Thammasat University activities and orietnation started up, many other exchange students and I found a very nice, affordable apartment to reside in for the semester until January.

In the meantime, I’ve learned tons about culture, traveling, Thailand, and Europe (via my fellow European exchange students and friends). Both alone and with others I’ve explored Bangkok fairly extensively for the short time I’ve been here so far, and this past weekend some friends and I went to the islands and beach at Koh Samui to relax and see the sun for five days.

It’s been a wild journey so far and I expect it to continue. I’ll surely be maximizing my time here the next couple weeks which will definitely be reflected into the posts that will follow later on.  In the short term, I apologize for infrequent updates, but I hope to return to regular helpful updates once I find a routine and get settled in here in BKK. In the meantime, you can follow my more personal blog for the Thailand trip specifically at Bangkoking.com.

In a week I will be beginning my Asian trek slash study abroad adventure to Bangkok, Thailand, but I will be kicking off the semester abroad with a short stay in Hong Kong for 4 nights. I’m hoping to fly by the seat of my pants for most of the time I’m there, but there’s still much preparation needed (to my dismay).

Hong Kong’s a very expensive city relative to its Asian epicenter counterparts, so traveling on a shoestring in Hong Kong might be a challenge. However, I’ll be documenting every expense meticulously and reporting it here. In the end, every future explorer to Hong Kong should be able to laugh at and learn from my mistakes, and I’ll end up with a fairly comprehensive budget and expense model that any other future budget travelers will hopefully find pretty valuable.

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Get on Twitter already. If you aren’t, everyone’s doing it. Your favorite online travel stars are all over twitter, so if you want some travel reminders, tips, commentary or deals in your home feed check out my list of top Travel Twitter -ers to follow for some saweet travel tweets. (more…)

Online travel site and travel insurance extraordinaire World Nomads has travel promotions out there now offering free travel opportunities to qualified, interested, and adventurous applicants. The first is a potentially prestigious opportunity to work on a travel documentary with National Geographic in Vietnam, and the other is a ‘Vantastic’ filmed road trip down under in Australia.

National Geographic (free) Travel Documentary Scholarship

First, World Nomads along with National Geographic are offering a very valuable and extraordinary for blossoming world travelers, film makers, and lovers. This unique and valuable opportunity for free travel is a travel scholarship that gives the lucky applicant the ability to travel on assignment to Vietnam (my future neck of the woods) to aid in the making of documentary which will be under consideration for a TV broadcast on National Geographic itself.

The lucky winner will get flown on behalf of World Nomads to Vietnam to meet up with Buffalo Tours . before continuing onward to the scenic Mai Chau Valley where doctors will spend their time setting up temporary health clinics to treat the hill tribes. (more…)