Category: Travel

Full-Time Travel part 2 Gotta Sleep Somewhere

by BOLT, posted in Travel

So where was I? Oh yea. We were going through the fixed costs. Things we need everyday. I think I covered food in the last post. Next would be accommodation. There are several choices for places to sleep and leave your gear while exploring a new city.20160210_140450_resized

      1. Hostels. When I walked across Spain I stayed in hostels the entire time. They are fine when you have no need for privacy. They charge by the bed and are great for meeting other travelers. Anyone traveling alone should at least consider hostels. Some excellent hostels cost about $7 a night per bed. You can certainly pay more although you may not want to pay too much less if you have to make a reservation without seeing the place first. Marci and stayed in a couple hostels over the last six months. One was in Singapore and at $70 a night it was by far the most expensive room we have stayed in while in Southeast Asia. We also stayed in one in Ha Long Bay Vietnam and at $9 it was the least expensive room we have stayed in. Both had queen bed and private bath.
      2. Bed and Breakfast. Our favorite. These are small family run businesses that generally have a private room with en suite bath and people who are very happy to tell you about their home town. The rooms will vary. So will the breakfasts. But these places are always worth a gamble because of the traditional decor. They can be far away from city center but if you want an authentic restful experience try one. Marci and I ar20160302_132902e staying at one as I write this. The place is not luxurious but homey and since it is in the heart of Ubud Bali, it goes without saying it is beautiful. The price of a bed and breakfast can be as high as you are willing to pay but we can usually find one within our $20 a night budget. This one is only $16.
      3. Home stays. This is like bed and breakfast except you may actually be sharing a bath with the family and meeting up as you walk through the living room. Not much privacy but the price is right. Marci and I have not done this one yet because we like having a private bath. Some home stays have one child on the sofa so you may be in that kid’s room. Not for me. But…
      4. Serviced Apartments. We love serviced apartments. We stayed in two during our two month stay in Chiang Mai. They are simply all the things you love about being in a hotel without the price. Serviced apartments come with maid service on request. We stayed in one for $125 a month. Then we moved up to one for $225 a month. The truth is the first one was better. But with these types of places you pay in advance so make certain you love it before plunking down a month’s rent no matter how little it may be.
      5. Hotel. We stay in one of these most of the time. They are mostly those boxy rooms that look like you could be living anywhere in any town in any country in the world. What we like about them is we know they will be clean and well managed. They come in all price ranges so it is pretty easy to stay within our budget. After traveling for 14 hours on a train it is nice to arrive at a place you understand, and where at least someone will understand what you are saying. That being said we do still try to avoid recognizable brand name places. One, they usually are more expensive. Two, we want to give ourselves every chance to experience something we have never have before and there is no chance of that at a chain anything. Three, we want to spend our money with the local people as much as possible.FB_IMG_1457206154490
      6. Resorts. Believe it or not Marci and I did stay five days in a resort. It still cost less than that Singapore Hostel on a per night basis. We paid with our miles. It was Christmas in Vietnam, but the place was too far from town to see any sights. It was right on the beach. We swam and ate and laughed and missed our family. Overall it was a perfect all inclusive resort vacation. But we were not on vacation. This is our daily life for now. So we did not appreciate the experience as much as others might. Cruises are also all inclusive resorts. We have done several. Our longest was from Seattle to Singapore and is how we arrived in SE Asia.

This is getting too long. I will continue with actions for getting the right housing or accommodation at the price you want in the next post. Thank you for reading and sharing.

A BOLT Offering to the Gods and to You!

by BOLT, posted in Travel

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All throughout the grounds of the bread and breakfast where we are staying and everywhere on the streets of Ubud we notice small bamboo baskets filled with pieces of fruit, flowers, rice and other items.

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These baskets are called canang sari and are offerings (prasada) to the Gods.  It is a way of saying thank you for all the blessings received.  This lovely Hindu practice resonates deeply with me and is just one of the many reasons I love Ubud, Bali.

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We have witnessed Balinese men and women quietly placing the offerings and making ritual hand movements, saying quiet prayers or chants while doing so. Incense is placed alongside the baskets making Ubud a fragrant and peaceful place to walk through. 

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Early in the morning the sidewalks are swept clean of yesterday’s canang sari and then washed in preparation for the new day. Offerings are done three times daily. The little baskets are hand made and you can see people making them as they sit in their shops and homes.

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Ubud is our first visit to Bali but I understand this tradition is practiced throughout the island. We are so grateful to be here, for new experiences, for safe travels, and for the abundance and blessings  in our life. This post is my canang sari to the Gods, the ancestors, orishas, angels, the Universe and to you.

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How We Afford Full-time Travel

by BOLT, posted in African American, Black, Fun, Gay, Lesbian, Long distance, Long term travel, Old, POC, queer, retirement, Travel, WOC, Women

I know some of you, a lot of you were very interested in Marci’s post about how much we spend on a daily basis here in beautiful Southeast Asia. I thought this would be a great time to tell how we get the bills so low.

First let me say that there is a post somkwan-yin-love.jpg.jpegewhere that talks about how we got started. You know: saving, selling, dreaming, doing. But once here we still have daily expenses. No matter what we all eat everyday. Here in Southeast Asia we eat very well everyday. The food is not to be believed. So how do save on food? First we adopted a tentative monthly budget for everything. I said it would be $1000 a month for the two of us. Marci said I was nuts. She was right. We now have a pretty firm budget of $1200 a month. But I have to say when were in Chiang Mai we spent $800 a month. More on that in a later post.

So once you know your monthly budget y
ou just divide by 30 and you get a daily budget. For us that comes out to $40 a day. Not a lot of money but it is very inexpensive to live here. With that we must pay for a place to stay, food, transportation and entertainment. Here is the thing. The longer you stay in one place the fewer dollars, ringit, baht, rupiah, etc you will spend. So if one day we go over budget because we wanna see the Vietnamese Water Puppets, the next two days we go some place beautiful but free or inexpensive, like Hanoi’s Temple of Literature. This marvelous temple complex is $1 to enter. We walked and had lunch on the way. It is an average after all. But at the end of the month we want to have spent less than our budget.
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Saving money on food is as easy as eating what the locals eat. Western food here is very expensive and not very good. Street food here is incredibly delicious and almost free. Our daily budget is $10. (No alcohol. We don’t drink.)

Breakfast is sometimes included in the price of our accommodations. This is optimal to a point. Since we average about $3 a meal it does not make sense for us to spend more than about $5 over our daily budget of $20 a day for housing. But the extra $2 is worth it so we don’t have to leave too early in the morning.

Lunch is our biggest meal of the day. We always go out for it and we eat mostly street food. You can find delicious gourmet meals served at a sit down restaurant for much less during lunch when compared to dinner prices. Be mindful of the most touristy areas as they will have the worst food and the worst prices.

For most of you budgeting may be easier because your budget will be larger. But a larger budget is not the only thing that makes for an easy budget. Financial discipline is required. For some of you your budget will be smaller. You can do this too. If you have been following the BOLT FaceBook page, you know Marci and I are not living like paupers. The amount is up to you and your bank account. For the purposes of these posts we will stick with $1200 a month for two adults who like each other enough to share a room everyday.

You can probably afford it. Whatever it is.

by BOLT, posted in Travel

One of the most asked questions about our trip is “How can you afford to do this?” . First off I believe you can have almost anything but you cannot have everything. But even if you don’t believe that all you have to believe to have a trip around the world is believe it is possible. Without that belief all the work isn’t worth the effort. And let me say now it is work. You must prepare to travel. And to travel full time you must prepare a lot.

So let’s do it step by step.

Stop spending on things that do not fit your goal of full-time travel. That means not spending money on concert tickets when that same money can be saved for whale-watching in Baja for example. You may want to start asking yourself how many lunches that fifty dollar dinner could buy you in Mumbai. (Hint: a lot). Saving money for the future may not be easy, but if you want to travel freely you must find a way to save more money than you do now.

Downsize. Get rid of things you do not use. Sell them and put the money in your savings account. Marci and I had a couple garage sales. We made about $3000. That of course includes selling all our furniture, and household goods. But even before selling our house we downsized. We started giving things away. Once you make up your mind you are traveling you will see several things you can not keep and will not need and do not use. Any item you own that falls into either of those three categories will eventually need to go away some how. We are in the process of giving away one of our cars for example.

Get a credit card. Or two. Marci and I have three. Make sure they are cards with travel rewards mostly known as miles. Even though the airlines and the courts have made using miles an exercise worthy of a PhD candidate there are still a few ways to get a nice bit of bang for you buck. So get a miles card. The best one (read: most bonus miles for least effort) you qualify for first then get another one and maybe even a third. Here’s what you need to know.

Plan a trip. The most exhilarating way to begin building travel into your life is to  plan a dream trip. Here is a dream trip of mine.

Begin. The thing is the sooner you decide that travel is what you want the easier everything else becomes. These suggestions no longer look like sacrifices or hard work but instead become the first few steps toward your first trip.

Why we Travel

by BOLT, posted in Fun, Long distance, Long term travel, Old, POC, retirement, Travel, WOC, Women

Travel is scary. It can be expensive. Simply planning a trip can be daunting. It can be uncomfortable once you set out and find yourself in unfamiliar surroundings. But for Marci and I that is the point. We want to be in spaces that challenge and stretch us. Not because we are saints or masochists but because we have been fortunate enough to grow up and live in relative comfort most of our lives. When we travel we often comment on how uncomfortable we are. But the truth becomes obvious once you set out to places different from our home. Most of the world lives in situations that are uncomfortable for sixty year old women. They may carry their water from a well, for example. I hate doing that. They plant and harvest their own food. I hate that too. They may go to the bathroom outside of their homes. I really hate that.297

But for us it is not the hate we remember. Even now writing this I can’t remember all the things I hate about visiting villages and doing what the women there do. But the love is carried with us. We love visiting women in their homes. We love accompanying them to their work spaces. We love helping to prepare a meal. We are dismal at it all. And most of it is smelly and hard. But it is in these spaces where we find our truest love.

Our love of women of color. Women of means when it looks as if they have no means. Women of resource who look as if they are in poverty. These snaggle-toothed, smiling women who laugh at our feeble attempts to do one fifth of the work they accomplish daily are our truest and deepest loves. It is to them that we travel.DSC01484 For with them we too have an unseen value. A value that is not calculated in how well we cook or how many buckets of water we carry. Our value is multiplied by their patience with our well-intentioned ineptitude as verified by their simple words of “Welcome”. Whether it be in Tagalog – maligayang pagdating or Swahili -karibu or Wolof – dalal ak diam.  Or a myriad of other ways, we are better for the experience.

We make no allusions as to our benefit to them. We recognize that when we arrive (most of the time unannounced because of how difficult it can be to communicate with small villages in developing nations) we are an extra expense at best and a downright hardship most of the time. Yet they smile, nod and share their food and homes with us. So although we may hate sleeping on dusty mattresses, we recognize we have the best beds around because someone else is sleeping on the floor. When we complain about having to go to the bathroom outside, we recognize that before the toilet was dug these people went outside for real. It is there where we smile and realize in a very tangible way how blessed we are to have this life and to have the opportunity to travel.

Welcome to BOLT.  Our wish for you is that you will travel in spite of the difficulty. Maybe this site will inspire you. Thank you for reading.