Thailand was amazing but does it deserve another trip or should we just mark that country as ‘done’ on our Bucket List for future trips? We keep going back & forth. Will we make another trip to the Land of Smiles? We just are not sure at this moment but, bottom line, we loved Thailand & it holds a very special place in our hearts.
We had a great time in Phuket but I think when & if we go back to Thailand it will be probably to the Chiang Mai region. The Elephant Nature Park is located there. It is dedicated to elephant rescue & rehabilitation & I am all over that!! Being able to volunteer for a small price sounds good to me & I am really feeling a need to get my hands on an elephant. Ha. There are quite a few Elephant tours, sanctuaries, etc where you can feed & bathe elephants so we shall see! I haven’t told The Big Guy about this particular day plan but I think he will be all in. LOL.
Back to business at hand, so for my first notebook dated 2017, our “To Do” list was short. Make a list of countries we were interested in visiting. I’ll be posting about those countries & why we feel the need to visit them on the ‘Where Will We Land Next’ page. I’ll admit our first list was pretty short keeping Thailand still at top of list.
At some point, I did some online to research & found others who had moved and their experiences. I found American expats living in Thailand and signed on to their YouTube channels. This also allowed us to widen our views as to multiple towns we might want to visit or eventually live in. Following blogs, YouTube channels, etc are awesome ways to gain insight from that person’s personal experiences & how they handled any hiccups.
Bottom line though, if you really want to get to the down and dirty on entering a foreign country [to you] check out the Embassy requirements online.
When we had visited Thailand in 2008 it was purely for a break for The Big Guy and vacation for us to reconnect after not seeing each other for about six months. Long hot days for sure. Temps were probably close to 90-95 everyday with a little rain here & there but we had plenty of hours in the day to do our walkabouts. We were able to go motor scooting across one island & caught rides on longtail boats with villagers, etc.
One of the hi-lights was our visit to the Phuket Pearl store! We were on an awesome tour and learned all about pearls. Of course, we shopped and were able to hand pick pearls for the girls back home. Later on we were able to see a pearl farm at one of the village boat stops. Below is photo from The Phuket Pearl Farm.
Courtesy of Phuket Pearl Farm
Wonderful sights to see – the island where part of the James Bond movie was filmed. It really was amazing how islands just seem to pop up out of the water. We saw beautiful water falls seeming to shoot out of the side of forested mountains, rubber tree plantations… We couldn’t see enough! We still want to see more!
On one of our evening walks, we came across this village Thai boxing club practicing. They tried to get The Big Guy in ring but it was a no go on his part. LOL.
We will discuss our ‘how did we get to this point’ again but…
While we were sightseeing all these beautiful spots traveling Thailand we also saw how the people were still reeling from the devastation left by the Dec. 6, 2004 tsunami. Thailand was just one of the countries to be hit. Beaches, hotels, homes close to water and the loss of life. Thailand alone # 4800+ deaths, 8500 +/- injured, 4500 Dec. 26, 2007 – in a matter of just over an hour.
I’m flying to meet my Love, The Big Guy, on our first international vacation Sydney, Australia! The two of us were flying from opposite sides of the world to meet for a long anticipated meet up – he from Iraq & I from Texas. We had not seen each other for six months since he had left to serve in The Middle East on a ‘project’ & I was able to choose the spot. Unlike trips taken later, this was more of a destination vacation as expense was not a factor on this particular trip so we upped our game on this travel.
I Get the Call!!!!
The Big Guy called me one day & says “hey I get 3 weeks R&R, where do you want to meet?” I was so stoked. Where could we meet? When he said ‘you pick’ I picked Australia! Once was not enough for this girl! I had been to Sydney years before on a work assignment. Since I knew wherever we met that I would probably be there first, I picked a spot I was familiar & Sydney was an easy choice.
Sydney, Australia is located in New South Wales.
Now its 2007 & Australia here I come again only this time The Big Guy will meet me there. I knew I could do a walk about without getting lost & so I reserved the same hotel I had stayed in on the first trip, bought my ticket & I was off to meet The Big Guy!
Now I have to say this, Australia was not an inexpensive place to visit. First time I visited Sydney had been years before for my work so no cost to me. Difference is now in time of year we were meeting, in season & thus hotel prices were up.
What I’m trying to say is I’m sure there are better prices during their off season but on for this trip we had to go when The Big Guy could go so. Definitely not the time of year we would have chosen but it was what it was. We were able to save with my ticket using American Express rewards. Quick note, a great way to budget travel is by using flight rewards. Most airlines offer these in some form.
Now, Lets Talk Sydney!
Where do I begin? There are so many things to see, foods to taste, gardens to walk. Here is a little taste of sight seeing in Sydney! Buses & ferries made it very easy to get around to sites outside of Sydney proper. Here are a few of my favorite sights for you should Sydney becomes your next destination vacation!
Sydney, Australia Opera House
For some fun facts about The Opera House, Sydney, Australia.
The Sydney Opera House is amazing with beautiful structure & views. The Big Guy & I were able to attend an Italian opera on our trip. It was everything I dreamed it would be. The atmosphere was so rich, the Opera had The Big Guy & I both tearing up. Really! Just so beautiful. Neither of us understood what was being said but the emotions & body language touched us. All during the opera the words in English were displayed across the top of the stage so you could easily read but really even if the words had not been there we would still have been able to follow. At intermission everyone left the auditorium to the patio on the Bay where wine was being served. Shortly it was announced by a bell that intermission as over & everyone headed back for the next Act…..IT WAS AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE!
The Royal Botanical Gardens
Fig Tree in The Royal Botanical Gardens – Sydney
The Royal Botanic Gardens is another must see. It is such a calm & beautiful stroll through trees, flowers, birds & bats [yep those big old bats hanging from the trees]. Macquarie’s Point is a pretty cool area for photos. Have some decent walking shoes! I think directly from this point we got on the walk path that runs around the water with great view of the Opera House & the Sydney Bridge. On an earlier trip with co-workers, I had the opportunity to watch a Harry Potter movie set up along this walking path. I swear we are all sitting in the chairs set up for the movie facing the water. All of a sudden it seemed like the screen just rose out of the water? To this day, I’m not sure how they did it but it was great! Plus, once it got dark, the bats started flying across the screen leaving their shadows, it was pretty cool.
The Gap near Watson’s Bay
The walk path.
To round out my top three favorites [I really could go on a bit about Sydney but for now will leave at this] The Gap near Watsons Bay has to be mentioned. The Big Guy & I fell in love with the views from the top. This is at entry to Sydney Harbor. Looking one direction you can see Sydney, the other the end of the earth. Beautiful shades of blues & greens in water. We both could not get over the beauty.
This is the jewel of Sydney as far as beauty goes. As you can see from my photo above there was a short fence to keep folks from getting to close to edge but a few years after our last visit a taller bridge was constructed to keep people back. It has quite the interesting history so I would suggest checking it out online in your spare time.
The view of Gap from walking ledge,
One More Site You Must See!
Oh, I almost forgot this one. It really is hard to narrow my favorites down but I don’t want you wandering, is she ever going to stop? One last site I want to bring to your attention is The Three Sisters formation in Blue Mountains. It seemed a pretty long drive to the destination just to see a rock formation but hearing the story behind the legend from our Guide was awesome. My photos did not do it justice so I picked one from the site online.
The famous Three Sisters formation outside Sydney, Australia in the Blue Mountains.
If you have the opportunity to go to any part of Australia, just GO!!!
Traveling in a Foreign Country on a Budget – For Real?
Once the commitment is made to create a workable budget seniors can travel on a budget! Yes, we have received the raised eyebrow a few times – really quite a bit now that I think about it, but that is not going to derail us from our plans. Those who have never traveled told us “it costs too much” “why would you go to that place” “its not safe”, etc. Even though we may be seniors, we still have a lot of years to make memories together. Bottom Line – its our time!
If you are happy doing what you do, then good for you. We have never had plans of sitting in our house growing old or being sedate. That is just not us. We are both on a natural high knowing very soon we will be living out our dream of international travel & possible permanent move to a foreign country. Right now, between the two of us, we have around 25+ countries under our belts. That leaves way over 200 countries we have not seen. Will we see all? Probably not but I’m betting we’ll add a few to our passports. Any additional countries we visit will be a Win Win! “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” [Dr. Seuss].
How Can You Afford a Trip Like This & Travel on a Budget?
Ok, we have made the decision to make this big adventure happen – two youngish pretty healthy seniors traveling internationally & possibly moving out of country. Yikes it getting real folks!
How did we get to this point? How did we think we were going to afford this grand scheme of a plan? All good questions and ones we are often asked. The big answer is Goal Setting with the end result being budget travels! Some may call us cheap, but I like to say we enjoy international travel & we do not mind traveling on a budget to get there. As far as we are concerned, life is not about how many things you own or can buy, but rather how many memories you can make.
The Beginning of our Plan for Travel on a Budget
Traveling on a budget is nothing new. Once we made the commitment that this WOULD happen all those years ago, we started looking at how we lived daily & what we could do to make our goals happen. Although I don’t think we have ever considered ourselves materialistic, there were definitely things we could do to cut back on expenses & save a few dollars.
Cheap is not always a negative when it comes to budgets.
The Big Guy is really tight [borderline between cheap & tight] with money [we balance each other on that point]. By his diligent researching, we have found multiple avenues to save a few dollars where possible. He compares prices on internet and cable bundles, streaming services, cell phone companies & plans, insurance [auto & home] tirelessly. The end result is we always end up paying less for the same or better services – which means the difference adds up!
Cable/Internet
You know how cable companies work. Let me rephrase that, you should but I am amazed at the number of folks who do not know how to work cable companies. You sign up, they give you a great intro price & then just when you quit paying attention to the monthly bill you realize the price has jumped – sometimes astronomically. Sometimes the cable company will offer more special pricing, etc to keep you as customer. This is fine if you deem cable a necessary part of your life. We did not. At some point, we asked ourselves “Do I really need or watch 800 cable channels”? To be honest, I had a couple channels I liked but it was a no-brainer to eventually work it down to just stick with basic cable/internet for under $70 per month!
The only extra we have is Netflix & Amazon Prime. No need for extravagant sports channels or movie channels in this house. I would have a problem paying hundreds of dollars a month to sit and watch TV when those dollars could be adding up in the bank for a flight. If this is your life than you go for it, but really if this is your life you would not be reading this blog! Yay you for turning off the boob tube.
Utilities
There is not much choice when it comes to utilities. It just depends on what is offered in your area. Water companies are pretty much set in stone from city to city.
Electric companies are another story. They are becoming as numerous as phone service companies, there is always someone to compete in your area. In our area we have probably 4 or 5 electric companies to choose from. We switch at special offers as needed which keeps our mostly cost very affordable for fixed incomes.
Insurances
Auto & House insurance is another place to reduce. You have to keep minimums of course but why let them sell you a package that isn’t specific to you. Of course, different states may have different guidelines so you gotta buy what you have to buy.
We do believe there is such a thing as being “over insured” but that can be easily addressed just by comparing companies, dropping deductible on your house or vehicles. Some companies offer cuts if you take a Defensive Driving class…How easy is that? Some offer discounts on insuring home & auto together. We do a comparison at least every couple years to find the lower price. You can do it – just need to be focused & patient.
Cellphones
Lastly, cell phones & service. You got to admit cell phones are crazy expensive! The latest iPhone & Samsung phones are over the top but people buy them.
We do like iPhones in this house but we buy the phones refurbished at below half price. I think we may have bought two brand new phones back in the beginning. Even then we would pay upfront for the phone to negate the interest added on if you choose to pay for phone monthly!
The phone plans are a money drain for sure. We just changed phone services, we are back at T-Mobile. Everything we could possibly want in our service plan for less than than $70 per month [that is for both of us folks!]. We had been on Cricket which was awesome service – never a dropped call BUT we had been with them for a bit & T offered a ‘limited’ running plan for seniors that we actually just found by scrolling online & we snatched it up! We watch videos, YouTube, email, text, etc and always have data left at end of month. No, we don’t sit & watch movies on our phones or play games so if you do….
Recap
There are numerous other ways to reduce unnecessary expenses that we will go into in a future post. It really all depends on you – what you deem as necessary for your life style!
Again, there is just the two of us & we are pretty low key so the above ‘cuts’ are purely based on our lifestyle as we choose to live. No judgement here. We decided we wanted to spend our money on what we want to spend it on which is traveling. Using the above suggestions, we have cut expenses thousands of dollars per year!
The question you should be asking yourself is “How serious am I about wanting to travel internationally & am I willing to do what it takes to make it happen?”
Always a plan for that next adventure traveling on a budget!
Where will our next flight take us? At this point, we haven’t made the final decision but boy are we going to have fun!
Budget traveling abroad is our goal! We made the decision & as seniors on a budget we know will need a detailed Plan! Sell the house, sell the vehicles, sell everything we own except that which will fit into a backpack each & a small suitcase each. Then to prepare a budget into a plan of action we can live with while traveling.
Initial discussion points for budget traveling abroad
My notebook was light in notes for 2017 and 2018 as really all we needed to do was stay on path of getting credit debt paid off and not buying anything extravagant. Oh, we would write down a country we could dream about living in – Thailand, Mexico, Vietnam, etc.
We knew finances would be the biggest caution for us. We needed to sit down and figure out what we wanted to do but could we do it – travel on a budget -on our finances? We’ll address this more in a later blog once we get a better idea where we might want to settle?
For now, notes for 2019 were a bit busier:
Decide date best time in late 2020 to list house on market so we can leave early 2021.
Need to determine realtor we want to handle our house sale.
Credit cards paid?
Mailing address/post office?
Passports up to date & vacs needed for particular country we would be staying in.
When to close my staging business?
What to buy to prep for trip?
So I’m happy that my notes for each year seemed to be moving along quite nicely, until….THEN
My spiral of Big Adventure notes for budget traveling abroad!
Around first of 2019 The Big Guy comes home from work one day and says “let’s put house on market this Fall [2019]. Why wait? We can move up the plan almost two years!” I say “Hold on there Big Guy! I have a business to close and I can’t do it overnight.” After some back and forth discussions, we agreed to put house on market 4/15/2020!
So notes moved from 2020 notebook to 2019 notes:
Close business, [12/31/2019 done]
Close storage and sale décor [done]
Final prep house for 2020 market
paint guest bedroom – at this writing done!
touch up paint on bathroom cabinets – now done!
repaint porch
Research best way to sale household goods & vehicles – Yes, we really are all in on this!
Are finances ready for this? – Getting really close!
Are you feeling me? Everything got pushed up and I was literally freaking out thinking how can we move this up a few more months. Is this man crazy? Well we did everything except the last couple listed above. We did it! I was able to close my business by 12/31/19 & sold what was left of my inventory afterwards.
Covid Pandemic Puts a Halt to Plans
The house ready for market, talked to a couple Realtors, starting cleaning out closets, thinking April 15, 2020 house will be listed. And then BOOM Covid-19 pays the world a visit. Will the move happen 2020? We are on a hold pattern right now until end of this year…. This grand adventure will happen – for now – we just need to be patient. Stay tuned!
