#38 Backpacking South East Asia on a Budget for Six Months — With Brian Carlson

Want to try long-term travel, but worried about money? South East Asia might be the best place to try if you have a tight budget. In this episode, we discuss some of the best money-saving tips for traveling South East Asia with Brian Carlson, who traveled to eight countries in six months for under $5,000.

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Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Hey everyone, Welcome back to theGlobetrotters podcast, where we highlight the travel
stories of everyday people in hopes thatwe may inspire others to look beyond their
borders literally and figuratively. My nameis maxmogan Zalez and I'm Saskia hat Bunny.
And if you missed our last episode, we had another edition of our
layover series where instead of interviewing guests, we keep a super casual while bringing

(00:32):
you the trending travel topics of theweek and some lesser known destinations to hopefully
inspire your next adventure. Yes,last episode we talked all about twenty twenty
three's upcoming travel trends, so thinkluxury, treasure hunts, question mark,
floating hotels, psychedelic retreats, allthat good stuff. It was a fun

(00:53):
chat, so check it out ifyou missed it. But on today's episode,
we're going to talk about budget travel, a wildly successful topic. In
fact, our most listened to episodeever is actually about budget travel in Europe.
Karina Boyer had traveled seven weeks inEurope for a thousand dollars, which
is impressive to say the least.So today we're giving the people what they

(01:17):
want with another budget travel episode,and we have with us Brian Carlson,
who is currently a digital nomad basedout of San Diego, California, but
back when he was twenty two yearsold, he did the classic backpacker pilgrimage
that is Southeast Asia. So it'shigh time that we did an episode about

(01:38):
one of my favorite regions in theworld, because I, like many young
uns, did this trip back inthe day. I spent about seven months
there until I completely ran out ofmoney, so this is an especially fun
episode for me. Brian went toeight countries, including Thailand, Laois,
Cambodia, Myan, mar Indonesia,Singapore, and Malaysia. He traveled Vietnam

(01:59):
on a bike, and he didit with five thousand US dollars in his
pocket. So we're gonna pick hisbrain about how he managed this and how
you can too. So great tohave you on the show, Brian.
Yeah, thanks everyone, Thanks forhaving me. Yeah, thanks for being
here. So let's get one thingstraight before we start. He traveled for

(02:21):
six months, right, Yeah,eight countries, five thousand dollars. Was
this five thousand dollars including the moneyto buy a return ticket home or was
it the five thousand dollars your entirebudget while you were there. Yeah,
a good question. So the fivethousand was for everything, Like like I
booked my flight there and my flightback before I even want my trip,

(02:44):
so I always had a specific enddate in mind, like when I knew
I was coming home. So yeah, I bought my return ticket with that
five thousand dollars, and then theremaining amount of money, I just had
a budget for those next five orsix months. M okay, So because
yeah, five thousand dollars in sixmonths would be about like eight hundred a
month or so, But then ifyou take a chunk out of that,

(03:06):
then you're talking like a little lessthan eight hundred per month of travel,
right, Yeah, that sounds aboutright. And like I had a ton
of time to look for cheap flights, so like we got a really good
deal to fly there and back.It was like four hundred dollars around trip
from San Francisco. Wow, that'svery cheap. Yeah, it was like
Emerald Airlines too, Emeralds. Oh, that's like one of the best airlines

(03:28):
in the world. Yeah, Igot very lucky. And where'd you fly
into. I flew SFO to Bangkok, round trip, M gotcha and left
Bangkok as well, or yeah yeahyeah, so so at the end of
the trip, I had to makesure I got back to Thailand just to
fly home. Yeah. Nice.So I think what we should talk about
first, to be honest, ishow you funded and saved up for this

(03:50):
trip. And the reason for thatis I think a lot of people who
haven't done a trip like this beforewill automatically think, you know, this
person traveled for six months, theymust be a loaded or be lucky,
ce have a trust fund, orthey're an influencer. And I see it
all the time. When you know, travel influencers post posts on Instagram,

(04:15):
you'll have all these comments saying like, you know, like how can you
afford this, Daddy's paying for thisor whatever. So I think, to
me, it sort of started togive up the impression that in order to
do this you need to be oneof those things. And on this podcast,
we really like to show how youdon't have to have special circumstances in
order to travel, and in thiscase, really long term. So can

(04:39):
you explain to us how you managedto save up initially for this trip?
Yeah, yeah, for sure.So so I kind of just realized that.
You know, at the time,I was twenty one years old in
community college, and I was kindof looking into the next year of my
life, like finishing up school andapplying to state colleges. And I noticed
I was going to just have likean semester free during the spring semester while

(05:01):
I waited to hear back from schools. So I probably had like anywhere from
six to ten months of time atthe time. You know, Like I
said, I was in community college, I was working at like a little
restaurant as a server, so Iwasn't making a ton of money. I
was just living off of like tipsand you know, minimum wage. You
know, I was twenty one,so like I think like a lot at

(05:21):
the time, A lot of myfriends are like going to the bars or
going out a lot. At thistime, I just like buckled down,
Like I went out to the baras a handful of times, like my
first year as a twenty one yearold, and I just like really looked
for any ways I could like makeextra money. So so then I started
to get a little more scrappy.I started to see like any other like

(05:41):
side jobs that I could pick up, little things I could do in my
area. So there was a jobposting to like look at classic cars,
and it was commission based, wherelike you would drive around, you'd test
drive these old American Mustangs. Youwould send pictures to some purchaser in Europe
and then you would basically purchase thecar for them and have it shipped off
to Europe and then they give youa commission. So that is very side,

(06:08):
not a bad side gig. SoI spent you know, four or
five months just test driving old classiccars. And like when you're twenty one,
you always have more time than money, so like I would always just
spend my extra free time doing stufflike that. I would go on Craigslist
and there's like this et cetera sectionon the jobs page, and they basically
like hire people to give like opinionson products. So it's called like market

(06:29):
research or paid focus groups. SoI did that for months and months.
Like I would go and they'd payyou like one hundred dollars for an hour
worth of your time. But thoseare just a few of the ways I
would try to save money for thisbig trip. Yeah, the classic car
job is really niche. It's prettyfunny. I've never heard of that before.
But there you go, get youget creative. You know, there's

(06:50):
definitely days where I wasn't just grinding, you know, like I definitely did
not have my head down for likeeight months straight. I think just like
the overall trend that I was makingsure I was putting away a lot more
money than I was spending. Right, So at this point, have you
done much international travel? Have youbeen out of the States before this?

(07:10):
The only time before this trip,I think, like I went to Mexico,
you know, I went to Caboor something for like a week or
some friends. And then when Iwas in high school, my parents took
me to Jordan and that's where mymom was born and everything. So after
all those years, so this wasa big leap for you though, still
doing a trip like this. Socan I just ask what inspired it?
Yeah? I think at first itwas just the timeline, Like it was

(07:33):
probably the first time in my lifeas an adult, I wasn't going to
be in school, so I wasjust kind of thinking, like what do
I want to spend my time doingfor six or eight months? Like I
didn't really want to just stay inSan Diego and just like hang out my
friends and just like go to thebars and stuff. Like I really thought
that this was like one of thesetimes I can go do like a pretty

(07:54):
cool adventure. It's very different forAmericans too, Like I feel like not
a lot of Americans had that mindsetthat you have to do that. You
know. A lot of the timeit's like their parents are like, yeah,
you should take this time and justwork and you know, spend time
with your family and do that.But it's like, you know, there's
there's a lot to see. Thisis a great train through. True,
it's also pretty hard to fly outof the US sometimes, like in certain

(08:16):
from certain areas, you have tofly like ten hours to get out of
the country, you know, unlessyou're going to Canada. Yeah, it's
a little different for us here overin California and like you know, for
people in New York and like thoseareas. But if you're in like rural
America, yeah, you pretty muchhave to spend a good month amount of
money to get to the coastal regionsthrough. What did you have set for

(08:37):
your daily budget if you had one. I think I was always expecting to
spend close to thirty dollars a daywhen I was in Southeast Asia once I'm
there. That includes like my traintickets, that includes like the park passes,
my food, my accommodation. Likeit was very intimidating to think that,
like, you know, a singlemeal in the States, which can

(08:58):
cost thirty dollars, would be likewhat I'd be spending for everything in my
life for the entire day, right, Well, yeah, I mean when
I just plugged in the calculations,it's like about, like you said,
about twenty seven dollars a day,maybe even a bit less on some days.
Maybe on some days a bit more, but I would say in Southeast
Asia, that's around about what alot of people spend, at least from

(09:20):
the people I met while I wasthere, I spent about that much per
day while I was there, youknow, And you can do it for
much cheaper, for sure, Ohfor sure, for sure. Like that
was one of the things is likeI think as an American traveler, like
your eyes really open up, youknow. I was telling my friends is
back, I'm like, oh,I'm going on this big trip to Asia,

(09:41):
and they thought I was just likeout of my mind, like like
you're going to Asia for like sixmonths by yourself, Like do you know
the language, you know this likethey make it seem like this crazy,
scary place, and then you getout to these countries and kind of look
around. You see like the wholeworld's doing this, like almost except like
a Americans, right, like right, you know, you see you see

(10:03):
all these young eighteen year old Europeansand other backpackers around the world, and
like Australians, Australians for sure,And once you get out there, it's
not as scary as you think,Like it felt very reassuring just to see
that like so many other people werealso like in your same shoes, backpacking
around for cheap. Yeah. Yeah, it's more like the unknown's more scary

(10:24):
than actually the reality of it.Yeah. Always yeah, always. But
you know, you bring up agood point about Southeast Asia being like a
good kind of beginner travel place becauseit is like culturally very different from the
Western world. It's affordable, it'sobviously beautiful. It's not as chaotic or
as much of a culture shock,I would say, as a place like

(10:46):
India, which can be very intenseand very different, but it's enough to
like get you confident. But speakingof confidence, I mean, okay,
I wanted to talk about like someof the bigger expenses on the trip.
And you know, I noticed yousaid that you do you traveled through Vietnam
on a motorbike, which I actuallyalso did, and it's and I'm gonna

(11:09):
maybe just explain this a little bitfor people who might not be familiar with
this. Southeast Asia is not onlyis it a common backpacking like circuit,
but actually motorbiking Vietnam is more commonthan you would think. Not so common
that every single traveler who goes theredoes it, but common enough that people
really, you know a lot ofpeople do it. I mean, look,

(11:31):
there's two of us on this podcast. We've done it. So talk
about that a little bit, talkabout the decision to do that and sort
of how that affected your budget.Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
So I think by this time,like once I was in Vietnam and
like you know, bottom motorbike goingnorth, I think I was like two
or three months into my trip,and you know, I think, if

(11:54):
you like backpedal a month, Iwas like on some random bus in Laos
and I was just saying, onthis bus and there was like two or
three other guys in this bus goingto some random twinytown, and so you
know, like we're like the onlylike foreigners on this bus. We started
chit chatting and talking. We endedup like traveling for weeks through Laos together
as a group, and you know, like once we all kind of split

(12:16):
up, like once we got intoCambodia, they were telling me like,
oh, like we're actually all goingto go buy motorbikes in Vietnam in a
few weeks and you should totally joinus. And at this time I was
just just like, you know,solo backpacker. As twenty two, I've
only ridden a bicycle up until thispoint, and so like I've had zero
experience like riding a motorbike for motoroh the terror too, But yeah,

(12:41):
I keep going. So you know, like they're telling, oh, Vietnam's
it will be no problem, Likejust we'll buy a bike, we'll figure
it out. We'll just spend likethe next month to go north from Ho
Chiman City. So you know,we all go separate ways. We all
kind of go throughout Cambodia to differentplaces, and like I'm on YouTube looking
up Vietnam traffic and it looks absolutelyinsane. So totally Anyways, a few

(13:03):
weeks goes by, I meet upwith the guys in Hoachiman City. You
know, like we start kind ofgoing around this district one of Hoachiman City,
like seeing if people are selling thesebikes, and we all kind of
find a different person selling their bike. You just finished their trip from the
north of Vietnam Hanoi, and sowe all just kind of did it,
like we all spent two hundred andtwenty five dollars to two hundred and fifty

(13:24):
dollars, so like outright own oneof these motorbikes. What year was this?
This is twenty fifteen when I wasthere, so oh my gosh,
wait, we were there like soclose to each other. I think I
was there, And let me thinkabout this. Maybe maybe it was twenty
fourteen or twenty fifteen. It couldhave been actually twenty fifteen. And crazy.

(13:46):
We bought our bikes off of locals, and we got them for one
hundred bucks each. Oh I gotscam. You bought them off a backpacker.
I think we sold ours to backpackersfor like an extra hundred bucks.
Oh my, that's crazy. It'sthe same bike. Yeah, yeah,
it's the same bike. A nineteeneighties Honda win Let me guess mine was

(14:07):
the winner the wave. I forgetwhich one it was, but it was
a Honda bike for sure. Forsure that could have been an extra two
weeks for you. And said youhad to spend that extra hundred on Saskia's
old bike was a fool. Yeah, the up charge, yeah for sure.
So yeah, I mean we allbought bikes, and we all kind

(14:28):
of just like you know, wedrove around Coachman City for I think one
or two days just to get thefield how it how it works to drive
one of these bikes. And itwas super intimidating at first, and there's
a bajillion cars on the road,but it's so crazy, like once you
get it, it like snaps inyour head, like the fear is gone.
You know exactly how to kind ofmove with the traffic and you just

(14:48):
feel like you feel like one withthe locals, you know, like moving
around on your biking stuff. Sothat's kind of how it started. And
then we spent the next month justgoing up to Hanois. It was an
incredible time. How much motorcycle experiencedo you have before this? Zero?
Crazy? Okay? And so that'sthat's why I was so scared because like
all these guys, like they showedme pictures. Oh, I was in

(15:09):
India, I was here like onbikes, or I was on the islands
of Thailand riding bikes. Honestly,that was one of the best things I
ever did in my life. Iwasn't driving it, but I was sitting
behind my boyfriend at the time,and we were totally overloading these bikes because
you know, we have all ofour stuff. He has like a backpack

(15:31):
on the front. We've squeezed allour stuff into one of our backpacks and
literally shipped our other backpack home orlike to another country. I can't even
remember how we did it. Andit was so bad that at one point,
like our suspension broke, which isterrible, but we were just like,
well, we'll just keep going andsee how But I have to know,

(15:58):
did you guys break down a lot? And like, again, how
did this affect your finances? Yeah? Good, good questions. So,
so what happened was like I waswith a group of these three other guys,
as a group of four of us, and we were all kind of
going from city to city. Wewere switching between like this old ho Chiman
trail highway versus the new one,kind of like zigzagging up the country,

(16:21):
and then it kind of got toa point where I think they wanted to
go a little slower than me.I think it was like for visa purposes.
I think that I had only aone month visa in va and you
can't overstay it, and it's veryserious if you do. Yeah, and
these guys, I don't think theycared at all, like, oh,
like we just heard you crossed tolast real quick, you come back over
like check, like like a traumatics. I literally we almost on the last

(16:49):
day of our visa. We weresupposed to cross the border into Laos and
we got in an accident. Itwas a day before, two days before.
We got in an accident, andit took them like a day or
so to fix our bike. Sothen we had like less than twelve hours
to get to the border. Butyou know how it is, you would
say, oh, this looks likeit's going to take me three hours.

(17:11):
Seven hours later you're on like adirt road and you're just like, I
had no idea this was a dirtroad. And we ended up getting to
the border as they were closing andthey were like, give us two hundred
dollars per bike, and we werelike, we do not have that much
money at all. And then inthe end we like negotiated and we and
then managed to cross in. Yeah, well we didn't want to overstay.

(17:37):
If you overstay your visa, apparentlyit's pretty bad, so yeah, you
know, yeah, anyway, Idigress. That was the whole That was
the whole reason why I kind ofkept moving a little faster than them,
So like I was only with themfor maybe one and a half weeks,
and then I had kind of hadto keep going up north by myself at
that point, so I was justlike riding this bike alone going through Vietnam.

(17:59):
And the very first day I leftthem, my bike broke down in
the middle of nowhere, like Isaid goodbye, I hit the road and
like three hours to me riding mybike just sputters and just like but some
locals helped me out, like theylike took my whole bike apart, and
they like found out it was likea spark plug or something, and like
the dad drives to town which Ijust left from, which is like at

(18:21):
least an hour or two away.So I was there all day. I
just I was just sitting at theirhouse all day, like drives, picks
up the piece, comes home,fixes my bike for me, because like
in Vietnam, everyone has the samebike, so like, yeah, everybody
knows how to fix it. Buthe charged me like fifteen dollars. Like
I'm guessing the part was like fivebucks, and then just for his time,
he charged like an extra ten dollarsor something. But yeah, so

(18:44):
getting back to the subject, Ido want to get back to like budget
at some point, but I'm havingtoo much fun talking about Vietnam motorbikes because
I just I don't know that I'veever met someone outside of the people who
did it with me who've done itbefore, so it's kind of fun.
I don't know this was but likeyears ago. Gosh, it is so
long ago now, But I wasjust gonna say, like I love hearing,

(19:06):
like hearing that little bit about youjust like hanging out with that family
in their home while like the dadruns to the town and picks up the
spark plug. I've had a fewexperiences like that where you're just hanging out
with like complete strangers at their housefor whatever reason it is. Did you
have any other experiences like that,like in terms of accommodations, you stay
with locals or for sure, forsure, Like I think, I think

(19:30):
you're right. It's like when youhave moments like those, it's like those
days out of a big trip thatyou're never gonna forget. Yeah, Like
I remember everything so vividly, liketheir little chickens were like looking for a
little food on the ground, liketheir kids are just hanging out with me.
Yeah. Yeah. Another time,like I was in Cambodia and it's
like this two day boat ride downthe Makong River. So for like the

(19:51):
one night they just they literally stoppedthis long tailed boat in this like little
town off the river or I'm like, I don't even know if those cars
like it was just really this reallytiny town like two or three roads and
that's it. And there's no hostels, there's no hotels. It's just local
families who will, like you know, let you sleep in their house,
like on a bed on the floorfor a couple of bucks. I just,

(20:12):
you know, pick some random ladywho offered and like, go put
my stuff down. She's like tryingto tell me. It's like there's a
party that night it's her it's herson's birthday party. So she's like,
come come down, Come down,Like the whole families over there, and
everyone's sitting on like the world's smallestchairs and tables, and like, you
know, they're all drinking beer.So I'm just like this all the all

(20:33):
the kids are coming up, andall the older people are coming up trying
to talk to you, and they'reall like laughing and like it's it's those
moments I just feel so special,you know. Yeah, I got invited
to a Cambodian wedding, which wasamazing, and like the I have all
these pictures of me with this Cambodianbride and groom, and I look terrible,
like dishevel the backpacker, just likein the middle of nowhere, and

(20:53):
I'm like towering over them and I'mlike five foot three guys, so I'm
really small. But it's just they'rethe funniest picture is because it's I just
ended up at this Cambodian wedding andrandomly I'm upset that we haven't seen these
photosauce I'll show them. I justkind of cringe that I look at them.
I'm like, yeah, well,you know, back to the motorbike

(21:18):
thing though, I think what's interestingabout that in terms of budgeting is that
I think people would assume that that'smore expensive, but in a lot of
ways you kind of save money,you know, like you're because you're in
these rural areas where actually there aren'tthat many tourists at all, but breaking
down costs nothing. Dozens of timeswe broke down, and I don't know,

(21:41):
by the way you were traveling withfour people total, you must have
it must have been like every daysomeone was breaking down. Yea, it
was insane. Yeah, for usit was just two bikes and every other
day we would break down, orevery day in like a thirty day period,
So it's crazy. Speaking of expensiveparts of the trip, I know

(22:02):
you mentioned you flew at one point, so did you fly most of the
time, did you cross land borders? Did you do both? And what
kind of expense was that. Yeah. I think like Southeast Asian in general
is such like a niche region ofthe world. We're flying can't actually be

(22:23):
cheaper than taking like a bus ora train to get places. Like there's
this airline called air Asia which issuper super popular in the Southeast Asia region.
And like, like I get Icould probably look it up or just
look like flights today, but likeI remember, flights like from Vietnam like
Hanoi to Bangkok would be like fortydollars one way or something, so and

(22:45):
for me that was way cheaper thantrying to take a bus all the way
from Hannoy to get back to Thailand. So I definitely like did the budget
airlines. I never checked a bagthough. I always just had like a
forty liter backpack like that I usedfor my entire trip. So I think
it was things like that that likewhen I would fly, it wouldn't be
very expensive, like right, itwas still pretty affordable to like purchase a

(23:07):
couple of flights to get from certaincountries like Bangkok and Thailand to Indonesia.
You know, maybe that was likeseventy dollars, but very very affordable for
that reason for how far you're aboutto fly and certain places you had to
fly, right, like yeah,for sure Indonesia, Indonesia. Yeah,
so you'd spend like what under onehundred dollars every time you would switch country,

(23:32):
uh huh yeah, And I thinklike that was something that I had
to learn, like budget wise waslike when I first landed in Thailand at
the start of this trip, Iwas getting like I don't know if scammed
is the right word. I wasgetting like swindled left and right, just
like I was not getting the mostaffordable option for the first week. Like
right, I was like, Oh, I want to go to Cambodia,

(23:52):
Like where do I go? Isee like a tourist travel agency is like,
oh, maybe they sell tickets,Like I ended up paying them like
one hundred and thirty dollars to getfrom Thailand to Cambodia like a public bus.
Oh my gosh, Oh that isridiculous. You know, my friend,

(24:15):
I was definitely hustled that time,But like when you started talking to
other traveler, it's like, oh, no, you just go directly to
the train station, directly to thebus station, and like you know,
you learned very quickly how to getlike your cheapest mode of transportation places.
And that was the same of theflights. Like for long flights, I
would do overnight flights so I didn'thave to buy a hotel to compensate for

(24:36):
some of that some of that extrafee of like getting to a new place.
I think we just made it clear, like there are certain things you
do and certain things you don't dowhen go into another country. And then
like if you want to get thebest deals, like you know, take
a step back, definitely try togain that information from other travelers online wherever
you need to get it. Justlike how you didn't have to spend one
hundred and thirty dollars to take abus from one country to another, you

(25:00):
know, it's like, yeah,it's just like you don't do currency exchanges
at train stations airports, right,yeah, yeah, exactly. Did you
have any other travel hacks there thatyou came up with or discovered while out
there budgeting or not? Yeah,what are some of your favorite hacks?
Yeah, and these are not myI did not source these hacks, you
know, these are of these hacksthere down passed down to the backpack or

(25:26):
lore. That's right, Yeah,they're all you know, you know a
lot of these things I've just learnedfrom other people who are doing these long
term trips, right, Like youknow, like once I kind of got
like you know, boots the groundand Thailand. Like you start to talk
to other you know, travelers,you kind of tell them what you're doing
where you're going, and it's justlike a wealth of information, like when
you're speaking to other people in thesehostels or restaurants. So I learned to

(25:51):
never really go into travel agencies,like just go directly to the public,
like where are the locals buying theirtickets. I think that also helped because
like when I started traveling like thelocals did, I also started to get
like these other local deals for accommodationbecause I was, like, you know,
traveling in the same destinations as them, and I was getting dropped off

(26:11):
at the same areas. So forexample, like in Thailand, like when
I was going from Bangkok up northto Chang Mai, I took like this
seventeen hour train ride to get upthere. And I think a lot of
people if you just pay travel agency, it's probably like eight hours or something.
But this train was like it wasdirt cheap. I was there like

(26:33):
forever, and like you know,I slept there, so I didn't pay
for my hotel. But like whenI got like when I got dropped off
in Chang Myi, I was atthis local train station and this is where
all these like locals would kind ofcome up to you and like offer you
accommodation at their place, just likewhen I was in Mouse and these places,
like in my opinion, where alot cheaper than even hostels were.

(26:53):
Like yeah, sometimes these locals wouldoffer you a bed in their house for
like three or four dollars a night. Yeah. Guest houses, right,
yeah, guest houses. Yeah.And so like these things I would say
are not normally on Hostile World orExpedia or like, these are just things
like these are like the very localinteractions that you have. But like I

(27:14):
had an incredible experience every single time, I never felt like my things were
in danger or I was in danger, and it was just a great way
to save money and like be thatmuch closer to like experiencing, like what's
life like living is a local oreven with a local. I will bounce
off of that point and say thatone of the best hacks that I have,

(27:34):
at least in Southeast Asia. Ithink different areas call for different you
know, hacks and customs and allthat sort of thing. Haggling basically is
part of the culture there, andit is I think something that a lot
of backpackers, especially Western backpackers,I had a hard time with it,
and I think a lot of peoplehave a hard time with it at first.

(27:56):
The longer that you're there, thelonger you realize that there is a
tour tax on everything, and thatbasically haggling means you're just getting the local
price most of the time, orat least close to it, right,
And that's that's within reason, ofcourse. But when it comes to accommodation,
I think after the first month there, we never bought anything online,

(28:18):
and what we would do instead wasmaybe we'd book a first night in a
place if we really needed to,if it was like a late arrival,
and then we'd take our backpacks andwe'd walk like door to door from like
hostile to hostile to guesthouse and askwhat the price was. And then we'd
say, well, the dude acrossthe street said it was this much,
so I'll stay here if it's likeless than that, you know, And

(28:42):
in a lot of the time wewould get a good deal. Even in
those tiny towns in the middle ofnowhere would be like, well, we
just went to your competitor, youknow. But we were really like trying
to penny pinchion, and we werelike sharing. I was with my boyfriend
and we were traveling with one otherperson, and we would take get rooms
of three instead of rooms of youknow, just two, just to like

(29:04):
all save money, you know,stuff like that for sure. Yeah,
accommodation is big. Wait did weI'm not sure if I asked, But
in terms of accommodation, obviously youstayed with a few of the locals in
their guest houses or guest beds.You also did hostels though, was it
like pretty fifty fifty? Yeah,I would say it's probably close to fifty
fifty, but like, you knowthe same thing where I would not really

(29:27):
be booking things in advance, besidesmaybe that first night just to kind of
get situated and not have to,you know, start running around looking for
the best deal at like eleven pmafter a long like bus or train ride.
Yeah, I can admit that it'sa bit miserable sometimes to walk from
place to place with heavy backpacks,but worth it. But I was,

(29:48):
yeah, tod like in the humidheat too, you think you might die.
But what I was gonna ask iswere there any places though where you
got a really good deal and itwas like paradise? Because that happened a
couple of times for me and I'lljust give it one example, which is

(30:10):
on Kotao, which is an islandlike a scuba diving island in Thailand.
We rode around the island on ascooter and found this cute place with like
bungalows. It was kind of ona secluded road, dirt roads, and
I think it was like nine dollarsa night and we had our own wooden
bungalow with view of the bay,like steps down from the water and the

(30:34):
beach. And eventually we came backthere at the end of our trip and
we like asked them, Hey,if we stay here for four weeks,
will you give us a deal?And so we ended up paying like six
dollars or seven dollars a night orsomething, and it was like paradise,
like our own bathroom and everything.So did you have any of those moments?

(30:55):
I think Cambodia, I probably hadthe best deal for like value three
dollars a night. I have likemy own hotel room actually, and it's
like some little town in Kimbodia.So and then I went to this little
town called Sea Huntingville. Oh I'vebeen there. Yeah, all these little
beaches around beach and that was aplace where I said, right, like

(31:18):
literally right on the beach and samething. Three bucks a night, you
know, and you can just rowout of bed, go swimming, come
back to the hostel later on.Yeah, you know it's good if there's
mosquito nets. Yeah, yeah,extra value add Yeah. And sometimes also
you like happen to be in aplace where it's kind of off season,

(31:38):
so they're like, well it's empty. So if you're filling a bed and
then eating at our restaurant and buyingour water bottles, then works for us.
Yeah, yeah, I'll take themoney, you know. Yeah exactly.
Brian. When you mentioned that youhad just met like random people and
then tagged along with them for aweek or two, I was not shocked
at all, because that's exactly howwe met. That wasn't your first time.

(32:04):
Just like crashing another person's vacation fortwo weeks, No way, that's
the best way to do it,you know. I hope I stay like
that way until I'm an old lady, because and I meet old people who
are traveling and we like buddy outand go do you know, because it's
it's the best. Yeah, it'sreally fun, and I feel like it's
reserved for the young for some reason, or that's what people think. But

(32:27):
then when you go backpacking, suddenlylike there's a forty year old and there's
an eight senior year old. Iremember one of my favorite times there was
like this uh fifty I think itwas like fifty five or fifty seven at
the time, but in Costa Rica, I was celebrating Christmas by myself and
made like three good friends at thehostel and he was one of them.
So it was like me, twoother people who were like my age,
and then like this old guy justhanging out and partying on a beach in

(32:51):
cost Rica. We did like adinner and everything. Yeah amazing, Like
yeah, yeah, it's funny forme. Like like when I started this
trip to go to Southeast Asia,I think I was I was definitely like
a different person, Like, youknow, I was much more reserved.
I was more shy. I wasnot the person to put myself out in
certain situations and like try to makefriends with strangers. Like a lot of

(33:13):
the friends I had were like thesefriends I've always had since high school.
Like I felt like I lived avery sheltered and very like you know,
more simple life up until this trip. That's kind of how the whole thing
started. Was like I went fromThailand to Laos and I was alone like
two or three weeks in and thesetwo old retired guys from Chicago were traveling
together and they were on that bigboat going down the mc Kong River and

(33:37):
they decided to sit next to me, and so I traveled with them for
like a week, like going throughus and like they were like my first
travel buddies on my big trip andlike the sixties, like we were like
crashing like little guest houses together andstuff. So yeah, I feel like,
you know, once you leave thecountry, you could literally be friends
with anybody. Like it's it's avery very fun feeling. Yeah, let's

(34:00):
bring that energy home with us.I guess, yeah exactly. So speaking
of like activities things like that,you know, we talked about accommodation.
We haven't really talked about food thatmuch, but I want to talk about
activities like what did you splurge onand maybe what did you also skimp on?
And then is there anything that youregret not doing because you were skimping
a little? I splurge on goingto angor Watt and Cambodia. Yeah,

(34:27):
yeah, that was a little expensivebecause that's why I spent like a hundred
something bucks to get there from thattai travel agency. By the way,
Yeah, Anchor Watt is the biggestreligious one of the biggest religious complexes in
the world. It's a series oftemples in Cambodia that are very ancient and
amazing, right, just yeah,it's one of those well known heritage sites

(34:49):
I think in the world. It'sinsane, Like you can spend three days
there visiting a bunch of temples.There will be hundreds more that you have
not been able to visit because it'sit's huge. So yeah, yeah,
it was. It was a supercool place and like I don't regret it
one bit, but it was definitelysomething I had to splurge outside of my
daily budget on. Yeah. WhenI was in Indonesia, I did like

(35:10):
a three day hike to this volcanopeak called Mountain and Johnny another incredible experience.
But it was like little things likethis where I had to, you
know, have some cheaper days bakedin to to compensate for these expensive,
expensive outings. So do you rememberlike how much expensive was? Oh yeah,
it's it's nothing like as someone who'sthirty now, it's like you would

(35:35):
not consider expensive but as like abudget or you know, like my three
day trip to and Johnny, Ithink like was two hundred dollars or something
like. Yeah, so it wasexpensive for me at the time. An
ankor watt. I'm just looking itup. It's forty bucks a day.
But then you have to pay someoneto drive you around it because it's massive,
so you need a tech tech driverto take you around places. In

(36:00):
that context, when twenty dollars canget you buy a day in a day,
that's a lot of money. Sofor sure, for sure, And
it can be intimidating right, Likeit's it's not easy to have your finances
fluctuate so much like week by week. But I would say during the end
of the trip, like I wouldn'teven think twice, Like if I wanted

(36:22):
to do something that was expensive,I knew exactly how I would make the
next week more affordable. What didyou skimp the most on, do you
think, Well, I guess yousaid accommodation maybe is one of them.
Yeah, I like I skipped outon scuba diving, which a lot of
people do in Southeast Asia because it'sit's probably one of the most affordable places
in the world to get PATTY certified. It is, I did it.

(36:49):
She's about to pull out her Pattycard, be like I loved it so
much. I did like a secondadvanced course and stuff. I did it
on Kotau and I can confirm it. It's totally worth it. Although you
know, probably if you were toget that four hundred dollars, took it
back to Thailand and do the course, it would still be cheaper than trying
to do it in the United States, especially California. Yeah, so for

(37:13):
reference, those courses will cost likeover a thousand dollars in Western countries easily,
and a lot of the time it'snot even in the water. It's
or like like in the ocean,it's in a pool. It can be
Yeah, in Thailand, especially Kotauis known as the best diving island,
so it's more competitive pricing. Ithink it was. It was very cheap.

(37:35):
It was like three hundred bucks andit's a four day course. You
start in the pool, you goin the ocean, you have like four
dives or something included, and it'sjust yeah, it was a really great
experience, So go back and timeand bring us with you. Oh for
sure. For sure. Here's afun personal fact about me is that my

(37:58):
boyfriend like who who traveled with methere when we broke up later on,
he actually went back there and becamea diving instructor at the place where we
learned how to dive. And becausewhen we were there, the guy had
said, hey, you guys arepretty good at diving. If you want
a job like it doesn't pay much, but you can like afford to live

(38:19):
here essentially and you'll get your divemaster. Certain I was like, hm,
I'm going to go to college,but he decided to go back and
he's been he'd been doing it upuntil like a couple of years ago,
and he's like a certified dive masterand stuff. So there you go for
getting a job traveling, you know, that's an option too. Yeah,
And you know, for those listening, like I definitely think that that's more

(38:42):
common than you think, people whokind of go on these trips and then
sometimes they just don't ever come homeexactly. Yeah. You know, they
have a couple months planned out andthen they find a certain city or a
country that they fall in love withand you know, some odd job lands
in their lap and then before theyknow it, they're like, you know,
living there for years and years onan end. Well back at the

(39:02):
age when I did this Southeast Asiatrip, I was nineteen. I think
I was nineteen, Actually I was. I had just turned twenty or I
turned twenty there and I made moneyin Australia. So I actually went to
Australia when I was eighteen, andI made money there working in farms,
and then I went and spent itall in Southeast Asia. So thinking back

(39:25):
to that age, it's like Imissed certain things about myself, like how
naive and you know, midday wasless hardened and I kind of miss that,
but I also don't miss the cluelessness, and I like the wisdom that
I've gained now. It's very interesting, like like when you think and look

(39:46):
back at the way that you've traveled, like as like a late teenager,
early twenties. I have a betterbalance of time and money now where I
can be like, oh, I'mgonna definitely grab a taxi from like the
airport. I'm not gonna walk.I'm not gonna walk to town with my
backpack anymore. Like seriously, youknow, it's like looking back at so

(40:06):
many things that you didn't even havethe option to entertain. Yeah, but
it's those experiences that make those tripsso special. And since we're on the
topic of budgeting overall, I mean, I don't know if this is a
case for you, but I gota little obsessed with budgeting, which helps
to an extent. I was Iwas that guy and my friend grew back
home where oh god, here hegoes again. Oh, we can't do

(40:29):
this or you expensive, and like, you know a lot of good things,
like it's a good skill to havewhen you go home to budget.
Yeah, it took me a lotof years to like unwind that though,
where I was like, Okay,I don't need to sell like my blood
anymore, so like try to saywhat money and stuff like that, Like
sometimes it went too far, butit is a good skill overall, I

(40:52):
would say, so going back tothis person who did the thousand dollar trip
in Europe for seven weeks, sevenweeks is still a relatively short amount of
time where you can you can bereally that tight with a budget. But
then once you start stretching out thetime, like and talking in terms of
months. On one hand, timegives you the opportunity to get better deals,

(41:15):
but on the other it becomes inevitablethat there's going to be times where
you're gonna mess up. You're gonnalose money on something, get swindled,
or get sick and get stuck somewhereand have to spend more than you anticipated
on a certain hotel. So Iknow that happened to me, Like I
left my card in ATM in Indonesiaonce and eight hundred dollars went out the

(41:37):
window. Oh. But the problemis in all the other countries I've been
to before, it would it wouldmake you take your card before you get
the money, and in Indonesia theygive you the money first, and so
that actually is a very common thingto do. Max, Okay, nice

(41:59):
app will be chasing down the streetwith your card like you left your card
with your car and so yeah.But anyway, so my question was,
did you have any of those momentsin which you were like having to spend
more money than you anticipated. Iwent to Singapore for not super long,
maybe like a few days, fivedays, and I thought I could try

(42:22):
to figure it out, like I'llfind a cheap hostile and I I'll be
within my twenty seven dollars a day. But sometimes, like you just you
just go to places that aren't withinthat type of budget, unless like you're
willing to like starve yourself for somethingwhich you know no one, no one
wants to do. So like Ithink the cheapest hostile at the time was
like twenty dollars a night in Singapore, and you know, you had to

(42:44):
get like a tram ticket places,and the food was a little more expensive,
and you know, these are Ithink nowadays it's so easy to like
look up pricing in places, andlike I felt like back in you know,
only seven or eight years ago intwenty fifteen, like it was those
guys like Lonely Planet, like thosewere like the source of truth for all

(43:05):
these different countries. Yeah, yeah, the Lonely Planet guides. Yeah yeah.
I always felt like I'd have tolike go through one of those to
like check out, you know,what to do, where to go,
stuff like that. But I thinkjust showing up in general places and not
knowing how expensive it was going tobe would just like you know, sometimes
story for a loop, like sometimesyou just don't know how expensive it's really
going to be. I think there'salways that financial cushion you need to account

(43:30):
for if you're going to be travelingfor that long. And I guess what
I was getting at is that Iknow that you could do this trip for
much cheaper. It's totally possible,but maybe you know, you'd be depriving
yourself of things and yeah, youknow, and it wouldn't be worth it.
What do you think? Yeah,that's a really good topic. Like

(43:52):
I definitely think that there's like,even though everyone's in the same country and
everyone's traveling differently, whether you're inlike an all inclusives or you're living at
a local's house, Like you're havinga different experience even though you're in the
same place, right, And likemoney is for sure a factor, and
like the type of experience that eachperson is having while they're on their trips.

(44:12):
I think, you know, whenyou don't have the luxury to spend
a certain amount of money, yeah, you might miss on experiences. But
I think the same goes if youhave too much money and you're not really
immersing yourself in a certain culture.So a lot of people that I would
travel with, like the guys whoinvited me to Vietnam, Like they were
traveling for like eighteen months at atime or two years, and they didn't

(44:35):
need to see every single statue andevery single monument, and they didn't need
to go to every museum because likethat kind of happens a lot, like
when you travel long term, likeyou kind of get burnt out from like
walking tours, and you get burntout from like another historical monument that like
unfortunately feels very similar to what youjust saw it the last Yeah, that's

(44:57):
a good point. There were placeswhere I went where I thought this is
not this wasn't worth my money basedon what I just saw in this country
like three days ago or something.I always found it funny when everyone and
like you know, Europe goes andsees churches and it's like okay, like
I remember going to a number ofthem and being like, okay, I'm
not religious. They're beautiful, butI'm not religious. Why am I here?

(45:19):
I wouldn't you know. Yeah,you're definitely hit with that realization where
it's like, okay, what onearth am I doing? Like I'm not
going to retain this information and likeit's nice to look at, but I'm
not like a history buffer or anythinglike that. You know. When I
traveled with I think I had likeseven thousand dollars and I lasted like seven

(45:39):
months or so or less, becauseI don't even think I had my return
to get back. But I didn'tfeel like I was missing out. I
thought we we splurged on the things. When we needed a nice place to
stay, we stayed in a niceplace and enjoyed ourselves. And when we
needed to budget, we budgeted.And that was kind of like, Okay,

(46:00):
well these hotels were sleeping in themiddle of Vietnam in for like eight
hours and getting up at five inthe morning, Like it's not about the
hotel, it's about being on theroad. And I remember thinking, like,
I don't feel like we are sellingourselves short at all on this budget.
And I remember thinking we could havedone this cheaper. I liked the
being able to experience what I feltwas luxury for a really reasonable price at

(46:24):
that age. Yeah, I mean, I totally agree. And I think
like a lot of people who areyoung adults who travel to places like Southeast
Asia, like that's their first tasteof like living a pretty good life or
for what their budget is, youknow, like like so many people even
in their thirties back at home,like they still are trying to make it

(46:45):
work. But like you at leastget to try it out in a place
like Southeast Asia, where like you'relike, wow, I could go out
to eat for every meal every singleday. Yep, you know, I
can live by the beach, Ican go to the nice gyms. I
can do all this and it's wayway cheaper than anything I would even be
doing back at home. But youknow, I knew a lot of people

(47:05):
who like ended up going on trips. They come home, they have the
travel bug, and then they endup like getting English. That was a
toughful teaching English as a foreign legyeah yeah, yeah to full And then
they'll they'll go to like Vietnam toteach English and they get paid pretty well
more than the locals, but theyget to live that life of you know,

(47:30):
luxury that they can't have back athome. M And Okay, this
is a great time to talk aboutfood. So because we haven't talked about
food, I think most of thetime what we would eat were the local
staples, so fried rice like everyday you know in Thailand, in Vietnam,
fu all the time, or likebond Me style sandwiches all the time,

(47:51):
and when we'd find something cheap,we'd just eat that basically. So
right, and so how what wasyour experience like with food and yeah,
how did you navigate it? Yeah? I think like I just stuck with
like street food and like almost everycountry, Thailand specifically, and like I've
traveled a lot since this Southeast Asiatrip, and nothing has ever come close

(48:15):
to like the food cuisine of Thailand, like you know, being able to
go to street food carts all throughoutthe country and there's such a big variety,
especially in Bangkok, but like it'ssafe food, it's incredibly cheap,
and it's so good, so good, like getting some pad tie. You
could even get some curry at someplaces, Like yeah, I would totally

(48:37):
eat like the local cuisine and itwas a lot of rice and a lot
of noodles and a lot of eggs, but it was also good. And
like you definitely like have those dayswhere you are missing a pizza or you're
missing something back home, but it'sit's good. Like I feel like I've
had my tie fix for years eversince, Like indulging in taland you know,
cow was the food different from eatingat locals house that you were staying

(49:00):
at or going out, Like whenyou stayed at these accommodations at the locals
welcomed you in, you paid,you know, the three dollars for a
bed. Do they also offer food? Did you eat with them? Which
was better? So it definitely varied. But I think like if you're gonna
eat the food at a local's house, like I felt like that food was
not trying to cater to tourists atall. It was just like that's what

(49:21):
they're eating for dinner. And Ithink the cuisine was pretty similar. I
would say like if anything, maybelike the choices of the meat in the
food would be a little less primecut. Like I remember I had a
bowl fu in Vietnam at a localshouse and like the meat that was in
it was nothing that like you wouldsee in the fub back up. Oh

(49:43):
yeah, every piece of the animallike it was like the chicken head or
like I forget, like every weirdscrap that you don't really want to eat
and fun back at home, itis going to be in the locals food
because they use every piece of thefood. Total. I had that,
you know in Vietnam there was areally difficult language barrier. I remember because

(50:07):
compared to the other countries, itwas like I would always learn numbers and
hello and goodbye and all these things, and I would even say those things,
and I guess the accents or changereally like from place to place dramatically.
Yeah, and so I would notbe saying it right, And I
remember it being really hard there.Yeah, like a lot of people spoke

(50:32):
English, like, yeah, itfelt like most people in big cities or
touristy towns could communicate with you.It's like, you know, you can
kind of get your point across,but Vietnam definitely felt like they don't know
why English, and you for suredon't know enough of Vietnamese to like,
you know, hold a conversation,right. So you'd go to a fox
place and you'd say, you likekind of point like could I get some

(50:54):
And then they'd be like they'd askyou something. You'd be like, I
don't know, and then they wouldjust view a bowl of whatever it was,
and so they were like, oh, do you only want the heads
in the feet or do you wantme Yeah? Yeah, Yeah. There's
definitely some stories in those six monthswhere I look back, I'm like,
oh my god, some of thefood I ate. And it's not the
local's fault, right, it's justwhat was being sold, and you know

(51:17):
what I'm used to and what I'mnot used to. And so you mentioned
like sometimes you have a creating forpizza. Did you ever try the happy
pizzas in Cambodia? No, somethis trip, but I was like this
young kid, like I was justtrying to like take the stray in narrow
path, you know. I waslike I was hesitant to smoke weed in
those countries because, like I knew, some of their laws were super strict.

(51:38):
Oh yeah, even though like somecities you look around everybody's smoking,
like it's a big deal. Ithink it's mostly Indonesia. So you don't
quote me. But if anybody doesn'tknow what I'm talking about when I say
happy pizzas, it's in Cambodia andLaois, I guess they'll make pizzas with
pot on it, like actual weed. They'll just sprinkle it all over like

(52:01):
like a regano, and then they'lllike bake it, or they'll yeah,
they'll sprink it, they'll sprinkle iton and then they'll bake it so oh
no, it gets you high.Yeah, yeah, because because it goes
into the oil, you know.It's like yeah, yeah, I remember
like when I was going through Last, I stopped and Last it's Ng Vyang,

(52:24):
and like there's this like main restaurantthere that's known for their happy pizzas
and like space shakes, which islike magic mushrooms and a milkshake. Oh
yeah, and they just have friendsplaying twenty four seven with couches everywhere.
So like you you walk across,you see all these backpackers with the elephants
hippie pants you know, I'm talkingabout like, oh my gosh, the

(52:45):
classic elephants exactly, and everyone's gigglingtheir asses off, just like watching Friends
all day, like twenty four seven. It's hilarious. That's like the biggest
backpacker cliche, the elephant pants.Oh yeah, and wait, what's another
one. Let's see kind of thing. There's definitely some shirts I remember seeing

(53:05):
that were like that everyone had,Like the pants were for sure, Oh
the Chang beer shirts. You're everyonewas doing it, you know pants I
had, Yeah, they like theelephant ones, but they had like stripes

(53:31):
and stuff. It's so funny,those those things like a diamond doesn't Like
everywhere you looked like some backpack orguy or girl. That doesn't matter who
it was, everybody had some ofthose pants. Like so true. Isn't
it fun to reminisce? I lovereminiscing on that time of my life.
It's like a it's a hard thing. When you go on these trips,

(53:52):
is like you have this profound experienceof your life and it's like the people
you meet on the road, allthe experiences you've had, like it's most
fulfilling part of you as a person. And then like when you go home
and it's like that chapter is shut. Your friends, don't you know,
they'll ask you for a week ortwo, oh, how was your trimp

(54:13):
whatever? But like that part feelslike it's a distant memory almost overnight me
home, and like I swear that'slike the spark of so many people's travel
bug is like that want to getback on the road because like if everything
back at home feels dull for solong until you like kind of assimilate back
into reality again. Yeah, youknow. I I could not stop talking

(54:37):
about my trip to people, andI learned later that I actually encouraged like
multiple people to go, including mybrother, just because I wouldn't shut up
about it because it was that's good. Yeah, well it was. It
was life changing. Also, Iwent for like almost two years, like
it was a huge thing for me. It was like I came back and

(55:00):
I was not only a different personmentally, but I looked like a different
person like I was you know,yeah, you come back to different.
Yeah, you're just transformed. Itcould grow facial hair, it would be
down to idn't shave for my entiretrip. Had like the long long beer
like oh my gosh, yeah Ihad. I had super long hair like

(55:22):
down to my hips. And Iremember I got home and I chopped it
all off and I was immediately wellit took me a couple of months and
I was like, this is anew chapter, like different anyway. Would
you say it's the best five thousanddollars you've ever spent? Oh for sure?
And like that that changed the courseof my twenties. I was like,

(55:43):
Okay, I want to be donewith school. I want to buckle
my head down and be done.Because I was not a school person,
and I was like as soon asI'm done with school, like I'm going
back on the road, and likethat's what I did. I just like
I made that my priority for mytwenties to travel as much as I can.
And I think I just kept pushingmyself helf as like a solo traveler,
to do more and more different typesof trips that felt like I was

(56:05):
having those more deeper connections or thosemore unique experiences. And I think that
trip to Asia is kind of thereason for like where I got to today.
So yeah, definitely the best fivethousand dollars I've spent. Awesome.
I think that's a perfect way toend. Brian. I don't know if
you have anything going on, likea public Instagram or anything like that.

(56:27):
Sometimes people plug their their stuff,but yeah, I could for sure plug.
It's not like you know, forWorring. I am no influencer,
Like I have my own personal Instagrampage like where I post my own personal
travel videos and my trips. Soyeah, so my name's Brian Carlson.
So I switched the first two lettersmy name, so I'm crying underscore Barlson.

(56:47):
So yeah, please go ahead,fallow. I have all my trips
and travels and videos on their soyeah, I'll be making a lot,
a lot of videos these next coupleof years amazing. You can check us
out at www dot GTS podcast dotcom, on Instagram at globetrotters Podcast,
Twitter at globetrot pod, Facebook atglobetrotters Podcast. Editing was done by our

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very own Saskia Havanni and music wasby The Thin Blue Collective. You can
find them on Spotify and bandcamp.All right, thanks so much for listening. Bye,