The Beginning (Part 3/3) – My route, my backpack and budget resources

My Route

After a lot of iteration on my schedule, my route and the way I would move from one place to another. I create my final route for this journey.

My Route. I'm glad to show it. I'll keep updating any changes.

The best thing of having a route and a schedule it’s that, little by little, I realized that I can change it at will. That nothing it’s written in stone and that if I want to stay a couple more days in one place I can do it, and it’s OK. It’s a freedom feeling.

There are some key days that I have to respect. For example, my first destination was Manila. To there, and from there, I already bought my air tickets, so I can’t extend my stay. But from Malaysia to China, I’m traveling by land. So If I decide to stay more in one place and less in other, I can totally do it. That is part of the joy on this long term traveling.

There are some changes from the first map that I share. This is because, there are a lot of places that have high Visa Cost and due transportation and connectivity between them and other places I prioritize to visit. Those left behind countries are now on my bucket list of places that will be part of my next journey, I hope.

My Backpack

Because of the extended length of the journey, I felt that I needed a huge bag, however, a medium size travel backpack it’s more than enough. According to Rolf Potts, in Vagabonding, the smaller your luggage, the better you’ll travel. Rolf statement it’s extremely accurate, but you will only fully understand this until you hit the road.

At the beginning I had 4 bags with me. They were from different sizes and purpose. I brought them with me, just because I was able to carry it. I felt like playing Lego with them. Moving them around, trying to create something cool and useful. However on my first 2 days, I get rid of 1 of those bags.

On the road, you become really selective and objective with your stuff. If it’s useful you keep, otherwise you say good bye to it. My luggage in general it’s getting smaller in every stop that I’m doing. Right now I’m just traveling with my backpack (Master Roshi’s Shell) and my little backpack where usually you keep your most valuable items. This is a traveler, and a common sense, rule. If I need to take one thing of my luggage, it will only be my small bag, the rest you can replace it easily wherever you go.

My ideal backpack, for this specific journey will be:

-1 pair of jeans

-4-5 Shirts

-7 sets of underwear (boxer’s and socks) – IDK about bras sorry to the female readers.

-1 swimming suit

-1 Casual Short

-2 Athletic Shorts

-1 Pair of Walking Shoes

-1 Pair of Athletic Shoes

-1 Pair of Sandals

-1 Jacket

-1 Towel

-1 Blanket (This one because I stole it from my sister :p)

-A Small bag where you can carry your toiletries.

-My Computer, and other gadgets… They’re my toys, despite several recommendations on not bringing them, I decided that it’s a weight I’m willing to carry.

-Passport

-Money Bag

-Journal

I think that’s it.

Through this journey, I’ll be on hot weather, because I’ll visit tropical countries and because it will be summer in all the other places.

My Backpack. La viajera

My Resources

For doing a long term trip, there are a lot of myths. The most common is that requires a lot of money to do it. However, if you’re willing to go budget, and use some of the advantages of today Social Networks, you can save a lot of money and be able to meet great people in the processes.

One of the rules of this trip is to never stay in a Hotel. Just stay in: hostels, Airbnb, friend’s houses or at a Couchsurfing Host.

Airbnb, it’s a website where you can rent a room in someone else property, but that property is not necessarily a hotel, or guest house. There are a lot of people that they have a second house, and apartment and they rent it, usually you rent it for a couple of months or years. On Airbnb, they rented more in a retail kind of way.

On Airbnb people rent places without a contract, just for a couple of days (like a hotel). The business model, in my opinion, it’s to sell in retail, and break the monolithic contracts in the renting industry.

An analogy for this can the selling of cigarettes pack. Let’s imagine that selling the whole pack it’s the normal renting industry. Airbnb, open up the pack and sells you cigarettes by unit. In this way, more people can access, although, you might have to pay a higher price per night, than if you rent the apartment for months. You can get really good places, for the price of a hostel night. Give it a try.

The view from my Airbnb place at Penang, Malaysia. $10 USD per night.

Now Couchsurfing. This is one of the main reasons that enables me to do this journey. Couchsurfing it’s an online community of hosts and guests. There are people around the world that they have a couch to share, they want meet and interact with foreigners or travelers, and they’re kind enough to tell it the world.

With Couchsurfing, you can be hosted by a person for a couple of nights, free of charge. However, it’s not a hotel. If you do Couchsurfing, the general assumption is that you want to talk and interact with your host. You will share more than just a couch, you can share experiences, food, skills, etc. It’s a way of knowing people, travel on budget and have a great time.

With Dennis, my first Couchsurf Host in Manila

Also, one of my biggest resource it’s that I’m lucky enough to be part of the KDI Alumni, which is one of the most complete professional networks in the world. In our school we’re surrounded by people of more than 70 different countries. It’s a truly globalized environment. You learn, and become friends, with people of Mozambique and Kazakhstan. I learn a lot of Muslim Culture, and I learn, in general to be open minded.

There are prejudice in all of us, I think it’s part of how humans work, but interacting with such a diverse group of people, makes you think differently. You understand that value judgment of good or bad are irrelevant, all cultures are different, they all have different history and we are all right and wrong.

While in school, I gain a lot of friends and colleagues. With this said, I had the chance of making friends for life, that I will visit trough this trip, with some of them I will stay, with others I’ll meet and have a dinner, but with all of them I know I’ll have a great time.

With Tebbie, one of my KDI Classmate

Well, this is the end of my beginning, on how this journey started, my purpose and some guidelines of my journey in general.

I strongly recommend if you’re planning to do a long term journey, please read Vagabonding from Rolf Potts.

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This trip started on March 3^rd, when I left South Korea to visit Philippines. On March 11^th I flew to Kuala Lumpur and since March 20^th I’m in Thailand. I will keep on posting a little about my perception of this countries and some of my experience.

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Special Thanks for all the people that have offer their couch and hospitality with me. I’m deeply thank you with you, and I hope I can repay you when you come to my country or to any other traveler that indirectly receive my hospitality on your behalf.