San Diego or Bust!

I am frugal…let’s just get that out there right away. So when I can choose to pay for a direct flight to San Diego at a reasonable time, of course I choose to use my miles instead. Even if that means that I have to fly out at 5:15 in the morning to then connect in Phoenix for a two hour layover and not arrive in San Diego until 11:45 am. And when I could either take a cab for around $40 to get to the airport or take the bus, of course I choose the bus. Even though the $2.25 that I spent to get to the airport meant staying up all night, going out to the bar until 2 so that I could wait out in the freezing cold to catch at 2:20am bus to Tukwila (which is scary enough) with a bunch of crazies, to wait in the cold again to catch my transfer at 3:00 and walk a couple blocks to the airport, getting there at 3:30! At the time I was definitely miserable, but looking back I still don’t regret saving that $37.75. Anyone who knows me (especially the ex’s, they all hate it haha) knows this about me. I look at it like this: the more I save on stupid things like transportation, the more I can spend on other fun things I want to do…like travel! Also, the experience is in the adventure…always!

Why am I telling you this?? Well, first of all because I am currently sitting in the Phoenix airport on my layover and second, because the experience I just had was much of what I spend my time doing when I travel. Traveling cheap and on a budget is not easy, but it is very necessary if you want to be able to travel for a long time and still come back with money in your pocket. It is easy to go to countries like Mexico, El Salvador…Thailand and see that everything is so cheap so you spend more and live like a king. I see lots of people around me doing it and I have heard lots of stories. A lot of people come back from vacation say in Oxaca, Mexico and speak of their lavish bungalow hotels on the beach with heated pools for just $30 a night….that is great, but $30 a night adds up. Especially when you can get a bed, and a shared kitchen in a hostel for $3.50 a night. This is when my frugalness and love of adventure comes in handy. You do the math.

There are a couple reasons why I don’t like to live by my American means when I travel. Mostly, that is not the point of my travels. When I travel, I like to live no better off than the average people in the country that I am visiting. Also, roughing it is the best part of the experience! 

Ok time to go enjoy San Diego! Write again soon..

The pain of being an adult!

As I am laying in bed shortly after having gum grafting surgery (ok so now it is four days later and I am just finishing up this post), my newest advice to everyone is to not wait until the last minute to get check ups before you leave for such a trip. I strolled by the dentist about two weeks ago, thinking "man I should really get my receding gum line taken care of before I leave for so long". Little did I know what was in store for me after not going to the dentist for 5 years. Needless to say, I am spending much of my last 2 months in Seattle at the dentist! And, I have spent the last four days mostly in bed, in and out of sleep drinking nothing but smoothies and soup. Having a deadline for me to take care of all of the things that have gone wrong in my body that I have put off for years is very painful. Things that I could space out so that they don't hurt so bad, I am having to get done one after the other. However, it must be done. I just turned 25, which means I only have one more year left on my moms insurance (I know...spoiled huh! My mom is a school teacher so, by default, I have insurance until I am 26! If only I had been utilizing it for the last 7 years! I could just kick myself now!). Realizing this, I have gotten my butt into gear to have everything I can taken care of before I leave. I feel like a real grown up now...taking care of my body, health, and well-being! Man, I never thought this day would come...Anyways, yes, advice to all- Never wait until the last minute to get your check up at the doctor or dentist just in case there are many things wrong that you haven't thought about. The body breaking down is part of getting older and I guess it is time for me to accept that I am getting older...eek I don't like the sound of that! You mean I am not superwoman and invincible!?! The whole in my wallet from all these appointments and surgeries sure answers that question for me!

Needless to say, I have not done too much more planning since the last time I have written. Whenever I tried, the meds would kick in and I would be asleep yet again each of the dogs cuddling my butt and Destroy (my cat) on my chest. They were all really good at taking care of me. :) However in this time, my living situation has, yet again, changed. This time I think it will remain the same until I leave. Maritza (my good friend and Friday, Saturday, Sunday roommate) just moved to a little two bedroom up in the Central District. She offered me to stay in the second "guest bedroom" until I leave. This will be perfect since I will be able to settle down and stay in one place, rather than hopping from house to house every week. I do feel aweful though since I was supposed to help her move and then ended up having to work all of the days that she did the moving. Unfortunately, there was a lot of miss-communication, but I think that everything is now resolved and just as I did with Kammy, I am going to try to be the best roommate I can. I know that it is not easy for people to give me a place to stay, and I really appreciate all of my friends and they have been amazing to me during all of this, but the last thing I want to do is have my 'couch hopping' ruin any of my friendships. I am still trying to find some way to make the whole not helping Maritza move thing up to her. She was so cute too, she even has a little bed set up in the room with sheets and everything!

 Working two jobs and living in different peoples houses is actually harder than you might think. With your own house, you don't have to think about what you are doing and how you are treating everything. You don't have to worry about coming home late at night after work and throwing things around or not doing your dishes that night. Everything changes when you are a constant guest. By staying with other people I have to do a lot of considering others feelings and doing my best to not only not be a bother, but also doing nice things for those people who are putting me up. Sometimes even then, I can still make people mad, but I try my best not to. It is definitely a learning and growing opportunity and I feel really lucky to be able to go through this and be a better person in the end because of it.

What is this? Some planning is actually in the works!

The issue I left off with in my last blog is still left unsolved, but I am not as worried about it as I was at first. I figure that it will be pretty easy to either take a couple day trip and cross one of the boarders or possibly just pay the embassy so that they let me on the plane to Australia a day late (I'm staying 31 days in Thailand, but my visa is only for 30 days!). What I have found in my other travel experiences is that money can definitely talk! Although, taking a small trip across the boarder is pretty enticing. I looked up a few possible interesting places I could go in the neighboring countries and found a really cool route in Cambodia.



From Bangkok I could take the bus to the Cambodian boarder through Poipet. I would then take another bus to the city of Siem Reap, which is 6 hours by bus from Poipet. It is a cute little city with Chinese style architecture and a fun old market and old french quarter. This is also the best place to see performances of traditional Khmer dance. It sounds like a perfect little stop over! The name Siem Reap means "flat defeat of Siam"- today's Thailand. During that battle the prince of Thailand, Prince Ong, was shot dead on an elephants back! How crazy! This adorable little city is also very close to the ruins of Angkor, which are a definite must see in Cambodia. Angkor was the largest pre-industrial  city in the world and dates back to AD 802. The closest rival to it's size is Tikal, the old Mayan city in Guatamala, which is on my list of must sees during my next trip to central America.





Buddhist monks in front of Angkor

From here I can then return by boat and stop off in the "relaxing", as it is described, town of Battambang. The second largest town in the country, yet supposedly feels like one of the smallest and most easy going. It also has great colonial architecture.

I would say that if I do choose to make this journey, it would take about a week out of my Thailand travels. I am not worried, since I will be returning to the area at the end of my trip and can always go back and see anything I missed, but I do want to check with Dani and see if her and her friend would be down for this "mini trip".

If I do not do that, my other choice would be to just cross the boarder at the bottom of Thailand's peninsula into Malaysia. There are 6 different boarder stops to choose from down there, so it shouldn't be too difficult.We are planning to be down there anyway to explore the beaches, so this may turn out to be the better option of the two and I can always do Angkor on my Cambodian part of the trip.



For something so silly (Only I would forget to take into account 31 days of January) there are a lot of fun and exciting things that can come out of it!