Travelling Cheap

I once pulled a HDMI cord out of a garbage pail while on a walking tour of a small town in Vietnam. The looks on their faces from the work site said it all. How could an adult be that cheap?

I needed to fix my back pack, as the buckle device had snapped off after a few years of pulling it up mountains and back packing all over Peru. The part needed was so specific in nature that one a few special items of trash could’ve possibly fit the bill.

It is with this mentality that I travel the globe, in search of a more cost effective way to to things and accomplish my goals as well as solve my problems.

The following blog post is a round up of a few of my tips and tricks to make your life a bit easier, while by-passing the extra cash needed to get by.

Cheap Hotels

Google is a great friend to have in this case. Whether you’re travelling abroad, or closer to home, you can scout it out before you pack your shorts.

Reference your Google maps on your phone, and find the area you will be travelling to. Now, there is a search bar at the top of your screen, slide it across until the “Hotels” icon comes into view, and when you’ve got that in action, you can choose the maximum price you’re willing to pay.

I always sift through the city or towns, and add these choices to my favourites pile, and add in the subject line the price per night that they charge.

If you’re travelling abroad, you can actually download these maps and stay off the wifi.

Click on the circular icon within the Google search bar, and there will be an offline maps section. Once you touch on that one, you can navigate to the city or area you hope to download, and in a few minutes you will have cheated your way to a free map while on airplane mode.

Cheap eating

This one can get a bit tricky if you’re doing the Camino or the ECT, because more than likely, you haven’t brought your own stove or any staple items that’ll keep for a week or better while you’re on the road.

If you are cycle touring, for example, and have your own stove with a pot, oatmeal is an easy one there. Boiled eggs, ramen, or anything you don’t have to keep on a steady boil come in first place. While pasta, hot dogs, and everything else you need to cook for an extended time are decent, they take double or triple the fuel to cook.

Packing a stove made from cans or other recycling are a great choice but often take up space and require an open fire, which may become complicated at times.

Those of us that are back packing through life, hope is not lost.

Taking a walk off the main drag is often the cheapest and coolest way to find a bargain. Once you’re out of the touristy areas, the price of everything goes down substantially.

While you’re in a developing country this may not matter as much financially, but the quality of food often goes up in these local joints just as it does in your home country.

Grocery stores in every country will sell local fruits and if you’re lucky enough to be going through Asia during dragonfruit season, you’re in for a treat.

I also refuse to eat at an airport. Drinks are different, every one that I’ve ever had has topped the last one. But the price of meals and snacks are crazy.

Bring a water bottle to fill up at the filling stations, and eat on the planes. I always felt better travelling on a stomach that wasn’t full anyways.

 

Cheap Transit

Take the bus

To and from the airport if you can. I was paying a cab driver there and back every time I flew from Calgary to Ft. Mac, and noticed that a city bus was sitting in wait one day. Right outside the arrivals gate.

For under $3.00, I had a bus pass all the way home within a five minute walk, with one connection to the C-Train rail transit.

I applied this approach while in Istanbul, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Calgary, Vancouver and many more of the major cities. Every city on earth has a transit system that has an airport connector.

This approach is of course more favourable to a back packer style of travel, but if you’re moving in and out with a bunch of luggage, then I’m sure you’d rather pay a bit more for the convenience. For you, every hotel has a shuttle.

In many Asian countries, if you’re wild enough, you can get a motorcycle rip up to the airport, across town, or just home from the bar.

I got off the plane in Hanoi, and talked my way onto a transit bus that took me 3/4 of the way down to my hotel.  Once I paid my 35 cents, I had all the time in the world to sit back and take this casual trip amongst the locals.

People in, people out, all while a fireball of a lady took everyones fares with white cotton gloves and a sharp referee’s whistle to those teens not paying much attention or talking too much.

When my stop arrived, they waved me off and pointed me in the direction of my next sleepover. They did not prepare me for the Mad Max death race of motorcycles that would give me a trial by fire on my first day in this new country.

As soon as I exited that serene tranquility, the growl of a motorcycle army nearly sent me right back in. If I had but lost my footing on that first step, there’s no telling if I’d even be sharing this story.

Long snakes of 125cc bikes flowed in and out as they pleased. Along sidewalks, through holes in chain link fences, and between narrow spaces between broken grey buildings. This rush hour seemed as though an entire city were escaping a tsunami in any way possible.

I waited for rare moments where the lines of headlights would take a break, and cross a few feet, and wait another few between two lanes of bikes travelling in 3rd gear through crowds of pedestrians. As I crossed a walking bridge, a distant horizon of smoke and lights seemed to swell and breathe, while the sun quietly gave up on me.

In what would turn into a regular occurrence, my hotel was not where my map indicated it to be. The hotel manager came and fetched me from the one I found the next morning. On his motorcycle.

He sped down the sidewalks, and shifted back and forth between 2nd and 3rd according to the amount of people on the sidewalk. I bottomed out his shocks every time we jumped the sidewalk from a street crossing. He marked these special occasions by looking back at me, to make sure I was still a passenger.

I had no free hands to hold on with, as my laptop suitcase took priority. But soon, we arrived at my new home for the month. I wouldn’t get on another motorbike until KL, and that suited me just fine.

You don’t know wild until you let someone else drive.