Author: dribleg

Cheap travel food tips and tricks.

So when moving to Thailand I came with just enough money to last two full months. And If I ran out of budget that would be it. Game over. The financial stress was enormous. But I me and my friends found ways to save money. Its simple.

LIVE LIKE A LOCAL

Don’t go spending money on fast food or types of dishes you are used to from back home like burger, pasta and pizza. This is not always the speciality especially when I was in Thailand. Local food I couldn’t even pronounce was cheaper and more affordable. From a Burger costing 210 baht to a dish of Pud Thai the traditional Thailand dish costing anywhere from 40 baht and up depending on your region.

Eat local and save big. Try new dishes and don’t be picky. In some food courts around Phuket Town a full dish of food can cost around 20 baht. Surprised much?

STREET FOOD

This is a good one. From chicken braai’d push carts to fruit trolleys being lugged around the streets, your 24/7 buffet has arrived. But do be aware, with great power comes great responsibility and with great street food comes great food poisoning.

Its similar to gambling sometimes, you got to find the cart that hasn’t been sitting in the sun with raw chicken since 6am. Mostly your fine, and will walk away unscathed. Other times youll find a great partnership with your toilet and the so called bum gun. But fear not, your chances are slim and far between. The reward is worth it, oh god it is worth it.

If you are a worry’er like myself or have a big next day, stick to the fruit trolleys and iced coffees. These heavens can’t steer you wrong.

FAVOURITES

Vegetable fried rice plain

Vegetable fried rice with chicken or beef or even duck.

Pud Thai is a traditional dish but I cant handle the peanut butter after taste.

Fried Frog, a must try if alone and looking for some tasty fun.

EATING BUGS

One of my favourite topics of conversation when It comes to strange food.

How do you eat bugs without them making you sick!?

Well honestly because they are delicious! Crunchy and usually have a few spices to change things up. The bigger the bug the harder I find it to chew but non the less they are still good. Give it a try or at least dare someone to do it.

Bugs also fill you up really quickly. One night in Bangkok and left my wallet in the hotel and had a few baht tp get by for dinner. Bugs seemed to be the way, casually sitting in a stripper bar eating grasshoppers like nothing was up. Good times Thai culture showed me the better things in life. Enjoy them chips.

Why are you not travelling?

There can be many answers to this. A few could be:

– Laziness

– Financial stress

– Responsibilities

– Fear

LAZINESS

When it gets to planning a holiday the time to put in may seem daunting. And a task for a first time to be something of great difficulty. But relax, take it step by step. Do some research, where do you wanna travel? What do you want to see? Any particular cultures you want to experience.

Now start to get excited, and do as much research as possible. From Visas to Bar locations and more. You can never know too much.

Another great tip is to chat with people who have visited these places before or even inspiration from others and where they travelled. Story time is the best time. Don’t stop blabbering your mouth.

(-Tattoo outside restaurant)

FINANCIAL STRESS

This is a killer and can truly bring a downer to a great Sunday afternoon. Do I earn enough to travel? Have I saved enough to travel? The answer is yours to give. But bear in mind. Travel does not always need to be expensive, for accommodation you can use couch surfing or many other websites to find free places to stay.

For the issue towards expensive flights, there are always ways to get flights for half price or travel by bus if its close enough. Just search and remember, its all about timing. Read my other blog for more on cheap flights.

You can always work online, teach English over the internet from wherever you are. Its not easy money but It works. Work while you travel. Do odd jobs where ever you are. Paint for people, offer to sing for a bar. Write poems and sell them. Work at schools as a TEFL teacher.

You won’t become a millionaire but you will be able to buy that next bus ticket and eat for another week. It is possible. I did it for a year and others I know have been doing it for over 20 years.

RESPONSIBILITY

This one can be a wall that stops you in your tracks. And a trap many fall into during there life. People get into financial debt, take bonds out on homes. Rescue 7 dogs and cannot travel due to these cute monsters at home. It happens, to everyone.

At this point you need to decide how long you want to travel for. A week, a month or 2 years. Depending on this you need to rid what responsibility you can. For a week, get Aunty Gigs to look after your pets and home. Leaving for a month? Different story. Aunty Gigs may not be so keen but you can hire a professional house sitter!

My point is there is always a way, depending on your length of time, the longer travel time, the more responsibilities you will have to rid of or sort out. But it is possible. Chin up buttercup.

FEAR

Fear of all above reasons cause you to never travel, fear of organizing and renewing your passport. Fear of Visas and the lengthy process. Fear of having to leave your job or start basing your career online. These are the realities of traveling. And these are the most exciting parts. The movable clockwork in your watch. The coders for facebook. This is where it all begins.

So get out of your dirty bed. Walk out that front door of work. Speak with Aunty Gigs and get your travel on! It all starts with you.

(-Tipsy tiger hostel)

Yours Jesse

Held up in a hotel in Malaysia by gangsters

It was during this strange transition in my life where I was uncomfortable with my life choices and wanted more from life. At the time I was staying in Phuket town, Thailand at the Patra Mansion Hotel/Apartments. Life was great, room service everyday, a giant pool downstairs and people with similar interests everywhere you look.

At this point in my life I wanted to go visit Japan and since my visa run was coming up this was the perfect time to visit or move to Japan. Upon my visa run, this time I was traveling alone without my mate NIC. Cant really remember why. but he was going to join me a week later in Malaysia.

– Lady sniffing glue outside the hostel.

First Day there life was great, decided to stay two weeks to relax and Hangout with some of my Party friends that side as that’s all visa runs really were, one crazy party.

1 night I met this guy, Lets call him Peter for his sake. English guy with enough money to travel the world and still have some. Well at least that’s what I thought. Later that evening at about 2am all the bars had closed we suggested to go home. Once On the scooter taxi on the way home he decide to take a video of us as any good tourist does in the center of dodgy town at 2am. Seconds go by and I hear him stopping the scooter and screaming “They Took It!” Over and over again. He then proceeded to kick the steel garage door we were parked next to threatening the driver to get his phone back. As he assumed the driver was in on it. Which in fact he was.

(- One drunken night with a good friend.)

We decided to walk home as it was just down the block. On the way home we passed one last bar. As one does after the night we had. Idiots we were. Sat there for about 5 min and a Malaysian biker gang of 6 Skinny men on Scooter stopped by demanding we leave with them. I told Peter this is not a situation he will be able to handle alone and so the security at the bar chases them away giving us time to bolt down the street and disappear in our hotel.

On the way to “Tipsy Tiger” Only the best hostel in George Town. We began to give it some speed. At we reached the back entrance to the hotel. We both heard the noise of a scooter getting closer and closer. And there he was, our original driver/gang member. Trying to force Peter onto the bike with force.

At this very moment i realized this oak Peter comes from Europe, cant defend himself. And lacks in mean muscle. Now I’m no gym bunny but I do come from Johannesburg in South Africa.

I wack this driver/gang member over the head with a closed beer can. I then shoved Peter into the hostel but the driver came back for another chance, somehow cutting my arm open I was done. Time for rage! I started bashing this man over the head time and time again repeating how easily I can kill him in a Demonic voice feeling more and more powerful with every hit.

Once my possession of some sort was over when locked the door of the hostel. To my surprise the owner had called protection of 10 Bikers and when I went out side to see if they caught the Gang member. He was being pulled off the roof as he was trying to break in to get us.

(-Photo I took as they handcuffed the gang Member.)

Basically I spent the night at the station giving my side of the story and expressing it was in self defense. Heavily intoxicated too.

Drove back the next day in a taxi with no chairs and requested to leave the island by the Police. I spent the next two weeks hiding myself in a hotel room with the presence of a gang member, sitting outside just as a reminder that if I step foot outside they will get me.

Mayalsia, all fun and games until someone gets there phone stolen.

Yours Jesse

What is a visa run?

A visa run is a short trip over an international border designed to reset the visa in the originating country of the trip.

Many countries which have visa-free travel or grant visas on arrival have a set amount of time that you can be in the country. A classic example is Thailand who allows passport holders of many countries a 30-day stay in Thailand without a visasometimes for curtain passport holders like myself can extend to 90 days. If you fly out of the country and get an exit stamp in your passport, you can reenter the country to reset the clock and get another 30-days. Almost immediately.

In 2017 I was staying in Phuket for several months and I did a visa run to Malaysia, George Town. I found a ticket on a bus 12 hour journey to Malaysia, e would stay for 1 night in a hotel booked by the visa run company and in the morning drive back to Thailand for a small fee of R2500. Upon entry I received a 90 day Visa.

There are rules you need to research before you try doing a visa run because not all border crossings are the same. In the past, Thailand has given different length visas based on how you entered the country (land vs air). You could have flown into Thailand, but if you left over a land border and crossed back, you might have only gotten 14-days on your return. Make sure you do research on the current rules before you do a visa run.

Many countries do not allow for visa runs at all. If you enter the United States as a visitor, going to Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean does NOT reset your visa. This is done specifically to prevent people from doing visa runs. If they allowed visa runs, someone in Detroit or San Diego could stay in the country indefinitely by just doing short hops over the border. Even if you were to fly to Europe and back, if it seems obvious you are just trying to reset your visa, you might be denied entry. America’s Greatest National Parks

Other places like the Schengen Zone in Europe, have a total amount of time you can be in the zone over a set period. In the case of the Schengen Zone, you can 90-days out of any six month period. Going back and forth over borders doesn’t reset anything. It just pauses the clock on your 90-days. If you used up your 90-days, you’d have to leave the Schengen Zone for 90-days before you could come back.

3 Quick Tips for Visa Runs

Before you try and do a visa run, do the following:

  1. Check the rules for the country who’s visa you are trying to reset.
  2. Do research on other travelers who have done similar visa runs recently.
  3. Research on what the cheapest method of doing a visa run. There might be cheap flights available, or it might mean getting on a bus.
  4. Investigate to see if you can renew your visa inside the country. This might end up being the easiest solution of all, which would negate the need for even doing a visa run.

Yours Jesse

Ways to get cheap flights that really works.

IT’S THE WORLD WE LIVE IN, TRAVEL. and the questions we ask. hacks, tips and tricks to some of the cheapest flight around.

Some say its all about the platform, website you use. Others say its all about your timing, and when you book that flight. I say it both. And im gonna prove it to you.

My personal website of choice is cheapflights.co.za. simply select your departure point, insert your arrival point. straight forward right, anything but. Here come a couple of tests to prove your timing is everything.

For this experiment we will use a 1 way ticket as we are pretending to travel somewhere for an extended amount of time and do not intend to return with in 30 days. Or do not know when to return. “But what about the proof of a return ticket?”. We can “rent” a legitimate return ticket for 24 hours for just a few Rands onwardticket.com. This allows us into a country and gives us an open end travel time without having to book a date to return or purchace a return flight we may never use. So lets begin.

Dates

Today is a Monday 18/11/2019. I will now book flights with four different departure dates and the cheapest flight price next door.

Departure in 24 hours time

Departure time in 1 week

Departure in 1 Month

Departure 6 Months

Now as you may have noticed booking super early and last minute and booking super late 6 months in advance is great price wise. but no one is really gonna book a flight 6 months in advance unless its a granny. We are the new generation, we need gratification. We need proof. And this is why time matters when booking your flight.

A normal flyer would book a month in advance, giving him or her time to plan and stratergize, get Visas together and even probably save. But we have already done all that in just a few hours. we have our travel hiking back pack ready at the go, no responsibilities just drooling over the smell and humidity of Thailand’s streets and beaches. or Possibly a concert in Paris. whether you are trekking through East Asia or Visiting your long lost relative for a wedding you wont survive. remember, timing is key. Don’t pay twice as much on the ticket and struggle through the rest of the journey.

Yours Jesse