171–180 of 217 posts
The weird part is as we pressed on and got past week 3 I felt like we could be on the road indefinitely and be absolutely happy never returning home. There is def a lull around the end of week 2 for some reason.
One travel technique that has worked very well for me takes place the day before my trip: using a pre-travel prep-and-packing checklist. I created this checklist about 15 years ago and still refine it occasionally. This list has three sections: A) Preparation tasks: Like printing essential travel documents, saving a backup to my mobile phone, buying foreign currency, activating data roaming, etc. B) Packing list: Min…
I’ve stopped caring about packing. Now I only pack the very basics, medication, laptop and chargers toiletries for shaving etc and a few clothes. Anything else I will most likely purchase or won’t need at all. I avoid checking bags, just a small carryon and my backpack. To me the more important items are travel requirements, road conditions, directions, etc.
The backpack should also be small. I find 20 L the ideal size, but your needs may be different. If your backpack is too large, you'll be taking more unnecessary stuff with you everywhere at the destination.
I’d add… - Learn to travel light. You don’t need more than ~4 days of clothes - laundry soap exists. Dragging large rollers around old cities is not fun. - Checklists for prep. I have one for plane travel, one for backpacking, and one for travel by RV. Nothing unexpected on any them, but helps me avoid asking myself “did I pack the phone charger?” Or “do I have sunscreen?” - Give yourself options - I like to list out…
Especially for mostly casual city-type stuff, you don't need a lot and it can be washed in a sink or whatever. Stuff getting really muddy on hiking trails gets harder but you can often get laundry done. (My last long distance walk in the UK I had laundry done a couple of times.) Where it gets harder is when you need different type of clothing (especially bulkier clothing) for different legs of a trip.
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If that happens, aren’t you pretty much walking to the closest mobile phone store? A basic device that’ll give you access to the internet, mail and maps is basically a commodity the same way a toothbrush is.
I remember standing up to board my flight home, putting the phone into my pants pocket, except I was putting it into air, and it landed on the tile floor of the boarding area. The outside screen wasn't cracked, but the LC-Display cracked all across the bottom, making the display totally black. I usually don't bother having physical boarding passes, but luckily I did have it in paper format at that point. Interestingl…
One thing I didn’t see mention is the utilization of airport lounges. It really helps to relax before boarding. Though in recent years lounges are getting overcrowded.
I really appreciated airport lounges when I was flying a lot, especially when there were long connections or delays. I don't have mine any longer given I'm trying to make fewer but longer trips. And, as you say, they've gotten overcrowded in many cases. They don't also really help much for early AM departures which are what I'm doing a lot of the time. These days, $400+ a year is better spent on other travel amenitie…
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That just sounds like terrible luck to be honest. Catching a cab from the airport in a new country after a flight is a pretty common thing to do no matter where you're going. Depending on flight length you might well be too tired to really navigate public transport in a new city in a foreign language. There's not a lot to learn from that.
In certain countries I will always ask the hotel to get a ride for me from the airport, and I will not hail a random cab.
The “14 days is too many” rings true in my mind. My wife and I did a 2 month road trip several years ago and I distinctly remember around the two week mark we went from having tons of fun to worn out and ready to just go home. The weird part is as we pressed on and got past week 3 I felt like we could be on the road indefinitely and be absolutely happy never returning home. There is def a lull around the end of week…
I don't disagree with your last part though. Never tried it but I can easily imagine that once you get into a "what's this home thing mode?" there's no hard stop necessarily.
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I really appreciated airport lounges when I was flying a lot, especially when there were long connections or delays. I don't have mine any longer given I'm trying to make fewer but longer trips. And, as you say, they've gotten overcrowded in many cases. They don't also really help much for early AM departures which are what I'm doing a lot of the time. These days, $400+ a year is better spent on other travel amenitie…
What amenities would you recommend around that annual budget? Honest question, I’m finding the lounges to be less helpful these days.
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It took only one long solo wait at a crosswalk in Chon Buri to convince me that it was worth paying about 3 USD to travel about 6 blocks. Traffic yielding to a single pedestrian is a quaint notion and as you say a lone farang seems to be a soi dog magnet.
Some SE Asian cities are OK except for the heat/humidity like Singapore, Penang, and Hong Kong. But, yeah, most of the big SE Asian cities are pretty horrible to get around and certainly aren't pedestrian friendly except very locally.
Am I the "odd man out" for not wanting to travel, and not enjoying it when I do?
It just seems like everyone likes it because it's because the new status symbol now that material consumption is looked down on. It's a way to demonstrate your worldliness and check the boxes of the zeitgeist.
But of course plenty of people just like it because it's fun too.