It was not so long ago, and yet it was.
See shortly after getting married we had a freaking ton of miles and decided to do a year of travel. We went across the world but towards the end of that year, our funds were completely dry.
So all our flights were paid for and then we’d arrive someplace and be the brokest ever.
Imagine this- South America in the beginning of the summer of 2012. In Chile and Peru it was actually their winter. And in case you didn’t know, I absolutely hate the cold.
Never the less there are 3 events that stand out to me as insane.
1) Almost Skipping Easter Island
Now we weren’t going to change our tickets that we booked many months ago (back when BA allowed unlimited stopovers). But we did get to Easter Island around the lowest point in our financial lives.
As soon as we landed we walked and walked looking for a cheap hotel and eventually found a camp site that rented tents and sleeping bags for like $5 a night. Sweet! Plus it had access to an indoor kitchen that resembled the dining hall of camp when I was a kid. A win win: get to cook and save money AND get to stay out of the constant cold rain.
But one of the four days on Easter Island was absolutely beautiful. Along with friends and strangers we rented a beater-car and went to the National Park to see the Moai (big heads).
The Moai are the reason to go to Easter Island. The island is not exotic, it does not have beaches and the weather was not great. The only reason to be there was to see these dang Moai.
And yet, we pulled up to the main site… and saw that it’s $60 per person.
I can’t explain just how much that wasn’t in the budget, and at this point we had no work. The blog wasn’t making money then and another project had fallen through. Yada yada.
The point is, I couldn’t do it. We were now at the most remote place on earth, here to see this park, and I didn’t want to pay $60 to go in. I mean, I really couldn’t.
After 10 minutes of inner turmoil I eventually made the right bad decision. We paid for it.
The decision was based onn what I now know as the regret minimization framework. I first heard this term from Jeff Bezos of Amazon (video found here), but the concept hit me then. Years later, could I regret paying $120 more than I should pay? No. Would I regret booking flights to freaking Easter Island and not going to see the Moai? Probably.
Maybe this doesn’t exude the stress I felt… but the next stories will.
2) The by-the-hour hotel?
This one is just a reflection on how we made decisions.
Our friends picked out a hostel that was like $14 a night for a room. This being fine with them was way to expensive for us. So we walked around Cusco, Peru to find a cheaper place.
I asked a local for a cheap place and said I wanted it “like, local cheap”. He directed me down a sketch street, down a sketchier market alley that led to a warehouse that appeared abandoned. But it wasn’t abandoned, two men sat in a small concrete room and appeared to be the hotel manager.
This appeared to be the place. Translated to English, the conversation pretty much went like this
Me: Do you have a room?
Him: For how long?
Me: Just how much is it for one night?
Him: But for how many hours?
*pause*
Me: All night.
*pause*
Him: 6 Sol ($2)
Me: Can I see the room?
*pause* (the guys look at each other)
Him: 6 Sol
Me: Can I see the room?
Him: 6 Sol
At that point he gave a weird grin and I pretty much ran out of there. It was the weirdest, most uncomfortable moment and I’m not even sure why I asked.
We went back to a $5/night place that was pretty decent.
3) The last straw
We’re not planners… but we did have flights booked that left us with 2 months in Peru. Actually it was long enough that we needed to leave Peru because our Visa was running out. And while Machu Picchu and all that was amazing, it was cold and we both got sick. The most sick I’ve been since I got giardia in Mexico (2008).
So as we were making our way to Bolivia we were enjoying things less and less. Puno was a bit of a dump and while everyone enjoys the lake… we just weren’t enjoying… anything.
But since we had to leave to get a Visa, we booked a bus ticket to Bolivia. We went down to the bus station and bought our $4 ticket to Bolivia and waited around.
Finally (latin time) the bus came. We went to get on the bus and a guy asked to see our passport. He looked, saw we were American and asked us if we had $160 each.
People who actually research where they are going would have known that Bolivia has a reciprocity fee. I don’t really like paying fees for Visas, but my ignorance to what the guy was talking about was just that I didn’t realize Bolivia had a $160/pp fee.
I didn’t understand the word he was using (my spanish is pretty bad) and the word he used for what I’m guessing was what he called the reciprocity fee, I didn’t get. But when he said $160 for the Visa… it clicked. So he pointed to the ATM and asked that I get it before I get on the bus.
I turned to Carrie and said, “let’s go home”.
I kind of knew she wanted to go, but she wasn’t going to say it. She’s not one to complain. For whatever reason, thinking about paying $320 to go to Bolivia, just so we can stay in Peru… it was the last straw. Too much stress, and finally the adventure appeal wore off. Long gone.
“Let’s go home”. That was it. She didn’t believe me. But we walked right out of the bus station and back to the hotel we had just come from. I logged online and called British Airways and asked them to move my ticket up to the next day. I must have played nice enough that they waived the fee, we booked a ticket for the next day with a one night layover in Bogota (where we slept on the airport floor), and then we were home.
One year later, we were home.
From there we spent time with our families and started to reconstruct a normal life.
Conclusion
Maybe this doesn’t write/read as the most epic of times. But for me, this was an incredibly impactful time. Ya know, a time of learning.
I never felt like I failed at what I set out to do. Partly because I didn’t hold plans too tightly and partly because failure isn’t bad. In creativity, I often say the goal is to fail as quickly as possible. Even in life, fail as quickly as possible.
Imagine a business idea just isn’t going to work. Given that it’s a bad business idea, a success therefore would be finding out in months instead of dedicating years of my life. Because having a hit idea is not really a 100% thing. Therefore, it’s important to weed out the bad ideas quickly.
That’s how I view this time. I learned a lot. Too broke. The business idea I had was not something sustainable for me. I’d like Peru better in winter. And instead of pushing forward, we restarted.
Great stories, Drew. I always like how you show the less than glamorous side of full time travel! ~ Andy
Thanks. Got plenty of those stories then. 😀
I’ve been in similar situations, such as suffering in the cold rain in Amsterdam and then spending the next two weeks in Brussels nearly bedridden, or randomly deciding to take a train to a small town in Italy where I assumed hostels would be cheap and then getting soaked in the rain and spending the (~40 degree night) camped outside because I refused to spend 35 Euro for a bed.
At the time, some of the instances were frustrating and really crappy. But looking back now, I kind of just laugh about them, and many are actually among my notable memories.
I think travel is an adventure, and it’s the good, the bad, and the ugly that all play into the experience.
…and also:
1) Regardless of the financial aspect, camping out next to the beach on Easter Island looks like it would be my preferred accommodations, no matter what luxury hotels were around ;-p.
2) What the heck happened to the rockin’ dreads from the first picture??
Travel is an adventure and nothing is more adventurous feeling than renegade camping and all that. I for sure never forget those type of things.
1) With the camping, it would have been nice had it not rained at all. But really, it wasn’t that bad because the tents were solid and you woke and saw the ocean.
2) Long time ago. :-p I don’t know why that pictures in here… it’s Hong Kong 2011.
Two things:
“The island is not exotic, it does not have beaches”
Actually, it does. Anakena Beach on Easter Island is man-made, yet it’s one of the most exotic beaches in the world, it has its own set of Moai!
And $60 gives you access to both parks, and you can save $10 if you buy your ticket at the airport. Saying it in case it might help some of your readers, not to “maximize” your regret. 🙂
Had no idea you could buy tickets cheaper at airport. That’s awesome. And we did go to both parks. 4 days was plenty. :-p
But an island with one manmade beach isn’t exotic to me lol.
I can’t believe you didn’t read these info before you go! I purchased my ticket at airport for 50 USD (using BA miles in J). But the key thing I get n the ariticle is that you have a great wife!
It’s way more fun not to know a thing about where you’re going. Can’t you tell? 😀
My wife is the best.
How timely as I just got back from a month in South America traveling with my adult-ish son!
Not enough is written in the travel community about hostels. They’re nothing to be afraid of (well most aren’t 🙂 and not only can one keep the cost of travel down, but you can meet interesting people, get good info, and make good future connections. Even if you don’t like ‘dorm’ sleeping (bring earplugs!) many have private rooms for a bit more. I’m still waiting for ANY of my favorite bloggers to even write a single article about them.
But a real travel deal, and win, is couchsurfing. I’m 53 and my son is 22, and we still found utterly free accomodations with couchsurfing. Note that this isn’t like a hotel/hostel where you can just stay the night–it’s social and cultural and less anonymous. You should spend time and interact with your host(s) similar to a home stay.
But the reward is learning things not in the guidebook, and having many times a personal guide to the area. And, FREE! (although we brought or bought small gifts for each of our hosts–because we wanted to).
I agree 100% on Couchsurfing.
Although staying in hotels is more luxurious, and hostels a more social experience, I’ve found that CSing is the absolute best way to learn about the different places I visit. Whether I’m staying with a lifelong resident who can offer extensive insight into the area’s history and culture, or a recent transplant up-to-date on the best off-the-beaten-path destinations, I always seem to learn and experience much more than I ever would armed with only the internet and guide books.
Like you mentioned, I always try to do something nice for my hosts, whether it’s taking them out for dinner (if I was even slightly culinarily-inclined I would cook for them, but boiling rice poses a challenge to me), taking them out for drinks, or at the very least helping them around the home with chores like the dishes and taking out the trash.
I have stayed at many hostels and have mentioned it, and I have written about couchsurfing experiences a few times. But I don’t like hostels. In Thailand I found it was a community to party, and I don’t party, I’m married, like privacy, don’t go to sex shows, enjoy meeting locals, don’t do drugs, etc… So my hostel days are… I think over. Hostels are the lonely planet experience, and I like the local experience, or the free experience. Plus I work while I travel
I love couchsurfing but don’t like the feeling of bumming off of someone. Yet, every experience has been great and has been more friendship than bumming.
Great stories. I hope you really appreciate your wife. If not, you should. Keep it up.
These are the real travel stories that so many “normal” blogs don’t tell. I have many like it. A lot of low budget travel does suck. We shouldn’t lure anyone into this life without letting them know about being sick in a foreign country, spending extra time finding that cheap place, or being cold, tired and hungry.
Well, the way I see it, is that most young people are not idiots, and older folks are not idiots AND have a benefit of experience. I think people realize that they can get sick, tired, and yes, even hungry if they don’t have enough money or connections in a foreign place. I don’t believe we should start researching the locations for soup kitchens in Bangladesh.
And I disagree that these stories are “normal”. They are not. They are from “things happen” category. I have also experienced some scary moments in my travels, and I do remember them fondly, as they’ve taught me a thing or two.
I mean, clearly travel doesn’t have to be this way. You can package tour and resort only in India and never experience India. And most bloggers probably do that and prefer it. So it’s not like they hide something.
But for me, this are real stories. And it’s more a story of cheap travel and being broke than anything else.
I think you’d be better off traveling in more comfort. Being broke isn’t glamorous. Stressing about paying a few bucks to sleep in one dump vs another, slightly better dump, or worrying about park entrance fees , or having a decent meal is ridiculous. It doesn’t add to your travel experience, it detracts.
But now we see you agree – you’re now flying first class when you could have flown a couple of additional trips in the back of the bus (raking in all that $ from the blog has spoiled you). Soon we’ll be getting a review of the Vendome, shower highlights on the A380 and which airline serves the best champs.
Yea because when I set out, I thought, “I’m going to try real hard to be poor. Yea… that would be more glamorous.”
In 2012 I flew cathay first, asiana biz, thai biz, singapore biz, ANZ biz. (all with points).
In 2013-2014 I flew Cathay first once. The decrease in premium cabin must come from the $$$ that spoils me.
I made ~$1,000 last month on my blog. Would you define that as raking it in?
Love the stories and your fail fast approach.
Thanks Maria!
The reason there aren’t any posts about hosteling is that the bloggers can’t link to a hostel site and make a commish. And you all know who I’m referring to. Gotta stuff those links in every post, to keep the banks and hotels happy, and paying.
The reason there aren’t many posts about hostels in mile-n-points blogs is that they don’t make sense. I know a guy, very well-to-do and in his 60-s, who regularly stays in hostels only to be around young people and partying. Me? I would have to be dragged to a hostel, when I have enough points lying around for a decent hotel room. What’s the point, pun intended?
If you try regular travel blogs geared toward the younger crowd, there are plenty of Hostelling there.
Another real set of stories, which have the human touch. Excellent.
I think it’s great that you and your wife are able to combine three things that I find rare in today’s world:
1. An open mind on how you want to live and what you value instead of societally prescribed parameters
2. An entrepreneurial spirit that allows you to try whatever you think you might really enjoy and be good at as a source of material support
3. An ability to enjoy whatever you are able to afford without letting any material limits diminish that enjoyment much
Yeah, you are lucky to have been born of a prosperous society that allows more material opportunities than a lot of the world, but you are making more of what you have and your lives than many who have much more in the way of material resources.
Preacher out!
Some seem to be missing the point as I see it. Drew isn’t promoting poverty on the road. Rather, I see him showing that a shortage of ideas rather than money is what limits you. His story about focusing on whether he’d remember the heads on Easter Island or the $120 really resonates with me.
Telling Drew and Carrie to spend more money or travel better is viewing life through your eyes, not theirs. I like a comfy room in a swank hotel too, but trading that for an extra four or five more days in a cool, interesting place is an easy trade to make for some.