Posts by : Izy Berry

Not everyone is interested in taking long trips away, I understand that. For some, a few weeks of the year on some tropical island is enough to satisfy their wanderlust. That’s not the case for me. In 2010 I embarked on a two week adventure to Europe (from New Zealand) where I visited Hong Kong on the way, as well as Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Four countries in two weeks, including transit. It was madness and my only real taste of travel. While I loved seeing new countries, I didn’t even brush the surface of any of them and it was expensive when you consider the daily costs.

When I finally built up the courage a few months later, quit my job and pack up everything, to explore the world. I had no idea how long my money would actually last. In fact, I was convinced that travel was SO expensive, that I thought my substantial savings would only be enough for a month or so in Thailand. I ended up traveling throughout South East Asia and on to India for 3.5 months. That trip would have gone on even longer if I hadn’t flown home for a family emergency. I was pleasantly surprised by how cheap travel in South East Asia can be, especially when you’re traveling on one-way flights.

It’s true: Long term travel is cheap and this guide will help you see why.

Affordable Paradise, Gili T, Indonesia December 2011

Maintaining life at home while you’re traveling is expensive. On my brief trip to Europe, I was still paying rent on my apartment and utilities when I wasn’t even in the country! Fortunately I was receiving holiday pay at the same time, but if you decide to take unpaid leave and have to maintain property at home it pushes the prices up a lot. Especially if you factor in additional things such as contents insurance and car insurance. You could be spending more per week on maintaining bills at home, than on your adventures!

Traveling a lot is expensive. This seems to be a contradiction, but it’s not; I’m referring to the movement you make while traveling. Most often when you’re on holiday, the transit costs can be the biggest part of the overall cost. Of course the main flights to your destination will usually be pricey, but I’m talking about the flights or transport costs within your trip. Even in Thailand, for example, a relatively cheap country to travel, an overnight VIP bus can set you back 1100 baht (USD$ 36). While this doesn’t seem expensive, if you’re taking four a week it adds up fast. You could spend two weeks in Thailand and take eight overnight buses and see lots of places… for a whole day or two each. Or, you could add a little more money to your budget (to cover accommodation, food, entertainment) and move much more slowly.

Leveraging your home currency makes all the difference. Would you judge me if I told you that I spent more in a week in Sydney than a month in Cambodia? I was staying at backpackers in both cases, but I was living a lot more comfortably in Cambodia (eating out, shopping etc). For me, traveling on New Zealand dollars, Australia was very expensive. So by traveling around South East Asia I was leveraging my currency. My flight to Asia was around 5 times the price of my flight to Sydney, so that is a cost to factor in. But the amount you pay extra in flights is quickly negated by the extra value you get for your dollar.

Having or making friends saves you money. Some parts of the world just aren’t set up for backpackers. In really cheap countries I found that, particularly in rural areas, that there aren’t really backpacker accommodation. This means you’re forced to take your own room and I usually choose an affordable guesthouse. I prefer staying at backpackers for numerous reasons and almost always will opt for a dorm instead of a private room when I’m traveling solo. Numerous times I’ve met people I’ve really liked and we’ve traveled together and split a room. This is awesome because it means your accommodation costs are instantly halved (and you have a friend, yay). You can also look into www.CouchSurfing.com to get your accommodation costs down. It’s more of a cultural/friendship exchange than using someone’s couch to save you cash. I’d suggest that you don’t Couchsurf with anyone you aren’t genuinely interested in, as that’s going against the whole purpose of Couchsurfing! I hosted a few people when I lived in New Zealand and it was awesome.

You binge less when you’re traveling long term. Well, I’m sure there are lots of exceptions to the rule, but for the most part it’s true. If you’re on holiday for a week, you’re going to want to eat out every meal you can – that’s the whole point of being on holiday, right? Whereas if you’ve been on the road for a month or two, you might find yourself feeling sick of not being able to prepare your own food. Or you might just lose the ‘value’ in eating out all the time. The same applies with drinking: it’s fun going out on a Tuesday night and getting absolutely hammered, because you’re on holiday. But eventually you tire of it and save it for more special occasions. In both cases, you wind up spending a bit less. Perhaps you grab a baguette with some spread for breakfast instead of sitting down for a $5 euro breakfast. Or maybe you’ll chill in your hostel instead of going out on a Monday night and blowing two days budget on beer.

The longer you travel, the more your priorities will shift. When you’re traveling with a finite amount of money, small changes like these can add extra days or weeks onto your trip. Try to record everything you spend in a little notebook, it keeps your spending in line. Travel doesn’t have to be expensive as you think it is, in fact long term travel is cheap – much cheaper than living at home for me.

 
Taking photos is one of the best ways you can document your trip. While it’s great to get a bunch of photos of landmarks and your surroundings, there’s something really special about photographing the local people. This can be particularly daunting when there are cultural differences and language barriers. I’ve taken hundreds of photos with people without exchanging more than hello in the local language. Here are some tips to help you take better photos of locals:

Get Confident
Most people are flattered to have their photo taken. There will be some exceptions, but for the most part it is a compliment. In developing countries it is even a novelty too, so don’t feel bad about wanting to take their picture. If you are shy or awkward about photographing someone, that is going to influence the person you’re trying to photograph. The first few times you take photos of people you don’t know will be a little bit strange, but as you feel more confident you’ll see that your images will improve.  The most important thing to remember is that the person has a right to not be in your photo and if they don’t want to,  it’s fine. You’ll find someone willing soon. With this in mind, always try when you feel a photo opportunity that you’re interested in. The worst that can happen is they say no and the best is that you capture a wonderful image that you’ll treasure forever.

Smile
It’s simple really, but I think many people forget how powerful a smile is. When you’re hoping to take a photo of someone, the least you can give them is a smile. Open yourself up, be warm and friendly and your attempts to take photos will be much better received. It’s really important to make your subject feel comfortable if you want a photo where they are engaged with the camera. I have noticed that I have much higher success photographing people when I am by myself. Very few people feel comfortable with numerous cameras pointed at them, so take some time away from your friends to go off on little photo missions. I am sure you’ll be surprised with how much this little change can affect your photos.

Ask Permission 
I don’t learn how to ask permission in the local language. You certainly could if you wanted to. There’s numerous reasons why I don’t bother with this, but one of them is the fact that I’m a little bit nervous before I take a photo of someone. I see people in a certain way and I put pressure on myself to try to capture them as they are. So, I think I would stumble around a foreign language and I would feel less confident than I do with my method. Even if I tried to take a photo of someone in an English speaking country, I would still employ this non verbal approach as I believe it makes things more comfortable for both sides. If I see a photo opportunity I’m interested in, usually I will hold my camera up to my eye and point it directly at the subject. This will get their attention. Then I bring the camera down to about chin height and maintain eye contact with them – usually you can judge their response by this stage. However, sometimes they need a little more prompting so I will then move my camera back up to my eye and look at their reaction through the view finder. At this point they will have either moved into a “take my picture now” pose, or will be shaking their head frantically. Respect their decision either way.

Don’t Ask Permission
I think it’s best if you can communicate with your model(s) before you take their picture, but there are always exceptions to the rule. Often asking permission will ruin the particular picture you have in mind to take. Employing the method suggested above will often yield a photograph where the subject is making eye contact with you in the photo. Sometimes that’s desirable, sometimes not. So, if you find yourself in a situation where you want a more natural photo – just take it. If it’s a crowd of people, I wouldn’t bother checking if it’s okay. But if it’s one individual person that is clearly the subject of the image, then I would be more inclined. The best way to judge whether it’s appropriate to just go ahead and shoot is to see the situation. If you’re walking the cascading rice paddy fields of Sapa and you feel compelled to take a spontaneous photo of your local guide, then chances are that is fine. Common sense will be your best gauge.

Share the Photo With Them
This can be a great way to bond with them a little more after the photos already been taken. You can simply show them any photos you took of them on your camera. If you’ve taken a photo of a child and the parents are around, walk over to them with a smile and show them. Often they will be flattered that you not only chose to take a photo, but that you wanted to share it with them too. Better yet, if you can, get some printed for them to keep too. I shoot all my photos in RAW only so it takes a few steps to get them printable. However, if you shoot in JPEG that means you can easily take your memory card to a photo store and get them printed in minutes. This can be a nice way to give back, but of course you don’t have to. When I was in Phnom Penh I saw this wonderful little girl and her father. I felt compelled to take their picture and I showed him afterwards. He was quite emotional when he looked at the photo I’d taken and asked for my email address. A few days later he wrote to me and I replied with this image. He was really grateful. This is a little way to share some of what the local people have shared with you.

These are my tips for learning to take better photos of locals. Do you love taking photos of people when you travel?

Volunteering overseas was something I always wanted to do, I just didn’t know how to volunteer overseas. I searched online and found lots of companies who were offering amazing volunteering packages in various parts of the world. But they were so expensive; some costing more than I imagined to pay on an luxurious holiday in that area. I was pretty discouraged, there was no way I could afford to spend $1000 a week for a program. Along my travels I met a girl in Laos, who had been volunteering in Cambodia. She gushed about what an amazing experience she had and when I asked  her about costs I was taken back: she had spent around $7USD per DAY which included her accommodation and food. This works out at $210 a month, still well under the costs of a special program for a week. I was sold and pencilled in a month in Cambodia, with three weeks of that dedicated to volunteering at the orphanage.

My time spent in Takeo, at New Futures Organisation, was some of the best of my life. I met incredible volunteers who shared a common passion for making the world a little better, how ever they could (some of the gorgeous ladies are pictured above with me!). Our mornings were spent hiding from the hot sun, laying on the balcony having deep conversations. After lunch, we would head to the orphanage or the rural schools to teach English, help build schools, work on the drainage during the wet season, play with the kids and have our hair and makeup done (some of the male volunteers even took advantage of this)! It was the perfect balance between a social environment and really making a difference. The children were amazing and embraced the volunteers with open arms. Everyone who’s been to Takeo has this longing feeling for it! I’ve met a number of people who have volunteered in various places in Cambodia and have had similar experiences. This is a place I can personally recommend, though. Cambodia has had a rough history, with the Khymer Rouge, and it feels like a really appropriate place to give back.

How To Find Volunteer Work

The best way to find somewhere to volunteer is through a place someone has personally recommended to you. This way you can ask as many questions as  you like about it and find out what it’s really like.  If you don’t know any friends  who have volunteered, try using travel forums as a place to post and find out  more information about the type of volunteer programs available in the countries you’re interested. Both the Couchsurfing and Lonely Planet forums have a lot of users who are happy to help. Going a step further, if you know a particular city you’re interested in volunteering in, get in touch with some Couchsurfers in that area and ask them. They’re on the ground – so to speak – and they can enquire directly on your behalf. It also means that you’re made a nice connection there, so if anything doesn’t go to plan you’ll have some people to spend some time while you’re sorting out something else. Or at the very least you’ve got someone to meet up with for a coffee, not a bad deal.

Alternatively you can try to organise something when you’re in the city, and for most developing countries in the world this shouldn’t be too hard. I spent one day volunteering having English conversations with students in a school in Luang Prabang, Laos. I could have gone along for more days, but I simply hadn’t budgeted any more time in that city. I found that suggestion in the Lonely Planet South East Asia on a Shoestring guidebook.

Another friend from Cambodia suggested the site Helpx for finding volunteer work. It’s an international site, with a variety of “projects” available, from helping on farms, in orphanages or teaching families English. You can pick a particular country you’re interested in and focus your search around that. There are a surprising number of listings and the variety is just great! If you found an organisation on there looking for volunteers that you’re interested in, you could google search them to try to see reviews that others have posted about them, or merely to find their website to get a better idea of what they’re like. It’s possible to find an affordable place, where you can really make a difference. Volunteering in Cambodia was one of the best things I ever did while traveling and it is something I hope to incorporate into my future adventures. 

Being able to travel is an experience everyone should take part in. Volunteering in another country is something that can add value and meaning to your travels. Keeping track of your adventures and volunteer work through pictures is one way to hold on to the memories. Save these memories in a photo book from Lulu!

Additional resources:
Hands On Network – They provide disaster relief around the world
Volunteer South America – Lots of low cost options for South America
Free Volunteering – A resource of numerous free projects around the world

Have you ever volunteered anywhere? Tell me more about your experience!