SE Asia is a Playground for Outdoor Sports
[Photo Credit: Wet Frames Photography]
Pack your gear duffels and get to SE Asia.
Most people have heard about good surf in Indonesia or epic rock climbing in S. Thailand. But until you’ve been it’s hard to imagine the extent of the options, the incredibly low cost of living and traveling in the region, and the top-tier quality available for each sport.
I just completed 9 months traipsing around SE Asia, and I was initially stunned to find out how easy it is to set up a base of operations with a small amount of gear and tour the entire region.
You can fly just about anywhere for less than $200 (even booked 24h in advance), and virtually every sport is on tap: surfing, rock climbing, scuba diving, mountaineering, kiteboarding, sailing. The list goes on.
It’s an outdoor-sport junkie’s paradise. Below is a regional overview.
The 6 Phases of Lifestyle Design
You quit your job. You buy a plane ticket. You leave to travel around the world. Then you figure out a way to make some money.
Most people go through a predictable series of steps on the road to a location-independent lifestyle. While the six phases listed here aren’t definitive or exactly linear, they sum up the lifestyle progression I’ve seen from dozens of travelers and veteran laptop nomads.Continue reading >>
What Living on $20 a Day Looks Like
One of the biggest surprises about long-term travel is just how cheap it can be.
In my second year of college I’ll never forget the price-sheet my dad brought back from Utila, Honduras. To this very day you can still get a room on the water for $5 a night and a meal for $2.
Before leaving home I’d heard things like this but it’s hard to believe until you see it first-hand:Continue reading >>
The Top 10 Spartan Travel Adventures of 2012
It’s amazing what’s possible when you free up your time and the need to be in a single location.
My wildest dreams couldn’t have predicted the outcome of 2012. The original plan (launched in August 2011) was 15-18 months of travel, circling the globe while mixing in a bunch of adventure sports.
What actually happened was a frantic potpourri of world travel, randomly divergent adventures, and moderately successful online business shenanigans.
The adventure starts when everything goes wrong. -Yvon Chouinard
While the plan itself was fluid, the framework certainly wasn’t: back in 2011 I deliberately opened up my time (and bank account) to make these adventures possible. It turned out that everything was easier and less expensive than I thought it would be, and I’ve repeatedly tried to convince my friends that they too–if they choose–can do something like this.
The Less Romantic Side of Geo-Arbitrage
Or how working in paradise can really suck.
[The porch out front in Bingin, Bali. As if I’m actually going to get any work done here…]
I was in the deepest of sleeps. My dream put me somewhere in the mountains, walking down into a beautiful valley with the wind lightly rustling my hair. The rustling got a little stronger until–wait a minute…
I opened my eyes in time to see a giant rat sprint to the edge of the bed and then leap off into space like a possessed flying squirrel.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
Everyone within 50km must have heard as I bolted out of bed and ran around the compound screaming bloody murder. When my roommate figured out what happened he nearly choked to death from his own laughter.
This is about when the glamour of my lifestyle really started to fade.Continue reading >>