Budget Travel, a Guide to Travelling on a Shoestring, Explore the World, a Discount Overseas Adventure Trip: Gap Year, Backpacking, Volunteer-Vacation & Overlander

Budget Travel, a Guide to Travelling on a Shoestring, Explore the World, a Discount Overseas Adventure Trip: Gap Year, Backpacking, Volunteer-Vacation & Overlander by Mathew Backholer.

Copyright © Mathew Backholer 2016, 2017, 2020 - ByFaith Media www.ByFaith.org - All Rights Reserved.

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This book is also available as a paperback and in different formats for ebooks. First published in November 2016 as an ebook by ByFaith Media and as a paperback in 2017. Updated in September 2017 and August 2020. British Library Cataloguing In Publication Data. A Record of this Publication is available from the British Library.

Paperback ISBN – 978-1-907066-54-2.

Ebook ISBN (ePub format) – 978-1-907066-55-9.

Ebook ASIN (mobi format) – B01MG95EAM.

Brief Travel Stories

In Kathmandu, Nepal, we woke up one day to find a snake charmer outside our hotel. Whilst the cobra had probably be defanged, we were not going to hang around to find out.

In one city in Vietnam, it was cheaper to rent a bicycle for a day than to buy a 2L bottle of water.

One man flew to Delhi, India, with his bicycle and rode all the way to Nepal. His biggest souvenir which he intends on keeping for life – is his Nepalese wife.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) A Worldwide Pandemic

In December 2019, coronavirus (covid-19 / CV-19) broke out in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China and by January 2020 had infected thousands of people who infected still more. The Chinese authorities quarantined entire cities, nobody could leave, by road, rail or air and additional makeshift hospitals were constructed to help isolate victims and prevent further infection. At airports across the world screenings for passengers who had left China before cities were in lock-down was implemented so that on arrival their temperature could be taken. It was discovered later that people who were infected could show no symptoms for around two weeks (later revised to five days) and yet could still be passing on the deadly virus which affects the respiratory system. Some countries asked for voluntary quarantine from citizens who had arrived from infected areas, requiring two weeks of isolation.

Different governments sent planes to repatriate their citizens who were then held in quarantine for two weeks before being allowed back into society. Some countries would not permit planes from China flying over their airspace, whilst many countries refused entry to those coming from China and would not permit Chinese planes to land. Soon the virus spread to other countries including South Korea and Iran whilst in the last week of February, Australia announced it was a pandemic and some cities in Italy were in a state of quarantine with roadblocks and policemen in place. South Korea closed their churches which often could accommodate thousands of people to help stem the flow of coronavirus infection. Across the globe, many cruise ships had infected passengers aboard and entire ships were quarantined in different ports around the globe or were refused permission to dock. At the time some experts from different countries recommended obtaining two weeks’ worth of food in stock just in case, whilst governments advised people not to panic-buy or to stock up.

By 10 March 2020, Italy asked its entire population to self-isolate and to avoid contact with people, whilst travel inside the country was restricted. Days before, all public gatherings had been banned whilst universities, schools and nurseries shut down. In Britain, many supermarkets began to ration the number of dry foods (e.g. pasta and rice), tins and antibacterial gel / hand-sanitizer each customer could buy. However, by the time that supermarket and shop restrictions came into place most had no antibacterial gel and had run out of toilet rolls and paracetamol. Many shelves were emptied and stayed that way for weeks. As soon as stock was replenished it would be quickly sold and supermarkets introduced a policy on many food items that no more than three or four of the same items (e.g. tins or cereals) could be purchased. There were long queues at supermarkets, just to get inside and at the tills; it took around two months to get back to a semblance of normality.

In the second week of March 2020, a huge British insurance company, LV stopped selling travel insurance because of covid-19 (coronavirus). On Friday, 13 March, many companies in Britain told their employees not to come in on Monday as many businesses initially shut their doors until April, though the majority did not reopen until July or even August depending on government guidelines and regulations. Other employees were told to work from home. Disney closed all its theme parks worldwide. Some countries closed their borders to all but their citizens e.g. New Zealand, and then they had to self-isolate for two weeks, whilst some island countries in the Pacific closed their borders full stop, even if you were a national.

Most airlines were cutting flights by 75% and one carrier cut their routes by 85%. One country told its citizens, If you want to come back to safety, you have to come back now! In a few days, it may be too late. At one stage during the pandemic of 2020, it was more expensive to buy a KFC 10-piece bargain bucket than a barrel of oil as demand for oil dried up; and it even went into negative cost, where the suppliers were paying the customers to take it off their hands!

On 16 March 2020, the Peruvian government due to coronavirus pandemic placed the country in lockdown. No flights were allowed to enter or leave without permission from the government. Around four hundred British citizens were stranded across the country and the only commercial airline leaving was charging almost ten-times the normal price of a one-way ticket from $3,000 to $3,500! At the end of March 2020, due to the global pandemic, the British government set aside £75 million to bring home British citizens from around the globe.

The British travel firm TUI cancelled 900,000 holidays up until mid-June 2020 and then extended it until 10 July 2020. After 3 months of lockdown, in August 2020 the majority of places and spaces that had closed due to coronavirus reopened, and a small percentage of people compared to 2019 were cautiously going abroad on holiday, whilst many opted for a stay-cation, a holiday in their own country.

The world as we know it has fundamentally changed with social distancing, facemasks or face-coverings antibacterial gel and many other rules, regulations and recommendations to help us live in a safer society and world where coronavirus can kill. An international study revealed of those who have been hospitalised due to coronavirus and survive, 50% now have a damaged heart. For many, it will take months or even years to recover and to get back to normal, if there ever is normality.

On 5 July 2020, Kazakhstan became the first country in the world to fully return to lockdown after it eased its lockdown in mid-May 2020. On the same day in July, Melbourne in Australia went into lockdown and its citizens were told to stay indoors for five days.

In 2003, SARS broke out and by 2020 no vaccine has been found. Covid-19 (coronavirus) is from the same family tree and whilst there are multiple medical trials across the globe, at present, there is no cure or inoculation, though there are some medicines that can help some people get better. There is no magic tablet or pill you can take to prevent this life-threatening virus, which can affect one person with devastating consequences and not affect someone else who can become a super-carrier and spread coronavirus to many people, with no symptoms themselves who themselves go on to infect others. Coronavirus can infect babies as well as those who are long past retirement age, the super fit and the regular person, some have survived, others have not. Those who are more vulnerable are: people who are over 70, those with existing health conditions, people who are overweight, and those with lung relation conditions, such as asthma.

Traveling in a Coronavirus World

As it has been said before, but it is worth repeating, the world as we know it has fundamentally changed and travel has greatly altered in such a short space of time. Some countries have reciprocal safe zones to make it easier to travel to, others have returned to a state of lockdown, or a localised lockdown of a town, city, county, province or state.

If you go abroad on a two-week holiday / vacation you may have to self-isolate or quarantine for a total of four weeks: two weeks upon arrival and two weeks upon your return. To allow quarantine free travel between countries there is talk of air bridges, where the rate of coronavirus is at least as good as in the UK, noted Prime Minister Boris Johnson nearing the end of May 2020.

Some countries have introduced holiday corridors which means that citizens from participating countries can still travel on holiday between and through (or to and from) participating countries, but details change from one week to the next. Some citizens went abroad in July and August 2020, only to be told by their governments or tour operators to come home ASAP.

There are fewer flights and less public transport and what is available is more expensive in a post-CV-19 society. There are increases in the cost of travel insurance which may not cover you for a pandemic or cancelled flights, repatriation or medical bills. Check the small print.

At present, there is no vaccine and only preventive measures can be taken: Social distancing, the wearing of facemasks (or some material to cover your mouth and nose), use of hand sanitizing gel, antibacterial wipes, disposable gloves or washable ones and regularly washing one’s hands thoroughly under warm water with soap for at least twenty seconds. In the future, there may be an immunity passport or a certificate which proves the holder has been vaccinated similarly to Yellow Fever. Without it, you will be denied entry to the county and turned away.

Some airports expect you to wear a facemask or face-covering and gloves. You can buy facemasks from vending machines, but it is better to take a pack with you. Due to aircraft being pressurised because of high altitude flying, air is recirculated throughout the cabin and cockpit. This means if one passenger is not wearing a facemask and sneezes whilst being a carrier of covid-19, particles could end up in another part of the cabin and infect others.

Some hotels and places of accommodation will have a gap of 24 hrs from the departure of one set of guests from a room until the new arrival, to allow time for a ‘deep clean’ to prevent any possible spread of potential infection. Luggage may need to be disinfected before unpacking. On arrival some countries may expect you to quarantine for two weeks!

If covid-19 is on a surface it can survive for 72 hours. With this in mind, be careful what you touch: armrests on a plane, seatbelt clips, door handles, buttons on a lift, light switch, public toilet flushes, water taps / faucets, taxi door handle, handing over money, self-service checkout screen, a handle on the tube / metro, the person who serves you food, cutlery etc. Avoid touching your face if you have not been able to wash your hands recently. Different countries have different rules for when wearing a facemask is mandatory; ‘mask wearing-zone’ even in some public spaces. Hand cleaning stations and or antibacterial gel are often available inside the door of a shop, cafe or restaurant. If it is not an automatic dispenser, pressing to top with your can be risky, but you may be able to use your elbow if it is wall mounted.

At theme parks, there will be hundreds of hand sanitizer stations, and the wearing of facemasks on many rides is compulsory. You may have to pre-book a time slot for a ride, and there can be long queues and less seating on each ride because of social distancing.

Remember, you may be away on holiday abroad or traveling through a country and another lockdown can be enforced. You could be trapped for weeks or months until you can fly home and the cost per flight may increase due to supply and demand as well as from profiteering. Just beware of this if you have no emergency funds or are on a tight budget. During the first lockdown of 2020, across many countries, some places of accommodation increased the daily rate for foreigners who were trapped, whilst others were evicted from their accommodation as fear gripped some hoteliers. Some travelers ran out of accommodation money and lived in the wild! One group of multinational travelers were found in a cave in India! In the same country, fear gripped many Indians who were concerned that Westerners were contaminated and they were shunned or shooed away in some instances, whilst in China, many Africans were shunned as were Chinese from Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak. Travellers in Thailand noted how the lockdown was not like in Europe or Western countries where most people were told off or warned, but in Thailand, if you were caught breaking lockdown rules or the curfew, you could end up in prison, and many travelers ended up behind bars for weeks or months.

If an airline or a hotel cancels your flight or accommodation you can ask for a refund. Do not accept a booking at a later date (unless you want it) or a voucher from the company (which could go bust at any time). Have a full refund which in many cases you would be entitled to, however, this is easier said than done, as companies do not want to give refunds for fear of going bankrupt. Some airlines and travel companies have already gone under and more will go bust. Does your travel insurance cover you if you are isolated abroad or will you have to fend for yourself?

Within the United Kingdom, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) stated in the 2020 lockdown that firms must offer cash refunds for cancellations when: 1. No goods or service was provided. 2. The firm can’t provide the service due to lockdown. 3. You can’t use the service due to lockdown. Many companies are still flouting these rules and some travelers have been trying for months to get their money back: From the company or site they booked through, from their travel insurance, or a ‘charge back’ on their credit card.

If you are traveling in a motorhome and lockdown occurs you could be like the hundreds of European travelers in Morocco, North Africa in 2020 who arrived by ferry from Spain, but then the campsites closed due to lockdown and everyone was evicted. These travellers were left out in the wild with no connection to electricity or water etc. With the borders closed, they could not return to mainland Europe for some weeks.

At around 10pm, on Thursday, 13 August 2020, British tourists in France, Malta and the Netherlands had to be back in the United Kingdom within 30 hours, by 4am, Saturday, 15 August 2020 or self-quarantine for 14 days upon their return. The price of ferries, Eurostar (train lines under the English Channel between France and England), and airlines tickets increased in price as demand outstripped supply. One airline hiked its prices by 600% compared to 24 hours earlier!

Within one week, three more countries had been removed from the ‘safe list’ of countries to visit and British tourists raced home to avoid a two-week quarantine and air ticket prices greatly increased! At the same time a number of European countries saw a spike in coronavirus cases.

By the end of September 2020, due to coronavirus there had been one million confirmed deaths worldwide and nearly 34 million reported cases of covid-19 globally.

Additional Items To Pack

* Hand sanitizer / antibacterial gel.

* Antibacterial wipes.

* Disposable gloves.

* Washable gloves.

* Disposable facemasks.

* Washable facemask or face-covering.

Chapters Sections and Quick Reference Guide for Items to Take

Sections

1. Chapters 1-5: Where to Travel, with Whom and Preparation.

2. Chapters 6-10: Safety, Medical, Health, Survival and Extreme.

3. Chapters 11-16: Budgeting, Money, What to Buy and Pack.

4. Chapters 17-21: Plane Ticket, Visa, Airport, Reservations and Accommodation.

5. Chapters 22-26: Hygiene, Scams, Settling in, Language and Law.

6. Chapters 27-32: Food, Writing a Journal, Culture, Oppression, Exploitation and Photography.

7. Chapters 33-36: Public Transport, your own Vehicle, Renting, Overland Bus and Researching an Organization.

8. Chapters 37-42: Aid Work, Volunteer-Vacation, Advice for Leaders, A Working Team, Can you Help Me (Money) and Returning Home.

Items to Take

Chapter

8. For health related items

10. For survival items in case of extreme travel

15. What to buy and to consider buying

16. What to take, including a kit list

Preface

I have been able to go on more than thirty trips in over forty countries of the world, though I have actually passed through nearly fifty nations. These travels have included the entire length of Africa on public transport, the length of South-East Asia, the Trans-Siberian Railway, China, around Britain, across Europe and into North Africa and America. Budget Travel A Guide to Travelling on a Shoestring has been written from first-hand experience and incorporates the travel testimonies from people across the globe.

I was seventeen when I first went abroad. My friend worked as a travel agent and had accrued enough commission so that we could visit Holland in the Netherlands for the weekend. It was a great budget travel trip as we only had to pay for our food, everything else was free. Before then, I had travelled around Britain, staying in B&Bs, sleeping on a friend’s floor or in a caravan, pitching a tent or sleeping in the car. It was all an adventure and still is. Special times with special memories.

My adventures have taken me on a walking tour of the Pyrenees Mountains with a group of friends, a whistle-stop tour of the Holy Land for a third of the cost; with Korean friends we drove around eastern Europe. I have used budget airlines to get to a number of countries, travelled 22,000km overland from Cairo in Egypt to the Cape in South Africa, across South-East Asia from India to Vietnam and from Nepal to Russia, which included Hong Kong, Macau, China and a 5-day stint on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to Moscow, Russia. Over the decades I have visited many countries by plane, train, car, ferry, coach and on foot.¹

This book will aid you in your budget travels, whether you are an individual exploring the options, or travelling with a group of friends. You may have two weeks free, a three months semester or be taking a gap year. You may want to visit a particular people group, country, or continent. You may be looking to do humanitarian work with a charity or non-governmental organization (NGO). You may be looking for the perfect overland tour company, considering buying a 4x4 (4 wheel drive vehicle/4WD) to explore the world or hit the railway and let the train take the strain across a country. This book will assist you in these areas, give you firm foundations for budget travel and will guide you through the process, before and during your trip. This book will aid you on your journey and will assist you in areas of need, with many options and ideas: where to go, what to do, who to go with, how to finance it, what to pack, how to plan your budget travels, your expedition, what to see. It also includes: getting the best deals, buying your plane ticket, airport etiquette, medical issues, what to buy, kit list, visa issues, accommodation, transportation, scams and warnings, local cuisine, working with the locals, cultural and language issues, plus much more, and will guide you through the entire travelling process from start to finish.

Budget Travels is full of anecdotes and advice with informative stories, and insights, to help you engage in cross-cultural travel with viable solutions to common issues to make your trip of a lifetime more effective, exciting and enjoyable, whilst keeping your stress levels low and your money under control. The application of the truths within this book, learnt and experienced over many decades will greatly help you on your journey of discovery and exploration into new lands and cultures on your budget travels.

In some chapters, the author refers to ‘we,’ this is himself and any other person or group whom he was travelling with. The testimonies are all real events, though some of the names have been changed. Throughout the book, prices of items are stated in American dollars ($) and British pound sterling (£), at the exchange rate of $1.6 to £1.00. Some prices are rounded to the nearest whole figure.² In 2017 due to BREIXT the exchange rate was closer to $1.3 to £1.00.

Mathew Backholer, co-founder of ByFaith Media.

Introduction - Dream Travel on a Budget

You have a dream of travelling the world, a country or continent, yet you have limited finances. It is possible to do, but you must first accept reality. You cannot fly business class or stay in 5-star hotels in the major cities of New York, London or Sydney. Budget travel means economy, but it does not mean dirty hovels or locked in the hold of a cargo ship. If you want to spend two month’s travel money on a week of luxury accommodation, you can, but you don’t have to; when you travel on a shoestring you have to make cutbacks and intelligent decisions, but you do not need to go without. You can easily blow your budget within a week on a luxury safari, staying in a private lodge in Botswana or Tanzania, but instead, you could do a budget safari in Malawi, see most of the big game and travel the length of Africa or other continents for the same amount of money, the choice is yours. You have to do your research and make educated and informed decisions.

Budget travel means sacrificing some luxuries for one great adventure. It can be done. I’ve spent months in South-East Asia on a daily budget of £10 ($16) and £20 ($38) a day, and in Africa on £18 ($29) a day. Staying in cheap and austere accommodation, though some had TV and air conditioning (AC), travelling on local buses, coaches and trains, whilst eating at food-stalls, cafes and restaurants and having a great time, seeing the sights, meeting the locals, broadening one’s horizons and soaking up the atmosphere. There have been splurges on petrol go-karts, a helicopter flight over Victoria Falls, guided tours, private taxis, hotel swimming pools and many historical sites etc., but you offset one against the others and balance the budget from one week to one month to the next.

Travelling on a shoestring involves planning ahead, and not taking the first option that comes along, but to shop around, investigate and inquire after the best deals. I have saved thousands by using local transport, sleeping in basic to good accommodation and discovered hidden gems off the standard traveller’s trail. Why spend $200 (£125) to fly into the next country when you can take the coach to the border for $20 (£12.50)! Why spend $2,000 (£1,250) for a week in Japan, plus airfare, when you could spent three months in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia for the same amount. You can travel Japan on a budget, but some countries are more expensive than others. If staying in Japan is more expensive than Korea and you only have two months away, you need to decide whether you will spend one month in each country, or a week or two less in the more expensive country, so as to be able to balance your budget. If you are travelling across a continent, some countries or cities you may wish to skip through due to the exorbitant cost of living. This means a higher cost of accommodation, travel and food.

When you travel on a budget, you experience the real country you are in and not the 5-star Western imitations, branded hotel chains. You can spend $200 a night for a hotel in Khartoum, Sudan, or in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, or one for $20. I know what I would choose, when the money comes out of my pocket and I am on the road for 3-6 months. Most budget travellers do not want the Western sanitized view of the country they are visiting, but wish to be more like the locals and experience their way of life, with a few luxuries thrown in along the way and some Western food treats. Upmarket restaurants are wildly overpriced, yet you can still eat crab in a beach-shack in Cambodia for $6 (£4) or lobster for more, but at a greatly reduced price compared to the upmarket restaurant where, many holidaying clientele dress-up to go out. There are many vegetarian options abroad and in most developing countries, the fruit and vegetables are really fresh.

You can go on a snorkelling day-trip for $20 (£13) per person, or speak to a local who can buy/rent a snorkel and mask (or goggles) and hire a small boat with a motor for just $8 (£5) for two guests.

Budget travel means making every pound, dollar and euro count. You cannot buy a souvenir in every village, town and city you pass through, though you can take photographs, film, write a journal, do some sketches and meet the locals and their sights to help you remember where you have been. Budget travel is best accomplished when you travel light and your journey can be a delight. Items and knickknacks can become cumbersome, though items of clothing and things that need to be repaired can easily be bought and paid for on the go.

Perhaps you are thinking of buying a round-the-world plane ticket, but you may be able to save money by using local budget airlines to get you to your start or end destination. Do you like sharing? Budget travel means sharing the bus or coach with other passengers, or on the top of a truck in Africa, a pick-up in Papua New Guinea or sharing the aisle with chickens on a bus in South America. In many food establishments, the table is not exclusively yours, but for any guest to use. You can take a night train in India or Europe, or the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow, Russia, through Mongolia to Beijing, China, or a ferry on the Amazon River, but if you want your money to stretch you cannot have a private booth or compartment, but may have a foldout bed or a place to hang your hammock.

Budget travel can on occasions be hard, your last meal may not have agreed with you, the other guests in the hostel are a bit too noisy and inconsiderate, the bus seat is uncomfortable, you may be hungry or pine for your favourite food back at home. You can treat yourself, move accommodation or take time-out and rest. Western comforts will return when you go home, but in the present you are having an experience of a lifetime and stories that can be shared and retold on different occasions. Today is a day