CP BrainTrust: Plan my next 2 months.

[J pold]

OK, so here is my current situation: I'm a recent graduate from university who just secured a pretty great job, but the thing is it doesn't start until September, which leaves me roughly two months with a lot of time on my hands. I feel like this is a good opportunity to do some traveling or learn a new skill, but I've having some difficulty deciding what to do exactly. So I'm looking to draw upon the great ball of wisdom that is Calgarypuck.

Here are a few ideas I've bandied about: Going on a long bike trek down the west coast. However I'm not a particularly skilled biker and only own a mountain bike, not a road one; so maybe I'm going a bit over my head here, especially considering I'll be going at this alone.

Doing your typical new graduate-backpack-across-Europe-trip. The biggest issues with this option is cost, plain and simple. Has anyone done something like this on a budget?

If you were in my situation, what would you do? Where would you go?

A few caveats:

Financial - Because I didn't anticipate this situation I don't have much money saved up for any wild adventures so I will likely have to borrow some, which means the cheaper the better.

Companions - I don't for see any friends being able to join me in whatever endeavour I go ahead with so this is likely to be a solo mission.

Any advice or insight is welcomed and appreciated.

[Kybosh]

Go travel around some SE Asian countries if you want to travel but want a cheaper financial burden. The flight is easily the biggest cost then after that you can live as cheaply or richly as you want.

I did Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore solo over 5 weeks after I finished my PhD.

[rd_aaron]

Go travel somewhere. It will be a lot more difficult to take 3 or 4 weeks off to travel somewhere when you are working.

If you decide you can't afford it, play video games in your underwear for the next 2 months.

[moncton golden flames]

on a tight budget, why not backpack across canada? go tip to tip and experience 'home' before you start traveling abroad once you have more money from working.

[valo403]

I'm with Kybosh, once you get to Asia you can live incredibly cheap and it's pretty easy to meet people to travel with.

Or, spend the summer drinking heavily and playing video games.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by moncton golden flames

on a tight budget, why not backpack across canada? go tip to tip and experience 'home' before you start traveling abroad once you have more money from working.

Probably cheaper to travel around Asia than to travel across Canada and back

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by valo403

Probably cheaper to travel around Asia than to travel across Canada and back

i was thinking you could hitch rides, stay with friends or family, maybe even in hostels or camping. could be cheap if you know people in the right places.

[J pold]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

Go travel around some SE Asian countries if you want to travel but want a cheaper financial burden. The flight is easily the biggest cost then after that you can live as cheaply or richly as you want.

I did Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore solo over 5 weeks after I finished my PhD.

Thanks for the advice, I hope you don't mind if you ask you a few more questions. What was the cost of your entire trip? How did you go about planning everything?

A friend of mine did the Europe thing, but stayed at monasteries (sp?) I guess there's a book that has a bunch of them listed.
Just a quick google search came up with this:
http://www.reidsguides.com/t_h/t_h_monasteries.html

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Learn Swahili
Chase a rainbow
Jump really high
Learn to twirl a baton
Invent some sort of flying machine
Punch a baby
Eat a really big sandwich
Run as slow as you possibly can

That should keep you occupied for 2 months.

[troutman]

Back-pack around Central America for 2 months. Much cheaper than Europe. Start in Antigua Guatemala and take some spanish lessons with other gringos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua_Guatemala

Due to its popularity amongst tourists and its very well developed tourism infrastructure, Antigua Guatemala is often used as a central location in which many choose to set up base and from here, visit other tourist areas in Guatemala and Central America. Cruise ships that dock at Guatemalan ports offer trips to Antigua from both the Pacific and Atlantic.

Antigua is known as a destination for people who want to learn Spanish through immersion. There are many Spanish language schools in Antigua and it is one of the most popular and best recognized centers for Spanish language study by students from Europe and North America. Language institutes are one of the primary industries of Antigua, along with tourism.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by J pold

Thanks for the advice, I hope you don't mind if you ask you a few more questions. What was the cost of your entire trip? How did you go about planning everything?

I had a similar thing to you. I had just finished my degree and had about three months before I started my postdoc. I went to a Chapters, grabbed a coffee and started flipping through travel books. Originally, I was planning on going to India but I could not secure a visa in my time frame. The nice thing about the SE Asia countries, is that you either don't need a visa or just get one when you arrive.

My itinerary was nothing more than a list of countries and to travel from Cambodia, south down the peninsula to Singapore. I pretty muched winged it from there.

The flight was $1500 for an openjaw ticket into Bangkok then out of Singapore. Above that, I only spent ~$2000 for everything including a couple short flights. Also, that ~$2000 allowed me to actually live quite luxuriously. I would occassionally stay in a flea bag place for ~$5-8/night, but more often than not I sat around the $20/night range. The bigger cities like Singapore, KL or Bangkok were more like $40-60/night for decent places.

You could easily, spend less money than I did as well. I usually stayed in relative luxury and still only spent ~$3500 in total.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by J pold

Thanks for the advice, I hope you don't mind if you ask you a few more questions. What was the cost of your entire trip? How did you go about planning everything?

I've never done Asia on a truly small budget, but it's quite easy to find hotels in the $15/night range and you can probably go a lot cheaper. Just to put it in perspective, I paid $80/night to stay in a 5 star hotel in Bangkok (it's actually the hotel that the fancy rooftop scenes in Hangover 2 was filmed at) and around $70/night for a 4.5 star hotel/spa in Siem Reap. So even the upper portions of the market are relatively cheap. Food can be had very cheap, and delicious, if you're willing to eat like the locals. That means generally eating at street stalls, which I would do even if I was on an unlimited budget. You should be able to get a solid meal for a couple of bucks.

I did most of my planning online before departure, there are a ton of sources out there, from formal things (lonely planet) to blogs and message boards. Asia can be sketchy, so it helps to find credible reviews if possible, not all $10 rooms are created equal.

[Knalus]

Take a bus trip through the states. Much cheaper than flying, often the bus is somewhat flexible, you'll see a whole other america than you would otherwise.

I would even suggest tagging this one with troutman's suggestion - take the bus to Mexico, or further to Guatemala, or even further than that.


I took the greyhound from Calgary to Reno for a field school for university, and I loved it. Was a highlight of my time in university. Got to see a really interesting part of the midwest, talked to odd and interesting people, had a ball.

[Kybosh]

In Siem Reap, I paid $25/night for a large, clean, air conditioned room with a full bathroom/shower, television, room service among other amenities. One of the best bang for your buck places I've ever stayed.

[peter12]

Have a beer with me? C'mon, man. C'moooooon.

[jroc]

Hang out at the Gov and Wagjag

[red sky]

I think this is a time to do things that you always wanted to do. You know, determine lifes unanswered questions. Those questions that have plauged you over the course of your lifetime. For example "am I circumsized or not circumsized and what is the difference"?

[jroc]

Originally Posted by red sky

I think this is a time to do things that you always wanted to do. You know, determine lifes unanswered questions. Those questions that have plauged you over the course of your lifetime. For example "am I circumsized or not circumsized and what is the difference"?

Knowing J pold personally, that was easily the funniest moment in CP history.

[Ace]

Agree with Fotze, you have a "great" job lined up. Drop $5000 on credit cards and enjoy 8 weeks traveling. You won't get another chance like this again 'til retirement.

When you get back from your trip, live cheap and pay off the credit cards ASAP.

Maybe you can travel to a summer vacation spot, LA, Florida, Spain, Hawaii and work at some tourist spot (boat tours, etc.) It'll pay for itself, plus you'll meet some people to hang out with.