No matter how well you plan, there is always likely to be a hiccup along the way in your travels. And when that happens, it’s time to embrace uncertainty and see where it leads you. A day in the life of a nomad usually involves a wealth of planning, and sometimes it’s hard when all doesn’t go as planned, as it can create more work and stress. These are the moments to stay calm and go with the flow. Maybe you missed your flight… it’s not the end of the world, and there will always be another flight - even if it does push your plan back a little. What are the ways you can enjoy what cards you have just been dealt? Maybe that’s talking to new people, or eating new foods, or ending up in new surroundings.
This past winter, I was offered a gig teaching yoga at a hostel in Indonesia. I was promised a private room to sleep and free meals in exchange for teaching a daily yoga class. However, when I arrived, it was not as advertised. The room was shared with 3 other people and was a complete dump. The “meals” consisted of waffles for breakfast and a bar credit for smoothies or cocktails. It was described as a “social and not a party” hostel. It was very much a party hostel, totally not my scene. And this was supposed to be my set-up for the next 6 weeks… After promising myself that I would give it a chance, after one night I decided that I would not be a happy person sharing a room with 3 drunken dudes stumbling in every night at 2am, so it was up to me to make decisions, embrace the unexpected, and figure out a new plan. I was on a bit of a budget, so it was not ideal to have an added expense of a room and meals, but in this case it was worth it. And this detour ended up taking me to all of my new favorite places.
Since I wasn’t going to be teaching yoga at this hostel any longer and being tied down to that specific place, I realized that I now had the freedom to travel to my heart’s content for these next 6 weeks. But with so many places to choose from and a change in job situation, how would I afford it? Luckily I had a ton of hotel points and some airline miles to use, so I made it fun and turned it into a game. The game was: where can I fly direct most cheaply from my current location and use the hotel points I had. I had a variety of points from Marriott, Hilton, and Hotels.com, and I used my Capital One Venture card miles for flights, so those were my constraints. And I ended up in a lot of places that were previously not on my personal radar: from the Gili Islands, Lombok, and Bali in Indonesia to Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia. I was able to finally use all those points I had been saving for a rainy day (or unexpected situation like this), and I completely fell in love with this area of the world! Pro tip - hotel points go a LOOOOOOOOONG way in SE Asia.
Had the yoga gig worked out, I would’ve never had a chance to discover how much I connected with these other places. Nor would’ve I had the opportunity to test my limits with how little I could spend on travel and appreciate what the universe was delivering to me. In fact, had I already not committed to housesitting gigs back in the USA, I might not have returned - it was that life changing. Sometimes when what you plan doesn’t work out, it’s because there’s something else potentially better.
Side bar: if you are not yet earning points or miles through a credit card, consider adding this to your repertoire. I treat my credit cards like a debit card - meaning I use them like cash for all my expenses and then log on everyday and pay the balance - so I can earn the points without racking up the debt. And it’s always a good idea to check your accounts everyday while traveling anyway… the amount of times I’ve had my card number stolen while traveling is not a one-off occasion. So this also means: invest in a few cards that provide some kind of travel benefit. Often you’ll get a sweet reward just for opening the account, and then you’ll have back-ups when one inevitably gets stolen. (Coming soon in my next post is about how to handle everything being stolen, even your passport - yes, this happened to me!)
