Around the World in 80 Years - Travel Journal

[Frank Florida]

Hey guys, the title of this thread is a play on Jules Verne's famous book "Around the World in 80 Days" - I intend to travel 365 times longer than that. I've been on the road for eleven years so far, so I have another 69 years to go! I'm going to journal a bit about my travels on this board.

But first of all props to Alessandro for starting this board, I think that was a brilliant idea! There is nothing like a journal for putting all your thoughts in writing - it creates focus and accountability, and I also really believe in the words of Tony Robbins when he says that "a life worth living is a life worth recording".

I'm going to keep this travel log in English, so hopefully we can start a dialogue here that will be a useful exercise for everybody. Right now I'm in Vietnam, and I've been here since I left the Philippines about a month ago. This is definitely one of the most exotic countries in the world, and the food is amazing as well - especially the sea food!

Their language is super bizarre though, they speak in tones like the Chinese do... but they have six tones, whereas the Chinese have "only" four... and you thought English was difficult! Haha. Vietnamese sounds kinda cool though - it definitely has character.

As I had mentioned on another thread, Vietnam is a true paradise and very, very cheap - 10$ a night for a room in a resort (!) with air con, 17Mb/s wireless internet, flat screen TV, queen size bed and private bathroom... right at the beach. South East Asia is really an amazing place. This is my first ever flipcam video, first take, uncut:



So this is just a quick post to kick off my journal, I will be posting regularly here from now on and tell you guys a bit about life on the move. If you wanna hit the road too, just reply to this thread and let me know if I can give you some advice, I'm always glad to help. I'll also talk a bit about how you can travel for free, or make money while traveling, where to find good, cheap accommodation, and what the best places to visit are...

In my next post, I'll write a bit more about Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City.

Cheers,
Frank

[Ronaldo Dutra]

I guess really nice to travel around the world! It must be a great experience! Good luck!

[wender.jean]

I also guess that it's a very nice experience and I'd like congratulate you for your initiative.
Thank's to share with us.

[Ronaldo Dutra]

Hello Frank! How are you? In November my wife and I are going to Taiwan to our friend's wedding! Taiwanese friends we met in Boston when we did a English course for a month in 2011.
Have ever been in Taiwan? What did you think?
Ronaldo

[luizaquino]

That is a nice experience.

But would be easy live in a country like this and make $20 day?

In Brazil $600/monthly which is RS 1,200 . It's not easy a worker do this in Brazil.

[Frank Florida]

That is a nice experience.

But would be easy live in a country like this and make $20 day?

In Brazil $600/monthly which is RS 1,200 . It's not easy a worker do this in Brazil.

I agree... US$ 600 per month is still a lot of money. But, compared to what a similar room in a similar resort would cost almost anywhere else in the world, it's very, very cheap.

That said, I met a Vietnamese girl on that beach who's a real estate broker, and she told me you can also rent a whole house there for US$ 50 per month... it's not going to have a hot water shower, but it will be furnished and have TV and internet.

Would it be easy to make 20 dollars per day in Vietnam? If you speak English, yes... very easy. English teachers make between 15 and 20 dollars per *hour* here, and you don't have to be a native speaker - you just have to be fluent.

Another option for those who are bilingual is to work as a translator... you can expect to make between 5 and 20 cents per *word* you translate - so between 10 and 40 centavos. And that's work you can do on the internet - in other words, you can make that kind of money *anywhere* in the world.

I actually wasn't going to post this video publicly, I just recorded it for some friends of mine - but they told me I should rethink that, because it might really inspire people to study. It's definitely worth the effort!

Hello Frank! How are you? In November my wife and I are going to Taiwan to our friend's wedding! Taiwanese friends we met in Boston when we did a English course for a month in 2011.
Have ever been in Taiwan? What did you think?

Hey Ronaldo, thanks for stopping by! Yeah, I've been to Taiwan before, albeit only for two days on a stop over. I thought it was a great place. It's a beautiful island and Tapei is a vibrant city.

I have friends who live there and I will probably go there after Singapore... who knows, we might be there at the same time... let's stay in touch.

From what I hear, Taiwan has a very high number of English speakers per capita, and people are well educated and friendly. I can't wait to go there again and spend some more time in the country.

I also guess that it's a very nice experience and I'd like congratulate you for your initiative.
Thank's to share with us.

Thanks a lot, and feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

[Flavia Cohen]

I Frank, how is it going? I loved the idea of you telling us your stories around this huge planet and also giving us tips of travelling and helping us to improving our english (u can correct my mistakes, feel free I apreciatte!
Sooo exotic this country, indeed! My ex boyfriend had gone there and he told me a lot of odd habits like they drink soda in room temperature!! Argh! Ahah he is photograph journalist and i saw many interesting pics, one of caught my attention was a 5 people sitting at a motorcycle!! OMG! How they do it without falling down!! Ahah
Well, I havent been around as you, but i lived in US, at NY, six years ago, and now I'm at the Middle East, living in Israel! Have u been here? I bet yes, or if u havent been it probably is in your travel plan!
I'm looking forward to reading your next threads!
All the best,
Flavia Cohen

[Frank Florida]

Hey Flavia, thanks for stopping by! Yeah, there are some fascinating things going on in this part of the world... and some of them can really blow your mind, I'll post about that later...

I haven't been to Israel yet, but I have friends there and I hope to go there some time, for sure... a lot of Israelis are avid travelers, especially after they complete their military service, many of them hop on a plane and just travel for a year... I've run into a lot of Israelis over the years.

Here are a few minor corrections:

english

English - languages, countries and nationalities are capitalized.

(u can correct my mistakes, feel free I apreciatte!

Suggestion:
Feel free to correct my mistakes, I appreciate it!

I'm looking forward to reading your next threads!

thread = tópico, post = postagem... so in this case, post would probably be the better choice.

Hope that helps, and stay in touch!

Cheers,
Frank

[felipeh6]

Hello Frank,

May I ask you how you deal about the matters of limited time you can stay in each country? Most countries don't allow you to stay more than 90 days as a "tourist". Do you have a special kind of visa or how do you deal with your passport?

Thanks for your time and attention.

Regards.

[Marcio_Farias]

Felipe, five people on a motorcycle? I remember seeing more on a zigzagging bike.

Staying on topic, I really want to go to a single country, in this case the USA. (Can't indulge in, nor have the financial resources for, country-hopping.)