Leonie Feliciaa
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HOW TO START TRAVELING pt 2.
🕑 Added 2024-12-19 19:43:48 +0000 UTCSorry guys for being MIA,
I am finally back. After arriving in Austria yesterday, which is my birthcountry by the way, and surviving solid 15 hours of flying, I finally am back to somewhat of a "routine". My coming home was everything. I surprised my mom in the morning, let me tell you she was BAFFLED. My horse was being the sweetest girl ever, I missed her. Everytime I come back she gets prettier and prettier. In the evening, when we started celebrating my dads birthday, we pretended I was still gone and would call him happy birthday from Singapore. Well, little did he know his little girl would just walk in one minute later. It was wholesome to see how happy he was. I am so glad I got to be here.
Back to our topic on here, traveling and how YOU can also do it!!
For my first solo trip went to Costa Rica, its located in Central America and I'd say a little level up to South East Asia travel, but still very beginner friendly. Its been gentrified for the most part, is very expensive and popular amongst digital nomads. Slightly similar to Bali vibes. However, nature is stunning, it got some of the best waterfalls and an amazing animal kingdom. Would I go again? Not for any current goals or interests. Can I recommend it for first timers? Sure! Like any country, be cautious. Even in "safe" countries like CR, bad things can happen. I stayed for one week at a girls place that I met on Instagram. Back then I had 2k followers, I was using the same account that I do now, just for personal reasons and photography tho. I was just good at outreaching and finding people online, reading their vibes and knowing we'd be friends. I would reach out to some of these people and just decided to say f it, imma book that flight and go see her in CR. Do you need to know anyone abroad at your travel destination? Absolutely not. Did it give me an additional reason to tell my fam and such? Absolutely, lol. From the moment that I landed in Costa Rica, I experienced a row of feelings and emotions I have never felt before. The most prominent one, freedom. I will never forget how it tasted when I had it for the first time. It looked like: forgetting what day, what month, heck even what year it was. I got to reinvent myself and also discover myself newly. I started to collect jewellery that I love, went skinny dipping for the first time (I was so nervous! can you imagine lol? Now I do it all the time xD), started making new friends, feeling alone for the first time, questioned a lot about conditioning and how growing up the way I did shaped me, seeing a new form of life and how a society can work and a bunch so on. Of course, these processes didn't happen all at once like I just wrote. Many things jut developed that I wasn't even always that conscious of at the time, and since then a lot of time has passed, allowing me to reflect as well. When you go travel for the first time, don't think so much, just feel, is all I'm trying to say. The rest will happen on it's own. My journey continued, planless but imperfeclty perfect my trip took me from Costa Rica, to Mexico, to Ecuador, to Peru and Colombia. 4 months, one backpack and my 18 year old self. I was pretty decent at budgeting back then, now I am 100x better, but 4k lasted me for these months. You can go cheaper too, just fly less (more slow travel), don't splurge etc.
If you always say how you want to travel but somehow never end up doing it, ask yourself why. What are the problems that you give yourself (which btw, I know it can be hard to hear but none of them are real) that apparently "hold you back". In my opinion, it is rarely about not being able to, but mostly about not prioritising. Which is okay! "I can't travel.
I can't travel, my parents won't let me!" - are you 18+. You can. You just don't want to disrespect them, disappoint them, or whatever it is. You technically could. You find yourself in a situation. Come to terms with it. Either don't say "I can't travel" or just do it!. The only time it is, imo valid to say that is when you are under 18.
"I can't travel, I don't have the money". I can see how for some people this certainly can be more troublesome, depending on our birthplace and so on, however, many who are saying this are in fact privileged (including myself) and were born in the US, somewhere in Europe and so on. Take advantage of that privilege. You can always save up, wether you are studying and working a few hours on weekends, or find some other side gig. Besides that, if you don't even want to travel for 4 months straight you really don't necessarily need a lot to be able to keep yourself going.
"But Leo, how much money will I need?"
It completely depends on you. Your standards, budgeting, spending habits, flexibility and so on. My standards are low lol. But comfortable enough for me. Find your sweet spot and go from there.
You will need to pick a destination as well. What are you trying to get out of this trip? Meeting new other people? Go to a popular backpacking country. Trying to do epic hikes? Norway, Nepal, Austria / Swiss,.. and so on. Wanting to learn how to dive? Egypt, Albania, Honduras,..
Secondary to your goal, make sure the country fits the other requirements you have as well. Safety, religion, culture,..
In the end, there is nothing that is stopping you other than you. I'm not saying that the rocks along the journey will always be easy, but 99% of time they are removable. Its more a matter of your commitment towards this goal and what you are actually willing to sacrifice for it.
I didn't save up for pension, like ever.
I see my family 30 days out of the year.
I can't pursue hobbies on a regular basis.
I never live a routine.
Friendships and relationships won't be the same (again, if better or worse depends on you, your perspective and your friends):
and so on...
To me, these sacrifices are worth it tho. I choose this lifestyle. I don't feel sad when I'm traveling because the above isn't given. Sometimes I might miss them, yeah, but I don't regret the way I live my life. Before it would come to that, I would have already changed it. Once you realise, that you actually don't have to suffer, that you aren't stuck, but that life can be lived the way you narrate it, you will understand.
To end this little journal entry of today, I want to leave you with this powerful statement someone once told me and I now enjoy passing it on, if the moment allows:
You are your own prisoner and your own prison guard.
Comments
Alex C
I love that you highlight the sacrifices. Very insightful
Rex
"Either don't say 'I can't travel' or just do it!. The only time it is, imo valid to say that is when you are under 18." The thing that will keep you from travel is obligations. Before 18, to you parents. After that, to an income, unless you plan that set of obligation with travel in mind. A van lifer can DoorDash anywhere in the U.S.. But that wouldn't work for a trip like Leo's last of Moorea, Korea, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. You could be a world-class fashion/commercial photographer, like Leo, where each gig pays well, so you don't need one very week, you travel internationally for gigs already, and photography supplements your travel experience through IG or YT, or whatever. There are digital nomad jobs that can be done on the road, but there can still be daily work hours, deadlines, and communications issues, so that's just another balance. I need to find something like that. BUT, there's one more major obligation - family. Leo's parents are young, and she has them and siblings that can take care of family emergencies while she's away. Gail, my wife, wants to stay closer to her sisters and our son, so moving to a nomad flat in Thailand, or buying a house in CR would put us out of emergency reach. (That's how I first encountered Leo online. I was dreaming & researching relocation to CR.) Gail's current job is technically Work-From-Home, with quarterly visits to HQ, but the company is reorganizing some functions (and the CEO is big on returning to pre-Covid operations in-office) and on any given day she has to be sitting with other employees in any of 3 cities. It's stressful, but fulfilling. I could travel alone, with the right income stream, and for our first 10 years of marriage, my job required it almost 100%. We've since gotten used to being together almost every day, and the connection, like with her sisters, is a priority. So for us to work out a lifestyle closer to Leo's would require a lot of planning and 2 good intermittant nomad income streams. When we retire, it will be a little easier, except our retirement savings don't account for travel, and at our age and marital situation, hostels won't work well, so our expenses will be higher. And I don't think Gail wants to hitchhike. And at some point we have to plan for being physically unable to travel, or to live alone. We'll need to accumulate quite a bit for that (we're not betting on U.S. Social Security). Obligations, I hope to plan around ours and see more of the world. Maybe even do an old farts group trip with Leo.
anna πΊ
βYou are your own prisoner and your own prison guard.β What a beautiful quote. It encapsulates the duality of control- we are both VICTIMS and ENFORCERS of our own circumstances. I recently messaged you on TikTok mentioning how envious I was of your travel journey & how I am bound to where Iβm at because of a job. I needed to hear this quote because in reality, Iβm not bound to my job. I just FEEL like i am. By the way, the video of you visiting your dad was so cute. So happy for you both. π©΅
