I visited 35 countries, Ask Me Anything!

Comments

[YuanHao Chiang]

• How to beat the fear of "OMG what will happen if X or Y and I am far away from home?"
• What are the best places to stay at, hotels, Airbnb, hostels?
• Did you get to a country where you couldn't communicate at all, and how did you deal with it?

Background: I work remote and my wife, my son and I are planning on travelling around the world. But at the same time I'm afraid of taking the plunge! Our families are from Costa Rica, Taiwan, and Russia, so we have travelled around but for some reason I still feel afraid. There's always an excuse (we have a baby, I should find a place to settle, etc.)

[Zex]

I was thinking if I have a baby I go travel with him/her, even though the baby won't remember anything at that age 😂. I also met some couples during trips, taking care a baby is really a lot of work. I see “what if” as a way to plan ahead and keep a plan B or C.

Hotel brings me a lot personal moment, some of them are more like apartment, not hotel. But soon I found it's a bit boring. Then I try hostels, good to chat with other travellers and meet interesting people. Hostels usually have nice kitchen so I can cook my favorite meal. Some people just run a hostel in their own house, make it no different from living in other’s home. For family you might want to book a whole room or family suite.

English seems widely spoken, but not everyone speak it. I try to learn their languages, sometimes I just chat with them using Google Translate day and night 🤣. I had excuses before, but time and ability to move are precious, I got lots of time to settle down when I get old. Sometime I see those seniors traveling alone, I think about what is it like when I get there. When you get started all excuses just gone. You start think rationally when things come up and find you way out. Most importantly, always stay positive.

[YuanHao Chiang]

When you get started all excuses just gone.

This makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the reply! :)

[Ken Bellows]

Most interesting:

• Country (overall)?
• Food?
• Experience?

[Zex]

I have to say each of them brings very unique experience. In UAE I saw the largest desert in my life. In Canada, that gotta be my first time to see and play with such much snow and it was -23°C🤣. Iceland was fantastic! I stayed in Switzerland for a nearly two weeks and took a cheap flight to Reykjavik. From there I can take a bus to other small cities. Very silent life, special view there, the seafood was so damn good. Viking line was enjoyful, I took it from Turku to Stockholm. I got tanned during my stay in Latin America but coastline and taco were great, street food lover, lol.

[Md Zubair Ahmed]

Hi, i have the following questions :-)

• Most affordable cities
• Cities which are most clean and close to nature along with modern city amernties
• Cheap housing
• Good to immigrants

[Zex]

‌The most affordable gotta be Kathmandu and it's also the least developed city I’ve been to. One thing I don't like is the dust, Great place for hiking, to see the nature. It took me half an hour to walked to the airport from downtown the last day. Modern city and nature are really hard to balance though, Cities like Tbilisi allow you to see the hills in downtown area. Locals are usually nice and friendly. In North America, I also met some look like full of hate, I was thinking how hard for them to live there. There isn't a place that make me worry about security problem before visit Columbia, even my Russian friend said, it is very dangerous, they would kidnap you. When I was there, locals and soldiers would remind me sometimes, but it's better than two decades ago. I haven't dug deep into immigration policy though, I think Buenos Aires is one great place to live, not insanely modern like NYC or Shanghai, or quiet like European cities, but has convenient traffic, lovely city view and reservoir, close to the ocean.