C40's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Gilberto de Piento
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

C40 wrote:
Wed Aug 14, 2019 10:46 pm
[*] Dirtyness/trash/smells?[/list]
I've only been to Vietnam and Hong Kong and only on vacation so I didn't see that much. I don't think it is anything you won't be able to handle but it will be different than the US. In Hanoi in the old part of town it smelled like sewage and garbage in a lot of places. There was a lot of trash on the ground but it did seem like people were cleaning it up all the time. I think it is just what happens when there are a ton of people living very closely with very old infrastructure. Hong Kong was much more modern and cleaner but it had urban smells like dumpsters and urine. It wasn't any dirtier than any other urban area I've been in though, for example downtown New Orleans and Chicago are just as bad if not worse.

The air quality seemed good enough in both.

In Vietnam you will see things like bloody meat being sold from a piece of cardboard on the sidewalk. It's not up to modern food safety standards. Having to see it isn't that bad and probably something good to be exposed to. I definitely didn't buy any of it though.

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

When you guys say to travel around asia for a couple months to figure it out - do you mean to do that to see if I want to stay in the area at all, or to do that to figure out which places I'd like to stay longer?

2Birds1Stone
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Both, I would guess. First figure out if it's your cup of tea, and then figure out which region you like to drink your tea the most.

Planning on doing exactly this next fall (or this fall if I get canned at work). Going to visit Thailand for 60 days, Vietnam for 30, Indonesia for 30, and Malaysia for 60. The biggest reason is cheap accommodations when renting by the month. We plan on spending 30 days in Chiang Mai and another 30 exploring other parts of Thailand (islands, south etc). Might make it into Laos and Cambodia as well, all of this is very loosely planned. Then we will know which areas we like, which we don't, and what might make sense when we use geographical arbitrage in the future.

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Ego
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Ego »

Most people go with relatively fixed itineraries. They have a ticket into Bangkok, a ticket out of Singapore and six weeks to see as much as possible. You don't have that problem. You can buy a one-way ticket and book a few nights in a hotel in Bangkok then wing it. Southeast Asia is a place where winging it is very easy.

We did what 2Birds plans to do. We got to know the major areas the first time we visited in 2005 then stayed longer in a few places the second time. Our favorite hostel in Bangkok SUK11 closed not too long ago. We've stayed there at least 20 times over the years as Bangkok is the crossroads. Hostels with private rooms are common in the region. They are great places to meet other travelers and talk about places to go and how to get there.

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

Thanks for the input, everyone :-)

A very brief update from a Starbucks while I'm waiting for images to upload on a Craigslist ad and for my tea to cool enough to drink.

  • I've left Portland. Loaded up all my stuff and the motorcycle in/on the van. I'm expecting to stay with some family in Denver and probably Phoenix for a bit, and try to sell my van, motorcycle, and maybe a couple bicycles. The main reason for not doing that in Portland is to drop off my other belongings in Denver, where the rest of my unused things already are. This way, I'll have everything in once place.
  • I'll have some last things to sort out before going to Asia. (Visa rules, bank stuff, vaccinations?, what exactly to take, etc)
  • I had a pretty good time in Portland, but right now I'm considering my jaunt there mostly a failure. Mainly, I ended up not wanting to live with my friends there. More on that later.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Congratulations on making a decision and taking the steps to make it happen. I've always admired your ability to act decisively. Good luck with your move. I hope you enjoy Asia.

Wads
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Wads »

Congrats C40!

I'm looking forward to your Asia reports. Chaing Mai is a potential FIRE location for myself.

wolf
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by wolf »

Wow, I'm looking forward to read your reports of Asia. I find that you live a very interesting life. First working, then vanliving and travelling and then living in Portland. And now Asia! :-)
Besides your lifestyle, did you do a half-year financial summary (with all those great charts)?

2Birds1Stone
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

That's exciting news! Trying to navigate the vaccination requirements ourselves, and it's hard to figure out what you really need vs. what is nice to have for different parts of SE Asia. Please let us know if you iron it all out.

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Ego
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Ego »

If you decide to get vaccinations consider waiting until you get to Bangkok. We got our Rabies jabs (series of 3) there for a fraction of the cost of a US travel clinic. You can email them for current prices and to ask if they have specific vaccines. It is a good place to get a Yellow Fever vaccination if you might ever go to any country that requires it. Iirc, the Yellow Fever jab is now one stick for lifetime protection. Hep B is a series of jabs over a month(?) which works well if you do out and
back trips from Bangkok.

https://www.bnhhospital.com/medical-ser ... inic-itmc/

If you don't already have one, make sure to bring a Carte Jaune from your local health department.

https://global-goose.com/immunizations-in-bangkok/

Get a price sheet from both hospitals.

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

Thanks Ego. I found my vaccine record, and I've emailed a couple clinics in Bangkok asking about prices and availability. If the prices seem reasonable, I won't even bother checking on prices here or trying to use my insurance (based in SD and I'm in AZ and I believe I'd be on the hook for it all myself own while out of area/coverage/network)

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

I sold my van today.

The costs of the van turned out to be:

Purchase/Build: $13k
Maintenance/Repairs/Upgrades: $2k
Sale: ($12k)

(not counting insurance, registration, or gas. The build does include some tools)


So it ended up costing about $3k. Owned it for 4 years. Lived in it for about 2.5.

classical_Liberal
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

Well, goodbye to an old friend I guess. How many miles did you put on it over the years?

Good luck on the next chapter!

2Birds1Stone
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Talk about cheap housing! Your van is what sent me down the whole "live in a van, down by the river" rabbit hole, many years ago.

How is your mom liking her build these days? Is she still living/traveling in it regularly?

Re: travel vaccinations, we just spoke to Blue Cross Blue Shield of NY and they cover none of the vaccines required for SE Asia, besides the basics you would need in the US (ie: tetanus).

Smashter
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Smashter »

I spent about 60k in rent over that same 2.5 year period. And that, kids, is a big reason why C40 is off to galavant around Asia on a spectacular, work-free adventure while I respond to Slack messages from my boss telling me that we have to have an "internal sync" about a project, which I can already tell means I am going to have to throw out a bunch of work I did over the last couple days.

This journal is so motivating.

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Ego
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Ego »

Yes! Nice work. How soon til you get to SE Asia?

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

classical_Liberal wrote:
Wed Sep 25, 2019 12:28 am
How many miles did you put on it over the years?
About 40,000 miles. The poor fuel mileage of the van (10-15) was one of the reasons I took a strategy of fairly slow meandering while I was full-timing it.


2Birds1Stone wrote:
Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:38 am
How is your mom liking her build these days? Is she still living/traveling in it regularly?

Re: travel vaccinations, we just spoke to Blue Cross Blue Shield of NY and they cover none of the vaccines required for SE Asia, besides the basics you would need in the US (ie: tetanus).
Mom is still enjoying her van. She goes on weekend trips here and there, and recently spent a week or two going up and through Colorado. She's still working and once she retires, she'll go out in it more. I'm guessing she'll use it for a few years after that and then sell it.

Thanks for the vaccine info. I'm taking a similar strategy for a vasectomy (Probably just gonna do it over there assuming it's cheaper) though I will be a bit more scrutinizing to make sure my likelihood of the ~'severe dick pain' side effect are low.


Smashter wrote:
Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:47 am
... This journal is so motivating.
Thank you :-)


Ego wrote:
Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:50 am
Yes! Nice work. How soon til you get to SE Asia?
I still have left:
- Sell the motorcycle
- Some more research
- Some administrative things (bank account, I.D.P., maaaaybe initial visa, etc... some of these involve waiting )

So, maybe a month. I'm not in a huge hurry. It's nice spending time here with my family, and good to do before I'm gone for potentially quite a while.

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jennypenny
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by jennypenny »

Am I the only one bummed that C40 sold the van? I thought it was so cool and he put so much work into it.

*sigh* C'est la vie in EREland.

jacob
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by jacob »

Maybe we should've run a gofundme campaign to acquire it and put it in the ERE Museum 8-)

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

ERE people aren't going to put any money into a GoFundMe! It would cut into their savings rate. ;)

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