Last updated on July 4th, 2023 at 06:40 am
This post is the fourth in a series that I am doing on preparing to move abroad. If you have been dreaming of long-term travel or moving abroad, this will be a great resource in your planning. I plan to cover the stages of planning and what you need to consider before taking a big trip like this as well as all the emotions leading up to it. I will be posting weekly. Hope you will join me on this journey before the journey!
We have officially decided on a few additional locations for long-term travel in Southeast Asia to visit on our year-long trip around the world. We have 80 days until we depart for Bali, the first location.
Thoughts as we get closer to our departure date
February is off to a crazy start! Feeling like our time in Colorado with family and friends is running short, we booked up this month with tons of activities and get-togethers. Now I am struggling with feeling overwhelmed. We have plans every weekend in February, as well as a bunch of miscellaneous things we are doing during the week. I am feeling super exhausted by work project deadlines getting pushed out. I will likely not be able to wrap things up as nicely before I leave with these new timelines. Next weekend we are heading to Houston to see family, a very impromptu trip, so I am taking a day off for that. I’m excited about all the plans, but I probably wouldn’t spread myself so thin if we were going to be around more this year.
It is exciting to be in February though because there is one less month between us and our trip! It is crazy how time is flying and also dragging. I am feeling so many things at once in preparation for this trip.
Why did we decide to extend our long-term travel in Southeast Asia?
In my last entry, I covered why we chose to go to Bali, but I didn’t get to the next two locations we will be visiting in Southeast Asia. We thought a lot about what we wanted to do after Bali. Did we want to go straight to Europe? Did we still want to try to get approved for the D7 visa in Portugal? Did we want to stay in Southeast Asia? We had left the Portugal option open even though the year-long lease requirement would be tricky. We were still interested in staying in Europe long-term and were not ready to part with that idea. Plus we were worried about leaving our dog, Kala, for so long. We were thinking we could try to bring her to Portugal on the Queen Mary. Spots for dogs on the Queen Mary are extremely limited, however, so that would be another difficult situation.
Of course, after we booked our Airbnb in Bali, we realized that a requirement of the Portugal D7 visa is that Portugal has to be your first port of entry from your home country. Going directly from Bali to Portugal wouldn’t be acceptable. Plus, when applying for the Portugal D7 visa, you need to do that from a consulate in your home country. In the US, the only Portuguese consulate is in Washington D.C. where we would have to travel about 2-3 months before our departure date so we could apply. At the appointment, you must leave your passport with the consulate while they process your visa application. It would be mailed back and then we’d have about 90 days to get to Portugal. With our time in Bali, that timeline wasn’t going to work out very well unless we cut the Bali portion down to one month and then flew to the US and then to Portugal.
We basically decided that it was not worth it. We had made our choice one way or another when we booked the Airbnb in Bali. Unless we wanted to cancel and lose some of our money, we would be going to Bali. Plus, we had grown attached to the idea. However, we were learning that traveling long-term is very complex and we would not be able to do everything. Also making impulsive decisions doesn’t really help if you are trying to plan a long-term trip unless you are very flexible on the outcome. Lesson learned!
But then we figured, it is much easier to get to Europe than to Southeast Asia from the US and while we are already planning to be in Asia and get the vaccines and adjust to the time change… we might as well stay in that area longer, right? There may come a time when we still want to experience living abroad but need more stability and Europe would always be an option down the road. Traveling long-term to many different places or specifically traveling in Southeast Asia might be more difficult in the future.
How did we decide where to travel long-term in Southeast Asia?
Our first choice for long-term travel in Asia was Japan. We visited Tokyo at the beginning of 2020 and would love to see more of the country. In Japan, the infrastructure is good, the food is exceptional, and the culture is really interesting. However, the cost of living is generally pretty high in Japan. Our next choice for long-term travel in Southeast Asia was Singapore, but it is so expensive we barely considered the idea. As soon as we started thinking about where else in Southeast Asia we wanted to visit that would be within our budget, Thailand came up. Thailand is very popular with tourists and digital nomads. It is also known for having a low cost of living.
Thailand
A few of the cities in Thailand we considered were Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Phuket, Koh Samui, and Pattaya City. Turns out that Pattaya City is known for sex tourism, so we ruled that out pretty quickly. Bangkok, while I would really like to visit, sounds huge and overwhelming for everyday living. We considered Koh Samui, the second largest island off the east coast of Thailand, because it has a large expat community and laid-back beach vibes. Luke was a little concerned about getting consistent WIFI there, so we started looking at other options.
Chiang Mai is really well-known for having a significant expat community and although it has faced some gentrification is still loved by digital nomads. There are tons of co-working spaces. The air quality is bad in Chiang Mai though. The worst air quality occurs during “burning season” in Thailand, where they burn the rice fields to prepare for the next planting season. This wasn’t when we would be visiting, but it was still a concern. Ultimately, we decided against it primarily for the air quality. Chiang Mai would have been perfect for us otherwise, I think, and I am still not sure if we made the right call in deciding not to stay there for that reason.
We considered Phuket briefly, but we weren’t super excited about the idea, and if we are going to stay on an island anyway (Phuket is the largest island in Thailand), we were more excited by Koh Samui. That’s how we ended up looking at Koh Samui again. After confirming that the WIFI is reliable based on the reviews, we booked an Airbnb on the island. We will be staying just outside the Chaweng area, which is popular for beach clubs and parties, but far enough that the reviews say the apartment is still quiet. It has a private balcony, a workspace, and a shared gym and pool.
Vietnam
We started thinking about other countries in Southeast Asia that were affordable and interesting to us. We considered Cambodia, but after doing some research determined that the infrastructure is less developed than other countries in Southeast Asia and WIFI isn’t consistent. For this first long-term traveling stint we weren’t quite ready for that. We decided it would be a good place to spend a few days in between longer trips instead.
We considered Malaysia, but Luke has already been there and I wanted something that would be new for both of us. When we started talking about Vietnam, I was instantly smitten with that idea because I really like Vietnamese food. Once we considered Vietnam, I couldn’t get the idea of having a lovely Vietnamese coffee every morning and eating Bahn Mi, vermicelli noodle bowls, and pho… so we looked into Vietnam.
Read More: WHY WE DECIDED TO TRAVEL ABROAD LONG-TERM
Ho Chi Minh is the capital and is pretty huge and hectic, so we decided against that. We looked into Hanoi but I got nervous about the driving in my research. Apparently, they take red lights as a suggestion, not a rule, and frequently drive on the sidewalk. I realize that is probably pretty consistent for the whole country but feels more manageable in touristy areas or smaller towns. So I ruled Hanoi out for now too.
We heard really good things about Da Nang, but we didn’t find too many Airbnbs there. We looked around Hoi An, which looks magical and found a good option for an Airbnb. I am a little worried about how touristy it is going to be but we are only there for a month so I think it will be okay. Tourist areas are touristy for a reason, after all. Our Airbnb in Hoi An has a pool and a patio/balcony area. It is in a homestay/hotel and our room is technically the honeymoon suite, which means we have two rooms, one with a bed and one with a couch and a small kitchenette. It doesn’t have a full kitchen, which could be problematic, but the food is generally pretty cheap in Vietnam as long as you eat local food. Reviewing our budget, we decided that we could make it work.
We are doing our best to do plenty of research before we book but obviously, we can’t plan for everything. There will be things that don’t work out the way we want them to – that’s the whole point. To explore the world and experience things, regardless of adversity.
That will be our time in Southeast Asia this year – Bali, Koh Samui, and Hoi An. We are also planning some shorter trips but those aren’t booked yet. We’re thinking of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Siem Reap in Cambodia, or maybe Kyoto. After Southeast Asia we will be heading to Europe, so stay tuned for our official plans. Next week I will be covering the vaccines that we will need to get for our time in Southeast Asia.
Do you dream of long-term travel in Southeast Asia? Have you ever visited these places in Southeast Asia? I would love to hear from you in the comments.
Originally written February 5th, 2023.
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