The Plan for Exploring New Zealand

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New Zealand Road Trip Spaceship CampervanOur budget for traveling the world is $50 a day per person. Through research prior to the trip, we learned that New Zealand is one of those locations where it is very hard to stay on budget. But combining our transportation and lodging expenses by living in a campervan would be our best way to keep expenses down.

There are two options for obtaining a camper: buy or rent. Obviously, buying could work out the best financially in the long run. It seems quite common for campers to be on sale because people on holiday do choose this option. And it sounds like it’s possible to get a fairly descent price because short term owners want to get them off their hands fast. But because we only had a month to explore the whole country, we decided for the lesser hassle option of renting.

While in Hong Kong just a few days prior to arriving in New Zealand, we settled on a rental company to use Continue reading →

Three day layover in Hong Kong

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IMG_3267After a short flight from Ho Chi Minh City, we took a bus from the Hong Kong Airport to the area where our pre-booked hotel was located. Our maps pinpointed the hotel in the middle of a city block. We got off the bus, looked around, and only saw rows of shops. Nothing resembled a hotel or guesthouse and meanwhile many Indians were asking us if we needed a guesthouse, a watch or even a SIM card for our phone. Will suggested looking down a narrow alley and see if we could find anything. Down the walkway filled with shops, we found an elevator bank and noticed some of the words matched the address from our listing. We got in the elevator trying to get to a floor we thought might match the address but only even floors were listed. After going back down, we realized there was another elevator with odd floors listed and it even had the name of our guesthouse on the floor listing. We went up to the 13th floor and Continue reading →

Seeing the Sites in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

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The bus ride from Mui Ne to Ho Chi Minh was uneventful. The bus stopped right in the tourist part of the city for once! (Yet another reason Vietnam is my favorite so far). We didn’t have a hotel booked but knew where to look. We pushed through all the taxi drivers who couldn’t believe we didn’t need a taxi and a few minutes later we had a place to stay.

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We did mostly touristy activities Ho Chi Minh with our first stop being the war museum. It was very interesting to see their perspective on the war. After reading all the history from their perspective, I am more confused then ever. On the walk from the museum to the street with all the restaurants, Sara made sure to take us through a large market. As we walked between the stalls, we were continually bombarded with hawkers asking if we needed a shirt, dried fruit, a watch, or anything else imagineable. Continue reading →

Kiteboarding in Mui Ne, Vietnam

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To finish off the Southeast Asia portion of our trip, we wanted to go to a beach and relax. After doing a bit a research, I learned that a great kiteboarding spot was only a few hours away and just south of Ho Chi Minh City. This turned our relaxing beach time into something a bit more exciting.

When we left Can Tho in the morning, we didn’t know if we could even get to Mui Ne that day or not. We only had bus tickets as far as Ho Chi Min. Once in Ho Chi Min, there were no English signs and it seemed like nobody spoke English. Continue reading →