When you’re constantly moving around, making new friends can be hard. Sure, it’s easy to meet people… traveling has a way of breaking down normal social barriers, making it easy to approach new people and start up a conversation. The problem is, that conversation is often exactly the same:

THEM: “Where are you from?”
US: “Vancouver, Canada”
THEM: “How long are you traveling for?”
US: “We’ve been on the road for almost two years.”
THEM: “Wow, must be nice… how do you afford it?”
US: “We work online…..blah, blah, blah…”

From there, the conversation will progress to where we’ve been, where they’ve been, we’ll compare favorite places and add new ones to the list. We’ll swap travel stories, the good and the bad… and at the end of the day, or evening, or dive trip, we’ll say goodbye. Encounters like this are great, we’ve met so many interesting people. All of whom have helped to make the ferry ride, or the boarder crossing or the night out, all the more memorable. But, at the end of the day you know that most of these people you’ll never see again.

When traveling long term this can get tiring. You crave the comfort of close friends and try to get through the standard “Where are you from?/What do you do?” questions as quickly as possible. You miss conversations where you don’t spill your whole life story in the first five minutes and often wish you could talk about something other than traveling. When you’re on the road for a long time you realize the importance of familiar faces and effortless friendships… and cherish inventions like email, Skype, and yes… even Facebook.

Over the last couple of years we’ve missed out on important events back home, both good and bad. From babies being born, and people getting married… to unfortunate losses and sick family members. No matter the event, it’s always hard being away.

This time however, we got lucky. This time the wedding came to us… or close enough anyway. Our friends Randal & Rachelle, planned their wedding in Mexico, and being in Central America, we organized the last 10 months of our travels with this in mind.

We had an amazing week catching up with old friends and even making a few new ones. It was nice to fall back into old circles and conversations and feel like nothing had changed. It was a great reminder that even though we may not see each other for months or even years at a time and despite the different paths we choose to take, some friendships seem to last no matter what decisions we make.

It also made me appreciate the ease of meeting people on the road. The openness of other travelers and all the fascinating people we’ve met along the way. It got me excited about continuing our adventure and reminded me why we do this. It’s great to know those friends will always be there, but in the mean time I’m looking forward to making some new ones.

Thanks to everyone who made it such a memorable week… and we’ll see you all in six months!

Read the original article here: Friendships and long-term travel

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1. The Long Term Travel Gear List
2. A long term travelers guide: 10 things I learned in 2008
3. Week 36 & 37: The downside of travel

West Bay is the nicest sandy beach on the western side of Roatan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island, it’s frequented by up to 4 boats of cruise ship passengers for 4 days of the week, priced to match, and blissfully quiet for the other 3. There’s a few bars and restaurants on the beach but after sundown things tend to get quiet. There’s a hand full of dive shops, a number of nice resorts, and a great little deli for sandwiches and imported foodstuffs. We like to head down here on our days off to hang out in the sun and go swimming/snorkeling in the clear waters.

The West End stretches from Half Moon Bay to West Bay. It’s at the budget end of the spectrum with smaller slivers of sandy beach, but there are upper scale options to be found. We decided that the West End had the most established dive shops, 4-5 good bars, 10-15 restaurants, a few small grocery stores, and it’s where we found the social scene to be just our style. Laid back in the day, a couple good dives, then off to the bar for a burger or a balleada (a tortilla with beans and usually chicken) and a couple beers with your fellow divers. Perhaps followed by a crazy night out at one of the bars down the beach. Pretty much everything is in walking distance aside from the major grocery stores located in Coxen hole and French Harbour, which is a $10 half hour cab ride north, though there are a few smaller grocery stores and convenience stores in the West End. Also of note are the fresh fruit and vegetable trucks that park along the street each afternoon, selling most of your standard veg.

It’s approximately a 45 minute walk from the West End to West Bay. Take sunscreen, water, and be prepared to get your feet wet, but it’s a nice walk past beachfront houses and some of the resorts off the beaten path. Water taxi boats also run from sunrise to sundown for $3/person. And a regular taxi will cost you $5-10 for the trip. Remember to clarify with the driver the cost per person upfront. A little too often we’ve ended up at our location to find the driver expects the negotiated cost for each of us.

Sandy Bay is north of the West End and has the longest stretch of beach of the three. Home to some of the nicer restaurants and many gated vacation home communities and condos it’s more remote and at the uppper end of the scale.

As far as costs go, there’s a pretty wide spectrum of both price and the amount of comfort you’ll have for what you pay. From $300 a month for a small room with a fan, to 1 bedrooms with air conditioning and a kitchen for $700-$1200 a month, and multi-room cabanas and vacation rentals with private pools for $100-$200 per night and up. Being semi long term oriented and needing comfort and connectivity, we opted for a 1 bedroom with a kitchen and A/C for 3 months at the northern end of the West End.

Eating out at restaurants can be a costly expense on the island. You can find small local run restaurants with cheap local fare, but many of the larger restaurants along the beach charge upwards of $10-15 for an excessively huge plate of pasta, or $12 for tacos or burritos, the quality of which doesn’t compare to the local Mom ‘n Pop shops. There are a number of lower cost options to be had though as some restaurants cater to the dive shop staff’s $5 meal philosophy. We’ve also attended a number of communal cooking nights at some of the shop staff’s houses and at a bar that likes to host the events. Everyone pitches in $5 and a helping hand to make a giant pot of chili, burritos, carbonera, or whatever the meal might be. It provides a good social event where everyone can get together with good food and friends, have a few drinks, and a lot of laughs.

Shortly after getting settled, we wandered down to the dive shop. Kelly had been emailing back and forth with Will from Coconut Tree Divers before we’d arrived and he and the other staff at Coconut Tree have gone out of their way to make sure we’re comfortable, happy, well oriented, and very well entertained. We’ve tried to get in at least 2-3 dives a week and have managed to visit many of the sites along the west wall. The diving itself isn’t phenomenal compared to our last year in Southeast Asia, but after the lack of diving in Costa Rica, we’re making the most of it. Hilights so far have been coming across 3 sleeping nurse sharks, huge lobsters and crabs, diving the El Aguila wreck with it’s massive groupers, some interesting swim throughs, a huge seahorse, and turtle and eagle ray sightings. All in all, there’s no such thing as a bad dive in my books, but we’ve missed the deluge of macro life from last year. And yes, I know I’m spoiled rotten.

Kelly and I also recently had the opportunity to try out some alternative dive gear since Coconut Tree has tec diving courses and a lot of people dive with a harness/back plate/wing setup instead of a standard BCD. We were warned that if we tried the setup once, we’d end up buying one… and sure enough. After a handful of dives, the order has been placed. The streamline feel of a harness and wing underwater compared to a bulky BCD, plus the even weight distribution with the back plate quickly drew us in. It’s very compact and will travel well, not to mention that we’ve been unable to find reasonable camera and computer insurance for Canadians as of yet. Buying full dive gear will enable us to insure everything through DAN (Divers Alert Network). So it’s a big win all around and we get new toys.

Aside from life underwater, we’ve been working lots as usual. We went to a play in Coxen Hole, saw a crazy one man band live show, and have celebrated a few new friend’s birthdays, including the dive shops 8th birthday. We’ve spent days relaxing on the beach, and many are concluded by watching the sunset at Sundowners which is our new local. Really, we’ve found a nice work/life balance here with a great social scene and I’m somewhat loathe to move on to the next destination. I think they told me about Roatan’s magnetic properties too. :)

Read the original article here: It’s a scuba diver’s scene in Roatan, Honduras

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1. Scuba Diving in Roatan, Honduras
2. From Tamarindo, Costa Rica to Roatan, Honduras
3. From Roatan, Honduras to Placencia, Belize

Lately, aside from taking 3 weeks off in December for Xmas holidays, we’ve been keeping our noses buried in our computers 6 days a week and sticking to our new exercise schedule of an hour each day. Saturdays are a designated day off now. We were having problems coordinating downtime between the two of us before the holidays and decided we needed to have a day each week where we wouldn’t think about work or working out and could just head to the beach, or out for brunch together.

Kelly has also been busily posting great crafty content on her craft blog – Talk Crafty To Me – ‘Dedicated to all things handmade’.

I hope you’re all keeping busy back home. We’re wishing some sunshine your way!

Want to know what we’ve been working on? Check out our online portfolios:
Kelly – FightLikeAGirl.net
Mike – ASFlasher.com

Read the original article here: Nomadic Professionals – Interviewed by The Professional Hobo

Related posts:

1. Interviewed by JetSetCitizen.com
2. Our Nomadic Life — 2009 in Review
3. Random Factoid: Pura Vida

Below are just a few of those memories, as we look back and reminisce over an amazing 2009.

We rang in the New Year with some friends at a beach resort in the Philippines. We had some great dives in January, made some new friends, rented a motorbike, and celebrated my 30th birthday.

February continued in the Philippines, where we saw some of the worst rain and flooding in 30 years. We spent much of the month partying with friends, both new and old, before saying goodbye and heading to Kuala Lumpur for the next phase of our trip.

March 1st we arrived in Phuket, Thailand, where we spent 2 weeks enjoying the food, the beach and the water. We took a cooking class, went diving and did lots of relaxing. We then headed over to Koh Samui, where Mike’s computer broke, and as a result we ended up staying a bit longer than expected.

April was a month of diving. We headed to Koh Tao, which brought back loads of memories from my first trip there. We rented an apartment for a month, caught up with a few friends from the Philippines, and of course the highlight of the month was definitely seeing a whale shark.

In May, we rounded out our time in Thailand, with a couple more weeks in Koh Samui. We saw a Muai Thai match, did a bit of sight seeing, and woke up to our bungalow being torn down around us. We hit a bit of a low point this month and were looking forward to a change of scenery in Bali, (after a quick stop in Bangkok). Our arrival in Bali was marked by a beautiful hotel with a swim up bar!

June continued in Bali, where we ran into Aimee, a friend from Vancouver. I took a jewelry class in Ubud, and we went for a dive with Manta Rays. Mike’s computer broke again, just before we were due to head to Penang, so we changed our flights and made a quick stop in KL first. In Penang we ate! We visited the butterfly garden, hit the beach, and ate some more.

July was another month of diving and one of my favourite months of the year. After a month in Penang with no diving we were itching to get back in the water. We headed to the Perhentian Islands first, where we did 3 days of diving. Nothing that blew us away, but it was a good warm up for what was to come next. Sipadan! We spent 5 days in Mabul, and got to dive the amazing island of Sipadan twice. If you haven’t seen our dive video definitely check it out.

August was another great month. We spent the first couple weeks in Kota Kinabalu and did an amazing motorbike trip (definitely Mike’s highlight of the year). I visited the Orang-utan sanctuary at Rasa Ria, and we ate Dim Sum in Hong Kong. August also rounded out our year in Asia. We headed back to Canada for a quick visit with family and friends, and I finally got to meet my new nephew.

The first few weeks of September were spent catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in a year. It was great to see everyone, but we were excited to get back on the road. We flew from Vancouver to Costa Rica with a plan to stay for 6 months.

October was a really low key month. With all the traveling, and moving around of the previous few months, it was great to settle down and just chill. We found a fantastic apartment and became hermits for the month, with the occasional trip to the beach, of course.

Lauren came to visit us in November and made us feel like tourists again. We did a canopy tour in Arenal, held snakes in Monteverde, and drank copious amounts of booze on a catamaran in Tamarindo. And, like good little Canadians, we watched the Grey Cup game at Sharky’s Bar.

And last but not least… December. After 3 months in Costa Rica, it was time to renew our visas so we did a quick run to Nicaragua. We spent a few days exploring Granada, and enjoying the rum, before heading back to Tamarindo. We took some time off to enjoy the holidays, Mike took a surf lesson, we went on an ATV tour and of course made the most of living so close to the beach.

All-in-all it’s been an amazing year, and I can’t believe it’s the end of a decade! I hope your 2009 was as memorable as ours, and that your 2010 is even better!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo Amigos!

Read the original article here: Our Nomadic Life — 2009 in Review

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1. Week 18: Hello 2009!
2. The result of a quarter-life crisis
3. Malaysia and Canada travel budgets

Merry Christmas from Costa Rica!

Read the original article here: Feliz Navidad!

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My social life was changing. Many of my friends were settling into serious career commitments, getting married, and starting families. A shoulder injury had sidelined me from most active sports and I was spending more and more of my evenings and weekends in-front of the tv instead of on a field or in a gymnasium.

Kelly and I were pretty much living together, though we both still had our own places. It was getting to the point where buying a house together and committing myself to one city was becoming an inevitability. It was the next logical step in the 1-2-3 guide to normal life.

The problem was that normal life wasn’t making me happy. It wasn’t just the job, or the changing social landscape, or the commitment to one place. It was all of it combined and I didn’t want to tweak it a little bit, or try to adjust an element or two. I felt a compelling need to change it all at once and try something completely different.

Thankfully, Kelly understood my impulsiveness and was in a somewhat similar situation. What followed was months of talking, research, preparation, doubt, and anxiety. But we did it with smiles on our faces.

In the end, I think I sabotaged it all for the best. I may own next to nothing and I may not call any one place home, but I’m making enough money and work on what I want to, when I want to. I’m closer with many of my friends and family than ever before. And I’m committed. Not to a place, but to a lifestyle that brings me great happiness.

I can’t wait for my mid-life crisis.

Read the original article here: The result of a quarter-life crisis

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1. Friendships and long-term travel
2. Our Nomadic Life — 2009 in Review
3. Making the Decision

So a while back, John from JetSetCitizen.com asked us if we’d like to do an interview with him about our nomadic travel lifestyle. We took him up on it and the resulting interview was just posted.

Have a look here: Interview with Nomadic Couple, Kelly Hale and Mike Schimanowsky

Thanks John! It really made us think about our lifestyle, traveling as a couple and how that impacts our journey and relationship.

Read the original article here: Interviewed by JetSetCitizen.com

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1. Nomadic Professionals – Interviewed by The Professional Hobo

So what does a nerd do offline in a tropical country? He stays hydrated…

Tiger Beer
My personal favourite. Malty and a touch sweet. Originating from Malaysia, but also brewed in Thailand. More than 3 of these could be considered a meal.

Mekhong Whiskey
I actually had to go online and look at pictures of whiskey on Google to find out what this is. There’s not a word of English on the bottle. Thai whiskey is potent, guaranteed to give you a wicked hangover, and has been rumoured to have some slight hallucinogenic properties. All I know is you put it in a bucket with Coke and Red Bull. Yum.

Phuket Beer
Brewed by the Phuket Brewery, this light lager is… light. Almost flavourless in fact.

Singha Beer
The staple of Thailand. Available everywhere. Light and refreshing, it goes with everything. Like breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Leo Beer
A close runner up to Singha. Also very light and enjoyable. Probably the cheapest, good beer available almost everywhere.

SiamSato Cider
What we thought was a beer, but turned out to be a cloyingly sweet cider. Lesson learned, if it doesn’t say ‘beer’ on the bottle, don’t assume it is one. We ended up pouring this one out.

Archa Beer
Also a good light beer. We haven’t seen this one again since Phuket.

Mai Tai Guy
This little pineapple headed fellow let us drink his fruity brains. Yum. I’m a tropical zombie.

Chang Beer
The other staple beer of Thailand. Stronger than Singha, this is the backpacker’s beer of choice. You buy less liquor but it gets you drunk quicker. Famous for the ‘Changover’ the next day, it was once rumoured to have formalin added to it as a preservative.

Cheers Beer
Norm would be all over this. It’s light and good like so many of the other Thai beers. Really, in a blind taste test I would be hard pressed to tell one beer from another.

We’ve done a bit more than just drinking for the last 3 weeks. It’s currently Songkran, the Thai New Years where a ‘cleansing’ takes place in the form of a country wide water fight. It’s a little more chill here on Koh Tao than when I experienced it 6 years ago on Koh Samui. There I was barely able to get a block out of the house before being soaked from head to toe and surrounded by crowds of belligerently amusing Aussies. Here on Koh Tao, it’s a sleepy little dive town where the festivities don’t really get started till later in the evenings.

We’ve had some really good meals. La Matta is a great little Italian place on the main strip of Mae Haad that serves wood fired oven pizzas and hand made pasta. Local Thai food is spicy, cheap, and everywhere. I had 3 dinners the other night. Seafood beach BBQ is everywhere and very fresh. We’ve become late night regulars at the local pancake stands where they’ll whip you up a chocolate nutella pancake with condensed milk in 30 seconds. Needless to say, I’m packing on the pounds.

There’s been some rioting in Bangkok lately, but looks to have been resolved without closing the airport. There were a few deaths and a multitude of injuries when protesters and the military clashed once again. The issue is the same as when the country closed the airport last December, 2 political factions are fighting for control and one is trying to oust the current PM. Thankfully, we’ve been pretty much unaffected out here on the islands.

The fact that we only have about 3 more months before we head home has started to settle in. We’ve vowed to cut back our baggage size to something a little more manageable and do more traveling in the coming few months, rather than settling into an apartment. I’m stoked about doing a motorcycle tour of Borneo and both Kelly and I are contemplating Bali or eastern Malaysia for some more diving.

We’re looking forward to coming home for a visit. We’ll be spending a week or two in Vancouver, then heading to the Island, Kelowna, etc… to see family. Funnily enough, the most expensive part of our whole trip could be the time we spend in Vancouver. Anyone have a good hookup for hotel deals near the downtown core? Following that, we’re thinking that we’ll be moving on to Central America for a while. Pending economical conditions and homesickness of course. We’re looking forward to seeing you all.

Read the original article here: Back Online and a Buck a Beer

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3. Week 21: Making Plans

It’s been an amazing six months. There have been some ups and some downs, and it hasn’t always been exactly what we hoped it would be, but I wouldn’t trade it for a minute. Mike and I are both very excited about the next phase, and are looking forward to arriving in Thailand after a brief week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before we do, we wanted to give you a little recap of our time in the Philippines.

Top 5 things we’ve done in the Philippines:

5. Renting a motorbike and exploring the island of Siquijor
4. Chilling out with a couple of sundowners on the beautiful White Beach in Boracay.
3. Drinking with the dive boys in a road side shack and experiencing ‘tuba’ (palm wine) for the first time.
2. Mike learning to dive, and getting to share the amazing underwater scenery of Apo Island.
1. Getting up close with the cute little creature known as the tarsier.

5 “Pro’s” to living in the Philippines:

5. The Diving - Diving in the Philippines is known to be some of the best in the world, and we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy it for 6 whole months.

4. Smiley, happy, English speaking people - Unless you’re traveling to remote locations in the Philippines you’ll have no trouble finding someone who speaks English and as a culture, Filipinos are upbeat, cheerful and friendly. They will go out of their way to make you happy, they will invite you into their homes, feed you, and overwhelm you with hospitality.

3. Cheap Rum & Beer - For about $6.50 CAD you can get a really good bottle of rum. For about $3.50 you can get a not too bad bottle of rum… and for about $1.15 you can get a pretty crap bottle… As for beer .70 cents will get you a nice cold frosty one.

2. Easy Tourist Visas - One of the main reasons we chose the Philippines to begin with was their easy Tourist Visa. On arrival you are given 21 days which you can easily extend to 59 at any immigration office (or like us you can apply for 59 days before you even get there). Then every 59 days you simply head to an immigration office, pay a fee and they’ll stamp you for another 59 days (up to a max of 2 years). Unlike many other South East Asian countries, you can do this all without having to leave the country. Although the fees do start to add up, it’s still cheaper than traveling to a neighboring country every couple of months.

1. Our beach house - Although our place wasn’t the norm, and it did take us quite a while to find, we loved it, and will probably have a hard time finding something comparable in other Asian countries. Especially on the beach. There are not a ton of rental options in the Philippines, but they do exist if you ask around.

5 “Con’s” to living in the Philippines:

5. Difference between social classes - No matter how long you stay there, or how little money you make, rural locals assumed that because we were white we were rich. This made it really hard to actually get to know them and form solid friendships. Money was always the elephant in the corner.

4. Lack of infrastructure - Once you get outside of the few major cities things become quite rural. Internet connections get slower and ATMs become few and far between. For people on a short vacation these things aren’t such a big deal, but when trying to spend an extended period of time in one country these things can be a problem, and definitely limited where we were able to travel/live.

3. Transportation - Although getting around in the Philippines isn’t hard, it can take a while, and compared to other South East Asian Countries it can be quite expensive. Domestic flights can be found to most major destinations, however expect to spend a couple hundred dollars. If you prefer to travel like the locals, things are definitely cheaper, but be prepared to spend a lot of time waiting. Also finding out schedules and time tables can be challenging, as there are few online resources, and often schedules published in newspapers are wrong. Be sure to ask someone, in fact ask several people, as most Filipinos would rather tell you the wrong time, then admit they don’t know the answer.

2. Lack of English speaking people our age - During our six months here we met a handful of really great people, but it was definitely a struggle. The majority of foreigners we met in the Philippines tended to be in their late 50s and either German or Swiss. They were usually married, or dating REALLY young Filipinas, and while we know this isn’t specific to the Philippines, it definitely stands out because they are pretty much the only foreigners we saw. (With the exception of Boracay)

1. The food - Sure we had a few really good meals, but as a whole, the food of the Philippines, was a pretty big let down. Most of it was quite bland, and there was definitely a lack of variety and ingredients. No fresh herbs or spices and lots of canned ingredients and packaged seasoning mixes. We had high hopes for fresh sea food given that the country is made up of more than 7000 islands, however we soon found out that pretty much everything is sent to Manila for export, and whatever is leftover is then packaged, frozen and sent back.

What it cost us to live for 6 months in the Philippines:

*Disclaimer - These numbers are on the conservative side, as we haven’t accounted for every single expenditure. We’ve bought a few pieces of dive gear, had a couple of big party nights, and have most definitely missed a few things along the way. However they are a pretty good average of 6 months of living in the Visayas region of the Philippines.

Also please remember what works for us, might not work for you. Mike and I are not budget travelers. We are not 21 years old, backpacking through Asia, staying in $2/night hostels, eating as cheap as we can. We are 30 year old professionals, freelancing for clients back home in Canada, and taking advantage of the cheaper cost of living in South East Asia. Internet is a necessity for us, and as such we’ve chosen to make a few sacrifices in what we would normally look for in a vacation destination in order to live this lifestyle.

All in all it’s been an amazing six months, and I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by. We have so many great memories and have met some fantastic people, some of whom we hope to run into again along the way. The Philippines has definitely treated us well, although ultimately we decided it wasn’t quite right for us. So, we’re continuing the search for our own perfect piece of paradise, but with so many places to explore it might take us a little while to find.

So… for now… goodbye Philippines!

_{(picture number 4 in the “con’s” section was not taken by me, it is from ‘teepeedub’ on flickr)}

Read the original article here: Philippines Recap

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1. Philippines, Thailand, and Bali travel budgets
2. Philippines Christmas Recap
3. A post for the ladies: Tampons in the Philippines

Happy New Year everyone! All the best in 2009 wherever your travels may take you.

Read the original article here: A long term travelers guide: 10 things I learned in 2008

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1. A Guide to living short-term in the Philipines
2. Friendships and long-term travel