A question I get all the time....

How do you get money to go travel?
It's a classic question that can have many answers....

     But I am going to give you all that I know which is my way of doing it. So first things first, flights to where ever your trying to go. The plane flight can be the most expensive part of the whole trip since anywhere from America to Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, or South America is over $1000 usually. The way I get around this is

Nadi, Fiji International Airport

1) I try to travel to most destinations on the off/early/late season of that destination. This both gets you cheaper prices on flights and lot less crowded at the desired destination!
2) Book a round trip flight if you have a decent idea of when you are returning from this adventure your planning. And I have always seen that having a ticket booked home but then wanting to extend the trip and change the ticket is usually not very expensive if not free sometimes. But if you book a one way then end up spending a fortune on another one way home it will still probably cost more than the initial round trip ticket plus changing date price.
3) Maybe obvious but still pointing it out anyway, leaving on any weekday is most of the time cheaper than a weekend.
4) This is another kinda obvious one but most of the time the flights leaving at midnight with 2 layovers are cheaper than leaving at 4pm and 1 layover. So if your okay with a little extra travel time to save $150 then its worth it.
5) Last one,  Monday through Wednesday's are usually the best time to buy tickets. I always use Kayak to look into my flights because you can search +/- 3 days before and after a selected date.

Now how I make money for my trips!

     Obviously you need a job for that, but for me at least that is far from the only thing I do to get money for a trip. Now maybe not all of the activities I will list might be for you but I'm sure some of them will help or get you thinking.

1) Selling random items around the house you don't use or need anymore. This goes for anything from clothes, furniture, bikes, tools, every house has many things that are sitting around gathering dust and space. Make a deal with the family that you can help them clean out the attic this weekend or on your day off and have a garage sale the upcoming weekend. 
2) Similar to number 1, reach out to other family or friends and see if they have anything to get rid of. The grandparents are always a great go to, now that there older there's all kinds of things lying around that they don't have to time to get rid of or know how to post on Craigslist or eBay!

New South Wales, Australia

3) Recycling, no joke its an easy one. Go to all your neighbors and say hey instead of throwing all those cans and bottles in the recycle can take them to the recycling center. A few trash cans can easily be $20, once or twice a week can get you few hundred bucks for just a quick drive!
4) I have been driving Lyft/Uber a bit when I get home also! It great to make a few extra bucks at night or on the weekends, easy extra $200+ a week.
5) Just hustle because believe me it pays off, when your in a beautiful place and you think wow I wish I would have worked harder to stay here longer don't regret it. Ask family or friends if they need help with an airport drop off or moving into a new home/apt.

Even more important than making money is SAVING IT!
     So as I already explained how I make the extra cash to go travel above, the real part is saving the money. Because what good is making money but then spending it again on dumb shit, aka Las Vegas, Bars, Dumb online purchases, your car, things that you will never see that money again. So when saving for a trip I stop all that nonsense and just work work save save work work for a month or 2 and then bam I'm ready to go!

1)  Live with the family, its usually free or cheap. Either way you get free meals, clean clothes, a for sure way to save money. 
2)  Coins, yes it might not sound like a crazy investment but all that change you get from the drive thru's and liquor stores adds up. I get around $20 a month from just throwing all my coins in a jar. Eventually that could be a few days of meals in most of Asia!
3)  Also as I said above recycling, keep all your cans and bottles at the end of the month or before your about to leave on your trip cash em in!
4) Here's a good one that I really really recommend, getting a scooter. Save gas money, insurance, and repairs by cruising a motorcycle. I personally have a Vespa and its one of the best purchases/investments ever!
5) Try not to leave with all of these open ends like credit cards payments, loans, car insurance, etc. That just takes away right into your pocket/living money while your gone!
5) And all around just cut yourself off, eating out 5 meals a week, only go out 1 or 2 times. Instead of hitting the bars and spending $100 bucks a night just grab happy hour or get a 12 pack and a bbq. It is definitely hard but it all pays off when your exploring Indonesia for a month when your mate just spent the same amount of money for 3 days in Vegas....

Sailing in the Bass Strait

     Well there is all the info I feel like will help you get towards your goal of getting out and seeing the world while exploring somewhere you have never been! In the next few blog posts I am going to touch on Packing for a big trip, ways to make traveling to specific places even cheaper than it already can be, and more!

"Don't just be alive, be living...."
 
 
 

Travel Snow Live, yes somewhere cold in the next few weeks!

Hello family, friends, and followers,
     Sorry my last blog post from 100 days of Indo left off a little over halfway through the trip. After my last blog post friend's and I had traveled across a few different islands and surfed some more amazing waves I have dreamed of! Due to lack of internet and just always moving around to new locations the last bit of the trip never made it on here. I will for sure have a right up about it hopefully sometime next month, but I want to tell you about my next little adventure first!

The Road Trip vehicular herself!

     This time it's a flat out road trip with my two best friends, Justin and Bryce (who I had gone to Australia with). Justin I have known for over 7 years and is always down for an adventure whether it be diving spearfishing or a road trip for 17 days haha. He's a great friend that is definitely knowledgeable with mechanics, camping, and just shear common sense which makes up a lot of decisions on the road. Bryce which I have already explained in my blog about our adventures of Australia is my best friend I have known for literally 95% of my life. We get along great in any situation and can always agree/compromise with any decision or topic.

One of the few maps we have been adding our stops to!

     So for the next adventure as I have explained we will be hitting the road for a loop around the Northwest United States and Canada. Since either of us have yet to see 80% of the places were going it sounds like a perfect route. Yes it is winter so were packing Snowboards, sleds, camping gear, fishing, and some other fun stuff to keep us entertained. The time span should be around 17 days making our way around a near 5000 mile loop through around 8 states and 1/3 of Canada! We are taking Justin's suburban with a rack with boxes mounted to keep more gear like camping gear and snowboards.
     Since I have never done a trip like this being in snow/cold weather for 17 days straight I packed a decent amount of warm weather clothes and long johns to keep warm in any condition. It's going to be quite an adventure in new scenery than my last few few in the warm weather and beaches but I am just as excited to explore a lot more of my own country!

Packed and ready to board!

Our route will take us up interstate 5 all the way to Canada basically. Our first few stops will be with friend's along the way in San Francisco, Chico, and Portland. We are also trying to camp somewhere in Oregon probably at Crater Lake which we have both seen some pretty sweet pictures of before and sparked the interest to go there. Outside of Portland, Oregon is our first mountain we will snowboard called Mt. Hood, very well known. After that the plan is to cruise through Washington maybe camp again before Seattle, then cross the border into Vancouver. Now in Canada we will cruise around Vancouver and board Whistler a few hours away before heading east towards the next mountains near Revelstoke! Hanging around there for a day or two then on our way to Banff which is the biggest stop in our trip where we will stay for 3 or 4 days to board a few mountains nearby and pick up our good mate from Australia Dillon. He will cruise with us for a week as we make our way back South into Wyoming, Montana, and then chilling in Colorado for a day or two.
     Colorado will probably be our last place were going to snowboard before we take the 2-3 day drive back home to Orange County where normal life will go on again. So that is a quick idea of our plan and thought of the trip but I will update a few times on the journey so stay tuned!

Week 6 // Part 2 // Indo Coffee, Coconuts, and Instant Noodles

The palm tree window.....

     There is nothing like falling asleep to rain pounding on the roof and a cool breeze wafting in
through the window making it’s way into your mosquito net. Then knowing your waking up the next day to a picturesque beach on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. As my mind starts to slowly awaken from my 5th REM cycle and my hearing goes from peace fading into the sound of crashing waves in the distance. Once my eyes fade from black to the vision of our wall full of palm fawn’s swaying with the light morning wind. If only this could be the way I woke up from a night’s sleep every morning, then everyday would be bliss. But for now this is life in Indonesia and has been for the last 42 days.

     The following days were filled with lots of surfing just out front, where we could view the wave right through the arch of palm trees out front. Waking up around 7:00am each morning, wandering onto the patio for a quick 5-minute surf check usually followed by a trip down stairs to get the thermos of hot water for our packet IndoCafe Cappuccino coffee we had all got addicted to. Once I had prepared my packet of coffee the guessing begins, since this spot impeticular was frequented by boat charter surf trips. We would all guess how many boats were moored in the channel hiding behind the palms trees to our left. Chest high waves, a lil bump on the ocean’s surface, 15 guys out, must be at least two boats on there first day of the trip and maybe a few guys from the land camp down the beach.

     By the time 8:00am comes around I’m getting restless after finishing my coffee, and sweeping the table and floor. Yes I am on a 3-month surf trip to surf and relax, but as most of my friend’s and family know, I don’t really lounge around. I am always tinkering with something or on the move to somewhere to do something active. So nothing has change even on the other side of the world, so I grab my board; scrap a lil wax on it, apply some sunscreen, and head out in the board shorts I had already woken up in. Walking down the stairs into the ground level of the losmen (local term for homestay) were staying in I make eye contact with one of the elders this morning being the grandma and exchange a sincere smile before walking out the door.

     Between the 200 feet of sand leaving the losmen ending at the beach, my ears are full of sounds; palms brushing against each other, every insect and birds chirp, and of course the waves breaking and rumbling across the reef. Upon reaching the sand and getting the full view of the bay, the peeling wave, and channel where I can confirm there are actually 3 boats. Submerging myself into the water for the first time today you can hardly feel any change since the water here is a warm 81-83°F. The
next few minute paddle to the lineup starts to loosen up the muscles, while I observe how the ocean is moving, and scope out a position to get some of the better waves. The lineup here is like most others with the beginner/intermediate surfers sitting inside and the more experienced surfers looking for better, longer, and bigger waves farther out! But luckily at this break since there are always new boats coming everyday anchoring up for only a 3 or 4-hour session, the people staying on land get priority and position on the better waves.

     The first few days of surf were epic, being head high to overhead and quite a few make able barrels coming through. Between dodging some people sitting or paddling in the wrong places we all had a few great waves. Travis on the other hand took the first 4 days off and shot some photos and video since he was still recovering from some pretty bad cuts that got infected again. It worked out for all of us since there were some good waves, since our two friends Alex and Jay had got caught up in Bali figuring out there Visa extension. Most evenings started at 6pm everyone usually out the water from the evening surf and watching the last few guys get some waves before you could only hear the ocean but not see it through the palm tree window. We all usually grab a beer and wait for dinner which is promptly served at 7pm, dinner consists of a bowl of rice big enough for a football team, a few bowls of veggies with a delicious broth, and hopefully a piece of chicken or fish! Everyone gathers around the table like a family and chows down hardly saying a word, after dinner the cards come out and we play games for hours. With the card games comes great laughs about the day, talks with Ben from Australia and advice on spots he has been and surfed in the area, which is always good knowledge to know from a first person perspective.

     Lunch was a mystery everyday, if Ibu (mom in Indonesian) was home then we had the choice of fried rice or fried noodle. If Ibu was not home then we were basically shit out of luck, so we had to resort to our bag of snacks and instant noodles. All of us had spent $20 or so on a huge bag full of our favorite goodies, I picked up 10 instant noodles, 3 lbs of peanuts, chips, Oreos, bread, peanut butter, and jelly. The other land camps on the beach were not much better except one 100 meters down or so that our friend Todd was staying at. They had a pretty decent menu he had told us multiple times out in the water, after drooling over him talking about the burger and fries he had I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Only eating rice and noodles for 5 days at this point I had to go check it out, but upon arriving and trying to order food they said no, guests only here. We were all disappointed but what can you do but go back and have another PBJ and instant noodle soup before heading out for the second surf of the day.

     At this point we had been on the island for 5 days with no internet, so we were wondering where or if our friend’s Alex and Jay would even show up? They were supposed to arrive Wednesday evening if all had gone to plan with flights, ferries, etc. The waves were a bit smaller today so Jeremy,

Wrangling some coconuts!

Travis, and I decided to go for a walk down the beach we told David and other new Aussie friend Ben that we’ll be back in an hour or so. After getting around the first point and seeing a few other in sight we just wanted to keep going and explore around the next bay and the next bay! All we had were our two GoPros, a hat, and sunglasses, no water haha. Obviously after 30 minutes or so in the sun, walking on the hot sand paralleling the thousands of scenic coconut trees lining the beach, we were thirsty. We tried our hand at wrangling ourselves a coconut from the treetops, our first goal, get up the tree trunk!

     Most of the tree trunks had these little steps cut into them at a 45° angle every 2 ft or so, we could now get pretty far up the tree. But once at the top of the steps the inch or so groove that our feet were in would get uncomfortable and the coconuts were just at our finger tips, with nothing to cut them off with other than hitting them with a stick of bamboo found nearby. After getting nowhere the 3 of us resorted to throwing rocks and pieces of coral at the low hanging coconuts to our surprise we got a pretty decent sized one down. Now step two opening the damn coconut with anything we could find, I initiated the attempt with a solid coral head that I pounded into the soft part of the coconut head. After a few minutes I was getting somewhere but was also exhausting, took myself about 20 minutes to finally crack it open. The first sip was actually delicious even though there was a good amount of sand mixed in, we didn’t care much, after finishing the coconut the wandering continued down the beach. Finally returning back to the losmen with a few coconuts to properly chop open with a machete 3 hours later…..

Week 5 // Part 1 // The journey to the perfect right....

     First off sorry everybody for not keeping this blog as up to date as promised, sometimes it is very hard to sit down and concentrate for hours on typing up an interesting post. I do post as regular as possible on my instagram ( @travelsurflive ) and on facebook ( www.facebook.com/travelsurflive ). I like to keep all my blog post full of story and adventure, I have a few backed up half written posts still saved to be published later on. But this part of my trip was way to cool to wait and post so I want to tell you now!

Airport, Bali, Indonesia prior to departure.

     The journey to the Mentawi islands and this specific island in general is quite a bit of planning involved, my mate David has done it twice so he had a good idea on what we need to do. None the less last time he traveled there was 2 years ago and everything in this country changes everyday without notice or updates to websites! The whole journey would take an estimated 30 hours of traveling going something like this taxi, plane, plane, taxi, ferry, taxi, boat...... After we all sat down and went over prices for a few hours couple days in a row, the decision was made and we headed to the airport to book flights leaving on Thursday morning in two days. After getting all our gear packed and inside and on top a van heading to the airport for the 7 am flight to Jakarta (Java), which was of course delayed an hour. Arriving from Jakarta to the city of Padang (Sumatra) at 2 in the afternoon we waited for our bags to come out the baggage claim door. Once realizing we were the last ones standing there and no more bags on there way out we instantly had all sorts of thoughts and emotions. A friendly local Indonesian in the same situation told us to come with him to the counter and told us this happened to him before, after some translating we found out the bags will be on the next flight arriving from Jakarta in 4 hours.

Approaching the beach after a 2 hour boat ride.

     We had heard form some other traveling surfers that the ferry we were trying to get onto is being fixed and is not working anyways so we wrote off that were not getting onto that later in the evening. So wait we did for 4 hours and sure as shit our bags had finally arrived we got outta that airport as fast as possible right as the rain had started.... Getting to a hostel near the port the ticket office for the boat was closing in 10 minutes, we threw the bags off the car while David and myself hurried to the ticket office 1 minute away. Upon arriving they told us the boat the next morning (Friday) was now full, just like most third world countries pulling out a stack of cash will change there minds pretty quick. Walking out of there with 4 tickets for the 7am boat the next morning, finishing off the night with a few beers, and some locals lounging out front the hostel talking about the season and the people they have come to meet.

Heading to the village to find some necessities.

     Walking through the humid morning down the street with 70lbs of board bags and backpacks sweating in places you didn't know you had is a wonderful start the 2nd day of travel. Getting onto the ferry finding out the last minute tickets we got were basically standing room only, but screw it we were almost there, or so we thought. We didn't mind much until 30 minutes into a 3 hour boat ride were surrounded by 30 people chain smoking/ throwing up from being sea sick. I think we all agreed that was one of the worst parts of our trip by far! Finally landed on the island of Sipora, all the bags off the boat and put off to the side we had another surfer join us trying to get tot he same place we were, a guy from California named Todd. After trying to haggle with a few people trying to get a ride to our destination on the other side of the island we decided to find a spot for the night to get a shower, some food, and relax after two full days of travel.
     Having a walk around the small town of Tuapajet there is not much going on other than what is the necessities in life. You won't find WiFi, a nice restaurant, warm shower, maybe just a little TV if you really search for it. After a bit to eat the hammock I had purchased the day before we left sounded awfully nice to sprawl out in, play some cards and wait for dinner. Dinner was a fish curry, everyone knows I'm not the biggest fan of fish but when you know that meat is a rarity on this island you eat all of it you can. a good nights sleep and we were off on a boat to the south tip of the island where our destination was. I would more so call the boat a canoe hollowed out from a large tree, with a make shift roof, and two 25hp engines on the back. Surprisingly we fit all 5 board bags and gear in the boat without it tipping over, and to our surprise it actually made it's way through the water decently fast. After two hours of mild choppy conditions, water squirting through multiple holes whenever the boat smashed a good size wave, we cruised right up onto a perfect white sand beach in paradise.

     Now the two weeks on an island in the middle of the Indian ocean begins. The place we are staying is located right in front of the wave, it is a families house that they have added some extra rooms to. The family is much older now but still very nice, helpful, and still cooking and cleaning everything for the guests. The price was 60K (5 USD) a night including dinner, over looking a white sand beach, with a view of a perfect right through the over hanging palm trees. The four of us took over 2 rooms upstairs with a nice big room to keep our boards bags in and a large patio with dinning table to converse. There were two other people staying as we arrived, one being Francisco from Spain and the other Ben from Australia. Both super easy going guys, Francisco did a lot of spearfishing, basically all day everyday unless he was fixing his spear gun or the waves were to big. Ben on the other hand loved to lounge in his hammock and read whenever he wasn't getting ridiculously barreled sitting way out the back ever session getting some of deepest barrels I've seen in person!

     A few hours after arriving, settling in, unpacking, and getting a quick mie goreng (fried noodle and vegetables) Jeremy and I headed out for a surf. There was nobody out and we saw a few fun lil waist to chest high fun rippable waves coming through with nobody out. We were careful for the first few waves since it was lowtide and quite shallow on the inside, after about 30 minutes we slowly made our way deeper and farther out to better waves. On my 4th wave, 45 minutes into our first session I took off on the biggest wave we had seen so far only about 5ft and had a late drop, air dropping a few feet before landing and unfortunately sticking the nose and falling over the front of the board. I had penetrated the water luckily and popped out the back unscathed until I pulled my board toward sme and saw there was only half remaining. I quickly yelled out a few curse words as it was a basically brand new board and one of the favorite shaped I've had in a long time, but what can you do.
     It wasn't the best way to start the two weeks here but luckily I have 3 more boards knowing this would happen eventually. I didn't surf the rest of the day but sat behind the camera lense and got some shots of the boys getting some fun ones till the sun went down and the Beer caps started popping of the bottles......

Look out for Part II coming in the next few weeks!

Week 2 // Soccer in Sanur

     Sanur is one of those places to stay on the island that is highly over looked, mostly because it is filled with older people and honeymooners. But none the less there are waves if you know the right spots as well as lots of good places to eat! We arrived in Sanur and got settled into our homestay with 3 different rooms across from each other, and a communal table in the middle it is an awesome setup. There is a Hardy's across the street from our homestay which is like a lil Walmart with anything you can imagine for super cheap inside, except the Goldfish snacks are $6! After loading up on snacks for the week we went for a nice dinner down the street and planned out our week.

     Sanur is close to the now well known wave of Kerama's where they had an ASP World Tour stop last year and now there is a huge resort on the beach. But in the nooks and crannies around the area are still some great waves we got out to surf a few times. We all explored some places Jeremy and myself had been to before and a couple new ones, its just always fun to hop on the scooter with your surfboard and just see where ya end up.
     The homestay were at in Sanur is run by a family like usual, the mother cooks, the father does transport, the aunts and uncles clean and fix stuff, and the son Dadu who we have become good friends with books rooms. Dadu is an awesome guy around our age that loves soccer, we started chatting about it one afternoon and he said he had a game the next day on Sunday! Everybody was getting excited because it was something different, getting into the culture with the locals and we had no idea what to expect. We expected it to be a full on game and maybe we could sub one of the six of us in here and there, but we found out once we got there it was a pick up game.

     We arrived about an hour after they had started playing and finished there first match, all the guys were spread out from 18 years old to 60 years old and pretty good with there quick feet since it was indoor soccer. After passing around a bit the game started all 5 of us playing, one goalie and 4 on the field while Travis sidelined with some reef cuts filmed. It was so much fun, but after about 5 minutes I was more sweaty than any time in my whole life! The humidity was crazy so we were all dripping sweat for the next hour, but had so much fun and made some new friends.
     In the next few days we explored some waves and while we didn't get them perfect we had them fun with only a few guys out! In those few days the group tried to plan the next adventure which we were thinking about Bangko Bangko in Lombok. After talking about it for an afternoon we pulled the trigger, packed up everything we had, payed the bill for our home stay and set the alarm for 5:30am the next morning. Sitting in the van on the way to Padang Bai harbor boarding the boat to Lombok in an hour we were ready for the next adventure.