REALITY vs PERCEPTION - World Travel Don't be Caught Off Guard!

after traveling now for 2 and 1/2 years we had our ideas when we first started of what things were going to be like what we were going to expect and I would have to say our eyes have been open quite a bit yeah we really didn't know anything we had no idea uh so what we thought and what we know now are completely different and that's what we're going to talk about in today's video right kind of just in hopes if you are planning to travel even on a trip or if you're looking to do what we're doing and you're going to be full time traveling there's some of those things out there that you kind of can be overwhelming and can kind of I don't know maybe take some of the fun out of it and by just knowing what you're really going to experience it might help you out yeah it's not as intimidating as you might think so the first thing that we thought is we were going to need to know at least some of the language for everywhere that we traveled yeah we didn't realize that English is widely spoken and you can get by with just speaking English now let me say say this it is always best to know please and thank you whatever country you're in it's just polite you're in their country they're having to learn your language so you should learn maybe a little bit of theirs but please and thinkk it goes a long ways exactly and then also you will always have Google translate with you and Google translate will help you uh if you're having a conversation and you need to even talk into it and you can show it to them uh or you can uh use it in a grocery store and take a picture something and it will translate all the language for you if you're trying to figure out what something is so there are a lot of things that you can use so that was not an issue at all that's a free app too by the way that doesn't cost you anything no it's free now we also thought that we would be using cash everywhere we go that ended up not being the case whatsoever uh with the exception being southeast Asia because everything that you're buying as far as H Street food and everything that's little little carts and so you do need cash there but all the other traveling that we have done credit cards are widely taken every everywhere that we shop um in grocery stores and in any place that we're honestly even getting food and and everything so we really have had to have very little cash on hand uh one of the questions that we get quite often is how do you manage figuring out exchanging money and bringing money and all that just kind of let that go you don't need to worry about it get money out of an ATM you're good to go you won't you don't need to get Travelers checks like my dad used to get when we drive to California you know need to do that anymore Visa card we also thought when we first started off we could cut some corners on accommodations and we would be just fine because we're going to be traveling the world and we won't care where we're staying you're just sleeping there well we quickly found out that that's not the way we want to live um you know we are budget Travelers we're budget friendly we always will be but we quickly found out we need to up our our budget on our accommodations a little bit and we're still trying to get there on how much we really want to spend on an Airbnb or a bookings or whatever we decide to use but yeah um make sure you you get the accommodations they're going to satisfy you it's going to make your time in whatever destination you're in that much better and especially for long-term state if you're going for a couple days then yeah you can totally make do with a lot of just n things that aren't working so great but long term you want a nice place get a nice place okay because we don't have any transp ation we thought that we were going to have to get our Airbnb right in the middle of the action right so we would always look at these right want to be near the old town right in the middle of the old town and one thing we quickly realized is that especially for us because we are traveling so and spending so much time in a location we didn't want to be right in the center of all the action the main touristy point you kind of want to get yourself away from that area so that you're not in that busy chaotic area so much uh and so we've just found by looking and finding an area that has the cafes has the places that we're going to want to go to has a good grocery store we would rather centralize oursel in that area and then walk to the old town and that's because we're staying long term if you're staying 3 or 4 days you want to be in there plant yourself right in the middle no question about it but get by getting outside that action also gets you a little more for your money so it kind of works in your favor too we also thought because here in the states we don't really use public transportation a whole lot so the idea of how naig and figure out transport system everywhere we were traveling was really kind of overwhelming we thought it was going to be a hard process it was going to be hard to learn well especially where where we are from Bellingham Washington there's a city bus that's not too complicated but that's it so when we have to start doing Subways and trains and and that sort of thing we were kind of intimidated going into it but we had to figure it out because we have no other way to get around and we found that it is incredibly easy they make it simple uh the the Subways in Bangkok the the sky trains everything that we've ever had to do um has been easy now we have made mistakes M but that was a user air yeah um but yeah so I would think that um if we can do it uh so can you yeah and so that kind of also works along with the whole last one where it was about accommodations and location when we very much easily we learned how easy it was to navigate the transportation it made it very easy then to go ahead and stay a little bit further out and uh just have use Transportation if you need it okay when we came up with this big plan to travel the world we both wanted to go to Southeast Asia but we were a little bit afraid to it just seems so intimidating yeah so we kept putting it off uh for quite some time and then decided to go and we were excited to go but we were hesitantly excited to go and so you just really honestly and of course we dive ourselves right into the most busiest part which was Bangkok and we hop in there and we we expected that feeling had none of it uh it was absolutely so great we loved it if you have southeast Asia even on your question mark to go to it should definitely move up to the top go check it out it is not overwhelming and anybody can manage it another thing that we really kind of questioned uh traveling to all these different countries was how are we going to be welcomed As Americans yeah you know that might sound silly but if you've never traveled outside of the United States to some of these countries um you do question it and I can assure you that any country that we've gone to they've treated us with respect and kindness as we have with them and so that are you an American thing it doesn't really exist now sure there are going to be some um negative comments on our YouTube channel that were Americans but that they're few and far between so so it's been a pleasant yeah in person we have had no no issues whatsoever and honestly if anything when we say they ask where we're from and we tell them there's an interest level and they've just been I don't know it has not worked against us so it is not a problem whatever how much different will life be how much are we going to be out of our comfort zone right so in every country we were just thinking I I think you have this Vision in your head like you're going to get to a country and life some way is different they live life totally differently and I don't know why we had this Vision in our head but I just remember even when we just first got to Spain and it's like oh everybody is just going to school and going to work and picking up their kids from school and uh it was honestly just like everything around the world every place we have been everybody goes about life in the exact same way that we go about life yeah there's not much difference between um us and them or them and us um you know you have your spouse you have your kids you go to Park you play with your dog everybody's happy and you know um it's not something that you think about until you're ready to go now we are also under the impression that the internet covers everything so we're going to be able to go to these countries and we're going to be able to get online and do everything like we normally would back home that wasn't the case no uh unfortunately when we would try and sign on to our um banking or we would try and go on to Netflix and watch our programming or even just go on to um onto the web and be looking something up and it was immediately navigating you to another country and so you weren't able to just look up um all the things that you're used to looking up for just even like going on to say Expedia um it immediately took you to a different website for a different country so you have to have the VPN otherwise this is one of those areas and unfortunately that is a difference when you get outside of the US you have to have that bpn so that it thinks that you're in the United States your bank doesn't turn you like block you I I got blocked twice before we all got it figured out yeah so uh that is that is something that was definitely different is you have to use a bpn when you're outside of the country it also just protects you from uh yeah anybody watching how were we going to do some of the basics that we always just think of doing Brian needs to go get a haircut I need some new makeup or any of those just basic fill a prescription right well now I knew I could get a haircut anywhere but are they going to cut the way I like it you know are they just going to do something weird they going to give me a flat top how's it going to work well I'll tell you they're just going to cut your hair the way they think you look good and that's going to be it there's a barber shop on just about every corner of every city and every country in the world so that wasn't a problem but there are other things your Cosmetics yeah you can really you can go into any of the stores they have you know these towns have malls or they a lot of them will just have those specialty stores and majority of them you're going to be able to buy the products that you are used to buying you may pay a little bit more because it is an imported item but uh you're able to get all of that you're also able to go into the pharmacy and get your prescriptions now as far as having a script and going in one of the key elements is you're going to want to make sure that they actually have that kind of medication uh otherwise maybe you'll be getting a generic but what we found is with Brian's inhalers he has had zero problem getting them anywhere if anything it's easier than getting them in the states and cost a fraction of what you're paying so anything that you need and need to have done that you used to having done here you're going to be able to do when you're traveling and again these things might sound kind of silly but if you've never traveled outside the United States they are things that you think about the Europeans are lucky enough to have all these diverse countries all around them they get to travel all the time we're stuck over here and we're in our in our bubble almost so to speak so once you get out you're going to find it's easy now before we started this adventure we sold everything we minimalized we got rid of a lot of junk so we didn't have much to take so we decided we're going to take most all of it so we had a check bag a carry-on and our under the seat bag and we thought that we packed brilliantly yeah we uh I remember looking at our bags and thinking oh we've got it down to this small amount uh and I think that we were only on the road for maybe 2 months we had maybe moved our bags twice and we were over it we were sick and tired of it it is too much uh having a big old roller bag and ours weren't even that big they were actually just a medium size chucked bag um but trying to haul those through the streets in Europe uh where you're dealing with Cobblestone or you're going upstairs uh four flights without an elevator or whatever it is you quickly realize less is more and you pack a a lot less and we downsized very quickly to carryon only carry on only and if we needed anything uh we could we could buy it now the um Goodwill store in Sevilla Spain got quite a bit of our clothes that we decided we didn't need uh but we did have to buy a jacket while we were there so you can get what you need on the road if you need it less is more fast travel or slow travel now my preference when we started was to move a little quicker than once a month I want to see as much as we can see as fast as possible but we I would say quickly learned but we took a few few Jabs at it to uh give it another try uh so we now are confirmed into the placeat of that fast travel is not for us um there for multiple reasons if you know we've done a video on that where we went into depth of why it's not for us but just some of key facts if you move fast like that you really do not see an area and I think that that for me when I think back to uh we traveled through Central Europe and we're spending maybe 4 days in each location and I honestly have to like kind of rack my brain to remember what we saw and what a town looked like because we weren't there very long then the other just really key fact is you're packing those bags every four days even though you're not fully unpacking you still have to get all those Essentials back in your bag and then move to a new location it's a pain in the butt you burn out quick very quick along with that we were also trying to figure out what our year of travel was going to look like as we are you know on the road for how long we thought we' been be able to be on the road for no problem 5 to six months and then we'd be able to be home for a little bit of a visit um but what did we find uh yeah it didn't work out that way either you know you do want to come home you do want to see family you do want to see your kids you want to see all these things that that uh you miss and uh so we were we we usually go for four and a half to 5 months um and even that sometimes is stretching it now my kids are got one in Florida one in Phoenix one in Seattle so mine are kind of spread out over the the country anyway but you still like to come home cuz home is home yeah and I just find now that um when I reach that 4month point that is when I really start getting those homesick I need to see my family I need to see my friends and we just need to get home for a while so we've learned that our time away can be not as long as we first anticipated yes so with that being said we thought we'd be coming home for about 3 weeks twice a year M so we had the with the insurance that we had originally when we started traveling uh you could only be back into the United States for a set period of time uh and still be covered um and then you had to get out and so we were like oh no problem we'll be able to be home for that just about 3 weeks and that will be more than enough time we tried that one time and that 3 weeks flew by faster than we could even imagine we maybe saw each other only a couple days during that 3 weeks because we were trying like he said he had to go get to see his other kids and or see his kids around where they're at and you know and so we just right after having that happen we realized we need to be home our golden point for us is probably about 6 weeks 5 to six weeks uh we do end up being home a little bit longer than that cuz we do a house sit yeah now what if we are to get sick we need some kind of medical treatment we need to go to a dentist what is going to happen yeah we get this a lot we get this question all the time what about Medical Care well if again if you've never traveled outside of the United States you wouldn't know the rest of the world is just as adequate at Medical Care is the United States you're going to get taken care of if you get sick if you get hit by a car things like that we're covered medically and the care we're going to get is every bit as good is any place else in the world yeah we've done a hospital visit uh by choice that was just to get some tests done uh and then we also have been to the dentist a couple times and I would have to tell you that our experience has been things are a little more um what more modern we'll just call it modern some of the facilities than what we experience here in the state so you'll be just fine now being on a budget is something that we're always going to have to be on is this doable can we sustain this and can you yeah we really wondered that because we had watched a lot of like cost videos what other people spend when they're traveling and you know you see what they're saying but is that really what you're going to experience uh and so we just kind of had to get out on the road and figure it out for ourselves what we have found is thank goodness it is Affordable uh you can totally adjust your budget to what is going to work for you if you need to save money one year you save some money by staying in some less uh less expensive places which isn't hard to do there's plenty of them out out there and you know so you can totally do it on a budget no matter what your budget is you can figure it out so these are all things that we did not know before we left that we've learned along the way yeah so we hope that this kind of answers some of your questions uh if you have any other questions or things that are you're wondering what it's going to be like when you start traveling outside of the states just put those in the comments below and we'll try and address them if we've dealt with them so far so we help hope this helped you all right Cheers Cheers [Music]

Channel: Brian and Carrie

Views: 26,919

Keywords: reality vs perception, Now we know!! Lessons we've learned in over two years of full time travel., Brian and Carrie, reality of world travel, what we know now, travel full time facts, facts of world travel, full time travel reality, perception vs reality, know before you travel, Wish we had known, Travel full time facts, world travel facts, travel know before you go, travel know how, facts of full time world travel, Facts of full time world travel

Id: Dx4qsh71f9U

Length: 17min 34sec (1054 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2024