Long Travel Tips & Nomadic Lifestyle (Live Recording)

Are you thinking of going on a long trip? Taking a sabbatical year? Or exploring the idea of becoming a digital nomad? In this live session, I will share my own experience of traveling for over 3 years and creating a location-independent business. We will have time for Q&A & open discussion too.

Transcript

Hola hey guys how are you just double checking that you guys can hear me and see me how are you doing today happy what is it Tuesday to this Tuesday I'm in Spain I'm in Barcelona this is my city I am traveling here for the next two weeks sorry I'm gonna move my guitar away because it's the noise travels a lot hi Michelle how are you doing hi Loretta hi Brittany awesome thank you for letting me know that you can hear me well so happy to be with all of you here during my holidays I miss you so that's why I do these sessions beautiful morning hope you are enjoying Barcelona and family I am CJ thank you for asking I'm having a great time here with my mom with my dad with my sister my friends I went out on the weekend and today's topic it's really it really fits very nicely with me being here because someone requested to to cover this topic right like to cover the topic of long travel tips so tips when you are going on a long trip and the nomadic lifestyle that many people are having and enjoying this these days being nomadic sometimes doesn't mean having to be full-time a nomad but it can mean creating a mix that works really well with you and with what you want in my personal case the mix that I enjoy and my family enjoys is that working ten months every year and then enjoying one month of separate traveling like it's my own travel with my friends with my family with whatever I want to do as an individual and the other month it is with my family or with with Samantha with my wife so for us having those two months and then working ten months and mixing that up in a nice way that's what really I enjoy so that's our nomadic kind of lifestyle that we enjoy now but before that I was traveling for over two and a half years so I was a nomad for a really long time okay so that's why I feel comfortable talking about this topic and I thought many of you guys are exploring this idea or maybe curious about this idea self-care absolutely CJ sometimes traveling is part of a lot of people's lives because sometimes because of work because of life you just end up in a place that is far away from from your home far away from your family or maybe you are an adventurous kind of person and you want to learn a new skill and that skill only happens in a specific location like I love kite surfing and when I live in in Canada I am in the middle of no water around me I need to drive almost three hours to get to the water so for me I did a couple of trips just to do kite surfing and that was the intention so that's another that's another reason that I another thing that I encourage you to do when you are going to travel make sure that you have a clear intention of why you are going there because that really helps hi Mindy hi Cecilia hi Michelle yes you sound great thank you for hosting this week yeah Michelle I honestly thought I thought at the beginning I'm not gonna do lives during my vacation but then I thought no I enjoy the variety and if I can make it happen why not because I really enjoy doing this so how are you guys doing and what would you like to learn today about about the topic why did you come to this session namaste from India really wait for your session I resonate with them so much Sherpa thank you for being here from India did you know that I spent almost one full year in India when I was a nomad I started in Delhi went all the way up to Kashmir Ladakh beautiful and then in my shop Pradesh and then I did a long round so I spent there almost one full year in India just traveling around happy to hang out with you thank you Cecilia yeah so doing well how do you research places with good Wi-Fi for work Michelle that's a really good question and when you are planning a nomadic lifestyle or a long trip and you rely on internet when I was a nomad for example in India I ended up buying a SIM card and paying for internet through my phone because that was more reliable than me having to use Wi-Fi in hostels and it was easier and more convenient than going to the coffee shops and in India I have to tell you I was getting viruses everywhere anytime I connected my USB into a computer I had a virus so I ended up figuring out a way to have a little a little USB where I was starting my computer from that USB to be able to see the viruses and remove them so it was a nightmare so that's why I ended up having internet but depending on the country okay so depending where you are going these days majority of the times majority of the places have pretty good Wi-Fi so the majority of the places have good enough Wi-Fi to do the basic things like video conference sometimes even internet like emails stuff like that is okay if you need to access a specific platform or you need to upload a huge amount of data then I will say maybe you your situation is a little bit different and more specific if that's your case I will say research plans that you can pay for while you are there okay because sometimes they are not as expensive as we think they they are okay that's one way again it depends on on what you need some people are okay doing the work in their computers and then every now and then they connect to the internet through a when they have good Wi-Fi or they go to a coffee shop and they have enough with that because it's good to disconnect sometimes but sometimes if you need to be connected because of work or because of something that you need access every day then maybe having your own connection can be a good idea okay hi Amy uh yeah I'm in Spain so who who here is thinking um who here is thinking to doing a long trip or to to explore the idea of becoming a nomad or maybe go for a sabbatical a sabbatical could be somewhere between two three months all the way up to like a year or two so Michelle you are so can you share more about what you are planning on doing so that I can maybe uh help you out or or if you want to ask a specific question uh hi D how are you yeah I have some ideas here to share with you but if you guys want to share your specific case I'm happy to gear the conversation towards your specific needs careers can take you traveling as well I used to be told I was the only person they knew who took a 747 to work every week domestic esa but it's a big it's a big country yeah so a lot of people find themselves traveling a lot because of work uh and again sometimes it's just that's the nature of your job some people enjoy that majority of the people I talk to they get tired of it because I think it's very pretty exhausting to be honest if you do it every week yes eventually in a van do you travel in a van so Jay I I did have my own van and I did buy a van in when I was in New Zealand I actually had two vans there uh and I traveled with van so it depends of what the experience that you are trying to do what I found out my personal experience traveling with a van when I was in Spain I had one too but I was I was not being a nomad in Spain but I used it to go away every every pretty much every weekend and I had the ability to sleep inside I had the ability to like be very flexible and that saved me a lot of money in accommodation and I was just camping I was traveling very minimalistic so uh it was like being in a tent but instead of being in a tent you are in a van so it's safer it's it's drier you don't get wet if it rains and you can cook a little bit so that was in Spain when I was in New Zealand I was fully fully on living in there okay and and the experience there was nice the only thing that I found is that uh because I experienced hitchhiking I experienced taking buses I experienced traveling with other people and and the van and for me the van was very isolated very I found it very very lonely that's how I found it because at that time of my life when I was traveling with my ex-partner it was okay but it got to the point that it was very lonely very like um I enjoyed more when I was hitchhiking meeting new people and and going in adventures with other people sharing the experiences I found that more enriching for me but again different situations different needs different ones having a van is great if if you are looking to to be able to move freely to be able to have your own home and move it around easily and then if you like to have your own space and you don't need to share you don't you don't feel like being social all the time and you enjoy your own company and sleeping alone and that's fine that's uh that's good and depending where you go traveling you can also share the trip with other people temporarily that's what a lot of people did they did a lot of car share and van share and they maybe go for a week or two and they share the van and they share expenses and they they travel together um so Michelle says um let me see the comments going to Dublin with a group to uh co-work together want to be productive amazing Dublin uh Brittany says I always love the idea of being a nomad but I would probably miss my family so maybe start small like three months yeah Brittany absolutely get started small chunks see how it feels see see get to experience it first because it's very it's very scary for some people and there are so many moving pieces that you don't know how you are going to feel you don't know if you are going to like it so it's really a good idea to get started small and then start incrementing the time that's what I did I was scared of going away uh so I got started going to Peru for a couple of weeks I went to Egypt for a couple of weeks and then I started to experience the the traveling right and I I liked it and I thought I can do this for a longer time and that's when I started my long trip uh Australia Next like like the rental van idea yeah Michelle Australia is a really big country and I met a lot of people that they had a van I did not have a van there but I I did go to a website like Gigi like uh how was it called there I think it was called Gumtree g u m tree I think Gumtree was the website I was using there to find people to travel with and I found this this nice lady from from Germany and she had a four-wheel drive she was traveling alone and then my partner at the time and me we we were traveling with her and now she's still a really good friend of us uh so it was amazing really nice travel we traveled together for like two or three months beautiful we had a lot a really nice time together uh so yeah that's an option uh oh thank you yeah so you don't need to own your own car if you don't want to you can but you can own your own car and you don't have to travel alone all the time either so it's very flexible and when I was there in Australia and New Zealand of course now with covid and everything everything most likely is different but it was so easy to find people and when people are traveling everybody is very open-minded that's another thing when you get into the traveling scene everybody is so open-minded to meet other people because everybody is alone everybody's exploring everybody's on that mindset so you don't feel yourself alone like I feel here because everybody here is in the group they are working they don't have time honestly everybody's busy they don't have the time to even who are you that if I'm too busy but when you are traveling all the time and you have all the time in the world you have all the flexibility in the world and you are seeking for connecting with people exploring new places so people are very open-minded that's that was my experience okay we live full-time in an RV for three years now we are moving into our first townhouse in Sedona yeah so Amy feel free to share here how how your experience is right because I'm nervous about being in one place but I need to heal yeah Amy and Amy and everybody and myself what I felt is that there are cycles in life okay I had a cycle of I needed full adventure 100% nomad I didn't want to have any responsibilities right and it felt really good it was very freeing but then after that it got to the point that after seeing a thousand waterfalls seeing a thousand like temples seeing a thousand buddhas and you start I was lacking meaning I was liking a little bit of fulfillment I was lacking connection with people because I was very sad to meet amazing people and always saying bye after a few days a few weeks and then always saying bye to amazing people that I really liked but they just left while I left and it was very tiring for me at the end to see okay I'm meeting you it's great but you're gonna leave and I needed a little bit of consistency in my life and that's when I decided to come to Canada with with my wife okay and now I enjoy having that that routine I enjoy having my home I enjoy having my studio where I can record but I still enjoy that nomadic lifestyle every every year for maybe a few months right and I am working towards having a business that allows me to be able to do this anytime I want and travel from anywhere in the world right but I still have a base and that's what I like I still have a base and that base this space right now is in Canada okay so again depending on your life situation depending on on on what you feel you are going to create a recipe that is gonna make sense to you and sometimes that recipe is just going crazy hundred percent leave everything behind responsibly okay not like damaging anyone but just what I did I rented my flat I sold all my vehicles I sold everything I owned I left some stuff with my parents and then I I left and I didn't have any responsibilities I didn't have expenses I don't have debt so I was able to pay I was able to save because I was planning this trip we were planning this trip for over a year so we had a person living in our apartment we rented a room and then so we kind of planned everything for a year okay one full year for us to be able to leave our jobs to sell everything we had to save enough money to to be comfortable while we were traveling to get everything ready to get our block up and running to sort all the paperwork that we needed and to kind of plan the route that we wanted to do right so yes loved the interesting people did you have any issues with language or cultural barriers see yeah absolutely that's another thing that you have to be aware of for me I wasn't an english-speaking person before leaving Barcelona my english was really bad so I struggled for years I struggled I still remember meeting people wanting to hang out with them and I didn't understand what they were saying so they were with me I was smiling okay but they were talking to me and then waiting for a response and I was what did you say I didn't understand can you speak slowly please and after like a thousand times it's like sorry I can't I don't know what you're saying and people got tired and left right so it took me a long time to learn english uh it wasn't actually until I met my wife Samantha in New Zealand that I was forced to speak english all the time and I lived with flatmates when I was living in New Zealand where so for me it was a big barrier for sure language huge one and cultural barriers absolutely I found that the countries I was in they were very different and I found that me sharing that I was struggling with my partner at the time but we were not married and we didn't have kids and sharing that with some people in some countries it was difficult because they didn't understand that and they were asking questions and they were even getting offended sometimes because their culture is so different right it's so different that we sometimes had to lie we had to say we are married yeah we are gonna have kids soon because if not people didn't understand and they were uncomfortable but every country is different but yeah some countries were very very different and very interesting to learn from uh thank you CJ my english is amazing now it's good I still have an accent but I feel very comfortable uh when I went to Canada Samantha signed me up to give a public speaking the first time and I was like you did what you signed me up for public speaking in front of people and I had to do it so I had to push myself I had to be standing in front of people and I had to kind of share what I wanted to share and I found a way to communicate things and people liked it and after that I just kept working at it I was living in Canada everything was english for me and yeah it became easier and easier so it's just time but yeah that can be difficult if you are planning on moving to a country where there is a completely different language and they don't speak your language you need to allow a little bit of time to for you to learn right and for you to practice so don't have the expectation that you're just gonna go and in one month you're gonna be completely integrated because it's not gonna be like that most likely it's gonna be a little bit it's gonna take a bit longer okay Amy says I went to Bogota Colombia for three months I was on my own with very little Spanish but the best time in my life so far yeah and sometimes you just have to be brave and if you don't have these days guys with the internet with google translate you can talk to your phone and it translates automatically to any language in the world you can type anything with all these tools is so much easier honestly it is when I travel I didn't have a smartphone with me I didn't have a smartphone until I came to Canada so I didn't have I didn't know how to use these apps I didn't know I didn't have access to all those things today these days honestly it's so easy if you go to a country where they speak nothing that you know you can still use those tools to communicate with people pretty easily.

And Rocio says I need to improve my English next year I'll start working on it yeah Rocio just get started and the most important piece is to practice it right you start you need to start experiencing things in English that's the only way for you to start getting comfortable be brave to don't be shy to like use it even if it sounds horrible according to you just keep using it because that's the only way for you to learn okay so some things guys if you have questions specific questions write them down there but some of the things that I have here to share with you I have a I did like a brain dump a brain dump is where I gather my ideas and write them down in a piece of paper some of the things I wanted to share are the intention behind the trip okay uh Rocio says what is your native language uh Rocio I guess is it Spanish I don't know she will answer yeah so the intention of the trip okay when you are thinking about doing a long trip doing a sabbatical or or just doing something like this really reflect with yourself close your eyes and then just breathe and just really check in with yourself about what is the intention of this trip what is my intention what would I like to to take out of this trip okay and you don't have to be like again if nothing comes up for you clearly maybe your intention is to like to explore I just want to explore maybe your intention is I want to spend three months with no plans that was my intention uh I just want to go with one way ticket to India and just see what happens that was my intention our intention with my ex-partner that's what we did and then we ended up spending almost a year in India alone and then we went to Nepal three months and did a lot of hiking there that was the intention for Nepal hiking in India it was to get lost to learn the culture to do yoga meditation to see the mountains to learn a little bit of all the different gods that they have and why they they do what they do to go to the Ganga river and see the ceremonies that they had in there there was so much to see there right we went to Sri Lanka just because we needed a visa and then we just visited the country for like four weeks and then came back and then we went to Thailand and then the intention for Thailand was to enjoy the the nice food that we love enjoy the beaches relax a little bit enjoy the sunshine so every country had an intention behind us for us right so what is your intention about traveling right think about that for example I recently did a trip to the Dominican and the intention the only intention was to kite surf I went for one full week seven days and the only intention for that trip was to kite surf and I can tell you that I learned there more than two years in Canada going back and forth a few times so that was the power of that intention so just think about it what is your intention behind the trip and just write it down and then think about that right once you have the intention then you need to think about the logistics depending what kind of trip you are trying to do the logistics are gonna look different right so how much money you are going to need what do you need to do with your home if you have one can you sublet it can you sell it can you rent it can you just move out and then maybe come back and move in with your family members like just thinking about those logistics is important in my case I own a flat in Barcelona and then I did rent it so we rented it and we've been lucky that it's been rented until now and now I'm considering maybe to sell it I don't know but the the the tenants are still living in there so it wasn't a problem for me but if I was unlucky and they don't pay me or something happens then I may need to go back come back right and solve the problem or involve a family member so you need to think about those things what are you going to do if something happens right another thing I did before leaving was I gave my mom full power to be able to do anything in my name so I did that with that with a lawyer and then my mom can do anything for me if I need to so that that that avoided me the need to come back a few times because she could sign papers for me she could do things for me so that's something to keep in mind if you need to sign a document if you need to do your taxes if you need to do something and you need to sign something just have a person that have full attorney full power to do things for you okay another thing it's thinking about visas right what kind of visa can I get in the country that I'm going for how long can I stay there and this especially in this is especially important for those of you who are planning for maybe a full year or longer normally if you are from the US from Canada from most countries you can get up to three months easily in pretty much any country but then depending on the country you have to maybe show income you have to show savings you have to maybe do a visa you have to so every country is going to have a little bit of a work around visa so maybe taking that it's important okay thinking about insurance that's something that it was a big problem for me thinking oh should I pay for insurance no should I just have savings in case something happens and that's something that there is not a right or wrong answer because maybe you pay for insurance and nothing happens and you feel that you wasted your money but maybe something happens and then all of a sudden you have a huge bill and you are so grateful that you have insurance so that's another thing to to look at like am I covered if something happens to me or am I gonna be a problem for someone else if something happens to me about budget it's important to think about how much money you are going to need how much money you need to save and it's it's nice sometimes to be able to see how much things cost in that country and then your daily budget weekly budget and monthly budget sometimes really helps like knowing that you have 30 a day 50 a day 100 a day whatever for you to to do things sometimes that helps people understand how much they can do or how little they can do okay uh message for Rocio okay power of attorney so smart yeah CJ that's something that if you guys are going for a for a for longer than three months I will say especially I was in Spain and then I was going to India,

Asia,

Australia,

New Zealand flying back from those places sometimes it's expensive so if I have to play for a if I have to pay for a flight to come back and then go back again it was thousands of dollars so I was glad to pay I think I paid 100 euros or something like that to get that paper done and then leave my mom a copy of my documents and everything just make sure that she could do things for me okay of course I tried to make everything online that I could everything I could do online I had access to my banking I had so everything I could I did it online and anything that required myself my presence then I made sure that my mom was able to do that for me so make sure that you take that in account because you may have a surprise that oh you have to come here and no one can do that for you and then all of a sudden you have a huge problem if you have medical needs research how you will get medications and said absolutely Amy thank you if you guys have any specific request any specific needs you have to make sure that you have either you are carrying with you enough or someone you buy enough in your country and then someone is gonna mail you when you need them that's something that I saw people do especially with medication because if you are traveling with a backpack you don't want to carry a lot of stuff with you right but if you need a specific medication or you need something specific every x amount of time people bought enough quantity and then they left it with family members and then they they would contacted them hey I'm gonna be at this hostel next week or in two weeks can you please ship me 10 boxes 15 boxes 5 boxes of that thing that I need and then they can ship that for you or you you can check if you can buy them there because sometimes you can buy those things in the country where you are at so all those logistics are important for you to kind of research and make sure that you are covered that it doesn't become a problem for you okay yeah so also where I live to continue to get free medical care I have to be in the country a certain number of days yeah Kimberly thank you uh here in Canada is six months if you live for more than six months I don't think you lose it but you lose you need to be back for x amount of time and I think there is a there is a transition there where you are not covered so researching that is also important right what happens in your country if you live for longer than than that time sometimes people just come back and then they leave again or sometimes here in Canada I know a lot of people they have designed their nomadic lifestyle where they spend six months in Canada and six months away because that's the amount of time that first it's enough for them second they don't have the problem with the healthcare they don't lose it and they enjoy that they enjoy that variety so that's another thing that you don't have to be full-on nomadic if you don't want to uh my psychiatrist with them prescribed after three months even within the US yeah again any limitations that you may have with your doctor you need to take in account that so in cases like this that maybe you have a limitation of three months or something you can still do something do for three months and then come back so it's not that you have to stop uh traveling you can still do a lot of stuff right and Kimberly you are Canadian you can still live for more than six months you you won't lose it forever but I think there is a transition amount of time where if something were to happen maybe you can be in trouble but I don't think you just lose it forever again those are questions to ask to the professionals maybe going to the to the specific place and ask what happens if I do this what can I do to get it back and then exactly know or have all the information so that you can make an informed decision you just map out the time frame yeah exactly Amy for a lot of people they don't want to be full-time nomads anyways because they have families they have uh interest they have like maybe a home so maybe for them like I I know people here for example I know that there are some places that they are like a like a campground that they have bungalows but people there can only live 10 months every year and two months they have to leave and then they will come back okay it's like a trailer park kind of idea so I I know a lot of people they use those months to go traveling and that's their sabbatical that's their nomadic lifestyle and every year the same two months they leave so if I have a flat there I can contact them and say hey my flight is available for two months and some people may be okay I can come two months for to your house and then I will go traveling and they will pay me to stay there and then they can go back to their home and I can come back to my home so that's another idea that sometimes sometimes you can research all these ideas if you have a home so that you can actually do something and you don't have to pay for two places right because that's another thing if you leave and you have you are paying a mortgage or rental you can have someone else living there while you are gone and they are paying you for that so what else do I have communities that you can use communities that are online communities that I personally use when I travel and I love love love them the first one that they use a lot couch surfing I don't know if you guys are familiar with that it's couch like a couch where you sit so you are surfing the couch pretty much c o u c h and then surfing s u r f i n g so that community I used it so many times I stayed in Thailand in Bangkok with a guy for like three weeks I stayed in in Australia with several people in New Zealand with several people it was amazing I met so many amazing people there and it's not only couch surfing when I used it it's been a while so I don't know I know it has changed over time so I haven't used it in the last few years but when I used it you could crash in someone's home the idea behind that is travelers helping travelers okay so for example when I was living in New Zealand I would host couch surfers that were traveling by because when I travel a lot of people help me out okay so there is no money involved and then ideally there is some sort of a change it's just not a place that you go crash and leave there is a little bit of communication a little bit of like spending time together and the expectations are different for everybody but I used it and then people helped me out a lot they gave me like place to sleep sometimes I stayed there for days sometimes for weeks sometimes for one day everybody can say what they want to offer and sometimes they don't have to offer sleeping they can just offer an experience like say hey I'm in Barcelona if you come to the city I'm willing to spend three time three hours with you and I will show you around and that's my way of giving back to the community okay so I remember that so many people help me out hosted me show me the city cooked food for me was amazing when I had my own place I did it a lot and I had I don't know hosted probably over 30 people in in a year and a half and all people that were passing through and they were contacting me and I was with another group of people so they would join me to go out to do stuff and it was very fun very nice I used it when I was doing my one woman show they just wanted to help because my show was on addiction and abuse people just offered to help support the work yeah good morning my name is Emilio what up or online is this so this one that I just shared is called couch surfing that's one okay all the ones that I use personally was woofing willing workers on organic farms that's the translation so w-w-o-o-f-i-n-g woofing that one it's mostly farms it's mostly uh you give them time in exchange of accommodation and food or sometimes only accommodation but that's great because you are saving and at the same time it's meant to be an exchange meaning I did that in a winery I did that in a horse farm I did that in a in a big farm that they needed help but you always learn something the idea here is not free labor the idea here is you stay there you communicate with the people they give you a task you do the task for like a few hours and then you get free accommodation you get food and you get to be a part of of that environment so in my case I learned about wine I learned about how to treat vines I learned how to put the netting up I and so I learned some of that stuff in the horse farm I learned how to ride a horse nicely I went out on a horse to do move cattle from one place to another it was amazing I really enjoyed it of course you can go to a place and maybe they are not nice and maybe they slave you that can happen too but there is a communication prior to so that's another community woofing uh help x is another one help x I used that a few times and that's more of a volunteering but it doesn't have to be farms it was most more like stay at my home and teach me Spanish for an hour and then I give you free place to stay or maybe come to my house and maybe cook me breakfast and lunch and then you can stay or maybe come to my house and maybe help me fix this electrical thing and then you can stay for free so in my case I have skills of electricity plumbing stuff like that so I was trying always to use those and say hey I am handy I can fix things or I can teach you Spanish or I can teach you salsa dancing or I can uh cook you Spanish food so those were some of the things that I offered and then people will take you they will say okay come to my place for three nights and then you can stay for free so that was called help x and uh work away it's another one Roxanne says come here where are you Roxanne I can come and see you love that willing workers to learn about the people too yeah help x and then work away was another one that I used when I travel again I haven't used them in a while because I didn't need to but I know that there are there are new ones that probably I don't know but the idea is the idea when you are traveling for a long time is try to save by not spending a lot every day so if you have to pay accommodation normal accommodation every day then it becomes very pricey to to be a nomad so you can't afford it right so by using these communities for me it was like I got to immerse myself in that local community so when I was doing cal turfing I had the opportunity to immerse myself in in that person's lifestyle for a few days that to me was already enough because it's like wow I am in this country that I don't know I am living the life of this person I'm seeing how they function I see what what they do where they work what they do for fun they show you around the things that they like and and then you you share something that you like with them and then at the end of the day there is always an exchange the idea here is that okay I know that there are people that abuse the system of course like in everything else but the idea behind this is that when you are writing someone you are not just writing hey Emilio I want to crash at your place on Tuesday night are you free I would probably say no I'm not but if you say hey Emilio I read your profile I saw that you're from Spain I love I love Spain I love I don't know cooking Spanish food or I am from Turkey or I am from the US my my passion is to do this and I can show you how to do this or share this with you and I would love to learn this from you do you think I can stay for a couple nights at the same time I see the city so there is a little bit of like exchange here okay again if you want to be alone if you want to do your own thing if you don't want to enter all these dynamics then these communities are not for you okay because when you do this you have to enter the dynamics you have to be social you have to you have to give and receive if you just want to do your own thing be free and work and just be alone all the time then I will say you need to pay for accommodation then okay that's the reality because it's not nice to go to someone else's home and just be alone and just don't offer anything that's not nice I posted to Laina as a dog sitter and house sitter and got to see lots of beautiful places yeah yeah it's good for extroverts yeah again all the other options for you to explore okay you can try you can try trusted house sitters so this is another community trusted house sitters what is this community all about this is all about people that are living their homes for a period of time and they need someone to stay in their homes take care of their plants take care of their pets or maybe they just want someone living there just for safety just to check in that there is not a flood that nothing happens that there are people living there so that no one goes inside to steal again trusted house sitters thank you Amy that's one there are many more okay but I know about that one and I met people that were using that full time they were full time trusted house sitters that means that they can they go from home to home and they never pay for accommodation you don't pay for accommodation you just go to that place okay and then you stay there for free and you are free to do whatever you want you normally are alone so this is good for people who doesn't want to socialize or maybe people who are working full time but they don't want to be in their home so you can go to someone else's home and then you have an arrangement you do whatever they need you to do and then you just have the house for yourself for that entire time okay Emilio can you post all these resources in your circle I can post some of them yeah Amy I can do that is there a place where all these resources could be could be posted you join my circle and I will make sure to post all the all the ones that I'm aware of okay another idea for those of you who own a home you can do a house exchange this is really cool because you can say I have a house in the US and this person has a house in Germany or Australia or wherever you want to go and then you can arrange to do an exchange right and some platforms you have to do the exchange right away but some other platforms you can offer your home for like one two three weeks whatever you want and then you don't have to do it at the same time you just have a bank of time that you can then use in other places so I have friends that use that and I don't remember the exact name of this platform but I just did a quick search I just typed house exchange site on Google and I had a list of like a lot of them I have not used them personally yet okay but that's another idea that you can explore if you own a home and you want to trade you can exchange or you can explore the idea of yeah of just doing that any which websites did you use yeah Lisa I did not do an exchange but I have a colleague she's an organizer too and she was telling me how beautiful it was they did it so they went to Europe they are from Canada from Toronto so they did an exchange real time with a with a family somewhere in Europe and then they also did they went to live with their parents and then they did allow a family to stay two weeks in their home and then they had two weeks then to use in the future and then they use those two weeks to go to a different country when a house was available and then that's all that all happens with no money exchange is no it doesn't cost you anything right so that's another great idea for you to explore guys there are so many beautiful ideas these days with the internet there are so many very amazing communities of people open-minded people that are willing to do all these things because they they appreciate the this resilience of being able to like do these things where money is not the only way to travel home exchanges for house swapping a great way to see the world yeah so what else yeah so all these communities again if you have the funds if you have enough money and you just wanna do your own thing you just wanna transfer your lifestyle from where you are to a different place and you are happy to rent a place there and stay there for two months three months whatever then you can maybe use Airbnb or something similar I know Airbnb now offer like a long-term rental and you can rent a furnished place with internet with everything by the month and I know that there are many other websites depending on the country Facebook marketplace is another one that you can look at but again all these places are meant for those of you who have the money to just rent a place and then you just transfer your lifestyle to that specific country for a period of time and you don't have to then deal with communicating with people to try to find experiences and this is good for those of you who are working full-time and you just want to change the scenery but you are not interested in in engaging in all these community ideas right now because you are just in a different state and sometimes that's that's your vibe and that's fine that's perfect Emilio you are amazing with all your worldwide tips thank you Christine it's a very passionate topic for me because traveling guys changed my life if that it did change my life forever I can tell you when I leave Barcelona when I left Barcelona in 2008 September 2008 I was one person and after coming back to Canada in 2012 I was a completely different person way better hundred thousand times better why because I had the opportunity to explore the world I had the opportunity to immerse myself in hundreds of different lifestyles I had the opportunity to see how many different countries live work values and then after seeing all that after seeing so many examples of what can be done in so many different ways your perspective of life changes completely the possibilities open up when you see people doing things that you never imagined were possible and they are doing it it opens your mind to the possibility of like I can do that too if they are doing it why can't I do it and then I also felt that when I came back here like if you don't see the world is very difficult to to be open to all those things because you are not even aware of them okay and I came back to Barcelona and I can tell you that I was seeing everybody else with completely different eyes and Barcelona is a very multicultural city too there are people from all over the world and when I left I didn't understand many of them I had no idea why a Chinese family three Chinese families were living in one apartment I didn't know why the Pakistani guy in the store downstairs was having an up behind the counter I didn't know what so many things and when I came back I understood everything I understood everything because I saw it and I had I appreciated the different ways of doing things in life because they're just different and why people do what they do so it's such an open-minded open yeah your mind just explodes my mind exploded love home swap another website no matter thank you Amy seen the world opens you in yeah in immeasurable ways absolutely Roxanne and you don't have to do a crazy trip like I did like three a triple two and a half year trip you can you can immerse yourself for a few weeks in different countries and then you you will get the same similar experience I wouldn't say the same because you don't have enough time to live there but if you can go three or four weeks to India and then you can go three or four weeks to Peru and then you can go three or four weeks to I don't know a different country that that's enough time for you to yeah to explore to experience and if you are open-minded if you are curious if you want to engage in these communities it's amazing to just give them a try and then see what happens because sometimes things start flowing in a direction and it just if you just let yourself go and flow sometimes it's amazing where things take you I just want to say that sometimes it's nice to don't have a routine that's something that I also wanted to share like we we repeat things over and over in life right and we start forming these patterns this habit when you travel you just break out of all of them you don't have a home you don't have routines you don't have you don't repeat the same thing and every day is completely different so that really opens your mind to like I have no idea what's gonna happen today but it's okay and I'm happy with it I don't need to know you know what I mean you set the intention but you don't have to control how things happen and this is really good for for those of us who get in a pattern and we repeat repeat repeat repeat and then we find ourselves in that pattern and then we get anxiety when we get out of it and then we need to control everything and the outcome needs to be known and it's like no things can be in a thousand different ways and if you relax and let things flow they will go somewhere and you will enjoy the process anyway so you don't need to know everything that's what I'm trying to say thank you Emilio always a pleasure to listen and learn you are such an inspiration thank you Roxanne did you stay in a in an ashram in India yeah Lisa when I went to India if you are looking for ashrams yoga meditation things like that one of the mekhas is uh Rishi Kesh okay Rishi Kesh is one of the mekhas for learning yoga that's where majority of the teachers are okay and these days you can find the courses online too because of covid my wife actually did a Jin yoga certification 200 hour certification and the teachers had it in Rishi Kesh okay and they have an ashram there so I stayed in different ashrams there and I did a meditation course in there I didn't do I was planning on doing a devipasana it's a 10-day meditation in silence but I didn't end up doing that Rishi Kesh yeah that's I think that's how you spell it and that's in the in north of India I think that's Himachal Pradesh I believe it's the is the province of but yeah if you just type Rishi Kesh yoga you will find in the map yeah Amy my wife paid for the certification yeah I don't remember how much but doing it online was way easier than having to go in person right are most ashrams open to visitors when I was there absolutely that was their main business uh youth for people to come for people to learn and then different lengths uh so yeah there were different options with covid right now I'm pretty sure they are open now but I don't know how it works Mindy says Emilio what is your circle called your thriving lifestyle if someone please can type it in the chat that would be amazing um thank you thank you Amy so some of the other things that I would like to share it's how important a minimalism organization and being intentional is when you are trying to tackle something like this like a long trip uh like being a nomad and I can tell you when I was packing my backpack I had no idea what to pack so I left Spain the first time with a 70 liter backpack in the back and a 35 liter backpack in the front with the stuff that I thought I needed right and I started traveling and then after a couple of weeks every single day I was leaving something behind for probably two or three weeks a pair of pants a t-shirt a thing that I didn't need and then I came back to Spain six or seven months after for a quick visit and then when I left again I only had one backpack of 35 liters and that's it everything was in there so you can imagine how much you learn when you are doing a trip like this about yourself about your needs and about what's really truly important to you and I had a laptop too at that time I had a tiny laptop so I had everything I needed in a in a 35 liter backpack can you imagine that I I couldn't believe it it's like I can't believe I'm traveling the world without this backpack it's just it's just amazing when I live years out of three bags I had a maca crystal like I just started what's important for me for the other is very different yeah so you learn but the the countries I was traveling it was very easy to stay in in guest houses it was very inexpensive so I I didn't need to carry food or my mac or anything like that because you don't need to it's more expensive to go to the supermarket and cook than to actually eat local food that happened in India in Thailand in in all these countries it was just easier for me to do it that way Australia New Zealand was different that's that's more like Europe and Canada and the US it's worth it to just go to the supermarket and cook so every country should be different too so that's why you have to look for forums ask people who have been there ask how much things cost maybe use the Lonely Planet guide or something similar to get familiar with the cost of things okay but yeah that those are some of the things that I wanted to share with you guys today about uh nomadic lifestyle and and long trip uh tips so guys who is gonna go on a trip next can you pause in the circle what's needed to take with you so dude I can um inside time it doesn't let me share links external links because I I have a um I have a blog post a blog that I used to write when I was traveling and and I have a list of things that you need and everything was in there but I cannot share that the link in here uh can you pause in the circle what's needed to take with you yeah again sure but what's needed I can I can share it with you right now like two t-shirts two pair of socks two pair of underpants one pair of pants one pair of shoes my my laptop the charger a book to read sunglasses uh my phone my charger and pretty much that's it because I was washing every single day that's the thing it depends on the kind of trip that you want to take because I was backpacking carrying everything with me and I was moving every few days I couldn't have much I didn't want to carry a huge suitcase and so that's what I was doing some people will say I will never wash clothes every day and I would rather carry more quantity and then do laundry every now and then some people did that and that's fine too so that's very like subjective some people may need more than others but once you get started you will find out very quickly what is it that you need and for those of you who are unclear I will invite you to do this is what I did when I started camping when I was little and I wasn't sure what I needed instead of going really far away and then try to set the tent try to eat try to test the system I had to make sure I didn't forget anything what I did I prepared for the trip but then I went around the corner and I camp around the corner really close to my house but I did the whole experience there so I packed everything the same way I had the same clothes and then I spent two or three days around the corner just with what I bought and then I had a list with me oh wow I forgot this oh this is I didn't use this I don't need it I forgot my lamp I need that oh I was really cold I need an extra jacket so you start creating that list and then that list have it somewhere that you can keep adding and removing things and then now myself I have a camping list I have a traveling list and I have a kayaking list because sometimes I go kayaking and you need specific gear for that trip so every time I do something different I normally create a list and normally it lives in Google keep in my case it's Google keep because I can access it from any device and then anytime I go camping again I don't have to like break my mind trying to remember I open that list and I have every single thing that I needed when I actually did it and when I was camping the first time and I was ah I forgot my iPod with a podcast and I'm so bored for example I will write down iPod with a podcast or download movies from Netflix on my phone to be able to watch them at night that's on my list uh you know what I mean like every single detail that I forgot every single action that will benefit and make the trip more enjoyable I will add it to that list and then open the list and then you have it there it takes one time to create it and then you perfect that list every single time you use it that's what I would recommend you do we started the RV living three months in a home hometown see Amy did that thing you need to try and test the idea because you don't know and it's something new for you so allow yourself the time to experience to test it without pressure so for me I didn't want to go to India without knowing what I needed the basics right so I made sure to do trips before that and then when I went to India yes I had more stuff that I needed but I had the stuff that I needed at the end I didn't forget anything okay and you can always get things there if you need to great going Amy yeah so guys what's uh what's coming up for you before I leave it's almost time uh trial run is really important yes then you build confidence and take bigger risks along the way yeah trial run allow yourself a little bit of time to test it if you are planning on doing a sabbatical and you are unsure of what you need allow yourself to maybe do a weekend away close home maybe go to a friend's home and simulate that you are away simulate that you are doing culturfing on someone else's home and see if you pack everything that you need see if you like it see what you are missing especially for those for those of you who have a computer and you are planning on on doing like this for example I'm doing this live session from Barcelona and I am also recording it but I don't have my microphone I don't have the things that I normally have at home so I before coming in one of the sessions I tested the idea what happens if I record the session using an app on my phone how is the sound quality can I share it uh will the recording stop after a period amount of time so right now as you see I have my phone here and it is recording with an application that I already tested and I know it works because I did it at home but I tried different things before that and they didn't work so I didn't wait to come here and then fail I tried I simulated the idea at home and once I had a system that was working then I come here and I feel so confident because I have experienced that that thing before so allow yourself to do something similar and if you overpacked take note of what you didn't use and get it off your list yeah absolutely and that's the only way for you to discover it you have to do it you have to actually experience it that's the only way for you to know what you didn't need or what you didn't pack that you needed I normally overpack I always say that I normally overpack clothes and I always end up having things that I didn't use and I didn't need but I always am afraid of like oh but I need more than two t-shirts but then realistically after it's like well it depends if you watch them no but sometimes I'm afraid of like oh no I will need this and I will need this and I will need this and then you end up not using it okay guys I'm so happy to see you here let me know what's your biggest takeaway let me know if you have any questions before I leave happy to answer them it's raining here I don't know if you can hear the rain but it's raining a lot so guys just for you to know like this is my to-do list here in Barcelona things I have to do while I'm here so I have to do a lot of paperwork lots of things but I don't try to remember all of this in my head I had a list on my phone and every time I thought oh next time I go to Barcelona I have to I have to get a new passport oh I have to make sure that I had that I have that credit card or I have to make sure that I do that that paperwork that I can only do here or I will need so I keep a track of everything that I need and then when I come here I have that list I don't have to think about it and this is the paperwork that I had to pack this time this is like my vaccination this is my covid test this is my the form that I needed to enter Portugal because I transit through there the form that I needed for Spain like it's crazy the paperwork it's crazy but again if you are not organized if you don't know the steps then your trip becomes a stress becomes something overwhelming and people feel anxiety but if you do everything proactively then it becomes okay I know what I'm doing I have everything I need and everything is good biggest takeaway research online when I travel there when on cell phones or public wi-fi yeah same for me wi-fi wasn't as available and I didn't have a cell phone either thank you for doing this live how much time in advance do we need to plan traveling abroad how much time in advance I will say that that's probably probably the visa is one of the only requirements that may stop you from from just going if you need a visa but other than that I will say whatever you need to plan in in your end like booking a getting the visa and booking a flight ticket it just can't happen like that so I will say I don't know it all depends what you have to organize at home before you leave right and what your expectations are in my case if I'm leaving for two weeks and I don't have to do anything at home the only thing I have to do is like someone take care of my cat tell my my neighbor to keep an eye on the house and then I just leave if I'm planning on going for a year I I want to find someone to rent my apartment I need to find the visas I need so maybe it requires more time for me to be ready so yeah get a passport all that stuff of sure your adventure sound sounds so brave well Savannah it was it was amazing but it was progressive right for you it may sound like a crazy but it was I started with a little trip and then I did a bigger one and then I export myself to a bigger one and then it became more and more comfortable and that's how you have to do it you have to get started small or sometimes just go for it and explore it and you can always come back home if you don't feel well right like that's the worst case scenario can I offer something to encourage others here yeah Amy of course you can this is an open community you have beautiful open view of the world thank you for sharing my husband and I enjoy learning bits and pieces for the cultures and languages and honoring them yeah CJ I saw so many different ceremonies like I remember for example being in I think it was Cambodia or Laos one of these two countries Cambodia or Laos or maybe Vietnam south of Vietnam one of those countries I remember arriving to a village we were hiking right we arrived to this little village and there was a party happening was a party everybody was eating everybody was happy everybody was dressed in really colorful clothes and then when we asked what's happening here they told me oh someone died what do you mean someone died so this is a funeral yeah this is a celebration no it's not a it's a celebration of life we are honoring everything that that person did and we are we are taking having a party because that's what that person want us to do they want us to celebrate his transition into the new world and they want he want us to to honor everything that he did here and he doesn't want to see us sad he wants us to move forward and I was like wow like this is not how it happens in North America or Europe at all so that was just one example of many thousands that I can I could share with you so yeah it's so interesting to like see how other cultures approach death approach marriage approach relationships work life balance having a nap like how for example if you go to India everybody has a nap doesn't matter where they are it's normal if I do that in Spain if I do that in Canada people will look at me and say who are you why are you laying down there this is not a place to sleep right so that's an example another example of ways of doing things right I love having a nap in the middle of the day I don't do it every day but I love being able to rest my back and just close my eyes and just spend maybe 10-15 minutes just being comfortable but you cannot do that in specific countries it's not people don't do it so people feel weird if you do it so that's another example right so any tips about flying inexpensively around Thailand India etc to get from place to place if not driving dude honestly flying is only recommended between the country I only will fly if you have a short amount of time and you just want to move fast from place to place I didn't fly I only flew between countries I never flew between the same country so in India I took the train and mostly buses in Thailand buses are great very inexpensive and they take you from place to place night buses are a thing so you can sleep very comfortably while moving from place to place and you save accommodation there are also ferries so there are a lot of options around that will be more inexpensive and and still fast enough okay but if you want to fly then yeah flights are what they are they are more expensive but yeah you can uh online just check online that's what I will do google flights I find it to be very nice very because you can if you are flexible with date you can put your destination and then you can put the date and then you can you can see a calendar of all the prices right so you can select the cheapest dates and then you can be flexible about that that's how I booked this flight to Barcelona I just opened the calendar and then I saw that the cheapest flight and then because I'm flexible I say okay I'm gonna go from the 18th to December 1st and those were the cheapest flights and that's how I did it so I will say using a website like google flights or something similar that can compare flights from different companies and then allowing you to look at that calendar so that you can select the most inexpensive rate okay that's what I would recommend you you to do Americans have a not so good reputation for respecting all their cultures yeah thanks didn't know about google flights yeah use it give it a try google flight and I normally go to my google chrome the browser and I open an incognito tab so you can do that and then that way it doesn't track who you are so that if you go back to take the same flight they don't know that it's you hopefully and then the price doesn't go up that's another tip that someone told me and I use it now just open an incognito tab so that the profile is not the same and then they wouldn't know that it's you coming back okay okay guys time is over um thank you so much for being here and for for participating in this discussion I really liked it if you enjoyed it feel free to donate oh I have an announcement that I forgot oh my god so my workshops are live today I receive an email that say says your workshops are live so I went to my profile and you can see now uh it says uh my home mentoring and workshops and inside workshops you can see the two workshops that I'm offering one is in January two sessions and the other one is in February four sessions okay so you can see how many spots are open there and then you can see the price and the description everything is in there so if you are interested go and check them out uh it's under the tab that says workshops okay and I didn't hear back from my new course yet so it's not published yet but it will be soon okay yeah thank you I totally forgot guys I I'm really bad at promoting myself oh my god so yeah that's available there and also just a reminder that I offer one-on-one mentoring calls if you are interested in diving deep deeper into any of these topics that we cover uh and a one-on-one call is a video call with you and me and it's way more intentional because we can see each other we can talk to each other live and we can dive deeper into whatever you are going through okay I'm really enjoying those uh so feel free to book one if you feel that you can need them that you need one of those okay and that's it guys I hope you have an amazing rest of your day I am gonna keep going with my day here in Barcelona and I will see you on Thursday okay so in two days at the same time if anything happens I told you the other day if anything happens I will postpone the live to another day but I will try my best to be here okay so I will see you then okay adios enjoy your back as thank you Brittany have an amazing rest of your day and thank you for being here bye