Making mistakes while traveling is common, even for globetrotting veterans who have been in the game for decades. It’s especially common for novices, who may not consider things like seasonal weather before they travel, or might not know how to avoid wasteful spending or how to not get scammed. Or what to do when travel plans fall through at the last minute. In this edition of Celebrity Travel Addicts, we speak with travel bloggers Yosh Dimen and Vins Carlos, whose website, The Poor Traveler, offers helpful travel tips and guides to help fellow travelers avoid common mistakes while sharing funny looks into their own misadventures. We chat with Yosh and Vins about their disastrous first trip together, the importance of planning, their top destinations, The Poor Traveler, and much more. Find out why travel is important to them and check out their best travel advice!
We were both homebodies. If you told our younger selves we would become travel bloggers, we’d probably laugh in disbelief. But we discovered the joys of travel when we were both full-time employees. We used to work for separate start-up companies, but both offered some travel benefits. Once or twice a year, the companies would treat their employees to a trip somewhere within the country. These little company outings started it all for us, allowing us to experience several domestic destinations. Eventually, we decided to travel together from our own pockets.
For us, travel is an opportunity to learn, in every possible way. On a personal level, it helps us grow as responsible adults who know how to work under extreme pressure, manage finances better, and become more open and sociable. But on the deeper level, it enables us to learn more about the world — how tyrants rise and empires fall, how places shape culture and cultures affect perspectives, and how different people live their lives and experience the world around them. There are many concepts that our 20-year-old selves would find uncomfortable or even unacceptable, but travel opens not just the eyes but the mind and the heart as well.
We started by joining company outings, but when Vins and I decided to go on a personal trip, it was a disaster. On our first trip together, we got stranded at a deserted wharf because our boatman didn’t show up. We had to walk through a wooded area until we reached the highway and hitchhiked to the resort area. On our second trip, our roof-less boat crashed to a rocky islet, leaving us floating aimlessly in the middle of the sea AT NOON. Then our next trips were plagued with bad weather. We thought it was funny and ridiculous, so we created a blog to document our misadventures and share tips. Back then, there weren’t a lot of online travel resources about local destinations, so we decided we’d create comprehensive travel guides.
Our content is tailor-made for travelers from developing countries like the Philippines. We experience the world differently. We have a relatively weak currency and low purchasing power. When we travel to developed countries for a weekend, we spend two months’ worth of salary. Our passport isn’t powerful. Just to get a tourist visa, we need to go through rigorous inspection of employment records, financial documents, familial connections, and travel history. We don’t paint an aspirational life where we spend days lounging at the beach with a martini on one hand or partying all night. We keep it real, warts and all.
The diversity of what it has to offer. Whether you’re looking for nature, culture, or adventure, the Philippines has an island that suits your needs or preferences. We always recommend the highlands and intricate cave network of Sagada, the beaches and canyoneering trails in Cebu, and the wildlife and karst islands of Palawan.
We divide our year into traveling and blogging seasons. We usually spend three straight months traveling, and the next three staying at home just writing. September-November and March-May are usually our travel seasons. We tried blogging while on the road, but we found out soon enough that it wasn’t for us. When we travel, we don’t like to think about the blog too much. LOL.
Being savvy when planning their trip. We see a lot of quotes online discouraging travelers from planning. “Just go and travel,” they say. But that’s coming from a very privileged place. When you need to apply for a visa and you have a limited budget, there has to be some planning involved whether you like it or not. And we want them to be prepared so they won’t waste their hard-earned money.
Tough question. Aside from the Philippines — Japan, Australia, Turkey.
JAPAN
50
Japanese, Thai, Italian.
Endo Sushi in Osaka. It’s the best cheap sushi place for us.
Not sure if it qualifies as a travel movie: “Up in the Air” (2009)
Changi Airport in Singapore. When we need to connect in Singapore, we intentionally extend our layover so we could stay longer at the airport. Haha.
We always hear that the Philippines has the most hospitable locals, but within the Philippines, the people of the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod are the friendliest and the most helpful.
Family! We love traveling with the seniors and kids in the family. We love seeing their smiles whenever they get to try something new. It’s always more challenging because there are a lot of limitations and considerations, but it’s also more rewarding.
We tremendously enjoy checking out supermarkets when we travel. It gives us an idea of how cheap or expensive the place is. At the same time, we’re always curious about the sort of products that locals usually buy.
Kazakhstan. The Turkistan region is incredible.
Timing is everything. I know this because it took me two attempts. The first time I tried, I quit my job and jumped right into it without any fallback. It turned out that I wasn’t ready for this. I was miserable, barely getting by. I went crawling back to where I came from. After three years, I tried it again. We were more prepared this time around — emotionally, financially, and even socially.
New Zealand.
We’re supposed to be in Europe now, but the COVID-19 threat put a stop to that plan. When this is all over, we plan to go backpacking around South Asia, from India to the Maldives.
Yosh Dimen and Vins Carlos are the bloggers behind The Poor Traveler, on which they document their misadventures and share tips on travel planning and budgeting. The goal is to build FREE travel guides for the poor travelers out there — the first-timers, the shy and awkward, the navigationally-challenged, and those who can’t afford to make costly mistakes.
Learn more about Yosh and Vins and check out their free travel guides on The Poor Traveler website. You can also connect with them on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube!
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