In a year and a bit we are going to retire and the plan is to be a permanent traveler, for a couple of years before we finally settle down. The question now is as a permanent traveler, what type of travel do we want. A five star traveler? Or a gap year traveler who’s ready to rough it?
My husband said that I should start doing my research on how to achieve a travel budget of 100 GBP a day for two. And what kind of lifestyle we will get by doing so? So I tested it on our little holiday trips here and there. We stayed in the “cheapest” Shangri La Hotel in Oman, as well as the Address Hotel in Dubai for a long weekend as a sample of five star holiday style. Then a holiday to Lembang, Indonesia and a tour to Yemen where we stayed in a pension place where there’s no standard on cleanliness as well as proper service, not to mention facilities.
Keith, who was a boy scout when around 50 years ago, admitted that as he grows old, he doesn’t mind of roughing it on occasions, but he knows what he wants, and he prefers to have a five-star facilities. As for me, as an Indonesian; and I have to admit it, our cultures are different thus appreciation on hospitality services also have a different perception, I am always ready for roughing it, and 5 star services I have learned since becoming an expat, not long ago. However, as a good girl, who comes from a well-educated, middle class Indonesian, family I was never really exposed to the rough end of the Indonesian society, which makes me enjoy 5 star hospitality as much as Keith.
Imagine this: as a kid I never used a public toilet, not even a toilet in my school. I was accustomed to arrive home after school and do my business instead of using public facilities that I can’t control the cleanliness. My first experience of using a public toilet was when I traveled abroad for the first time, and for me a public toilet meant a hotel toilet! Now, which type of traveler am I? the rough and ready back packer or the 5 star lady? Can we live on a budget of UK £100 a day all-inclusive (that means including local transport, hotels, meals , communication/internet, and other small shopping)? as I still can’t imagine what kind of lifestyle that will be? or rather where should we go to travel within that budget.
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