You stare at your computer screen for hours, boredom strikes and you decide to go out for a cup of coffee. You go to the nearest shop, hoping to awaken your already tired mind then you realize you only have enough money left before pay day comes that you can’t even afford a nice dinner with your friends. You go home, amidst the crazy train and rides, and grasp the sad idea that nothing interesting happened in your day.
This scenario goes by every day, making you an old corporate robot for years. But then in between towers of paperwork and the crisp sound of the keyboard, there’s this itching feeling on your toes, urging you to do something different and bold.
This book review, just like the site for gadget reviews R-Tech24 I wrote before, is another indepth feature for you. In her book, it debunks three traveling myths that hinder people to do their travels—traveling is only for the rich, that it requires a lot of money, and that it’s very expensive.
While some believe that only the rich could explore what the world has to offer, Rica breaks the wall that gaps beautiful places from wanderers through this book. It is true that expenses is obviously inevitable, but one could still travel if he knows how to set priorities, sticks to it and properly allots travel fund even when the world tells you that you simply can’t.
She tackled third world issues hindering people of traveling and just settles themselves to mere dreaming and scanning picturesque photos in travel blogs. Sure, the country we leave in deals with horrid traffic and polluted cities, carnival politics and empty pockets three days before the pay day but the book edifies every person, with those inner travelers within them, to go the extra mile and live the dream instead of confining thoughts and wanders within their comfort zone—eat chips in front of the television and bury themselves in their rooms.
It is also helpful that the author, being a seasoned traveler that she is, included sample itineraries of trips with estimated budget and expenses—from setting aside emergency fund (that she puts in zip locks in undergarment pockets) to her Splurge Money (splurge once and remember it forever, she says). Aside from this, the book also magnifies specific points on how to create a travel fund out of your measly salary, how you could skip a frappe in between work so you could have a taste of a Bangkok street food and travel essentials such as insect repellants, safety locks, medicines and ‘the bag that doesn’t give a shit.’
The book offers more than what travel guidebooks, websites and forums can give. It is from a solo traveler’s own perspective from matters of booking and scouting for promos, finding the cheapest hostels, and traveling light and slow. But then Rica never set aside the balance she has to maintain in delivering general options for her readers’ own taste while telling interesting tales of her own mishaps and adventures worth sharing.
As the author concludes, “If you’re ready to see the world, go grab that luggage, that suitcase, or that backpack. Hit the road and never look back. You only have one life. No more excuses.”