| About 5 years ago, I decided that I wanted to travel | | | | games to play. I watched two movies, took a long |
| to Southeast Asia. The reason? Just to explore and | | | | nap and I was in Japan. My other plane wasn't quite |
| expose myself to something totally new. It was | | | | as plush. It was an Asia-based airline, which seemed |
| important for me to do this in order to grow | | | | to be on an old plane, but the food was good and |
| intellectually and have a better understanding of other | | | | not as many people so I could spread out onto three |
| cultures as well as my own. So I started researching | | | | seats to sleep. |
| flight costs on the Internet. I checked out all the big | | | | My time spent in Thailand was unforgettable and I |
| websites like and and also tried specific airlines (just | | | | hold these memories of the culture and people quite |
| to get an idea on costs). I was surprised at how | | | | dear to me. I have an entirely new perspective of a |
| inexpensive it was. I was expecting to see tickets | | | | world that I never really knew existed. It also helped |
| range from $2000-$5000 since it can cost close to | | | | me to become more appreciative of my own culture |
| $1100 just to travel from coast to coast in the US. | | | | and of foreigners. It takes a lot of guts to travel |
| Instead, I saw prices ranging from $700-$1800. I was | | | | outside your comfort zone, but the effort is well |
| shocked. All this time I've been putting off traveling | | | | worth it and in my opinion necessary to grow as an |
| and it was only $700 away? I felt cheated. Since I | | | | individual. |
| didn't have any specific date in mind I played around | | | | The lessons I learned in this process of traveling as |
| with different dates/times of year and durations. I | | | | cheaply as possible (since I don't make a lot of |
| finally decided to go in the off-season of summer (it | | | | money) is to keep your schedule loose and try as |
| was going to be REALLY hot there) and set a | | | | many different dates and durations in order to find |
| timeframe of 3 weeks. I had no further itinerary and | | | | the best prices. Layovers are typically going to be |
| I wanted to keep it that way. I like being able to | | | | cheap that direct flights, and in some cases direct |
| take things as they come and modify my adventure | | | | flights just aren't even possible. The trick is that |
| according to what grabs me when I'm there. | | | | there is no trick. There is also no magic process to |
| I booked a flight about 3 months in advance for | | | | find the best deals. You have to research and learn |
| $716. Left San Francisco for a layover in Tokyo and | | | | by doing. If I had to do it all again, I'd probably travel |
| then I had to transfer planes to Bangkok. The total | | | | use more taxis or hire a personal driver to show me |
| trip took about 17 hours. I know it sounds bad, but it | | | | around as I didn't realize till later how cheap these |
| wasn't at all! Japan airlines (JAL) had video screen in | | | | things are in a third world country. |
| front of each seat with several movies to watch and | | | | |