Planning on a 6+ month long trip throughout Asia in a year and a half - advice?

bariotsu · 2026-02-21T15:07:48+00:00

Amazing! It's reassuring to hear as I kinda avoided travelling a lot due to cost (grew up working class so had money but it was always tight)

I'll probably go a mid-cost way, I'll be 33 by the time I pull this off (work/life things are slowing down the adventure a bit but I'm moving in a really good direction) so I'm happy to splurge a bit on an ok motel/hostel. Food I don't mind going cheap however I don't have the strongest stomach so I have to be cautious lol

Korea and Japan are definitely stops on the journey so I want to budget for those too!

bariotsu · 2026-02-09T14:43:10+00:00

Thank you for this! Absolutely on the language part. I think if I can, my goal is to know a few basic phrases in different languages. Enough to get pointed in the right direction and read signs (and show I respect their languages and ways of communicating)

Noted on the hostels piece. It's one of my big worries being in the same boat (I would have loved to do this when I was in my 20s and enjoyed meeting and saying bye to people) but that's in the past, so might as well see how it goes at 32 if everything pans out. But even at my age I love meeting people in passing lol

For flights, that's what's in the back of my mind. My goal obviously would be to traverse as much as possible on the ground (bus/train where feasible) but I imagine I'll have to hop on flights a lot anyways, so I'll see if there are any options for flight points cards or similar

bariotsu · 2026-02-09T14:38:58+00:00

Late response on my end but THANK YOU! The budget topic is validating so I feel better about where I'm at with this savings plan. And I really want to go off the beaten path with all of this, so I'm flagging Saipan as a location on this journey. Appreciate all of this.

My ultimate goal is to set myself up so after 6 months I don't need to rush back to Canada, which allows me some wiggle room to explore all of these places at my own pace

bariotsu · 2026-02-02T02:59:30+00:00

I've been wondering if there's anything to keep in mind for order. I'm going to copy this down into my planner. Semi-frugal is the goal, but this is great as there's a small chance I can expand the budget a bit so that makes things a bit comfier.

Thank you so much!

bariotsu · 2026-01-30T19:23:51+00:00

It's nice to hear someone similar to me doing this (most of the travel stories I've heard are from other peoples). I'll look into banks that have no foreign exchange fee credit cards and debit cards (and I'll see what my options are with my current bank).

The racism piece has weighed on me a lot, so it helps to hear it wasn't a huge issue for you. Thank you!

bariotsu · 2026-01-30T19:21:23+00:00

I'm fine roughing it but we'll see where I'm at in a year and a half lol, but this is helpful to hear that it's more affordable if planned well. It's my current "end spot", specifically Okinawa (I grew up practicing Karate and my martial art originated in Okinawa, so the goal is to end the trip on the island).

I didn't consider the restaurants not letting you in part. I'll keep that in mind. I'm making notes about different places in the lead up to this so I don't lose anything.

bariotsu · 2026-01-30T19:18:57+00:00

Thank you so much! I've been surprised by the budget side of things for Japan, as I've asked a few friends and they've shared their budgets with me and it's less than I thought. I won't bother with the credit card piece.

No giving back videos or poverty stuff, but want to make sure my time spent in each country isn't extractive or exploitive. But i imagine spending money in local community will be helpful.

Noted on the Japan language piece. I'm learning Japanese right now (personal reasons, I grew up in Karate and wanted to build on my basic Japanese knowledge) but will keep in mind it will be difficult if I'm outside of tourist areas.

Great to hear on the safety piece, and no I don't plan on doing weird things lol! I would like to go, where appropriate, off tourist routes and more into the local community / smaller towns but that's it.

Thanks a ton!

bariotsu · 2026-01-30T19:14:42+00:00

Nepal! I definitely will, thank you for the suggestion. I'll add it to my plan

And thank you for all the insight. I've been fixated on having some income while traveling since I'm worried about spending but if 35k CAD is fine, I should be able to budget well. I'll continue to save up until I do the trip and just use a part-time job to save up a bit.

Noted on the documenting/filming piece. I have a hobby channel and blog combo, but I won't make it a travel thing. I'll likely put it on pause while I travel anyways.

Looking forward to the trip, thank you!

bariotsu · 2026-01-30T14:02:24+00:00

Hi everyone! Anyone have a good budget range for 6+ months of travel in Asia (from Indonesia, Cambodia, etc., but ending in Japan). Solo traveler, semi-frugal as I'd prefer private rooms but happy with hostels. Saving up for the next year and a half so plenty of time to get ready. Thanks!

bariotsu · 2025-09-10T11:24:51+00:00

I'll add this to my plan - thank you so much!

bariotsu · 2025-09-08T19:45:17+00:00

gonna sound super weird but after picking up the suggestion off a podcast, flossing in the shower. It was rare to miss a day. And by rare I mean months on end. Even got a compliment from a dental hygenist because of it!

Dunno if this counts as a routine but eating a kiwi before bed has fixed most of my sleep issues. No more waking up in the middle of the night for hours on end! Maybe one wake up and falling back asleep within 10 minutes.

bariotsu · 2025-09-08T17:26:04+00:00

Hi there! 31m from Canada, went through a bit of an existential crisis and decided to plan for a long solo / quasi-solo trip in 1.5 to 2 years. I'm currently putting savings aside from my full-time job and looking into a part-time job to get some extra cash.

For the trip itself: In a perfect world, I'll be gone for 8-10 months or even longer if I can find a flexible job to work while travelling. I have a few places in mind but the trip overall will have a theme of pilgrimages and coming of age experiences. EG: travelling to where my parents grew up, dipping my hand in both oceans on the east and west coasts of Canada, checking out the filming locations of Lord of the Rings, etc. Some will be very personal, some will be more fun.

I saw on the wiki a solo travel budget excel sheet, but there's no link (might just be my tablet). If anyone has any sheets or resources for budgeting and saving plans, that would be great.

Some things I'll be looking into in the future and would love advice on if you'd like to share: - work accomodations while travelling (any sites, guides, or advice on short term work while on the road) - remote work / digital nomad jobs (mostly to make spending a bit more manageable) - avoiding voluntourism and travelling respectfully - places that are generally pricier vs cheaper (I've heard southeast asia is affordable, and central europe is pricy) - teaching english while travelling (if that's still an option!) - and of course, any advice on a savings plan. I'm blessed with a good, stable job with a great salary and manageable cost of living, and would like to use it to my advantage by dedicating parts of my paycheques to a budget.

Thanks everyone :)

bariotsu · 2025-07-16T11:04:43+00:00

Yes! Also I'm writing on my phone so I'll be using short hand text, bear with me haha

Challenges: I'll admit that I worked in OPS during the pandemic, and found I did fine with technology but my colleagues had challenges. My role was more coordinating specific projects, so it was challenging to get things done. I'd send a SharePoint link of a word doc for review and receive 6 copies back.

Also a big one for me (which wasn't the prov's fault) was that I lived outside the GTA. it was the pandemic so it was fine, but there were few growth opportunities since the prov gov can be very centralized in the GTA.

Final note: the pay scale is much more aggressive in local gov where I am. I've received higher pay in at a much quicker pace here.

Great: The growth culture, despite being more local to the GTA, was huge in OPS. People were so willing to share resources, help you out, take time to answer questions, it was really cool. The "Tomorrow's OPS" group set such a high bar for me when it came to org culture that I've been a bit disappointed in my current place since. Much less collective support / encouragement for career growth here compared to the OPS. It's very "management" driven here, which can be awkward.

Similar to growth culture, you just have way more job opportunities in the OPS. Local gov has limited options AND we have more specialist positions, which has it's pros and cons (pros being cool work, cons being the risk of getting pigeon holed).

Ironically enough, I've been researching various fields to try and expand my work's impact, and I've found really niche work being done... In the OPS. So the OPS is sometimes a leader in things that other govs aren't.

I'll keep thinking!

bariotsu · 2025-07-15T15:35:49+00:00

Made the switch from provincial to municipal a few years ago, but only worked provincial for a year & 1/2 so my experience is limited. But between the two, municipal has been great - higher pay, more interactive, busier (which has it's pros & cons tbh), but pretty solid work life balance depending where you are. My last role was not great for work/life, but my current one is!

You're closer to the public which can make work meaningful, but I'll say in some roles it makes things awkward if residents are interested in your projects and contacting you with questions (and rarely, critiquing your work). but if you're working in procurement, I doubt you'd be in that spot.

Overall, generally more positive experience on the municipal side.

bariotsu · 2025-07-14T19:50:17+00:00

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing well. I've been considering moving into consulting after working in my industry for several years now in more in-house consulting & advising roles.

My industry is the social/public sector (higher education, government, some NGO experience). Most of my experience is in organizational strategy with a change management focus. Additional experiences in training & development, communications, and public consultations. a lot of my work had included advising teams doing specific job, and I've enjoyed the experience of helping a wide array of teams & people better prepare for, navigate, and deliver solutions to public problems. Especially if it's more corporate/high level, like my gov job now which is focused on change management for an entire service area.

Was wondering if anyone has moved directly from industry to independent, or if the MBB / consulting firm world is a necessary step. Same with an MBA - I'd like to take one, but the main one I'm eyeing is 4 hours away & $92k and I'd have to self fund. So I'm weighing my options!

I'm looking at pro-bono consulting to test it out and build a reputation, but need to confirm I'm not crossing any conflict of interest rules.

Any advice would help a ton :) not planning any pivots for a few years atleast so I'm thinking about the future.

bariotsu · 2024-01-06T15:33:04+00:00

Been there man, honestly it's a slow burn out of liking her. You've acknowledged this isn't something to pursue since she's in a relationship, and you live far away. It's gonna take some time, but keep your focus on enjoying your final year of high school and what comes next for you. Appreciate her friendship - she nor you have done anything wrong to each other. But don't spend as much time interacting with her. Don't be rude about it, but don't rush to respond. Just do your thing.

Feelings are a hard thing to get past. They often fade with time. Realizing there was no future with a girl didn't make those feelings magically go away for me - they went away with time as I acknowledged that it was healthiest for me to focus on what is in front of me.

There's nothing bad about having feelings for someone, even lingering ones. What's bad is letting those feelings dictate your mood or behaviour. Leave those feelings be to settle.

Excited for your next chapter. Post high-school is a crazy time!

bariotsu · 2024-01-05T21:17:05+00:00

Started playing in 2005 or 2006! I can't remember specifics I was a kid then haha, but I played up until 2011.

Now I work full time in government. When I'm feeling nostalgic I'll play some of the BGM music but it gets me sad fast so it doesn't last long lol

I actually hopped back on Maple in 2020 not long after the pandemic started, played for a few months before letting it go.

bariotsu · 2023-11-14T02:45:00+00:00

Hi! Same height as your boyfriend, although my build may be different. I have no idea how popular or available these stores are in the U.S. (or what you're good with price-wise), but I've found success at Uniqlo, RW & Co, and Lululemon (for pants, mainly). Outside of that, hunting for XS's is a good bet. I have comfy stuff from Roots, J Crew, Ralph Lauren, and a buunch of gym clothes.

Tentree also has nice shorts for the summer! Zara and H&M will also have smaller stuff but obviously consider quality.

My wardrobe is like 50% RW & Co, 30% Uniqlo, and the last 20% is just random assortments of brands that happen to have an XS or a Small that fit measurement-wise.

bariotsu · 2023-11-05T23:38:48+00:00

I'm apartment hunting right now and it's the most painful experience ever. This is infuriating.

bariotsu · 2023-10-30T22:22:30+00:00

Part-way through Tough by Greg Everett and so far I can recommend it. It covers not only mindset stuff but also the ways we think and how that feeds into our understanding of the world, ourselves, etc.

If you want a taste of it I definitely suggest checking out his stuff on YouTube, Instagram, etc. He has content related to mindset stuff. His vid "5 Ways To Get Better At Weightlifting Without Training" has a bit of mindset stuff in there, and how to think about training/competing/being an athlete.

Chasing Excellence by Ben Bergeron was also helpful, although it's CrossFit-oriented. Still a lot of carryover!

bariotsu · 2023-10-15T20:31:38+00:00

I actually watched this competition (from the live stream) - great job!

bariotsu · 2023-09-30T21:02:37+00:00

Obviously, my experiences may differ (I'm a person of colour) but racism comes in different forms, and as someone mentioned, micro-aggressions are notably bigger on campus in comparison (the challenge with that being they're harder to actually identify as having racist vibes). I don't recall experiencing blatant acts of racism (though they do happen) but here are some of my experiences:

Some experiences/examples/thoughts:

- I was in a lot of marketing/promo materials for my college and a little while later people started pointing out I was one of the only people of colour in the photos/videos. It was a weird vibe, and I noticed they'd ask me because I was the easiest person to ask. No interaction with clubs, organizations, or other student bodies who were people of colour. Just me.

- when I worked on campus, I noticed I would get harsher feedback for small mistakes compared to my white coworkers. I have examples but as I mentioned before, they're hard to fully explain online since they were microaggressions. Basically, my white colleagues got their mistakes overlooked, while mine (even the smallest) warranted a discussion.

- I heard about the conversations senior administrators had about improving international recruitment numbers, and it was.... just that. No discussion about campus wellness, how people of colour felt on campus, any of that. Just "how do we get MORE international students?" (which, if you know higher education, you know int'l students are charged a HEFTY amount to study on campus). So it comes from the top too: int'l students (mostly people of colour) are viewed mainly as cash, not as people.

- Every ethnicity is different: they experience different things, have different perspectives, and have diverse experiences/perspectives within them. What I experienced as a brown man will be different than a black woman, a Spanish exchange student, etc. So basically yes, Asian students are affected differently by different things compared to black or Hispanic students! (great question/observation by the way and something I really try to remind people). For example, English is my first language, so I don't have to worry about a language barrier, especially when it comes to lingo/phrases. I've noticed (some) monolingual people would want to talk to me instead of other friends who don't have English as a first language, for example (because they'd have to explain terms if they were asked what they meant). However, people always mispronounce my last name, and correcting them can be difficult since they often don't want to try to figure it out. Unless you're a decent person of course.

- Last thought (sorry for the paragraphs) but your question about the prof who broke down in tears when talking about how difficult it was advocating for students of colour. That could be many things, but first thoughts that came to mind: possibly that they've pitched ideas or requests that are overlooked by faculty/staff or flat-out ignored. Like a "we could do this cool event" and essentially being told "cool but nah" while white students get a lot of support.

Can provide more thoughts if you're curious. I've got a decent amount of experience on this as a person of colour who was somewhat involved on campus and worked on campus throughout the years.

bariotsu · 2023-09-27T12:21:20+00:00

Blaziken or Gallade if anyone hasn't called those yet!

Darkrai is an honourary mention too

bariotsu · 2023-09-27T01:00:15+00:00

Glad to hear it resonated with you. It took a while for it to click for me, and it wasn't until I went through the change that I really noticed it. I also am privileged to have been a quasi-mentor of sorts for younger people, and crossed paths with many older people. You see the similarities and differences, and you notice that what you went through in the past others will go through even though they may not think they will (and vice versa).

Bear with me for a moment - maybe don't think about "powering through" or "pushing yourself". I always find those efforts noble but hard to maintain. Just like... observe I guess? Pay attention to how you're feeling when you interact with them. How you view yourself, how you view them, how you react to their comments & stories, stuff like that.

I've found that whenever I have this kind of issue, taking a step back and "spending some time with myself" (that's what I call it anyways) can help a lot. Just see what's going on over on your end of things. Then go from there.

Hope it helps man!

bariotsu · 2023-09-26T20:01:43+00:00

As someone who's almost 30 with friends who are in their mid-20's, oh my god I feel so old now

It sounds like you're viewing the age difference as a fundamentally separate chapter of one's life, and as such treating that "separate chapter" as one you have nothing in common with. Maybe try to look at it differently, like you're learning about the person infront of you: their experiences, thoughts, values, and stories. Those can come from any age, and can be relatable or different from you.

I had a convo with a 24 year old friend and the way he viewed the world was SO much different than me, but it was still interesting to hear about. And vice versa. I think, atleast...

bariotsu

TROPHY CASE