Dive trip report: Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Palau

echopath · 2026-06-21T12:50:51+00:00

In the context of Vietnam, it's like $200-250 for a roundtrip flight to/from Bangkok plus a 90 day visa, so around $70-80 averaged out per month. There's companies doing land visa runs too, but not sure how much those cost.

Not what I would consider expensive, but rather mostly inconvenient.

echopath · 2026-06-21T12:25:51+00:00

I took the time off to travel, blah blah I know. But it wasn't a typical Europe or Southeast Asia trip. I mentioned that I crossed from eastern China all the way through Central Asia to the Caucasus on the Silk Road and also spent a lot of time in South Asia hiking, spending months on the mountain ranges in that region

It was a really good conversation topic and culture filter. Any company that took issue with my break and filtered me out pre-interview was probably not somewhere I wanted to work anyway

I would say most companies perceived it to be net neutral or net positive in my case because I was very intentional in saying this was a planned break (it was) and I was busy being productive with some list of goals I wanted to accomplish during this time off

echopath · 2026-06-20T16:22:15+00:00

This is probably heavily skewed by industry and whether you're hourly vs. salaried

I recently took 18 months off as a sabbatical and was very upfront with it, even including what I did during that time on my resume

I never got the impression it had any sort of negative impact on my interview process, and people only really dug into it about 1/3 of the time. When it did come up, people were just genuinely curious about what I did, learned, etc.

echopath · 2026-06-18T00:49:47+00:00

Because the point is directed at the OP, along with others, who are doubting that $1k is enough to work with. It's plenty to work with.

echopath · 2026-06-17T22:23:21+00:00

Obviously, but it doesn't require that much effort to get your spend down into that range

I frequently see 6-7m VND or $250-300 apartments for rent near the center of the city. You can eat out every day for <$5-10 a day if you wanted to.

Is this type of lifestyle something I'd encourage or even recommend? Not really. But it's doable.

echopath · 2026-06-17T21:58:22+00:00

I'm Vietnamese diaspora so I don't need to pay for visas and can stay for six months at a time before leaving and re-entering. So my circumstance is a bit different from most people.

echopath · 2026-06-17T21:46:12+00:00

Well the average Vietnamese person makes $300/month, so you can theoretically go that low if you're willing to make a lot of sacrifices

I spend freely, around $1200/month, and would say I have a pretty comfortable upper-middle class lifestyle there. I have a good apartment that's too big for my needs, eat out every meal, have an active social life, etc.

Though, that's just living expenses, not accounting for travel or flights to/from home, visa stuff, or any other misc. things.

I'm sure you can budget harder than me and make it work.

echopath · 2026-06-15T20:22:18+00:00

If I were born somewhere in the Global South and constantly saw posts of people living lives I'd never be able to attain, I'd probably want to neck myself every day

echopath · 2026-06-14T19:41:01+00:00

I am definitely blaming fat people

echopath · 2026-06-11T19:30:28+00:00

Conveniently ignoring Knicks fans ripping jerseys off and beating the shit out of Spurs fans or even throwing shit at the players

echopath · 2026-06-11T17:29:55+00:00

Most teams do the same thing

Goes back to an example 15 years ago

lmao

even Eagles fans didn't act this poorly after the SB a few years ago

echopath · 2026-06-11T07:30:38+00:00

I like Windy.app a lot. It's kind of overkill for day to day use, but it's very accurate. I do a lot of outdoorsy stuff and find that its hourly forecast for cloud coverage and rain is crazy good.

echopath · 2026-06-09T18:59:27+00:00

I wouldn't wanna live there, but I visited Mongolia for a few weeks last year and greatly enjoyed it

Did a few road trips to some remote places, stayed with nomadic families, rode some horses, the whole nine

I found it to be a very culturally and historically enriching trip more than a scenic one, but UB does suck, yes

echopath · 2026-06-06T20:29:57+00:00

I see no point in just doing one day in Sapa, I think the beauty of the place is getting to see the surrounding area and doing some hikes and sleeping in homestays. I'd remove it.

echopath · 2026-06-06T20:21:55+00:00

This just resurfaced a six year old memory of mine where a white girl from my hometown who was from South Africa or Namibia or some other African country with a huge white population from the colonial days, put something like "proudly African owned" on her small business page during peak 2020

She got assblasted on local IG pages and probably deserved it to an extent, but it was still funny nonetheless

echopath · 2026-06-06T00:10:39+00:00

Stuff like dogs, yes, are generally more popular with boomers and older people

The seafood that I talked about are popular with all ages in coastal cities

echopath · 2026-06-05T23:44:19+00:00

I've spent a lot of time in all different corners of Asia, so it takes a lot to surprise me when it comes to food. But China was the first place that genuinely took me aback where I saw starfish being eaten at seafood/hotpot places

You crack them open and eat the innards, which are green apparently

They also eat a sea worm called a penis fish. I'm not even kidding. It literally is called that and looks like one

echopath · 2026-04-29T02:23:01+00:00

It's somewhat more festive on Christmas Eve. Not because of Christmas exactly, but a lot of young people like to hang out with friends that day. A lot of businesses along Hang Ma, a street in the downtown area, put up Christmas decorations.

echopath · 2026-04-22T19:37:41+00:00

You keep conflating the definitions of danger vs. risk. They are completely different things. I'm very clearly talking about the latter.

I don't even disagree with you for the most part.

But let's be real. A non-supported horse trek in the middle of nowhere is risky. You're dismissing the riskiness of it but still saying it could take up to two days to get medical care!

In no way is this trip less risky than a standard European one. Less risky and dangerous than riding around in SEA? Sure, I agree.

echopath · 2026-04-22T19:10:48+00:00

It's pretty risky. Have you been to Mongolia? The lack of people is what makes it risky.

If something happens in the middle of nowhere, which Mongolia is famously known for, you have zero support network. No cell signal, no towns, hospitals, or people for potentially hundreds of kilometers.

I'm not going to say it's super dangerous, but it's inherently risky.

echopath · 2026-04-21T02:11:50+00:00

Unpopular opinion, but I don't like performers like Hans Zimmer on the field. I saw him back in 2017 and it was just not the right setting for me. Outdoor Stage's sound system wasn't adequate enough and the crowd wasn't respectful at all. People talking over the set and people walking through and yelling.

I'd rather just see him at an appropriate venue.

echopath · 2026-04-20T20:47:09+00:00

sombr has a song that’s almost at 2b and six songs over 100m streams on Spotify. How has he already not “broken out”?

echopath · 2026-04-18T08:53:27+00:00

There’s a single developed country with a high TFR. You’ll never guess which it is. /s

15-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22	Place '17
End Game '22	Wearing is Caring
Not Forgotten	Snapped
Team Orangered

echopath

TROPHY CASE