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Manila Philippines Expat Family Budget
After living in Manila for about a month, we have real world numbers showing the cost to live there full time. This Manila Philippines expat family budget is based on our family of four, and I will cover both renting and buying scenarios. In some past posts in this series I have avoided the buy
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Cu Chi Tunnels, Ho Chi Minh Sights, and AK47s
In this week of travel we fit in a lot of activity. Most notably we went on a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels (day 194 below) where we got to experience what the VC fighters and locals had to endure during the war. On that tour AC also shot an AK47 which felt like
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December International Travel FIRE Budget
The month of December saw us staying largely in Manila Philippines. This location was shaping up to be a massive cost savings in our international travel FIRE budget. It really had everything going for it; extremely cheap lodging, transportation, and food. When we tallied the final numbers however, the savings were meager and the discomfort
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Exploring Ho Chi Minh City With An Overclocked Brain
This week we really got settled into our great Airbnb and the immediate surrounding area. Feeling comfortable with our surroundings, we started exploring Ho Chi Minh City. First up was the tallest building in Vietnam, and the 17th tallest in the world, Landmark 81 (Day 185 below). Next was a motorbike tour of food and
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Guam Travel Reflections
Guam is the one destination on our year of travel that was truly a vacation-like destination. The plan to go to Guam started brewing way back around 2018 and was the idea that eventually grew into the full gap year plan. The Guam vacation and the gap year were opposing forces however. Our international gap
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The Risks Of Manila – Creeps, Vanishing Kid, Getting Stranded
This week of travel was full of danger, risk and uncertainty. Reading back through these logs I can understand the stress we’ve all been feeling through the week. The events include a vanishing kid, as BC disappears into the thin air of manila (12/12 log). BC also encountered a creep on the playground (12/8 log),
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Manila Philippines Sucks In A Useful Way
Why did we make a stop to travel to Manila Philippines on our international gap year, given that it sucks? It’s a good question and I probably need to remind myself of why, because I keep asking the question, why are we here? Currently we are in the thick of our stay at Urban Deca
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Diarrhea In Manila Philippines – This Place Sucks
This collection of travel logs spans the week of 12/1 – 12/7, and involves great things like bad food leading to Diarrhea in our shoe sized apartment in Manila Philippines (day 157). We’re trying to see the redeeming qualities of this city, but it’s not going well. This week was full of struggles like issues
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Guam Expat Family Budget: The Cost Of Living In Paradise
My family of four lived in Guam for a total of 45 days recently, and during that time we closely tracked our spending to determine what an expat family budget would look like. Guam is a special destination because my parents were stationed there in the Air Force. It’s a location that has fascinated me
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November International Travel FIRE Budget
For the month of November international travel FIRE budget, we were almost entirely in Guam. Only the final three days of the month were not in Guam. Those final three days were in Manila Philippines which is a sharp drop in spending compared to Guam. This budget shares similarities with the October budget in that
Traveling Toward Fire
A Premature FI Experiment
