While we take this journey through frugal life it is important that we don’t lose sight of our values and what matters to us. This is something that is specific to the individual. For me, one of those things is travel. For me, travel is something that has enriched my life and has made me a better me which is something I truly value. Now, I’m not going to say that I am a well traveled person that has been to a multitude of different places. That is not the case at all. I would say that I have been to a small handful of places but I would like to visit more places and I am not going to let my work towards living frugally deter me from traveling. Will I be mindful and cognizant of my spending and consumption on my trips? Absolutely!

Let me take you with me on my journey to Thailand in 2000. I went with a friend, and the plan was to try to scrimp and save as much on this trip as we could, so we could stretch our time for the full two weeks we planned to be there. The tickets were expensive, around $2000 or so piece, so we really needed to find ways to save once we got to our destination. I booked a hotel online in Bangkok so we had a place to go to once we landed. The next day we decided to go explore other parts of the country. I read that prices in Bangkok would be higher than in outer areas. I also find metropolitan/commercial areas a little overwhelming as well. So, we traveled to Pattaya, a southern city near the ocean. When we got there it was late, so we stayed in a hotel on a main street, which cost roughly ten American dollars. We soon realized why, as the hotel was dark, dingy, and the rooms were small.  I don’t feel like we gave Pattaya much of a chance as we ate breakfast and took the next train to Chiang Mai which was in the northern area of the country. I had actually learned since my trip that there are many beautiful areas of Pattaya through reading and friends who traveled there. I had just also had a friend that had visit and loved Chaing Mai, so I was itching to visit there. So, with my frugal mindset I decided to take the train through the country. There were two choices, the express which cost twenty five dollars which got you there quicker and had more leg room, or the slower train which was eight American dollars one way. Well, thinking we had the time to see the country at a leisurely pace, we took the slower train. When we got on we instantly understood the price discrepancy. The seats were like old wooden church pews and once the train started moving it seemed like we were going so slow that one could climb out of the window and jump out safely and without injury. As we picked people up at each depot there would be vendors who brought in their homemade food and sold it for literally pennies. My friend bought and ate some sausages that he really enjoyed. During the ride we noticed several people looking at us through their fingers with their hands covering their face. Someone sitting by us who spoke English told us that it was because they knew we were tourists that had enough money to take the express but that we chose to ride the less comfortable train with “common citizens” as he said. They were making this gesture as a sign of respect as we were bright ones that they needed to look at through their hands. I thought it was really beautiful and thought we as Americans should have more gestures like that for others. On our trip trough very jungly territory we saw amazing Buddhist temples and loads of monkeys all around them.