Category: Money

Mollendo travel
Money, On Travel & Writing, Peru, South America

If You’re a Liberal-Minded Westerner in a Poor Country, Maybe You Should Pay More

ABOUT A MONTH AGO, V and I hailed a taxi to Arequipa’s central bus terminal. We knew how much it should cost—eight Peruvian soles in total, less than $3. When the driver quoted us 10 soles, we brought him down to eight. That was the objectively fair price, we reasoned; after years of being overcharged abroad simply because we’re white, we’d gotten used to haggling, as all travellers do. It’s … Continue reading If You’re a Liberal-Minded Westerner in a Poor Country, Maybe You Should Pay More

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Money, On Travel & Writing

How I Spent $7,634 to Travel the World in Four Months

FINALLY GOT AROUND to calculating my trip costs this weekend. I may have discovered a secret fetish for spreadsheets. A quick glance at the chart below tells the whole story: the later the month, the more expensive the country I travelled. As such, even though the total amount spent per month doesn’t change drastically. (With the exception of when I had to hop an emergency plane back … Continue reading How I Spent $7,634 to Travel the World in Four Months

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Money, On Travel & Writing

We Interrupt This Blog With a Little Canada…

THERE ARE MANY REASONS why I am sheepishly scooting back to Canada this week. Not to get into fine details, they have to do with the impending expiry of my health care, credit card, driver’s license and, well, passport. Yep. Anyway, dear Toronto: Surprise! It’s a convenient time, since this is the halfway mark of my trip; winter is coming fast in Europe, and I … Continue reading We Interrupt This Blog With a Little Canada…

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Money, On Travel & Writing, Why Travel

Mad Man’s Travel Poem (With Courtesy to Sylvia Plath)

I shut my eyes and pray that Orbitz drops dead; I lift my lids and find that it remains. (I think I made it up inside my head.) Three thousand bucks? No cheaper fare instead? Like arbitrary numbers gallop in: I shut my eyes and pray that Orbitz drops dead.  What happened to two grand — that’s what you said! “That price no longer exists” — … Continue reading Mad Man’s Travel Poem (With Courtesy to Sylvia Plath)

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Money, On Travel & Writing, Why Travel

A Postgrad’s Travel Tale: The Aimless Twenty-Something Life

IN MAY 2011, I was sitting across from four editors in the startlingly modern private boardroom of the Chronicle Herald newspaper in west end Halifax, Nova Scotia. I’d prepared for this job interview all week. The Herald isn’t an especially well-regarded publication (it’s locally nicknamed “The Chronically Horrid”), but holds the distinction of being one of Canada’s oldest daily papers, and the largest of the … Continue reading A Postgrad’s Travel Tale: The Aimless Twenty-Something Life

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Money, On Travel & Writing

How We’re Flying Through Java, Brunei, Kuching, Penang, Cambodia and Thailand for Under $300

AFTER FOUR HOURS OF SHITTY MATH, I found myself awake past 11:30 last night, staring at my computer screen, clicking and refreshing as my desk lay covered in sticky pads noting various potential flight routes. PUS – CGK, CGK – PHN, BKK – PEN. Or PUS – BWN, BWN – KL, KL – BKK. PUS – CGK, JOG – SIN, SIN – BWN? Suffice to … Continue reading How We’re Flying Through Java, Brunei, Kuching, Penang, Cambodia and Thailand for Under $300

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Money, On Travel & Writing

On Traveler’s Unemployment

ON AUGUST 27, 2013, I will be legally unemployed for the first time since I turned 18, over six years ago, and earned my first steady paycheck. I say “steady” because discovery of some legal document tucked away in an Eglinton Avenue filing cabinet could hypothetically prove that my first-ever paycheck was in fact for Timothy’s Coffee, in the summer of 2005, for roughly $40, or … Continue reading On Traveler’s Unemployment

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