Fly on the Cheap: Low Cost Airlines

There are many websites and airlines that allow us to fly for a very low price within a region, country, or continent, of course our normal go-to website is Skyscanner (read our previous article), which compares many of those sites, but often by going directly to the airline’s site, better deals can be found. Here are our favorite discount airlines:

Asia

Air Asia (flies almost everywhere)

Tiger Air (mostly flights which pass through Singapore and thus a chance to experience the most awesome airport Changi - check our upcoming article)

Peach (mostly within and in or out of Japan)

Firefly (within and in or out of Malaysia)

Lion Air (within and in or out of Indonesia)

Indigo (within and in or out of India)

Europe

Easy Jet

Ryan Air (watch out for out of the way airports and hidden fees)

Vietnam to Lao: The Road Less Taken (Na Meo)

It’s no secret that Southeast Asia is a backpacker’s favorite due to its numerous sites as well as affordable food, accommodation and transportation. One of the best things about traveling around Southeast Asia is that the most popular countries Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand can all be crossed by land quite easily for the most part. We decided to make our first of these crossings from Vietnam to Laos. After an epic month of couchsurfing, hitchhiking, teaching and a little too much drinking in Vietnam, Laos was calling our names from afar. That’s when started analyzing maps, and going through blogs to find out the best way to enter Laos, trying as usual to find the cheapest, and least traveled route.

At the end of our Vietnamese odyssey we were in Hanoi, the capital, which happens to be inconveniently located in regards to the available border crossings in to Laos. We thought our choices were limited to either taking a direct bus to Vientiane, the Laotian capital or taking a bus to Dien Bien Phu in the north, known for its importance during the war for independence, and also a frequented and prone to scams crossing. A bus to Dien Bien Phu costs a rough 300,000 dongs, approximately $15, our maximum daily budget, plus it is not even located on the border, that would have implied more money to spend on taking motorcycle taxis to the actual border and our other option, the direct bus to Vientiane would have changed our expected itinerary going from the center to the north and then back south again towards Cambodia, on top of costing $20. A little hopeless and with our visas ending soon, we noticed that another crossing closer to us existed, but how to get there. Very little information could be found online, but by chance we found this blog.

Skyscanner: The flight god

Oh, Skyscanner, how glad we are to have met you so long ago. How many dollars did we save thanks to your divine search skills? You might think we are crazy but as soon as you start using the website, it will truly become a god to you, the kind with many arms that can pull cheap flights out of nowhere. Oh and in case you were wondering, no, we are not paid by the marketing guys of Skyscanner, we just use this website every time we travel so we thought it might help other travelers as well.

So what is Skyscanner?

Skyscanner.net is a website that allows you to search for a flight from one destination to another, well nothing amazing you’d think, but it also looks on other flight websites and airline companies’ sites to find the lowest one, you can compare all the prices. Still not convinced?

Hitchhiking: A "How To"

Carry A Sign

Now it is not necessary to carry a sign and some hitchhikers may just prefer to thumb it, but by carrying a sign you can usually arrive to your destination a bit quicker. Of course in every country and region hitchhiking is different, but by carrying a sign that is large enough and written in the local language with a black marker (and a smiley face) the passing car has time to read your sign and decide if that is on the way. This also avoids many people being confused as to why someone is sticking out their thumb on the side of the road and the time wasted speaking with each passing car to ask where they are going and tell them where you are going. Also in many languages the pronunciation may not be the same as in your language and the romanization of characters may be incorrect to pronunciation. For example Gyeongju, in South Korea, is pronounced “Kyeongju” but copying how it is written in hangul (Korean), we can avoid the miscommunication as there is another city pronounced “Gyeongju” as is nowhere near “Kyeongju”.

HITCHHIKING: Advice for the Adventurous

Look the part:

People don’t want to pick up some oddball wanting a free ride somewhere, and thus locals usually have a very hard time hitchhiking. A traveler, especially a backpacker, is a more welcomed guest. The potential car will see you as the poor, lost foreigner. (That’s always a good image). So carry a backpack and look like a traveler.

Look presentable:

A big, burly guy with a beard, holes in his jeans, and a heavy metal t-shirt may scare someone from picking him up, especially to the tiny Japanese guy who may have flashbacks to the last American horror film he saw. It will work a lot more in your favor to be dressed presentable. Clean jeans, a nice shirt and a smiling face always works wonders. For women, if hitchhiking alone, you should avoid any unwanted impressions. Lipstick and a short skirt may not be the best hitchhiking outfit. Of course common sense is always advisable.

Cheap, I mean, free transport? Hitchhiking.

Now hitchhiking isn’t for everyone and just like riding a motorbike, taking a bus in Bolivia, and walking under a coconut tree there are risks. There is always a chance that the sweet family that just picked you up, offered you snacks, and set their two year old next to you is actually a gang of psychopath serial killers or maybe they’re just a kind-hearted family picking up the funny and lost-looking foreigner.

Other than it being free why do we like hitchhiking so much?

First of all hitchhiking is always an adventure, and an unexpected adventure at that. You never know if the couple that just picked you up will end up taking you to a giant family lunch that they had planned to go to before they drive an hour out of their way to take you to your destination, or if the funny guy that due to a language barrier you can’t communicate with except for sign language and laughs will end up taking you to his house to show you his farm animals and invite you in for a cold glass of milky rice wine, or even if the ride will end up inviting you to stay at their awesome beach house equipped with a yacht, or maybe the next person will just pick you up and drop you off at your destination with only light conversation and a picture to show his friends later.