While I’m not entirely sure where my travels will take me after New Zealand, one option I’m considering is a stint teaching English someplace in Asia. As I’m only in the preliminary stages of considering this idea, I haven’t done a whole lot of research on the option.
What little bit of research I’ve done has been stressful. Google searches provide heaps of sites filled with spam, outdated content, and inconsistent information. Whenever I start researching the idea, I soon get frustrated and move onto something else.
Needless to say, I was stoked to find out that Nomadic Matt’s latest (and final) eBook is a wealth of information on the subject. In his 102 page eBook How To Teach English Overseas, Matt goes into excellent detail on the whole premise of teaching English abroad. In his four plus years traveling the world, Matt has spent a significant amount of that time teaching English. He was aware of the lack of detailed information out there and decided to write a comprehensive guide to the option of teaching English overseas. Essentially, he has done the research so you don’t have to.
How To Teach English Overseas
He outlines the ways to go about getting certified (TEFL, TESOL, CELTA, etc), tells you whether or not thats even necessary, and explains the best ways to go about finding jobs teaching English. Also, Matt goes into detail about the different types of jobs you can get as an English teacher – be that freelance work, in government schools, or private ones. Matt combines his experience, with his own research, with the feedback of English teachers he has befriended over the years.
What I found most beneficial in How To Teach English Overseas was the chapter that goes into specific detail on each country you could ever imagine yourself teaching English in (and even ones you couldn’t). Matt lists dozens of countries and explains how to get a visa to teach there, the specifics of pay and cost of living, benefits you’d receive as a teacher, and links that point you to more information.
How To Teach English Overseas
For a reasonable price of $9.99, Matt guarantees updates for life on all of the content in the eBook. This is extremely beneficial as the specifics of visas, rates of pay, and costs of living will certianly change.
How To Teach English Overseas is easy to read, visually appealing (with layout and illustrations by Hop & Jaunt), and most importantly provides a wealth of information on the subject. It’s a must read if you’re considering the option of teaching English overseas at some point in the future.
Chances are, your Round the World trip will result in you taking off on a long haul flight to some far off destination. I prefer most methods of travel over airplane travel, but inevitably you’ll be forced to board a jet knowing very well you wont be going anyplace else for the next six, eight, or twelve hours. Even for those who don’t suffer from claustrophobia, the thought of being confined to an airplane for extended periods of time can be daunting.
And rightly so. Even for seasoned travelers, the thought of a long haul flight and the aftereffects of one (severe jet-lag) can be quite stressful. Yet these 7 tips for dealing with a long haul flight should allow you to have a much more comfortable experience – on the plane and off when you arrive at your destination.
Creative Commons: Kossy
1) Make Minimal Transfers On The Way
Believe it or not, much of the planning for your long haul flight starts before you even get on the plane. And this tip starts long before you head to the departures terminal. Your long haul flight will be significantly easier if you don’t transfer five times on the way. Get to your departure airport as quickly and directly as possible – and the same goes for the destination. This can be difficult as a budget traveler, as we’re always looking for the cheapest option. Consider your options though, and if you can, avoid those annoying two hour layovers.
2) Get Heaps of Exercise The Day Before You Fly
Make a point to get lots of exercise the day you fly out (or the night before if you’re flying early). The day I boarded my 13 hour flight from LAX to AKL, I went on a half day bike ride along the beach. The benefits of exercising the day you fly are twofold.
First, exercising releases chemicals in your brain that helps to reduce stress. For the same reason you might go for a jog after a long day at the office, you should go for a jog before your long haul flight. You’ll be much more relaxed and less stressed about the upcoming half-day spent in the air. Second, if you get a good exercise in, you’ll be much more likely to get tired as the day goes on. If your body is exhausted, you stand a better chance of a deep sleep and catching some Zs in that cramped airline seat.
3) Reserve a Window Seat In Advance
Creative Commons: Jason Pratt
When booking your ticket online, try and reserve a window seat for the long portion of your journey. You’ll want to try and sleep, and nothing is worse than getting woke up by the man in the middle seat who suffers from a weak bladder. If you forget to do this online, talk to the ticketing agent at check-in and see if they can secure you a window seat.
4) Grab Empty Seats Before The Seatbelt Light Goes On
This one takes a bit of practice, skill, and determination. It’s an art you could say – one it pays to master. If you’ve traveled before, you know the situation. You’re snugly smushed against your neighbor in the two window seats, while the same situation is going on at the other window. Yet between you and your fellow cramped traveler are three vacant seats in the middle row. A sleeper’s paradise.
Creative Commons: tylerdurden
When do you decide to take them? Right before the seatbelt light goes on. Too soon? You risk taking a late arrivals seat. Too late? Someone else jumps in ahead of you and you spend the night with your newfound travel partner’s head on your shoulder.
5) Drink Lots Of Fluids
Spending hours confined to an airplane will result in you getting dehydrated. That airplane air is not only cold, it’s also extremely dry. The effects of dehydration are the last thing you want to deal with in addition to your jet-lag. So, drink heaps of fluids before you get on the plane and continue drinking as you fly. Most long-haul flight operators make a point of bringing water and juice around – yet bring a big bottle of water for yourself as well.
That complementary beer and wine will be hard to turn down, so limit it to a couple to take the edge off and help you sleep.
6) Avoid The Post-Flight Nap
Regardless of when you arrive at your destination, do everything you can to avoid taking that quick ‘one hour’ snooze. It won’t work. You’ll hit the pillow, crash into dream land, and chances are you’ll feel worse when you wake up. Power on through the day (by following the next tip) and go to bed at a normal hour. You’ll feel much better the next morning.
7) Get Lots of Sunlight and Fresh Air When You Arrive
Creative Commons: tylerdurden
It won’t be easy to avoid that nap. Despite how excited you’ll be to have arrived in a new country, it will still be hard to stay away from a pillow after a long haul flight. Make it a point to stay active and explore your newfound city. This will result in you getting exercise, fresh air, and the sun’s Vitamin D. This will help keep you alert and allow you to make it to bedtime.
While these seven tips should help you deal with a long haul flight, you’ll inevitably feel a bit off when you arrive to your destination. That’s okay. Deal with it – be kind of tired, slightly delirious, and somewhat nauseous. Enjoy it for being a part of traveling and get excited to be someplace new.
What do you think? There are certainly more tips to dealing with a long haul flight – please leave yours in the comments section below.
There are plenty of blogs out there encouraging people to travel. I consider Backpackingmatt to be one of them.
I believe in the importance of experiencing the unknown, learning about new cultures, meeting new people, and gaining a better understanding of this world we live in.
It’s a big place, and I for one want to see of much of it as I can.
Many of these blogs very often make backpacking out to be a very glamorous affair. In some respects it is. I love the freedom of being relatively nomadic. I get to see new places, meet new people, and don’t have many of the day-to-day responsibilities that my peers back home do.
Last week, I went on a boat tour of beautiful Milford Sound. The week before that I went whale watching. The week before that? An overnight cruise in the Bay of Islands.
There are plenty of advantages to traveling – but this post is designed to show you the challenges you face as a backpacker.
Creative Commons: lindyireland
The life of a backpacker isn’t easy, and here’s why:
1) Living on a Strict Budget
It’s one thing to budget your finances, but it’s an entirely different thing to budget your finances as a backpacker. Along with the joys of traveling comes the day-to-day reality of living every day of the week on a budget. Yes, you have occasional splurges while backpacking – but for the most part, you’re limiting yourself on food, activities, drinking, and transportation.
All with the hopes of traveling longer and farther.
I returned a car recently to the airport. Most people would pay the bus fare back to town. Me? I hitchhiked. That $10 fare paid for my dinner.
2) Dealing with Dorms
If you’re spending extended periods of time on the road, you don’t have the luxury of staying in hotels – or for that mater, motels. When you think of the nightly cost of accommodation, it adds up. The obvious answer for a backpacker is a hostel. These are excellent venues to meet other travelers and very often, they’re pretty sweet places – but at the end of the day (literally), you go to sleep in a three, four, eight, or twenty bed dorm room.
That guy (girl) above you very often snores. And that bed? Well let’s just say it’s not a Serta Perfect Sleeper.
3) Backpacker Jobs
Creative Commons: fauxto_digit
I’d love for you to quit that job and ditch that cubicle. I think there’s more out there than an 8 -5. Yet if you travel like I do, on working holidays, it’s definitely not an extended vacation. While I’ve traveled to quite a few countries, I’ve worked some pretty unflattering jobs to get me there. In Ireland, I stood on cold, windy, and wet streets in small villages trying to get locals to sign up for monthly donations to charities. In Edinburgh, I spent two weeks scrubbing pots and pans in an office canteen. In Franz Josef on New Zealand’s West Coast, I cleaned rooms in a small hotel.
The goal is always for that perfect, backpacker oriented job – but, the realities of backpacking are that you’ll sooner or later end up working a job you certainly didn’t get that degree for.
4) Dealing with the Language Barrier
I’m unfortunately one of those unalingual Americans. I naively didn’t see the incentive in learning and becoming fluent in a foreign language when I was in high school or college. So when I travel to a country where English isn’t the language of choice, it can be a bit challenging.
I believe in the importance of learning the basics of the language of the country your visiting – it’s courteous and the least you can do as a traveler. However, this doesn’t make you fluent. You can get by, but the biggest challenge you deal with is sitting in that local bar or cafe and not knowing what anyone around you is saying. Nevermind the problem of getting directions to the bus station, finding your hostel, or booking your train ticket out of town.
5) Being Seperated from Close Friends and Family
Creative Commons: Mat Honan
I’m lucky enough to have traveled with a good mate during my first stint overseas, and with my girlfriend now, but it’s still difficult to be separated from those close friendships you developed over the years at home. It’s wonderful to meet fellow travelers – yet very often, you meet great people only to say goodbye far too soon.
There are plenty of efficient and budget friendly ways to stay connected with your mates back home – be it Skype, Facebook, or international calling plans. The reality of the situation is you’re busy, they’re busy, and a long backpacking trip results in you loosing contact with old friends.
6) Living out of a Backpack
I travel light. When I was clearing customs in Auckland, the agent asked me where all my luggage was. She saw my year long visa and my lone backpack and didn’t understand where everything else was at. There was nothing else.
When you’re often on the move, you don’t want to have heaps of luggage. The downside? I hate about every piece of clothing I have in my backpack.
A chest of drawers has quite a lot on my Gregory Baltoro 65L.
7) Dealing with the Unexpected
Creative Commons: Old Sarge
This seems like a vague challenge for a backpacker to deal with. Yes, everyone has to deal with the unexpected – be you a doctor, a grad student, or a backpacker. However, the difference for a backpacker is that you’re very often dealing with the unexpected in an area you’re unfamiliar with. You don’t have the grounding you would if you were permanently based someplace.
It’s one thing to catch the flu when you’re home in Chicago. You know where to go, who to see, and what to do. Try getting seriously ill in Istanbul. When you’re out of your usual comfort zone, the unexpected challenge can be a lot harder to deal with.
It’s important to be realistic about the trip you’re planning.
The good always comes with the bad. An extended trip abroad will be a rewarding, life-changing experience – but it certainly won’t be easy.
What’s your take?
What are some of the challenges you face as a backpacker? Add them to the comments section below.
Kia Ora - I'm Matt. Adventurer, Instagrammer and New Zealand travel planning expert living in Queenstown, NZ. Founder of Planit NZ - New Zealand's largest travel planning & booking website.
Hello! I’m Matt. Thanks for checking out my blog. Be sure to follow me on Instagram for loads more New Zealand travel inspiration. Comment on one of my photos so I know you came from here!
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