money to fund trips? |
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Dec 24th, 2005, 21:12
| #1 |
| Member  Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Providence, RI USA
Posts: 19
| money to fund trips? Hi all, I just returned from my first trip to India (amazingamazing amazing!) and was wondering how most of you fund repeated trips to the country? I live in the US so the airfare is quite steep. I'm also a grad student and teacher so funds are limited and I'm already trying to plan my return trip. So I'm curious...how do most of you do it? thanks! Jenn |
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Dec 24th, 2005, 21:40
| #2 |
| On the Road, wherever I am  Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: in the mountains of Idaho . . . now the red-rock plateau of southern Utah
Posts: 1,162
 | Hi Jenn - Welcome home. India is amazing . . . When I graduated from college everything I owned fit into the back of my 1985 Toyota pickup . . . I'm 50 now, everything I own still fits into back of my Toyota pickup. Since my first overseas trip, 1979, a month in the wilds of Peru, I've made my life about travel. It is what I do. For me there is no greater teacher than travel . . . nothing that thrills me and fills me with anxiety and exhilaration like travel does. It is, in short, my life. I am a personal chef, and I work hard for a year or two, then head off for the world. In twenty years of travel, no trip for me has been less than that month in Peru; most are at least six months; I'm looking now at a year in India - where, over the last 20 years, I've spent almost three years of my life. I've given up lots of things that my culture swears I need to be happy. Happiness comes on the road, but it offers so much more than happiness. My decision has been a good one for me; I wish you luck in your future travels. Namaste Scott |
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Dec 25th, 2005, 00:05
| #3 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Delhi
Posts: 467
| Sounds very interesting Scott. How about your family? Do they support your love of travelling or is that one of the things you had to give up? |
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Dec 25th, 2005, 00:13
| #4 |
| Future Member
Posts: n/a
| I live 500 miles from my home, in the middle of nowhere, in what is essentially a junk yard. The "house" is so dilapidated that the roof is caved in in several rooms and it is open to the outside (we get a lot of tarantulas in the house). It has no heat in winter, when temps drop into the single digits, and no cooling in the summer, when temps climb into the triple digits. I pay no rent and split utilities with a roommate. I have no mortgage, car, kids, or credit card debt, although sometimes I have medical expenses. I work two jobs totalling 50-60+ hours per week, neither has benefits, and one seriously compromises my health. Yes, I want to return to India that badly, and yes, it is worth it. |
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Dec 25th, 2005, 10:07
| #5 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: minneapolis,mn
Posts: 156
| find somewhere you can live very cheap with family, friend someone that understands the wanderlust syndrome work all some save your money and travel in the winter |
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Dec 25th, 2005, 10:31
| #6 |
| re-member  Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: revolving around the sun standing still
Posts: 1,924
| i'm in debt 
__________________ Not all who wander are lost |
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Dec 25th, 2005, 22:12
| #7 |
| Maha Guru Member  Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: India
Posts: 1,069
| You can raise funds through writing your travel stories,photography or becoming a guide-if you know the area/country...activity. Otherwise-I appreciate VISION of TRACEYAM....very few people can do like that. Wishing you good traceyam !! |
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Dec 25th, 2005, 22:45
| #8 |
| Member  Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Posts: 22
| Jenn, just tell yourself that you NEED travelling and you will be able to make it. I come from the country where labour force is relatively cheap. We are paid less compared to people elsewhere in the same market, yet it is possible to save even when i have to provide for my two children. For me, finding a kindred soul with a similar passion for travelling has been helpful. Make it your preference and go fot it! Merry Christmas! |
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Dec 25th, 2005, 23:22
| #9 |
| This is just a cameo appearance  Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Chennai, India
Posts: 38,192
| Hats off to everyone who struggles but does it anyway   .I took out a bank loan to pay for my first trip. By the time I took my second trip two years later, I'd just paid off the loan but could afford it out out of improved salary, which remained the case for next few years. |
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Dec 26th, 2005, 00:15
| #10 |
| Member  Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Vancouver, B.C.
Posts: 72
| Merry Christmas everyone from rainy Vancouver, Canada. I can't say that finding funds for our first trip to India in 2003 was a problem as it was a gift. However, this time we have been saving since our return and it has taken about 26 months to afford to go back in March for six weeks. I am older then a lot of IMers and will be drawing a small pension soon which should pay for our trip each year as I will continue to work. We have not sacrificed a lot as our lifestyle is very modest and living expenses are low. We have been very fortunate! |
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Dec 26th, 2005, 00:34
| #11 | |
| Maha Guru Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Vancouver
Posts: 3,552
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Dec 26th, 2005, 16:15
| #12 |
| Member  Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 95
| I just work and then think of India while at work until I can use my holidays to travel again! |
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Dec 26th, 2005, 16:25
| #13 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: london/india
Posts: 124
| I'm a student of Hindi, so I get a grant to come out and study from my government. the first time I came though I worked for a year while living with my parents saving. for what I thought was going to be a three month trip - It turned into 18 months! ONe way to make money is to buy things to sell back home but it seems a bit risky - you've got to know what will sell and what you can make a profit on. Saying that, I'm thinking of experimenting with buying some things this time. I met one lady who came over land the first time and then bought return tickets after that so that she always had a ticket to go back to India! |
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Dec 26th, 2005, 16:53
| #14 | |
| Member  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: france
Posts: 70
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Dec 26th, 2005, 20:48
| #15 |
| a pain in the asana  Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: the India inside my heart
Posts: 6,734
| by saving every dollar I make from yoga teaching and not spending it on anything else.....which runs very counter to the norm here in middle class white bread suburbia
__________________ MY INDIA, 2005-2010 "Once you have felt the Indian dust, you will never be free of it." (Rumer Godden, 1975) |
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