2011
19
December
'Your blog post changed my life' - always nice to hear that!

Today I received an e-mail from someone, we'll call him R., that I really appreciated.

R. writes...

Hi Chris! My girlfriend and I were originally planning to take our $1000 and spend it on an all inclusive Mexican Resort. Well, you changed my mind with your under $1000 to Vietnam post. I only first caught a glimpse of your site in October, however I was still able to get flights for $933 all in. Your work - changed my life. We stayed in Vietnam for about two weeks, we headed over to Cambodia to see Angkor, and we ended up having an enjoyable day layover in Tokyo. Thank you. Thank you and Bless you.

I definitely love receiving these kinds of e-mails, and I'm glad my posts have made a positive difference in people's lives through travel. I would never dissuade someone from taking whatever type of vacation they want, but I'm glad that a great deal at least gives someone a pause for thought about perhaps taking a trip to somewhere that they never thought they would, could, or should.

Getting out of your comfort zone is half the fun of traveling. Lately I've become more deal-centric with my trip planning. I wait for a good deal, to anywhere, book it quickly before it goes away, and then figure out later what I want to do there and where I'm going to stay. It worked out really well for Taiwan, despite not speaking the language or having a clue what there was to do there. Turned out to be a country with great hiking, a scenic gorge area, nice beaches, and awesome people.