Posts tagged budget travel

Leaving one’s favorite shoes, outfits and beauty products behind doesn’t mean that one should give up  looking pretty. For starters, one might run into someone cute. And then feeling good about one’s appearance shouldn’t stay back at one’s home along with the rest of one’s crap. So let’s see if there’s anything one can do…

I have to admit - I suck at downsizing toiletries.  I will pack only 2 pairs of underwear if absolutely necessary, but my face wash, tonic water, shampoo, conditioner, etc. are always coming with. Most of beauty tips on travel websites come down to 1) buy small airplane-friendly bottles and relocate your favorite products or 2) buy the same stuff in the travel size containers.  Unsurprisingly, both involve shopping.

Here’s my problem with it: if I simply re-pack all my cuticle treatments, hair masks and body scrubs into plethora of little bottles, the said 2 pairs of underwear won’t have a fighting chance. Something has to be sacrificed.

Trying to come up with candidates for kill off, I have searched homemade beauty products sites and travel blogs.  It appears body scrubs and hand lotions, facial masks and even shampoo can be easily created from the most basic ingredients. I have picked the recipes that seemed budget and backpack friendly and split them into categories: Face, Body, Hair, Hands & Nails.

Naturally, this list isn’t complete - it’s just a tip of the iceberg of collective wisdom. If you have simpler, better, more affordable beauty tricks in your travel repertoire - please share them with fellow vagabonds.

FACE

• you’re at an airport and you want to remove the afternoon shine from your nose and forehead: a toilet seat cover works just as well as oil-blotting papers.
• on a plane take couple extra packets of sugar and (if available) honey.  Later you can mix the two together, gently massage on face, rinse. Lemon or lime can also be added to the mix.
• just honey: this is an easy, natural mask for people with dry or acne prone skin. After washing your face, gently apply honey to your face, lips, and eyelids. After 10 - 20 minutes, gently rinse it off.
• take 4-8 aspirin (white, uncoated) in palm and add a little water to make paste.  Apply on clean face, leave for 10 min, massage gently, rinse off.
• for oily skin, mash up a ripe tomato and leave it on for 15minutes. Rinse with warm (not hot) water.  (Ripe plum also works and makes my skin matt).
• for dry skin, mash half a ripe banana or avocado and spread on face, let sit for 15 minutes, rinse well (works for the body as well).
• take a green tea bag and steep in boiling water for a minute. Let it cool down and drab it on your puffy areas (eyes etc.) 
• chilled green tea is a refreshing and cleansing toner - perfect for acne prone skin.
• put slices of raw potato on your eyelids to reduce puffiness.
• got a spot? Pop a dab of honey on it and put a band-aid over it. Leave over night. 
• exfoliate your lips by using the corner of your bath towel dipped in lukewarm water.
• and most important: don’t touch your face!  Easier said than done, but think about all the buses, street food and odd money bills your hands have handled today…  Nail biters, nose scratchers and chin rubbers - listen up: come up with a way to “distract” your fingers, e.g. buy rosary or baoding balls.  (And if you’re trying to nap on a bus/plane/train with your head resting against your palm - wear a clean sock as a glove, then press your cheek against it).

BODY

• to save packing space, use you hair conditioner as a shaving creme, it is said to work just as well.
• pinch a cupful of oats or muesli from the breakfast buffet if there is one, then tie it up in a sock. Float the sock in a bath full of hot water, then use as a moisturizing puff and massage all over your body. The sock will be a bugger to wash but your skin will feel wonderful. 
• mix one sugar sachet with a squirt of shower gel for an invigorating body scrub. If you are swimming on a sandy beach, sit in the shallows and give yourself a scrub with a couple of palmfuls of sand. 
• for mosquito bites pop a little bit of clear nail polish over them. The itch will stop as soon as the polish dries and the polish will just peal off in a day or two’s time!
• caffeine is the main ingredient in many cellulite creams. Try massaging warm coffee grounds into your skin while in the shower.
• apply any oil (e.g. common in Asia coconut oil) on wet skin after shower and dab gently with a towel - works better than any lotion (Works great as an eye make up remover!)

HAIR

• according to Brandy from http://livevicuriously.com you don’t really need shampoo: “Baking soda, my friends, baking soda. 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 1 cup of water - now, shake shake shake, and pour it on your dome. Clean, shiny hair with no freaky chemicals seeping into your brain.”
• as i curl my hair with mossa waving system - which requires natural pH cleanser to maintain  shape - baking soda isn’t an option for me, unfortunately.  I usually resort to Johnson’s baby shampoo (hopefully less of freaky chemicals than in the adult stuff), and use it also as shower gel and laundry wash.
• cut back on the amount of shampoo you use. Do the same with toothpaste. (Companies selling the stuff market overuse - a pea-sized drop of toothpaste is enough).
• looking for that really sun kissed Aussie Surfer look? Add a little lemon juice to your shampoo and get out into the sun. The sun will naturally bring out your highlights. 
• humectant, meaning it attracts and holds moisture in your hair.

HANDS & NAILS

• wet your hands in warm water, then rub oil of any kind into them. Keep rubbing until most of it has been absorbed. Wipe off excess with a clean cloth.
• for whiter nails, rub lemon onto them.

info from the following websites:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/women-travelers/704976-unusual-travel-beauty-tips-tricks.html

http://living.oneindia.in/beauty/homemade.html

http://livevicuriously.com/2010/07/08/10-things-ive-learned-on-the-road/

http://girlstravelclubtest.blogspot.com/2009/09/beauty-tips-for-lazy-backpackers.html

http://nomadshostels.com/backpackers-blog/chantelles-15-cheap-beauty-tips/

http://www.totalbeauty.com/content/gallery/p-budget-beauty-tips

My name is Lena and I’m lucky.  I have done pretty well in one of the most random lotteries of all: parental one.  Besides the luxury of being fairly good-looking, skinny and healthy (no allergies, no broken bones and a digestive system that can process nuclear waste), I owe to my dad my boundless curiosity and an over-anal(ytical) mind to my mom.  

When I was a little girl my mother told me that there was nothing I couldn’t do: focused enthusiasm was the key ingredient of any magic in her opinion. So whatever I wanted bad enough (to work for it hard enough) always ended up within my reach.   Thus by the age of 30 I have built a highly successful career.  So successful in fact, that there was nothing left for me to improve in my job - short of implanting somebody else’s brain.  

Yep, I’m that good.  Of course, there’s always more money to be made, newer cars to be bought and companies’ names to be upgraded.  But ultimately this is as good as it gets for me.  I will never have a more spectacular combo of benefits:  I love my job, I travel a lot, I look and feel like 20 (thanks again, mom!), I’m single (read “free”, not “alone”) and have no debts or liabilities of any kind.  

The biggest commitment in my life is work.  Wait, let me correct that: it’s my ONLY commitment!  I occasionally help my parental family financially, but I do that out of love, not because I’m obliged.  With work it’s different: loving it (and I do, I DO!) helps me cope with the obligation part.

I have never particularly wanted to have kids, pets or a husband.  When I think of myself at an old age, I picture a Miss-Marple-like character, living in a neat little house in a neat little village.  Curious and somewhat nosy, yet intelligent and still enjoying her days, with books and memories for company and entertainment.  What a charming chapter in life!  No more appearances to be kept, no more men to seduce, no more external, unsatisfiable desires - just living…

Couple years ago I started hearing about backpackers and downshifters: those vagabonds of the modern world seemed to follow their wanderlust so effortlessly! For them living - just living! - didn’t require vindication of elderliness.  I was enchanted by them, envied them and knew that I - clearly! - would never have the guts to become one of them.

A little later, during a (painfully short!) trip to Thailand, I met numerous escapees from the West.  Their expatriation stories were almost identical: a vacation that ran several months/years/decades longer than was originally planned.  Some owned bars and guest houses, motorbike rentals and internet cafes.  Others just strolled around the planet, country after country, returning to the developed world only to generate enough cash for the next journey.  

Back home I started to really think about it.  I looked at my fear of uncertainty through my mother’s eyes: “There’s nothing you can’t do!”  I counted all my savings (don’t need a car, not enough for an apartment and hell, not taking any credits in this economy!), talked to my bosses (“All my boyfriends combined didn’t last quite as long as this job - need a break!”) and started planning my exodus.

So here!  My name is Lena, I’m 30 years old - and I’m a downshifter!  Well… at least a part-time one.  Starting October 2010 I’m taking 6 months off and heading to South East Asia.  I’ll be posting my prep notes (“what’s the best backpack?”, “how do I shop for a long-term international health insurance”, “what do I (not) pack?”), as well as my travel notes and photographs here.  I’ll try to keep it real (“what’s the cost of a tram ride in Istanbul?”, “are shared bathrooms really that atrocious?”), entertaining (roasted bug tastings with graphic descriptions) and funny (I solemnly swear to recite all travel jokes and report all comic accidents, not matter how embarrassing!)

So far my route looks as follows:

- Istanbul (October 5-14, 2010)

- Sri Lanka (October 14-November 5, 2010)

- Phuket, Thailand (November 6-December 4, 2010)

- Koh Phangan, Thailand (December 10, 2010-January 10, 2011)

- Sukhothai, Chiang Mai, North Thailand (January 11-January 20, 2011)

- Laos (January 21-February 10, 2011)

- Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam  (February 11-March 30, 2011)