As you likely ascertained from both our blog and episode 201, money is and will be a big issue in Tokyo. Before launching into that discussion, I’d like to catch everyone up on our financial situation, and I should start by summarizing the cost of Season 1.

A core thesis of Jet Set Zero is that a lifestyle of travel is possible on poverty-level wages: we started with $0 cash and have funded all our travels with easily accessible jobs. After a summer of suffering, we had saved enough to land in Vietnam with $3,859, to support us until we had steady income. We actually found teaching jobs within weeks, and while it took some time to accumulate a sustainable set of teaching hours, we did manage to refill our funds. So our travel-budget thesis was proven for Vietnam.

Dan used his teaching income to journey back home, so all the numbers I’ll include here are just for Rob, Brian, and I…

Budget Gourmet

From Seattle: + $3,859
In Seattle, we lived as spartan a life as possible, eating on less than $1.20/person/meal, utilizing the public bus system, and foregoing restaurants, movies, long trips, even decent beer. It was hell, but it was only 3 months and you’d be surprised how far camaraderie can carry you: being poor is brutal, but being poor with your friends is a lot less miserable. In total, we pulled in $12,451 on 11 weeks of work. We managed to spend only $4,140 during the summer – food, utilities, transportation, phones, insurance, and 5 outings. Our total preparations for travel–tickets, VISA’s, vaccinations, expat insurance–came to $4352. So we survived the summer to land in Vietnam with $3859.

Mayhem

Teaching Revenue: + $6,788
In three months, for a combined total of around 450 hours of teaching, we made almost $7,000. We would have made more, but because we were only in Vietnam for 3 months, our school gave us limited hours. When YOU go to Vietnam to teach, you’ll stay for 1 year, so you’ll make far more money in 3 months’ time…

Minh Guesthouse

Accommodations: – $1,940
In our first guesthouse, we spent about $15/night for 2 doubles for a little over a month, but then Brian, Rob, and I moved to a new neighborhood, where we paid:
* $240/month for Brian’s single
* $280/month for Rob’s and my double, pictured to the left
* All in all, around $230/person/month is pretty damned good.

Turtle Dove

Food: – $1,652
Our eating adventures took us from 25 cent donuts to $30/lb fresh lobster, but we ate almost exclusively at local (non-western) food places, so we generally didn’t pay much. This food budget amounts to $6.12/person/day, which treated us to fried noodles, numerous hotpots, fresh avocado shakes, bird head and goat’s penis, dog, beating snake heart, small Vietnamese sandwiches, the occasional egg omelet, and of course, tons of Pho.

Rob's Coffee

Coffee (Cafe Sua Da): – $102

Given that each coffee is roughly 55 cents, I thought it would be worth acknowledging that we purchased around 200 coffees in our time in Saigon. This also doesn’t include the innumerable coffees Rob and I made in our room in an attempt to save money, using a simple single-cup coffee drip. I suppose it’s a sad state of affairs when you’re making coffee to avoid a 55 cent price tag…

Seriously.

Beer: – $150
I know this may not seem like an intimidating number, but it doesn’t include the many beers our friends bought for us…and considering that beer costs about 50 cents for a big bottle, Saigon may have been harsh for both our lungs (pollution) AND our livers. Our favorites were Saigon Green – the domestic rice beer – and Bia Hoi – the fresh local beer on tap. We had to adjust to drinking beer with ice, but after awhile – eh, it’s beer, get used to it. Some of my favorite memories were sipping beer with friends, watching the lifeblood of Saigon flow through the streets, listening to the chorus (cacophony) of sounds, and letting the worries of the day slough off my shoulders.

Little Motorbike

Transit around Saigon: – $470
Lyhn (a.k.a. Bonus Hog) cost us $125 to buy and probably another $30 in repairs – she was a demanding mode of transit, somewhat like a sleek sports car…somewhat. Our rental bikes cost $50/month each, but we didn’t actually rent them until October. Gas cost us 60 cents/liter ($2.20/gallon), so we only spent around $45 total. Helmets were $10/each. Finally, there were some times we couldn’t motorbike, so we spent another $90 in taxi rides and Xe Oms (motorbike taxis).

Mounting

Random Adventures: $100
Riding ostriches, grass skiing, amusement parks, waterslides, a couple dates, a LAN party, a movie or 2, a Thanksgiving celebration, some Karaoke mishaps, and a couple other rounds of fun at Saigon prices. Also, despite our best efforts, we didn’t actually pay for lots of this stuff due to our friends’ overwhelming hospitality, so the number above doesn’t necessarily reflect actual prices. It does, however, further demonstrate that our friends made our time in Vietnam what it was.

Phu Quoc

Trips Out and About: – $744
In truth, the only major trips we paid for were the journey to Nha Trang and our trek to Phu Quoc island. $744 paid for the following:
* Trains to/from Nha Trang; transit to/from Phu Quoc
* Chartered boat around the islands of Nha Trang
* Guesthouses in Nha Trang and bungalows on Phu Quoc
* Sustenance, including food, beer, and coffee
* Motorbike rentals for ripping around Phu Quoc island

Miscellaneous: – $125
* Cell phones ($30 each), sim cards ($5 each), and a handful of minutes recharges ($3 each)
* Totally legit software and DVD’s ($1 – $7 each)
* Shampoo and soap (very cheap, and certainly not expensive enough to justify how little we bought)
* Laundry (50 cents/kilogram, also not expensive enough to justify how little we did laundry)
* Tailored shirts ($15/each)
* Odds and ends from various markets

So in 3 months’ time, we had $5,364, meaning VICTORY! Starting with $0 in Seattle, we made enough to travel to Vietnam and not go broke. Moreover, in our last month, our teaching hours were ramping up, our spending was going down, and were getting a taste of what a lifestyle would be like for 1 year in Vietnam. We proved it can be done in Vietnam. So if what you’ve seen on this blog and in our episodes intrigues you, go do it now – Vietnam is waiting for adventurous travelers. We did a lot in 3 months – imagine what you could do in 1 year.

Next, I’ll explain how much we landed in Tokyo with to restart our experiment.

Episode 8 reveals a startling turn in our story– but one we’ve known about for a long time now. Dan Vandermark, one of four cast members of Jet Set Zero, left Saigon and the show in October. We have mentioned so many times before on this blog that this company– cast and crew– have grown to be something of a family. We’ve shared the stress of long Seattle workdays, the trials of establishing ourselves in a new country, and have experienced the most personal and candid moments together, and so we don’t find it easy to let someone go. Dan was as much a part of this team as anyone, and his wisdom and caution often balanced our typically impulsive tendencies. Dan helped us make “good” decisions, when, much of the time, we wanted to make “fun” decisions.

Dan’s departure came on top of the mounting stresses of our life in Vietnam. He never did quite make peace with Saigon– a harsh city of hectic streets, noise and pollution. More importantly though, Dan had a deep sense of responsibility toward his students, and felt that the indifference and lack of organization in many of the private language schools betrayed his values. I will never forget the conversation I had with him where he first expressed this idea– a deep insight into the source and abuse of our privilege in Vietnam– and I consider it one of the seminal enlightenments of my time there.

Dan was eminently reflective and among the funniest of us and I know that these traits will continue to carry him forward in life, from this adventure to the next. After Dan left Saigon, he traveled to Australia, chasing clean skies and burden-free adventure. While there, he made friends that opened him to new experiences in different parts of the country and ultimately took him to Fiji. He is now back home in frigid Oswego, where I am sure that his sense of humor and good stories warm the windows of The Raven Tavern and inspire others to seek their piece of the jet set life.

Dan is a friend like no other, and while we miss him daily, we wish him the best.

The adventure begins.

Jet Set Zero (dʒɛt sɛt ziːr1oʊ) The belief in, and practice of, a jet set life on zero dollars. Jet Set Zero is the belief that the adventures, experiences, and awe of a jet set life are possible for anyone willing to take risks and follow a dream with passion and dedication.

The Basics
Jet Set Zero is a story about four friends who decided to travel the world together and see where adventure would lead them. We started with two key ideas – first we would start from almost nothing working only modest jobs, and second we would document our journey to show others that it could be theirs as well. Our story starts in Seattle, where we work and save, and it follows us overseas as we pursue the adventure and awe of a jet set life.

We follow five simple rules:

1. We start modestly. We must fund ourselves on only 3 months of work, with jobs paying under $10 an hour.
2. We stick together and support each other. We must approach every challenge as a team.
3. We accept adventure in all its forms and with an open mind. We must actively seek out local experiences and stories wherever they take us.
4. We have to see it all, and the world is a big place. We must stay for no longer than 90 days in any location.
5. We want to share this dream with everyone who believes anyone has the potential to accomplish great things. We will listen and incorporate the advice and feedback of our community.

The Experiment
We didn’t just set out to travel the world together – we wanted to do it on a bare-bones budget, a budget within reach of anyone. With this in mind we set aside our professional jobs and savings, and took up simple jobs paying a simple wage. We wanted an accessible starting point so we decided on three months of housing and nothing else. It could be a friend’s couch, a graduation present, an investment with a group of friends–regardless, our start was 3 months in Pinehurst, a little suburb of Seattle. From there we got jobs serving coffee, folding clothes, and selling electronics for everyone’s favorite and familiar corporations, averaging $8.52/hour.

We lived as spartan a life as possible, eating on less than $1.20/person/meal, utilizing the public bus system, and foregoing restaurants, movies, long trips, even decent beer. It involved a lot of sacrifice, but it was only 3 months and you’d be surprised how far camaraderie can carry you. As it was well put, “being poor is brutal, but being poor with your friends is a lot less miserable.” In total, we pulled in $12,451 on 11 weeks of work. We managed to spend only $4140 during the summer – food, utilities, transportation, phones, insurance, and 5 outings. Our total preparations for travel–tickets, VISA’s, vaccinations, expat insurance–came to $4352. So we survived the summer to land in Vietnam with $3859, a healthy padding to get settled, find jobs, and have money to depart for the next country.

Summer: Seattle, USA
Our summer was brutal. Between 4 AM and 10 PM, on any given day, at least one of us was working a job that ranged from boring to grueling to demeaning. After an eight-hour day of folding shirts, placating the insane and insulting demands of an endless stream of customers, pouring 10,000 scalding coffees, and standing and standing, we would head home.

When we arrived home, we took off our shoes, set down our nametags, and started a pot of coffee. After a few restful minutes, we’d start again through sheer strength of will— slogging though emails, spreadsheets, phone calls and the myriad tasks that it takes to build a production company.

The summer saw us learning many lessons about hard work, and simple living. We figured out how to survive on a fraction of the income we were used to. The challenge was not only to get by on our meager earnings but to save as aggressively as possible so that we could ensure a September departure. On top of all of this, we took weekly trips, exercises that allowed us to get out of the house and learn how to film and work as a team. These trips took us to the beaches of Cape Alava, the forests of Rainier, and even the wilds of our local miniature golf course.

Though in our long days some tasks fell by the wayside, we were able to save enough to feel comfortable setting out for exotic destinations and after extensive discussion and consideration, we decided that Vietnam would be our new home for the next three months.

Fall: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
We arrived in Vietnam with almost no idea of what to expect. Over our hectic summer, we had worked almost every waking hour, which left us with precious little time to prepare psychologically or research much more than the logistics of our arrival. When we landed in Ho Chi Minh City on September 4th, we hit the ground running– pushing ourselves as hard as we had at home– and our morale deteriorated.

When we didn’t have fun, we wondered if we had chosen the right city. When we spent too much, it seemed as though minimum-wage travel was impossible. And when we couldn’t find jobs, we began to look for a way out.

We looked back towards one of our original destinations, Korea. With a booming ESL market, high wages and free housing, Korea made sense for four travelers with empty pockets. The country had clearer laws around filming, and its open government and free media stood in stark contrast to the risks we faced in Saigon filming and shipping tapes. But as we began searching for jobs, the commitment we felt to the journey caused us to reconsider. Why had we given up so much to be here, only to turn back so soon?

After long conversations and soul-searching, we decided to stay here in Ho Chi Minh City. Giving up was something we had never done before, and certainly something we were not about to start. Our decision to stay was an appropriate end to our self-doubt and an exciting way to begin our lives in this city.

In our second week, we quickly came to understand Saigon’s basic survival skills — xe oms (motorcycle-taxis), the ESL job process, local food, housing, and how to ward off an endless stream of street merchants.

Life quickly accelerated with amazing experiences seeming to come at every turn: a mob scene at the English-speaking club, challenging and interesting jobs teaching English in a foreign country, a Vietnamese LAN party (hell yes), a friendly guide to help us track down local goods, buying a motorcycle, learning how to ride the motorcycle, repairing the motorcycle, a wedding the highlands, riding elephants, moving to a new home, drinking snake wine, sampling delightful and terrifying local cuisine, finding totally obscure watering holes, making new friends, meeting DJs, VJs, and hitting the club, and it just keeps coming.

We’re not sure what happens next, but we’ll let you know.

Our private boat took us though bay after bay of endless blue green sea.  Everything from the sky to the coast was fairly overwhelming.  After a short trip across the bay we ended up a first destination: Mun Island.  Though not as filled with monkeys as nearby Monkey Island, Mun Island still provided us with excellent snorkeling and swimming.  The only catch to Mun Island was the swarms of stinging jellyfish.

We arrived, sun burnt and stung, one short ride later at the most unique seafood dining experience I have ever had.  We pulled up to what looked like a grid patterned floating dock with a small house on it.  Once we stepped out we realized that in each square was a different type of delicious sea creature.  As we were led around it was explained that we got to choose our dinner here and then it would be brought over to the nearby restaurant and prepared.  With glee we set about choosing a bucketful of lobsters and a tasty looking cuttlefish (think squid).

Getting to the restaurant proved to be our next adventure.  As soon as we picked out our meal a team of women ran over and grabbed our hands, leading us to boats that looked like large baskets floating in the water.  They kept repeating that this was how we got to the restaurant, so without so much as a second thought we jumped in.  Shortly after they handed us each a fresh coconut to drink from on the ride and we immediately began to worry.  We were once told that “Nothing in Vietnam is free” and realizing that we would be charged in some way for these coconuts we started to look around more carefully.  It turns out that we were not so much heading towards the dock as away from it.  Now we found out, if we wanted to return to land, we would have to pay for the ride.  Clever.

Despite our appetizer of swindling, dinner was amazing and we enjoyed some of the tastiest, freshest, cheapest seafood alongside some of the best views I have ever experienced.  All in all, quite the meal.

We slowly made our way back to the hotel after that, and called it an early night.  The next day we spent simply sitting the shade of coconut trees on the beach.  I have to say, I think l realy like my job.

Here’s to my new office.

(You can also check out where Nha Trang is and all the pictures here)

Today we returned from the beaches of Nha Trang.  I have never seen so much vacation packed into so few dollars before.

Our trip started on with an 8 hour overnight train ride from Ho Chi Minh City.  The train was about what you might expect from a train traveling down Vietnam’s only railway, and it was reminiscent of the Darjeeling Limited.  We had a room stacked floor to ceiling with our six bunks, and midnight exploration lead us through a corridor of packed cars and eventually a dining cart where the train crew did most of their drinking.

After an uncomfortable, but fantastically unique night we arrived and fell out of the train tired and ready for the beach.  Our hotel was literally across the street from an almost deserted beach that stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. The hotel – 12$/night.

After a few quick hours of sleep on real beds in rooms with slightly less people we made our way out on a boat we chartered privately for about 12$/person.  With this we were able to sail to Mun Island and get in some snorkeling before one of the most unique seafood lunches I have ever had.

Part 2, Tomorrow.

Buzz, excitement, anticipation, adventure – such words have been the cornerstones of our vocabulary.

But one feeling that has crept slowly this final week – seeming to leak in between the tiny cracks in my crammed schedule – has been disorientation.  It is a curious mix of confusion (is everything going to change?), sadness (the departure of the familiar), even doubt (am I ready for this?).

I am still reeling from uprooting myself from the Bay Area and a network of friends 6 years in the making, from California and my family, from a 2-year stint with my first and only post-college employer.  Seattle simply never became “home” – 2 mere months in the haze of double jobs and a jarring low-budget lifestyle.

It all reminds me of the slow ascent up a roller coaster: excited chatter with the friends beside you, heart racing with anticipation, the slow metallic clicking as your feet leave the platform to hang in that intermediary space between the stable ground and the screaming ride.

So it is with a mix of emotions that I approach the end of that ascent.  In less than 6 hours, we will step down off the plane and start that descent.

Staring into the eyes of loved ones before parting company, I saw my home—a collective of shared experiences whose valediction was, quite plainly, difficult. In them I see myself; and for these 21 years of my life spent in and around my hometown of Glendale, California, all I have known and learned has come from my wonderful family and a bond with some special individuals who I have been lucky enough to know. My belief, however, that the world we live in deserves to be wandered through and explored is where I draw the strength to leave.

While studying Film & Television Production at the University of Southern California, friends, teachers and family have helped me to value the present, learn from my many, many mistakes, and embrace the unknown. In fact, for some time I thought that there was something wrong with feeling “lost;” that without a planned course of action I would ultimately fail. Instead I came to realize that it is a blessing in disguise. It gives us the opportunity to let life unfold before our eyes and in this unraveling time stop for a moment and say, “Wow! I can’t believe I’ve come this far.”  Jet Set Zero has now given me the unique opportunity to not only exercise my passion for filmmaking, but to share in their dream of seeing the world. Theirs is a story worth telling. One that stretches the possibilities of adventure and friendship—a philosophy I share in.

As my loved ones continue to inspire me everyday to follow my dreams, I leave them with conviction like never before. A conviction to show how they have touched me, taught me, shaped me.

To take a passage from those echoing electro-poets AIR; I move
like a vagabond through the distance,
looking for a song to sing
A song that lasts all night
and for the rest of our lives.

Here is to the joy of discovery!

-Bryan Gomez

Today saw an important completion.  Today is the first day that we have been a complete team.  Today was a day for for hellos and the first crazy steps of friendships.  Today was a day for sushi. Today was a day for tall Japanese beers. For Chinese bars.  For friendly birthday pimps. For vodka and tonic. Sea monsters. Burlesque. Subway. Breaking and entering.

Today was just the start.