Experience Thai Mom in all her lovely, light-filled glory.

Mine and Jeremiah’s new – and lovely – friend Ying orchestrated this trip for both of us and our other friend Hannah. We visited a Karen (kuh-REN) village and some friends she hadn’t seen in 3 years. Just a 2 hour, 1.50 dollar bus ride out of Chiang Mai City and we were threaded out in traditional Karen clothing, sliding down a waterfall, singing under the night sky, and learning a new language. (My favorite part: our host’s Mom kept on referring to us as her children. Awww!!)

The landscapes: breathtaking. The people: so warm and welcoming. The rice whiskey: a’plenty.

All in all, a phenomenal way to celebrate life, new friends, and the boundless beauty and peace in Thailand.

Jet Set Zero proudly presents a new audience-powered series: Jet Set Zero – Spotlight!

We’re putting the spotlight on YOU so that you can show us how you follow the Jet Set Zero philosophy and live a “jet set” life on “zero” dollars. Submit your own travel videos, articles, or photography that showcases a favorite destination, experience, travel tip, or anything else travel/budget/adventure related. Send us your submission (spotlight@jetsetzero.tv), upload your video to YouTube and email us the link, or post your video in reply to our example video (directions below). We’ll post our favorite viewer submissions on the Jet Set Zero site and then feature you in our Spotlight series. Here’s an example Spotlight video from Taylor:

Name: Taylor Russell
Age: 19
Current Location: Various places in the beautiful state of Washington!
Travel History: I’ve been to many states in the USA, as well as Italy, France, Germany, Slovenia, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, & Canada
Travel dream/goal: Explore my two favorite places: Eastern Europe and Japan!
Most valuable lesson learned on the road: Don’t be scared to try new things! Most travel experiences are once in a lifetime, you can’t pass anything up!
If you could recommend one place in the world: Ljubljana, Slovenia. Amazing city, amazing country in general! And not yet heavily touristed!
Favorite Jet Set Zero episode: S02E03 – Things To Do in Tokyo When You’re Broke. How could anyone not want to go to Japan after seeing this?
Best cheap travel tip: Buy food at grocery stores and prepare it yourself.
Follow her adventures at: http://tayloralexandra.wordpress.com
Video Background: I made this video to show off the great city of Seattle and give travelers an inside look at the best places to visit.

Read on for more details!

(more…)

“Let’s go to Bangkok?”
“Ok, fuck it! LET’S GO TO BANGKOK,” and so we went to Bangkok.

Since day one in Thailand it’s been a mad rush. Hit the ground. Start looking for jobs. Start looking for apartments. Figure out how to use the transit system. Stock up on necessary supplies. Double check your account balance. Realize that your checking total only has four digits and two of them are decimals. Reconfigure the financial strategy. Start eating from street carts…exclusively.

We got chewed up and spit out of Bangkok with the quickness. Bangkok stuck it too us hard, gave us five dollars for a ten dollar cab ride home, and never had the courtesy to call back. The city itself was too much. Too much for our situation. Perhaps too much in general. Simply put, we weren’t adequately prepared for the BKK hustle.

To top the stress incurred by searching for work and housing, almost everyone in our crew had been faced with extreme financial crisis’s. As a group we were to the point financially where paying for an apartment was entirely impossible. After a late check out we sat down stairs in the hostel lobby with packed bags and nowhere to go. Ok, so what now? We entertained ridiculous options like vagabonding on the beaches of southern Thailand, banding to together to start our own food cart, or leaving the country entirely to go some place where the dollar goes a bit farther. By the end of the day, when everything was said and done, we were rushing to the BKK train station trying make the 7:35 train.

Could we have found a way to make it in the streets of Bangkok? Maybe. Maybe not. But that’s neither here nor there now. We’re already 10 hours away, sipping on 30 cent coconut smoothies in the shadow of Doi Inthanon, Chiang Mai’s highest mountain. Maybe this is where we should have been all along…

Before leaving to Thailand…

This Wednesday’s release is another short from Quito, this time a look at some classic Ecuadorian cuisine with best pal Amy of www.amyblogschow.com.

This is love. My soul is better because of these two women.

Learn more about A Chance for Peace – and donate if you can – at www.achanceforpeace.com

This week sees the release of another episode from Quito – “Get Out of Town”.  In this week’s episode the cast decides it’s time for some change. Freddie and Ryan head out of town and end up meeting a pair of girls to share an adventure with while Jenna and Laurene explore the city with new friend/guest cast member Amy Cao.

Oh, and everyone quits their jobs.

NEW EPISODE HERE