Hey there again from Hua Hin, in Southern Thailand

Things are pretty warm and dry here as a heatwave throttles much of South East Asia.

Fingers crossed we get the predicted rain this week. The garden is doing OK under Tim's loving care, but the farmers and everyone else across the whole region sorely need it.

I am so grateful we are staying in a beautiful home with a pool, air conditioning, loads of fans, a shady garden, and several comfy outdoor areas that catch the breeze.

I'm even more grateful the deal includes a car, a weekly cleaner (who is INCREDIBLE!!!), a pool man, and ready access to a network of community groups and friends to help us make the most of the area. We even teamed up and won the local Hua Hin pub trivia this week!

The icing on the cake is that it costs us less than 6 USD/day for the pleasure.

(On the topic of gratitude, take a look at section 1)

If you are a new subscriber and don't know how or why we've ended up in this fortunate situation, you can catch up in the April edition of the newsletter,

(If you want the short version - we're housesitting and you can get details on what that is here! )

Anyway,

I've vowed to try and keep this newsletter a bit shorter than previous editions, so let's move on...

In This Month's Issue:

Just a heads up: because the newsletter is so long, the last few links in the menu may not work if your email is truncated and the sections get cut off. All you need to do is hit the "View the whole message" (usually at the bottom) or "View in browser" (usually at the top) or similar to get the last few sections.

​Thankful Thoughts - The Power of Gratitude .

​Safe Travels​

​Cool New Apps, Tools, and Info We've Discovered in the Last Month.​

​New Content You May Have Missed​

​Content in the Pipeline​

​How Our Travel Plans Are Shaping Up​

​Running Total - WayAway Cashbacks (Aug 23 - Early May 24)​

​Travel Deals From Our Partners​

​Other Travel Bloggers & Newsletters You Might Like​

​Travel Competitions​

Thankful Thoughts: The Power of Gratitude

Did you ever catch yourself whining about something while you're on holidays, realize how insignificant it is in the grand scheme of things, and just want to slap yourself?

Like when hubby thought you said "wine" instead of "limes" and returned home without either. 🤣😢🤐

And, rather than saying what you really think, (#$%!), you start doom-scrolling on Facebook in a huff, and the first thing you see is someone (or a whole country) having a really,(REALLY) bad day.

You're instantly reminded that, in comparison, your life is pretty damn good, and regret being so petty!

I have - more than once. And quite frankly, it shames me that I can be so self-centered.

So, while we're nesting, I've started some new habits.

The idea is to include those that work into a workable routine and maintain them when we're on the move.

For someone with the concentration span of a goldfish, that's quite a challenge.

However, one strategy that appears to be sticking quite naturally is a daily gratitude session

Each morning for the last month, I:

• Get up early (normal).
• Make a pot of good coffee and a glass of warm water with lime juice. (Coffee is normal; lime water is new.)
• Boot up my laptop and reorganize my workspace to remove distractions before I start work. (That's new, although I've tried similar before and failed - I am a messy desk person by nature and typically don't reorganize until it becomes complete chaos.)
• Set a timer for 10 minutes and turn to a new page in a cheap notebook. (You can buy lots of fancy tools if that floats your boat!)
• Spend 1-minute deep breathing (4-7-8) and then
• Jot down nine or ten things I am grateful for and why.

It only takes a few minutes, and it's quite therapeutic to push out negative thoughts and reflect on the people, events, and things that make our lives so special.

After just a month, I can highly recommend the practice as it really does impact how the rest of the day flows. Small inconveniences no longer seem significant, and I find it easier to focus on the good stuff.

You might be pleased to know that members of this Travel Bug Community appear on my list quite often.

Sometimes, it's for bringing something new or cool to our attention we can pass on to the rest of you.

Other times, it's suggestions or feedback for our website, social pages, this newsletter, or a response to a specific request for help.

And often, people simply get in touch to let us know they appreciate our content or just want to connect

So, while I've said it before, I want to say it again...

Next up....

Safe Travels

One of the things we've been asked to write about is travel safety.

We have many resources in the process, but our approach to staying safe on our travels is multifaceted and requires many different strategies. Hence, the write-up is taking quite a while.

Travel safety isn't just about preventing muggings, accidents, or getting caught up in terrorism or natural disasters.

We also deploy several tools and processes to protect other aspects such as our health, identity, and finances.

To our way of thinking you need to -

• Do certain things BEFORE you go traveling - E.g. setting up processes, backups, and accounts and purchasing specialized gear.
• Implement safe practices WHILE you are traveling - E.g., using the gear you bought and the things you set up.
• Be clear on what you'll (both) do IF/WHEN things go pear-shaped - E.g. accessing help, backups, insurance, and on-the-ground assistance.

So, in this month's newsletter issue, you will find a bit of a safety theme throughout.

Cool new apps, tools, and information we've discovered in the last month.

As I was researching travel apps and travel safety this month, I stumbled across several apps, tools, and products I think you'll want to know about.

First up is Equal Eats.

One of our friends reached out about her friend who was traveling to Vietnam, a country we're extremely familiar with. The friend has a seafood allergy and was concerned that language barriers could threaten h health.

I had some general advice about getting the front desk at her hotel to translate and write down the issue in Vietnamese and to ensure her local guide understood the problem so they could mediate.

But I knew there must be a more robust solution. The thought of accidentally getting super ill or even dying because of a mix-up with your food is horrifying. I can't imagine how scary it is for people who have life-threatening food allergies to travel, especially in places where there are lots of new and strange dishes and no one speaks your language.

Enter stage right....Equal Eats who believe:

Equal Eats provides excellent solutions and tools to help people with dietary restrictions communicate effectively, accurately, and conveniently.

It's not just a huge range of allergies they cater for. They also have products for food intolerances (eg. gluten, lactose) and dietary choices (vegan, vegetarian).

They also have a very handy app, along with physical cards and print-at-home versions with standardized warnings for food allergies, intolerances, and choices in over 30 languages.

The free version of the app provides warnings for everything in English.

But if you're headed overseas, especially to more than one country, you can purchase a subscription plan to access translations in all languages available for all dietary restrictions. A small price to pay for peace of mind.

And, if you use THIS LINK to join and COTB10 at the checkout, you'll get a 10% discount on all products

Next up - TripIt​

Our first long trip (almost 4 years) was 'pre-internet', and the second one ( 2010 and still going) started before smartphones and apps became so commonplace. Hence, to stay organized and keep documents safe and accessible, most of my filing systems and processes rely on online folders and (sometimes) printed documents.

However, I'm always up for simplifying and improving. So, on the recommendatin from a friend, I've started using the FREE version of TripIt, and so far, I love it!

As soon as you get a booking confirmation for flights, accommodation, car rentals, entertainment venues, tours, or transport, you email it to the app, and it integrates it into your trip notes and itinerary.

Add in automated reminders (which I currently do manually), offline access, storage for travel docs (passport/visa/license), safety alerts, and emergency contacts, and my life has just got a whole lot easier.

When checking in, I no longer have to search folders in email and Dropbox for things. I can also forward the itinerary to Tim so he doesn't depend on me to know what's going on.

Alleluia!

The last new tool on the list for this month - She's Birdie personal alarms.

I think as we've aged, I've started to feel a bit more vulnerable when an area doesn't feel completely safe.

We trust our instincts implicitly, as they have served us well over the past three decades of travel. But these little gadgets could provide additional peace of mind.

The small device is like having a fire alarm in your pocket. When you pull the pin, it flashes and beeps incredibly loudly, deterring attackers and attracting the attention of everyone around.

It is a non-violent mode of protection that works at a distance and is TSA-approved, so you can take it on a plane.

Does anyone else travel with a personal alarm? Have you ever had to use it? Send me a note and tell me which one and why. I'd love to compare it with this product before I purchase it.

New Content On the Site You May Have Missed.

I've finally worked out why (I don't think) I'll ever catch up with the "To-Do" list. 🤪🙄

Firstly, I do a lot of research to make our posts as useful and accurate as possible.

The one post that did get published this month is a casing point!!!

When I started collating all the apps we use (as requested by a reader), plus a few others that are best in class, the "quick" blog post turned into over 10,000 words, which is the equivalent of 5 to 10 posts on most travel blogs.

Anyway - take a look at Our Best Travel Apps (2024) - Essential Tools for Savvy Travelers. Don't worry. It has a table of contents so you can skip to the ones you're most interested in!

And secondly, I keep getting distracted. I'll talk about that in the next section because what I'm working on atm is REALLY COOL!

However, I did make a dent in a couple more I mentioned last month. So, hopefully, they'll make an appearance before the June newsletter. (No promises!)

Read on to find out what we're cooking up next...

Content In the Pipeline.

This month is going to be very cool as we are about to launch our latest digital product.

It addresses an area we've seen many people struggle with. And, while we've helped quite a few of you personally with great success, it seems logical to create a resource that can help many more. (Especially those of you who are too shy to ask. :)

I'm just pulling together the final bits and pieces and running it through some testing, but it's coming along nicely and will be ready in the next couple of weeks.

As well as the comprehensive guide, there'll be a bunch of bonuses, including substantial discounts and deals that will save you heaps.

So, expect a few more emails this month as we do the big reveal.

How Our Travel Plans Are Shaping Up.

There's not much change in our travel plans other than our 16-day Brighton sit got canceled as the homeowner is moving to China.

But we quickly filled most of that gap with another one.

So, as it stands now:

We have another six weeks in Hua Hin, Thailand, before we:

• Fly directly to London, for a 7-night housesit in Chiswick (London)
• Then, we head south to Peasmarsh (Near Rye) for 10 days, where we'll catch up with friends and look after their three dogs while they take a quick trip to Canada.
• We then head to Brighton for a week to do another house with an elderly cat.
• After that we have a 20-day gap at the moment. We're looking to fill it with camping or housesits on the Isle of Wight, in the Portsmouth area, or on Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

Note: I've actually signed up with another housesitting platform to see if they can fill this gap for us. They're new kids on the block and offer a bespoke matching service that only accepts experienced housesitters. You need to have 3 years of experience and outstanding reviews to even get on their books). If they fill this gap before I do, and if it's a good experience, I'll tell you all about it in the August newsletter. (You'll also hear about it if it isn't.)

• At the start of August, we head to Jersey for a nine-day housesit and hope to attend the events surrounding the Battle of the Flowers.
• We'll then take the ferry to St Malo...where we start the ride. The first stop will be close to Mont Saint Michel, which we haven't visited since 1997!!!
• We then ride to Nantes, along the Loire Valley, breaking off below Paris. After we reach the City of Light/Love (post-Olympics), we'll cycle our way back to Calais via a yet unplanned route to catch the ferry to Dover.

I say it every month, but if you want to learn more about house and pet sitting and how to save (A LOT of) money while traveling, then we can help.

We've now enjoyed over 800 nights of free accommodation through housesits, which is approaching three years.

I've just started a spreadsheet to calculate how much we've saved over the years, and conservatively, it's over 150,000 USD!!!

So you can head over to our House and Pet Sitting Resource Page​.

OR...

DAMMIT...

I can't keep this to myself...CHECK THIS OUT...:)​

The best way to stay on top of our movements is to FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK.

Now, for an update on the WayAway Cashback numbers. :)

Our WayAway Totals to 13th May 2024

Here are our latest totals from discounts and cashback for bookings made via our WayAway Plus Account. The monthly progress can be seen on theWayAway Cashback page on the website.​

Since the April update, we’ve added $18 to our cashback for a total of $434

Update on getting cashback for flights:

• We made a booking from Bangkok to London on Qatar Airlines via Trip.com on WayAway. After doing the search through WayAway, we thought Trip.com had the best overall deal among the third-party providers.
• NOTE: Trip.com was NOT the outright cheapest at first glance, but once I got through to the checkout on a couple of other platforms, added fees (cc fees, service fees) made them more expensive. Unless you add any extras (insurance, seat choice, etc,) what you see first up with Trip.com is the price you pay at the checkout.
• Trip.com was also $3 dearer than if I’d booked directly with Qatar. However, when I subtracted the cashback, we came out with 15 USD in front. It’s not a huge amount, but we’ve booked through Trip.com several times before, and they are excellent. So better the 15 bucks in our pocket than Qatar's.

Key Points:

Despite not booking much at all this month as we are housesitting in Thailand, we still earned cashback and withdrew another 39 USD to our Paypal account (which is almost the discounted 12-month membership fee)

As mentioned last month, we probably won’t book too much more before the end of the membership period as we are busy housesitting, although we may need a few nights’ accommodation in between those sits.

Latest Deals From Our Partners

As usual, you can find all the latest deals on this page. It's much easier to see them all on that page rather than the list below. Some deals come in later in the month, so I’ll update the page as they do.

PLEASE NOTE: Some of these deals have short validity periods so head over and take a look before they expire.

• WayAway is offering 55% off PLUS memberships, saving you 54 USD.
• ​Trusted Housesitters has 25% off, saving you up to 80 USD. You can either- (1) Use THIS LINK to automatically apply the discount OR (2) TRY for FREE and then use the code TRAVELBUG25 at the checkout if you decide to join up.
• ​Housesit Match has 50% off all memberships using Discount Code COTB50 at the checkout (all caps, no spaces).
• ​Booking.com has a new 'Getaway Deals 2024' campaign, where you’ll get a 15% or more discount on bookings made from the 13th of March until the 30th of September 2024. The stay dates are from the 29th of March to the 30th of September 2024.

Note that if you book your accommodation through Bookings VIA WayAway Plus, you get the Early 2024 deal + your Genius Discounts + Cashback. We've already taken advantage of these discounts several times this month and had massive discounts.

• ​Airalo has updated its codes for May if you need an eSIM for your next holiday. The PROMO codes are NEWMAY15 for new customers. AIRALOMAY10 for existing customers.
• ​Direct Ferries (over 4400 routes and 900+ ports worldwide) have up to 50% of some ferry routes.
• ​SafetyWing has a $20 off your next travel policy offer.

A couple of New partners came on board this month:

• ​Roadtrippers are one of the most popular apps for value-added navigation on...you guessed it Road Trips. They're offering $5 off your subscription with PROMO CODE: BTR5QTP
• ​Equal Eats makes cards and an app with allergy and food intolerance warnings in dozens of languages. A godsend for those with life-threatening, or even just annoying food issues. They have a 10% off Code: COTB10
• ​Tiqets have a 5% off code for Mother's Day (ends 12th May) Use PROMO Code: LOVEMOM24
• ​AllTrails - The number 1 navigation app for hiking has a 7-day Free Trial.​
• ​GAdventures.com has a huge site-wide sale until the end of May for departures until the end of July (20% off), August (15% off) and October (10% off).
• ​Amazon - With Mother's Day and the summer holidays coming up, it’s worth remembering you can still get one month of free access to:
• Amazon PRIME - with expedited delivery and more
• ​Audible - Perfect for some free and discounted holiday reads. I’ll write up my experience with the AUDIBLE FREE trial soon. Spoiler alert. It was great, but it’s not for me.
• ​Kindle Unlimited - Catch up with all your reading over the holidays without lugging around a bunch of heavy books.

Travel Bloggers and Newsletters We Follow

I've added this new section to highlight some of the travel bloggers or other interesting newsletters we subscribe to.

First up Global Guardian.

This year, our summer cycling tour is in France and the Paris Olympics are on while we're there.

Regrettably, there are heightened risks at events like this including crime, unrest, and terrorism.

So, we need to plan for those risks.

One of the newsletters we subscribe to is from Global Guardian. This company mainly services corporations with overseas employees, but it also has some very relevant reports and webinars for travelers like us.

This month, they are hosting a webinar to "help equip travelers with the knowledge and tools needed to stay safe and secure amidst the excitement of the world's premier sporting event."

During the webinar, they'll discuss "proactive measures to mitigate risks before and during travel and present best practices for personal safety while in Paris, France, and the greater European region."

While I'm specifically interested in France atm, I think much of what will be discussed can be applied to most places.

So, if you're interested, you can Register HERE​

On a lighter note,

In addition to the three travel bloggers I mentioned last month, we also like regular updates from Jane and Duncan from To Travel Too.

They're another Aussie Couple who ditched corporate life to travel and started a blog. They are a little bit more lux than us, but I'm sure many of you might appreciate that!

They're currently wandering through Morocco, one of our favorite African nations. So, if you're interested, give them a follow on Facebook.

Travel Competitions

I have just updated the Travel Competitions page with all the competitions we entered recently.

This month, you can win (if we don't :) ):

• A 7-night expedition cruise to Svalbard
• A week-long sailing tour on a catamaran in Greece
• A 1-month experience in Mexico City.
• A 14-day trip for two to South Africa and Mauritius
• A 2-night stay at the 4-star Clair de la Plum in Provence
• A trip for two to Everest Base Camp with Kandoo Adventures
• Return flights to New York for their 400th birthday celebrations
• A 2-night stay at the JW Marriott hotel in Hong Kong
• A 2-night stay at the Holiday Inn in Stuttgart
• Win a 5000 GBP holiday with offers 25% off, saving you up to 80 USD or more. ​
  ​

Ciao for now. I'm off to add even more value to our new product! Can't wait to let you all in on the details.

Once again, we'd love your input on what you think of both the format and the content of this newsletter.

As always, with us, it’s a work in progress, and we'd love your help to make it better.

Happy Travels