Kelly Hale
Web designer, likes fishes, diving, underwater photography.
e. kelly@fightlikeagirl.net
w. http://www.fightlikeagirl.net/
Mike Schimanowsky
Web developer, official beer taster, motorcycle fanatic, and general nerd.
e. shim@technicallytraveling.com
w. http://www.TechnicallyTraveling.com/
Posted by: Shim
LOVE LOVE LOVE the blog, guys. Keep it up! Sorry I didn’t get to see you before you left. Now I have to live vicariously through you while I plug away doing the ol’ “9-5″…. Boo.
I grew up in the Philippines but didn’t travel as extensively as you both have. It’s refreshing to see the rest of the country in fresh eyes.
Oh btw, try to visit my ‘ol hometown when you have a chance. It’s in Batangas, the southern part of Luzon.
Good travels. I will be following your adventure from here on….
@Janis! Sorry for missing your comment, hidden away on the contact page… We’ve got a designer, and a developer, but no marketing specialist. C’mon down and we’ll put you right to work on a beach! ;)
@Mich. Thanks, we haven’t made it up to Luzon yet, but we’ll be sure to check it out. I think we’re heading up towards Donsal to see the whale sharks in the new year. Maybe carry on from there… Seems almost everyone we talk to has another spot for us to visit. We may have to stay indefinitely!
Hi Kelly and Mike, I just stumbled upon your site and I just love what you guys are doing! I’m traveling in and out of the Philippines until April and I was wondering if we could all meet up. Safe travels! -Joanne
Hi Joanne. We’re glad you’re enjoying the blog. We’re having a great time living it. I see you’re into a similar pattern. We’re in the Philippines till mid-late February before moving on to Thailand and if you happen to be in the Dumaguete area we’d be into meeting up. Fire us an email with your travel plans if you’re headed this way.
Hi guys,
Never got to say bye and wish you well before you headed to Costa Rica! Great to see you at Sherry’s – albeit brief, but still nice to see your faces and introduce Mila to you finally. Take care and I will check-in to read what’s new with you…ox
Hey Kelly & Mike,
Wicked to meet you spinners on Playa today. Hope those tequilas are sitting well with you tomorrow Mike.
Keen to catch up in the Down Under and view muchos pescados.
Happy Trails
Shelley
Hi Kelly and Mike,
My family has just started a similar adventure to yours. My husband is a software engineer and is working remotely. We sold everything we owned in Indiana and have relocated to St. Croix for six months. We will be headed to Cozumel, Mexico next and then who knows, maybe Roatan!
My question for you is about insurance. We have health insurance through my husband’s job, but after selling the house and cars we don’t have personal property or personal liability insurance. I’ve been searching online and, like anything to do with insurance, it seems very complicated. Do you have any suggestions or things that have worked for you?
Many thanks and happy travels!
~ Jennifer
Hi Jennifer. Congrats on making the leap to nomadic living!
Our insurance scenario is a little different than yours since we’re Canadian and many of the US options aren’t available to us. Both Kelly and I have global expatriate insurance which covers our primary and extended healthcare plus some travel specific coverage. http://www.travelinsurance.ca/plans/expatGeneral.php
We don’t carry trip insurance. For the most part, it’s not worth it. 1st they want you to purchase it BEFORE you start traveling and will only cover you up to one year. On a multi year trip, that’s not really an option. Also, they usually want you to spell out every place you’ll be visiting so they can place a cost on insuring you. That’s not very accommodating to our flexible travel plans. Then, the value they reimburse you for lost bags is usually no more than the airline itself will cover and would barely cover the costs of the bag let alone the contents. Trip cancellation, etc… just isn’t worth the cost and deductible in my opinion. We carry the important stuff (computers, cameras, dive regulators) on the plane with us and keep multiple data backups in different places to minimize theft loss. If a bag went missing… well, that would be an excuse to buy new clothes. ;) We don’t travel with anything expensive besides computer/camera/dive gear. For any other situation covered by trip insurance, the solution is usually to just buy another flight or tweak the travel plan…
We do carry dive insurance through DAN, and purchased property theft/loss insurance through DEPP, but that’s for our dive gear and camera gear. We can’t get gear insurance through DAN because we’re not American, but I believe they’ll insure a camera/laptop for Americans along with dive gear.
Aside from that, operating as a freelancer my business liability is foremost covered by the contractual arrangements I make with my employers. I would take additional personal liability insurance pending specific projects and revenues. This sort of sums up my opinion of freelancers and insurance: http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/errors-and-omissions-insurance-do-freelancers-need-it/
Really, there’s almost too many options. I’ve heard of all kinds of plans and policies during my searching online as well and usually the verbiage in them is soft enough to apply to most situations and with just enough caveats to disqualify you when you actually need to make a claim… ;) Have you considered contacting an insurance broker and have them suss out what’s available and best applies?
Best of luck on your travels. It’s great to have, but hopefully you never need insurance!
Thanks for such a detailed answer! I think we will need to sit down with a broker. I was disappointed that our insurance provider back home couldn’t do anything for us because each state has different regulations, etc. and apparently you can’t start a new policy in a state where you no longer live. Ah well, I’m sure we will get it figured out eventually.
Thanks again for your help. It’s good to know that there are others out there doing this. We’ll enjoy following your travels. :)
Best,
Jennifer
Hello Kelly and Mike!
I really enjoyed reading about your trip in Koh Tao. Can you remember the name of the long term apt you stayed with internet? The place looks awesome! Thanks guys!
It’s called Utopia Suites. There is a link on our links page, but it doesn’t seem to be active anymore. Sorry.
Hi,
terrific blog! I am hoping to get an entire month on Koh Tao to write and yes, as a newbie, learn to dive. I was hoping you could give me the contact details of the person for the apartment you had in Koh Tao – or some contact of people who might have a place with wi-fi for rent. It may be I have to get a rental oh Koh Phangan instead, but I like the idea of the smaller island for my down time.
Thank-you for having such a great blog up – gave me some good ideas of what Koh Tao will be like :)
Warmest Regards,
Erika Walter
Hi Erika, The place was called Utopia Suites. There is a link on our links page, but it doesn’t seem to be active anymore. Sorry. Looks like you’ll have to stop by in person, which is really the best way to find a place on Koh Tao. Just pop into a local dive shop. They can usually give you a short list of available places to check out. Glad to hear the blog helped you out. Bon voyage!
Hi Guys,
Just found your blog and love it! Not sure how often you still check it, but I am planning a move to central America and would love some input on where to go. I have narrowed it down to Tamarindo, Costa Rica , Roatan or Belize (probably Ambergis Caye). I lived in the Cayman Islands for over two years so I am prepared for hot weather. Looking to open a restaurant and wondering which one you enjoyed most. I also love diving which I know is lacking in Costa Rica bit it looks like it has more to keep you occupied than the other two options. Any thoughts would be appreciated
Hiya Kendra. Yup, we’re still around and traveling. Currently in Roatan, Honduras. Just very very lazy about this whole blog thing now. My vote will likely always be for Roatan. It’s like a 2nd home to us now and we spend a good part of each year here. We really enjoyed Tamarindo, but we’re not surfers so kinda missed out on some of that culture there. Roatan is very diving focused and has a great little community going on based around that, so its where we feel most welcomed. Belize… I just didn’t feel like you got the best bang for your buck there. But we only really visited the south around Placencia. Never made it up north to the islands. The only thing lacking in Roatan is a lot of good food options, so c’mon down and give us some more! ;)