It always comes together somehow

It always comes together somehow, is something I say a lot when we are traveling. It may sound a tad cheesy, and I guess it is, but it’s something I do genuinely believe in when we are on the road.

Many a time we have been in some sort of sticky situation. Motorbike broken down in the middle of nowhere, turning up at random towns with no transport to be had, arriving somewhere and nowhere to stay for the night, lad’s trying to stab me in Russia and locals coming to my rescue, many, many things like this have happened over the years. Yet things always come together somehow for us.

Traveling has taught us a lot. It’s taught us not to worry about situations that would usually seem hard to overcome. Situations that are quite often out of your control. Every time we have been in a predicament something amazing always seems to come out of nowhere to save the day and put a big smile on our face. Be that the generosity of beautiful locals or the help of friends or other travelers, life always seems to find a way for us to keep going. Now feels a little like one of those times.

We are now into month in 10 in Langkawi and its fast approaching 18 months since we first hopped on a plane to Canada. We always said we wanted this trip to last at least 18 months and it looks pretty nailed on that we are going to manage that.

Financially things were really starting to get stretched. We have both been teaching English online to Chinese kids and despite it starting off well we hit a very barren spell a few weeks back. Dani didn’t have any new bookings for weeks and I had a nightmare of a lesson when I messed up a lot of things and my lessons also dried up as a result. We were close to the point of deciding if it was time to book a flight and head home.

I always hate the thought that a trip is coming to an end and especially now during this pandemic the thought of returning to the UK as winter approaches with nowhere to stay and having to look for work is not a pleasant one. My sister keeps telling me there is nothing to come home for, and that may be true, but without money we obviously can’t stay away for ever.

The last week though has really given us some hope that we can keep going until Christmas and into next year (virus and borders permitting!)

Dani messaged the admin folks at Palfish (the teaching app we have been using) and sure enough the lessons have now started coming in thick and fast for her. Mine however seem to be eternally doomed due to my bad lesson. The problem at the minute due to the pandemic is that more people than ever are trying to find jobs working from home or remotely. They can be very picky about which teachers they give lessons to and I am well and truly out of favour at the moment.

I have now started using another platform though called Cambly and I’m really enjoying it. Along with the fact I can pretty much work as many hours as I want as opposed to only the set lessons that Palfish offer you. Palfish is great as the money is better and it’s only children that you teach using set lesson slides that you are provided. Dani really likes working that way which is great for her and I am really enjoying how Cambly works.

Cambly isn’t limited to just China, it is world wide and it is mainly adults that I have been teaching. They have what are called ‘priority hours’ where they will guarantee to pay you either 15 or 30 mins of an hour regardless of how many calls you take which is cool. Priority hours run for pretty much the whole day at the moment and I’ve had some interesting conversations with people from many countries. I had a really great conversation with a fashion designer from India the other day which was cool. I was teaching a lad from Tokyo at the weekend about saveloy dips and real ales. He also knows of Sunderland because of football which was really nice. A few day’s back I spent half an hour chatting with a young lad and his brother who were high up in the mountains of Nepal. It’s been really cool just having interesting conversations with all these different people and it seems like the work (I use the word work lightly as it’s pretty much just having a chat) is pretty much unlimited as long as I keep doing well. Another cool aspect of Cambly is that it isn’t non-stop calls. I sit with my headphones on watching a film and when I hear a call ringing I just pause my video then start chatting, it’s pretty easy going and you get paid per minute.

So, at least for the time being it feels as if we can keep going. We are finally at a point where we are earning enough to stay and live here month by month for just a few hours work between us each day. That’s not a bad deal really for just 3 to 4 hours work a day between us. We get to pop to the beach for a few hours to chill or catch sunset. We can head out for a cheap meal whenever we want or go out to Lan’s our local boozer 3 or 4 times a week, absolutely sorted!

Speaking of Lan’s though, we have started to realise that living so close to our local is a dangerous thing! 3 to 4 hangover’s a week is starting to take it’s toll, especially when it’s 30 degrees every single day. If it wasn’t for aircon I would probably have checked myself into a hospital by now.

Can I just say as well that aircon is mankind’s greatest achievement so far. The internet, sliced bread, the wheel, moon landing. All these achievements pale into insignificance compared to the invention of aircon and it’s magical ability to keep you cool in times of need.

We also have a cat now as well. Yeah, talk about being settled into a place. We were over at Lan’s bar a couple of weeks back and this really friendly stray black cat came over to sit with us. He was really chilled and just happy to have some company so we took him home with us that night. He’s been with us ever since and now goes by the name of Otis. He’s really good natured and despite the fact that we know we wont be able to take him with us we figured that at least the poor fella will get some regular meals while we are here without having to scavenge for scraps. If he ends up back on the streets when we leave then so be it but at least he will have had a nice easy time if only for a short while.

So island life has been pretty good to us lately. Yeah we get a bit stir crazy now and then with island fever, desperate to move on to pastures new but overall we have settled in quite nicely.

As always, as most of our regular readers know we are very humble and thankful for the life we currently live. I know some people back home say now and then that they wish they could do what we do, and you most definitely can if you want to. But, as with many things in life there is a trade off. We live for today, for the here and now and there are sacrifices we make for doing this.

I’m the wrong side of 40 now and I don’t own a house, or very much of anything for that matter. A mountain bike, TV and some clothes is pretty much all I have back home. I am still 13 years shy of having paid enough NI for a full state pension as well, so yeah, maybe further down the line we will struggle somewhat. But we figure that it’s our life and we live it the way we want. We aren’t currently controlled by the constant grind of the corporate world and making money for others while all we get to enjoy is a few pints on a weekend before repeating the cycle of work for another week. At least at the moment it’s like that, hopefully it lasts!

It’s a lifestyle that we enjoy. Living on an island in the tropics and doing the least work we possibly can to sustain us in what we need so that we have has much free time as we can get. Life here is easy, slower, more relaxed and most definitely cheaper than the UK. I like to think that it’s a much better work/life balance than we would have back home. You never know what is round the corner, and as much as planning for the future and retirement is important, it’s not our main priority. Happiness is.