Archive for the ‘Swap Work for Travel’ Category

How to spend 60 bucks for 3 months accommodation

Posted on: September 5th, 2016 by sw4tadmin

We just spent a fabulous 3 months in Thailand, and we spent a grand total of $60 on accommodation…

…So how did we do it?

 

No, we didn’t figure out a way to hack AirBNB, sleep on the streets, or stay in the cheapest dingiest hovels imaginable…

We Swapped Work For Travel!

swap work for travel

Karen relaxing after a hard day of sight-seeing in Chiang Mai

 

Where did we stay?

We stayed in 2 of Thailands biggest cities Bangkok and Chiang Mai, this was to be slow travel at it’s finest and give us a chance to really explore and get to know everything these amazing 2 destinations have got to offer.

We stayed in a huge, fully furnished nice apartment in Bangkok for 6 weeks, that had the following:

  • a pool
  • a gym
  • cable TV with 700 channels
  • Xbox 360
  • a housekeeper
  • super-fast WiFi
  • a bathroom each
  • Was located on Sukhumvit, Soi 20 within easy walking distance to 7000 restaurants, 2 malls, a park, 3 supermarkets and the BTS skytrain.
travel for free

Karen trying to figure out which movie to go to from the 12 cinemas in walking distance from our Bangkok apartment

discount travel

Me at the apartment’s gym in Bangkok

Then for 5 weeks we stayed in a massive 2 story house in Chiang Mai that had these features:

  • divinely furnished with amazing oriental furniture and art,
  • a huge flowery garden and lawn
  • Cable TV, loads of DVD’s and super-fast WiFi
  • a balcony overlooking Doi Suthep mountain
  • a housekeeper who did EVERYTHING
  • and a total of 6 different vehicles for us to drive and ride around on: 2 new mountain bikes, a scooter, a scooter with Thai sidecar, 650 Kawasaki sports bike (my favorite!) and a Toyota Hilux!
  • Situated in a quiet leafy suburb 10 minute drive away from a big mall and 10 minutes walk to a supermarket complex.
We took the dogs to the park in the scooter/side car in Chiang Mai. It was hilarious!

We took the dogs to the park in the scooter/side car in Chiang Mai. It was hilarious!

 

What did we have to do to score these places?

Our first Swap-Host in Bangkok needed us to take care of their  lovely old Dachshund called “Kia”, who we had to feed and take outside a few times per day, while they were busy with family.

free vacations

Meet Chloe, the cutest of our host’s fur-babies in Chiang Mai

 

Our time in Chiang Mai we consulted with our Swap-Hosts to make social media profiles and a website for a new venture they were starting. We also helped to look after 4 well-behaved and adorable dogs named Tiger, Chloe, Rex and Lola, we had to feed these dogs once per day and walk them once and the house-keeper did all the rest. I also mowed the lawn once.

Both opportunities had housekeepers, so we had to do minimal housework ourselves which was really nice. The housekeeper in Chiang Mai actually made up our room daily, washed and ironed our clothes and did our dishes because the owners asked her too!

 

cheap holiday options

Karen with Tiger, Lola and Rex the coolest dogs ever!

 

How did we spend our time?

We went out a lot to loads of amazing restaurants especially in Bangkok, because the apartment is in the main tourist area with loads of great places to eat.

We went to parks, visited malls, rode up mountains, went for runs, swam, cooked some comfort food from home, went to the gym and spend some time working for ourselves online.

We watched a lot of movies and caught up on all our favorite TV shows too.

We had a lot of time to ourselves. Both Swap Work For Travel opportunities required less than 1 hours “work” per day, so it was more like a vacation!

Travel more pay less

Out and about in Chiang Mai

 

So, where did we spend our $60?

We rented a nice hotel room the first day we were in Thailand on the way to Bangkok. Then after our Bangkok gig finished we had 3 nights to fill in before we could move into our Chiang Mai digs so we stayed at a funky little back-packers that was recommended to us.

travel the world

Our Chiang Mai house came with 2 scooters, 2 mountain bikes a Kawasaki 650 and a Toyota Hilux!

How can you do something like this too?

We had a really great time this last 3 months in Thailand. This time last year we were in Sri Lanka helping an expat couple with their social media and Thailand was definitely more chilled out, just what we needed!

free food and accomodation abroad

Needless to say we spent a lot of time on our balcony in Chiang Mai

If you would love to do something like this, stay somewhere special for free and eat for free while helping people out…

Sign up to become one of our platinum or gold members and pay a small yearly fee to have access to our entire data-base of amazing opportunities from 5 star hotels and dive resorts to small eco-tourism companies.

You can travel with a difference like we do for as long as you like.

 

Our Free Trip To Sri Lanka

Posted on: August 24th, 2016 by Andrej and Karen

We have always wanted to go to Sri Lanka, and thanks to Swap Work For Travel we got our awesome accommodation and food free of charge

We also got to help with 2 amazing projects, 1 by the beach and one high in the tea plantations of the interior, needless to say we had a ball!

Free travel

Sri Lanka really is the paradise island, it’s just got so much to see and do

 

Sunshine, beaches, nature, amazing food, interesting culture…

These are my top 5 travel criteria when choosing a new destination to go to. And Sri Lanka ticked all off these boxes in spectacular fashion!

So many people rave about India; I want to go there too. But there is that one island 30km to the south of India I couldn’t get passed when traveling to this part of the world…

Sri Lanka is supposed to be cleaner, more pristine and less chaotic than India, plus I’d already met a handful of lovely people who come from there, so Sri Lanka became our logical choice for a one month trip.

cheap travel tips

Like some tea with your view? Sri Lanka’s tea plantations are some of the worlds oldest

 

A bit of work and a lot of play…

We found a great opportunity to do some work online. For an expat couple we set-up, managed and advertised a Facebook page (me) and gave advice on website improvements and how to implement them (Karen). It was a challenging and fun project.

travel for less

This was out house for a month, we loved staying here and being part of the tiny village

 

We stayed at the lovely cottage on the lake, which was in a small village 1km from the tourist beach of Koggala beach on Sri Lanka’s popular south coast. This was the ideal office looking onto the water and base from which to explore Sri Lanka.

Wanderlust Sri Lanka

This is our view of the sunrise over lake Koggala from our cottage, nice huh?

 

Our lakeside cottage in a charming village

Our 1 bedroom cottage was built in modern Sri Lankan style with beams of wood and plastered mud brick walls. It had a huge, covered terrace overlooking the lake, with a day bed, huge outdoor table and even a cute water feature.

Visit Sri Lanka for free

We liked the view from our part time office…a lot!

The kitchen was fully equipped too but the coolest thing was that we managed to organize a lovely local woman called Sri-Ani to come and cook meals for us.

We would tell her what type of ingredients we would like to eat and she transformed our instructions into a sumptuous Sri Lankan banquet!

We would sit at our huge timber slab table after opening some delicious King drinking coconuts   watch the fishermen go fishing punctuated by the occasional Eagle swoop past and wild peacock calling in the distance. It was heaven!

free travel

Eating Sri-Ani’s classic local dishes was heavenly…

 

The local wildlife and us

To say there was a lot of wildlife around in Sri Lanka is an understatement….

Most mornings we got woken up by purple-faced leaf monkeys jumping on our roof or by native squirrels (which looked like chipmunks with long tails) playing and calling to each other around the house.

cheap travel experience

We got visited by monkeys a lot, but they were very well behaved and shy

We also got visited by many monitor lizards (from 2 foot up to 5 and a half foot long), giant crabs and even the occasional snake!

We saw cobra-eating mongooses, exotic birds, parrots and loads more Monkeys on our morning runs. One day I even saw a monitor lizard that was at least 6 foot in length OMG!

Voluntourism in Sri Lanka

The big lizards were very chilled out, whenever we saw them

 

The food

For those who don’t know Sri Lankan food is similar to Indian but with a lot less heat to it from chili. It is very fragment using cinnamon, cloves, Tumeric, coconut, loads of fresh vegetables from the mountains and fresh-caught seafood! It was wonderful and a great change from our usual fare of western and Thai foods.

travel for free

Karen was very partial to the drinking coconuts growing everywhere, they we 10c each to buy, but we had loads in our garden

 

Our highlights of Sri Lanka:

The people: everyone was very kind and happy to meet us, because Sri Lanka was once a British colony English is quite widely spoken except in small villages. We met some awesome people who welcomed us to their country which was very cool.

cheap luxury travel

even the ceremonial drummers at the temple of the tooth had a smile for us

 

The mountains: After exploring the South coast and chilling and working in our lovely cottage for a few weeks we really wanted to get amongst it and head into the mountainous and cool interior packed with charming villages, ancient tea plantations and stunning expansive vistas.

We traveled to Kandy, Ella and Haputale before returning back to the beach. If we had longer we would have explored way more of this magical place, but that is for our next trip!

Free accomodation

Our view from our suite in Ella let us see 200km into the distance according to the owner

The train: Sri Lanka’s train system was put in place by the British to link the high country tea estates to the ports.

Traveling by train was relaxing and scenic; the perfect way to get around, especially because the roads are rather chaotic!

We found the train system efficient and very cheap, traveling first class is most comfortable but second class allows you to take better photos of the scenery because you can open the windows.

Getting reserved seating by ordering a few days in advance will guarantee you a great seat and not have to get caught up in the crush of bodies in 3rd class.

Budget travel tips

We took the train everywhere, we came to famous Gaule a few times because it was so trendy and colonial styled

 

The scenery: From the old colonial walled city of Gaule, to the expansive coconut fringe beaches on the south coast and the tea covered mountain tops in the center of the country; Sri Lanka really does have it all.

make a difference

Deserted beaches anyone?

And it is all relatively close together. We went to some amazing temples such as the famous temple of the tooth (which supposedly houses Buddha’s tooth), wandered around colorful markets, saw extensive wildlife, trotted through cultured tea plantations and explored old cities.

It was a great experience and we definitely will go back to see the rest of this awesome country.

budget travel options

The ancient city of Gaule has got it all, architecture, temples, shopping, restaurants and monkeys!

 

Sri Lanka was a great experience and we really enjoyed our time there doing a little work and having an amazing cultural and culinary experience the rest of the time!

Free accomodation in Asia

No visit to Sri Lanka can be complete without visiting the famous tea plantations, which also happen to produce the world’s best tea

If you want to find your own “paradise island” like this somewhere in the world, check out what opportunities we have on Swap Work For Travel.

If Swapping at a destination like this, and traveling the world virtually for free sounds like something you’d like to try, Click Here get our free guide that teaches you exactly how we do it.

Time To Unplug, Leave The Grid And Get Back To Nature

Posted on: July 14th, 2016 by Andrej and Karen

“Life gets complicated, then you travel and everything balances out”

I read this somewhere and man is it true! Let me ask you a question, when is the last time you went somewhere totally off the grid for more than a few days?

Many people would answer never, but in today’s high paced, high stress modern world we are constantly bombarded with notifications, advertising and media.

Thanks to smart phones work and distraction now follows us home and even to bed at night…it is increasingly important to get away from it all for a while.

Luxury travel for less

Our happy place in New Zealand

 

Luckily New Zealand has a lot of places where you can get away from it all and Karen and I recently went to one of the prettiest lakes in the country for 5 nights.

This special place is called Lake Waikarimoana and my father who lives 5 hours drive away has been bringing his boat here for years.

 

The lake that time forgot

You have to drive through miles of gravel roads to reach this place. There is no internet, not even a mobile phone signal.

Lake Waikarimoana is surrounded by some of the most pristine forest in New Zealand’s north island, as it is protected as a national park.

Travel with a difference

Hiking to a waterfall was actually one of the prettiest walks we have done anywhere in the world.

 

If you don’t have a boat you can stay at one of a handful of campgrounds which have basic faculties such as toilets, showers, covered areas and BBQ’s you can use to cook your meals.

The 54 square kilometer lake has a hiking trail all the way around it which takes 4 days to walk (44km) and is dotted with waterfalls, pristine native forest and stunning empty beaches.

Lake Waikarimoana

One of the waterfalls around the lake, you could swim here too.

 

Thanks to Dad’s boat we were able to travel away from the main camp sites (and other people) and claim 1 of many amazing, secluded camping sites around the lake with no road or hiking trail access.

We had our own private beach and were woken at 5.30am every morning by a cacophony of native New Zealand bird song.

Cheap travel

Our private beach was a definite highlight.

 

The lake itself is filled with huge rainbow and brown trout, so my Dad went fishing a couple of times and caught a delicious dinner for us.

For 5 days we swam, read books, went on hikes, relaxed, day-dreamed, listened to the birds and drunk good New Zealand wine.

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Hiking around the lake made you realize how far away from anything you were, nothing but nature as far as the eye could see!

 

No smart phone zone

So what was it like being away from concrete, traffic, TV and internet for 5 whole days?

Heaven actually, you really find yourself unwinding, de-stressing and getting back to just being, instead of reacting to everything around you.

Spending time just being present, enjoying nature, food, drink and conversation with zero modern day distractions is highly recommended.

We found it to be so good for our headspace and our souls, by the end of it we felt so relaxed, centered and calm.

volantourism

The view from our accommodation was to die for!

 

If you want to find your own pristine place like this somewhere in the world, check out what opportunities we have on Swap Work For Travel.

If Swapping at a destination like this, and traveling the world virtually for free sounds like something you’d like to try, Click Here get our free guide that teaches you exactly how we do it.

Wild Adventures In Borneo

Posted on: June 30th, 2016 by Andrej and Karen

Do you want a real travel adventure?

Borneo evokes romantic notions of huge swathes of unexplored deep, dark and steamy jungle crawling with wild life and indigenous tribes…

It is indeed that, but it’s also a very friendly country that’s easy to travel in.

Swap Work For Travel

Borneo is the nature lovers ultimate paradise

 

The first of my friends I ever heard talking about Borneo told me it is home to the oldest rainforest in the world; 130 million years old, it is also the 3rd largest island in the world and is home to more plant species than anywhere else on earth!

Borneo travel

Here we are exploring the rain-forest.

 

We went to Borneo!

I had this amazing romanticized vision of Borneo as this misty forested paradise inhabited with Orangutans, pygmy elephants and giant flowers and insects…let me tell you the reality is even better, it’s like Jurassic Park but real (and no dinosaurs sorry)!

Adventure in Borneo

This prehistoric looking insect was actually very friendly

 

One of the top things people like to do in Borneo is get out into the user friendly and very well organized National Parks to see some of Borneo’s amazing flora and fauna first hand.

While we were there recently, we decided to go to one of the country’s most popular: Mulu National Park in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. This is supposed to be one of the best national parks in Asia.

Exploring jungles of Borneo

We really loved Mulu National Park

 

Why is Mulu National Park worth a visit?

  • Mulu park is a UNESCO world heritage area, that makes it pretty important on a global scale. Mulu is listed because of its important biodiversity and geological formations.
  • It is home to some of the world’s highest concentrations of plant and animal species. Think 8 species of Hornbill and 27 types of bats found in the park!
Jungle adventure travel

There sure are loads of plants in Mulu national park!

 

  • Mulu is revered for the huge geological significance of its vast cave systems and famous rock pinnacles.
  • This place has the world’s largest known cave chamber which is so big it can fit 40 Boeing 747’s wing to wing!
  • Also Deer cave is one of the largest single cave passages in the world…and every night you can watch 3 million bats fly out of it at dusk!

Basically Mulu is like natures theme park and as we found out there was heaps to do and see here.

There are a multitude of tours you can book and go on with guides, or simply go by yourself, which is mostly what we did.

travel with free food and accomodation

It seems like everything in Mulu is huge. Look at this leaf!

 

Mulu sure is a one horse town, it has an airport (because it is just so remote) a hotel, various guest houses, restaurants and a couple of tribal villages…that’s it.

The whole community is set up to support the awesome national park and everything is within walking distance so you don’t need transport.

Luxury travel with a shoestring budget

What other National Park has its own airport?

 

Mulu even has a special 5 star Marriot resort for its more well-heeled visitors!

The national park is made up of km after km of good quality board walks and well-marked out trails.

Some tours are multi day adventures, like going to see the stunning limestone pinnacles (which is one of the main attractions of the park) and other trails can be knocked over in a couple of hours.

Travel with free food and accomodation

One of the great self-guided walking trails

 

The deal is you pay a single entrance fee that last for 5 days then you can choose a guest house (of which there were about 10) outside the park’s entrance and come and go from the park as you please.

It’s very easy to have a multi-day itinerary of tours you have booked, walks you want to go on by yourself and plenty of chill out time.

 

So what did we do in Mulu?

  1. Went on a guided tour of Deer and Lang caves seeing the millions (literally) of swiftlets and bats that nest in there. Now we can say we have officially been to one of the biggest caves in the world.
  1. Did an amazing tree-top walk on one of the world’s longest canopy rope bridges. This was a real highlight of our trip to Mulu.
Jungle adventure in Borneo

Mulu’s canopy walk is one of the world’s longest.

 

  1. A guided wildlife spotting night walk, this was very cool. Our guide knew exactly what kind of animals to spot where. We saw loads of cool stuff from giant insects and moths to huge geckos, frogs and sleeping birds. This was my favorite activity mostly because I got to touch lots of the insects!
Exploring Southeast Asia

We were quiet not to wake the birds on the night walk

 

  1. Went up the huge bird spotting tower to view birds and humongous stick insects and katydids in the rainforest canopy. This gets pretty crowded, so the best time to go is at break of dawn when you will have the least company and the birds will be most active.
  1. Went on some amazing self-guided walks by ourselves, on these walks we saw the most variety of wildlife because we were very quiet and by ourselves. We took picnic lunches and made a day of it.
See the world for less

This cool Pill bug rolled into a ball as big as a Kinder surprise!

 

  1. Hanging out at the awesome Mulu restaurant in the park, this was the best place to eat in town, with loads of space, a nice view, great food and the only WiFi in Mulu! It was a great place to chill with other travelers and talk about your adventures and what you had seen!
  1. The bat exodus: this nightly event is gob-smacking. You get to watch 3 million wrinkle-nosed bats exit Deer cave each dusk winding and reeling through the sky as one organism to avoid the bat hawks and other birds of prey looking for a batty snack. This is one of nature’s coolest events!
See the world for less

The “bat exodus” was one of the coolest spectacles of nature we had ever seen.

 

We absolutely loved the pristine nature amazing wildlife and peace and quiet of Mulu National Park, we will definitely go back and recommend you go see it for yourself!

World travel for less

if you want to see loads of nature up close and personal go to Borneo

If Swapping at a destination like this, and traveling the world virtually for free sounds like something you’d like to try, Click Here get our free guide that teaches you exactly how we do it.

Swapping In The Most Beautiful Country In The World

Posted on: June 17th, 2016 by Andrej and Karen

Let me ask you a question: what is the most beautiful country in the world?

Obviously everyone’s answer is going to be slightly different, but New Zealand consistently ranks in the top 3 all over the internet and this is where we went Swapping!

Swap Work for Travel in New Zealand

New Zealand is ridiculously beautiful

 

Karen and I got a really sweet Swapping gig in a stunning piece of the country called the Matakana coast in the north east coast of the north island.

We stayed in an amazing huge house right at the foot of a mountain covered with native forest that had a popular hiking trail to the summit. We were minutes away from some of the north islands most desirable beaches, national parks, farmers markets and wineries.

Swapping New Zealand

Our Swap-Hosts house was amazing

 

Best of all was the complete lack of any visible neighbors and traffic noise. We would wake up every morning to native bird song, then go for a hike up into the forest or a jog on the quiet and scenic roads huffing on fresh New Zealand air.

Cheap travel New Zealand

Jogging down the road with the local cows cheering me on

 

Matakana is only 1 hour drive from Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city so we were actually really close to all the action if we wanted to get amongst it.

New Zealand Swapping adventure

Karen looking across the bay towards Omaha beach and then Auckland

 

In return for free food and accommodation we  created a Facebook page and set up Facebook ads for our Swap-Hosts, and taught them how to deal with the ongoing management of the page. It was actually really fun as our Swap-Hosts, a really nice local couple were so laid back and keen for us having a good time while we were there. They even had a spare car for us to drive around in.

The work itself was really fun, especially with a sunny outdoor private office with an amazing view of a mountain!

Stay for free in New Zealand

Enjoying a long espresso and the view from my office i.e. the patio

 

The high points of this Swapping adventure were:

  • Going out to Tawharanui regional park; one of Auckland’s most beautiful national parks with newly released endangered native birds like the Takahe and the Saddleback making a comeback in this pristine and predator-safe environment. There was also a white sand surf beach here and some stunning little bays to swim and picnic at. We found out that this is now one of Auckland’s trendy summer destinations!

 

Swapping in New Zealand

Watching the Takahe, a native bird once thought to be extinct.

 

  • Going for swims and hikes at local beaches and walking tracks a perfect activity for the sunny kiwi summer. There are some seriously cool outdoor activities around here.

 

Swap Work for Travel to have exclusive travel experiences virtually for free

We were minutes drive from so many stunning local beaches!

 

 

  • Drinking some amazing Matakana coast wine and craft beer; this region is famous for it’s wines and you could buy most of them on discount at the local liquor store. Our favourite was the Ti Point white Merlot, for less than NZ$16 (about 8 USD) per bottle yum!

 

Swapping adventures in New Zealand

The craft beer range at the local supermarket blew me away!

 

  • Buying fresh produce at the Matakana farmers market having a full kitchen at our disposal was great, so we made some awesome dishes using in-season local vegetables, fruit and seafood. New Zealand definitely has turned into a total foodie destination and we made the most of it!

 

Swapping in New Zealand

The Matakana wineries were pretty cool.

 

So in return for working on Facebook for a few hours a day, which our Swap-Hosts were very grateful for as they are not what you would call “social media savvy” we got to experience one of the trendiest and most beautiful parts of New Zealand and live like a local for part of the kiwi summer!

 

Travel virtually for free with Swap Work for Travel

The view from the house was equally as amazing as the Swapping experience in Matakana

 

If Swapping at a destination like this, and traveling the world virtually for free sounds like something you’d like to try, Click Here get our free guide that teaches you exactly how we do it.

 

 

How We Swapped Work For Travel In The Beautiful Philippines

Posted on: June 9th, 2016 by Andrej and Karen

Why not Swap Work For Travel on one of the planets hottest beaches?

Last April my wife Karen and I decided we were in need of some R&R at some stunning beach destination for a month…

Panglao Island for free

Our local beach on Panglao island

 

But we wanted to have a holiday with a difference;

Yes we wanted time to chill, sight-see and relax but we also wanted to do something inspiring and meaningful!

We wanted to travel cheaply but not skimp on any wonderful experiences and we ended up landing one of the coolest gigs ever…

Swap Work for Travel in Philippines

Karen hanging out with some of the local Filipino kids

 

After a bit of research on stunning beach destinations that also boasted great food, plenty of things to do and interesting culture we decided we would go check out the Philippines archipelago.

Now we just had to choose which of the 7000 islands to go to…not a bad problem to have right?

We settled on Panglao island located in the central Visayas region because it had the following cool stuff:

  • Stunning beaches
  • Awesome restaurants
  • Picturesque little local villages
  • Easy to get around on rented scooters
  • Close proximity to some seriously cool must-see attractions such as the Tarsier (the world’s smallest primate) sanctuary, the Chocolate Hills and the WWF approved Whale shark visiting grounds.
Our nearest beach while Swapping in Panglao Island

Playing with the cute local kids was a definite highlight

 

We also got really lucky, we found a great Swap Work For Travel opportunity minutes away from the best beach and best restaurants on the island…sweet!

This meant free accommodation for 2 weeks in return for a few hours work per day, still plenty of time to chill, swim and explore…but the bonus of an extra fortnight of holiday for free 🙂

 

Swapping on Panglao Island

Lunch on the beach in Panglao island…local flower salad was awesome!

 

A pretty cool office…

Eva had just opened a homestay, which was a brand new block of 4 huge fully furnished apartments with a sweet pool.

We turned up and immediately got changed into our togs (that’s Kiwi for Swimsuit / bathers) for a swim in the pool then lazed around the lawn while we chatted with Eva, who told us all about Panglao island and the Philippines.

She needed a simple 1 page website to tell the world how cool her accommodation was, we agreed it was pretty special and wanted to do a great job for her because she was so nice.

A great deal - Swapping in Panglao Island Philippines

The pool at Eva’s apartments was amazing

 

Our accommodation was the biggest apartment with 2 WiFi connections (in case one went down!), air conditioning, a huge flat screen with cable, super-comfy sofas and brand new fully stocked kitchen. We were stoked to say the least.

Swapping in Philippines was a dream come true

Our brand new apartment with WiFi, cable TV and a full kitchen

 

From this base we spent a few hours per day with Karen making Eva’s website and me taking photos and helping with the text to go on the website.

We were surrounded by coconut palms and birds, and on the second day we realized we could watch the sun set into the ocean from the rooftop viewing/yoga platform. In all honesty we probably could have stayed here happily forever!

Philippines Swap Work for Travel

The view from the roof of our apartment which doubled as a yoga platform and an observation deck!

 

All up we worked only about 10 hours to get Eva’s website all done. So this Swapping gig was pretty cruisey for us. Typically Swappers exchange 5 hours work per day, 5 days per week for free food and accommodation, but it can be less depending on the needs and generosity of your Swap-Host.

Swap Work for Travel made our travels awesome

Karen and Eva our lovely Swap Host

 

When we weren’t working, other than chilling out in our pad, we rode around the island on our motorbike and explored. We snorkeled and swam a lot. We worked our way through TripAdvisors top 10 restaurants and drank delicious and dirt cheap San Miguel beer.

 

We did a heap of day trips too, here is our top 3:

  1. We went and checked out the Tarsier sanctuary, which was amazing. These tiny animals are the world smallest primates and used to be common in this part of the Philippines. We wandered around the forest of the sanctuary and spotted 4 Tarsiers, they are very cute.
Bohol Tarsier Sanctuary, near our Swap in Philippines

A Tarsier – The world’s smallest primate

 

  1. We rode across the bridge onto Bohol island and had a very scenic drive to the Chocolate Hills which are 100’s of naturally occurring, perfectly rounded hills as far as the eye can see which look like chocolate drops in dry season.
Swap Work for Travel Philippines

Andrej motorbiking to the Chocolate Hills one of the worlds top natural wonders

 

  1. We ticked an item off my bucket list by swimming with the Whale Sharks. These gentle giants are only found this close to shore in a few parts of the world. This was an amazing experience!
Swap Work for Travel in Philippines

Snorkeling with whale sharks was epic! One of the coolest things I have ever done

 

Karen and I totally loved our time in the Philippines and on Panglao island. We definitely will be back there and encourage anyone to give Swapping a try, it’s an awesome experience!

 

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Helping in Ha Long Bay

Posted on: May 31st, 2016 by Andrej and Karen

Ha Long Bay was top of our ‘must do’ list when we visited Vietnam. The pictures we’d seen looked stunning and different from other places we’d visited, so we decided that we should experience what Ha Long Bay had to offer.

Swap Work for Travel in Vietnam

Ha Long Bay

 

Our initial research showed that most people visited Ha Long in an overnight trip on a ‘Junk’ boat. This sounded pretty cool, and then on further investigation we found that we could stay in Ha Long Bay for an extended time, at Cat Ba Island. Cat Ba is the largest of the 367 islands spanning 260 km² that comprise the Cat Ba Archipelago, which makes up the southeastern edge of Ha Long Bay in Northern Vietnam.

 

Junk Boat in Ha Long Bay Swap Work for Travel

On our way to Cat Ba Island

 

On arriving at Cat Ba, we were shown our room – we couldn’t believe our luck! We had the entire top floor with extensive views over the bay.  We were to stay here for about 3 weeks, immerse ourselves in local culture, experience local delicacies and go to places that weren’t on the usual tourist trail.

Our Room with Swap Work for Travel

View from our room

 

During our time there (when we weren’t swooning over our view) we were extremely fortunate. Here’s some of the things we did:

 

Swapping in Ha Long Bay

Watched the sunset while kayaking among the huge limestone karsts in Ha Long Bay

 

Swimming at Cat Ba Island in Ha Long Bay

Swim at all 3 of the nearby white sand beaches

 

 

Exploring Cat Ba Island with Swap Work for Travel

Explore the national park overlooking the many islands – at that time, this particular national park wasn’t mentioned in any websites or guidebooks, so we only found this via local knowledge

 

SwapHosts providing food for us in Ha Long Bay

Enjoy some delicious home cooked meals

 

Making friends is easy with Swap Work for Travel

Made some new friends

 

Swapping is a great way to have an adventure in Vietnam

Fit in a little work

 

Swapping on Andrej's birthday

Andrej even got some flowers from our hosts on his birthday!

 

Cat Ba Island's floating restaurant while Swapping

Eat at these funky floating restaurants with a view

 

Swap Work for Travel in Vietnam

Experience local life and activities

 

Cat Ba Island Vietnam

Relax and have lots of time out

 

Our 3 weeks on Cat Ba Island were a great way to really get involved with the local goings on. Most of the tourists we met spent one night or maybe two on Cat Ba and Ha Long Bay.

We felt incredibly privileged to have had a more in depth experience and share in some local activities that other tourists didn’t have access to.

Swapping in Cat Ba Island

Enjoying Cat Ba Island

 

Our time in Ha Long Bay staying on Cat Ba Island was so much more special for having stayed with locals and gotten a lot of ‘inside information’ about the island. The experience we had was so much more than we hoped for. We thoroughly recommend giving an adventure like this a try!

We’re excited to share this kind of opportunity with you! If you would like to find out more about how you can create lasting memories of your own in destinations around the world virtually for free, then we would love to show you how you can do this.

To create your own meaningful memories with Swap Work for Travel, click here.