Fancy But Frugal

Hey guys! Because I have several amazing friends in amazing places all over the world, I wanted to try something new this week and have a guest blogger . I want people to see not just what  traveling is like, but what living abroad is like! Moving to Singapore was one of the best decisions of my life, so I love hearing other people’s stories.  Hit me up if you want to guest blog! One of the first people who popped in my mind was a friend from high school who is currently in Dubai! Jenn and I have many similarities, but at the fore-front is being raised in the south, leaving the south, and loving Jesus and people! I’ve recently heard some conflicting views of what the Middle East is really like, so I went straight to my source!  Here’s a bit of our chat (her words in green , mine in black):  *All pictures are hers! Hi,  Jenn ! Introduce yourself, and tell us what led you to move to the UAE? Hi there, I'm Jennifer Zachary and I met Katie 10 y...

Thailand is one of my all-time favorite countries. I've been around 11 times to various parts, but with Bangkok being a 2.5 hour flight from Singapore and around $150 usd, it was the perfect weekend getaway. I went atleast 5 times between 2013-2015. The first time I went with friends, and we did all the first-time touristy stuff: the Grand Palace, Wat Po, Floating Market, and Khoa San Road. I'm not going to spend much time on these because there are a million other blogs and guides that tell you. BUT I will share some pictures and share that these are a MUST DO if it's your first time to Bangkok! The Grand Palace is beautiful, with more gold than you can imagine. It's down by the river near Wat Po and many other temples and popular sites. Spend an afternoon walking around this area - It's so culturally interesting! Check out a few pics from the Grand Palace: So elaborately decorated The Floating Market was really cool. I recall it being more e...

This week on my Facebook page, pictures/memories popped up from a very special trip we took exactly two years ago. It was our first vacation as a couple and we went to…(drum roll please)… Maldives . Talk about setting the bar high! Panaroma. All pictures copyrighted and mine. Disclaimer: This is not going to seem “budget” to most of you, but trust me, it is. A family could easily spend $20k+ on a vacation there, but that's not feasible for us, so we did the trip our way. **Also, leaving from Singapore (where we were living at the time) cut out one major expense: flights. That alone saved us a couple thousand dollars.  💲💲💲 As I mentioned, this was our first real vacation as a couple, 6 months into our relationship. It was Chinese New Year weekend, so we knew most of our local friends would be busy with family gatherings and most local shops would be closed. We decided it was time to leave for the holiday! We went for 4 (but ...

This week while brainstorming what to write about, I found pictures on an old phone from our trip to MYANMAR in August 2015! It's truly one of the most unique and untouched countries I've ever seen! Many people haven't even heard of the country, let alone want to travel there, so I hope this post will bring awareness to how awesome Myanmar (used to be called Burma) is! A little background : Myanmar is next door to Thailand on the left, but it is described as being 40 years behind Thailand (in terms of development). Ever since I moved to Asia in 2012, I dreamt of going to there, but it was closed to tourists and a visa was nearly impossible to get (which made it even more intriguing!). ☹ In 2014, they opened their borders (woohooooooo!), and I knew I had to make a trip ASAP. The visa process also became available online, even better! I'm not sure about now, but when I applied I had to have a Burmese travel agency sponsor/sign off for me. I think this was their ...