What to Do When Travelling to Bali for the First Time with Aforeigner Abroad

About This Episode

In this episode, we are joined by Lindsay and Alexis of Aforeigner Abroad. They left their 9 to 5 jobs in California to travel the world together and start their own travel brand. We talk with them about their love of Bali, practicing communication with your significant other, scheduling their time when traveling, and their three hour daily routine to grow their Instagram.

Introduction:

Lindsay and Alex met at work where she worked in production and he worked in IT. They worked at a company that created fitness programs and they were asked to be part of a test group. After the test group was finished, the group planned a weekend away but only the two of them and two other people went and that is where things kicked off.

They were both always interested in travel, but never had enough time with the vacation time they got from work. The pressure really was too much for Lindsay as she worked non-stop and even on weekends. She knew that long term she could not keep this up. After seeing her friend Collette of Roamaroo leave for her trip with Scott, she knew she wanted something similar.

It took some convincing of Alex who was on a good career path and was worried that it would be career suicide. Eventually he was convinced and they started to plan the details and savings to get this trip started, including starting their travel brand.

Part One: Travel

We start this part off by asking, “Why travel?” For Lindsay, travel is a release and to let go of all of the stresses from everyday life. It is also the experience of other people and other cultures. For Alex, travel gives you a chance to be your best self by stripping away your daily expectations and stress and allows you to be who you want to be.

They were just in Vietnam, at the time of this interview they were in Kyoto, Japan, and their next destination is Morocco. There they plan to visit Marrakesh for 10 days, Fes for another few days, and Chefchaouen. In Vietnam they started in Saigon and explored the city doing a food tour with XO Tours where they visited lesser known areas.

We then talk to them about their most rewarding travel experience together. For Alex it was Komodo National Park where they saw komodo dragons and snorkeling where the coral was the best they had ever seen in a place that was not overrun with tourists. It was this experience, as well as their experiences with the locals for the three days that they were there, that made it so unforgettable.

With no embarrassing travel experiences to share just yet, they did share their most hilarious travel experience. This Thanksgiving was the first time they had not spent with family and friends. When Christmas came around in Vietnam, they decided to book a cruise and buy Christmas hats and sing and shout Merry Christmas to everyone they could find on the river.

Their worst travel experience came in Saigon when they had to cross the road. Though there were crosswalks, there is no stopping for the traffic. While they were crossing they had to come to a standstill when a bus and a car came mere inches from their fronts and backs. Something that truly terrified them and stopped them from wanting to use crosswalks in Vietnam.

Part Two: Relationships

Travel has not allowed them any alone time from each other. This has made them closer than they have been ever before. It has made them better together and it allows them to rely on one another whenever they need to.

As far as where they recommend a travel couple to go visit, they have no hesitation for where they would send them. Bali. They say that it is the perfect destination for a tropical destination. Great food, beautiful landscapes, and so much to do for anybody. They provide so much great information on things you need to do when you are in Bali in this section of the interview that you need to check out on this episode and on their blog.

We finish this section by talking about communication in a relationship. We talk about how you should practice communication before you leave. It is something that is harder to practice while you are on the road. If you are not good at communicating, you will harbor resentment and your trip will be ruined. Making sure to talk about everything and to be able to listen to one another is so important for your relationship and for your trip.

Part Three: Making Travel a Lifestyle

We take this time to talk about their blog and everything that went into planning the name. We talk about how they split the tasks up and divide and conquer everything that goes in to creating and managing a travel blog including videos, photos, writing, editing, and so much more that goes into this lifestyle.

When it came to choosing and managing these tasks, they have both fell into the roles and also chosen the roles based on their strengths. These roles continue to evolve as they work on their travel brand.

Their advice for people looking to get into this lifestyle is to be ready to put in the time. Just Instagram alone is a three hour a day routine where you need to post and engage with people in order to keep your Instagram page from growing. Included in their three hours a day on Instagram is about an hour of engagement before a post where they interact with other travel bloggers, people from their audience, and others. They then prepare their post and then publish it. They then continue for another hour to continue to engage and respond immediately in that first hour after that post is live to make sure that the momentum continues with that post. It is really important in that first hour after the post is live. The third hour is involved with stories or popping in every once in a while throughout the day to engage. They use an app called Unfold to stylize their stories and keep in consistent with their brand and being unique.

To Alex, the three hours is a great balance between success on Instagram and your own sanity. You do not want to spend your whole day there otherwise you would be missing your moments and your travels that you share together.

You have to have this mindset of you are going to have a lot of work to do, but if it is something that you want to do, a lifestyle that you want to live, and something that you understand you will need to work on, then this is the lifestyle you should pursue.

We then talk about scheduling their day and balancing their workload. They usually front load the day with a lot of exploration in the mornings and during the day. They will then come back in the late afternoon to be able to tackle any work that needs to be completed. It is also important to be flexible and making it work. Some days you just need to take off in order to get some work done and others you want to just travel all day. Also scheduling rest days is extremely important even if you are traveling full time and not running a travel brand.

We round this up with final advice that they share with us for a couple that wants to step into this lifestyle. They have a ready-set-go guide that they will be releasing shortly involving a video series on how to get your travels ready and going.

• XO Tours
• Unfold

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