Belarusian woman with a salary of 2,500 BYN travels twice a year and has already visited 34 countries
There's a belief that frequent long-distance travel is a privilege of IT specialists or top managers with incomes of several thousand dollars. 33-year-old Minsk resident Valeriya proves otherwise. The girl doesn't work in IT, but travels at least twice a year, choosing untrodden and distant destinations. Vietnam and Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Oman and Cambodia — her list already includes 34 countries and almost two hundred cities, writes Myfin.by.
Valera first went abroad at 23 — and immediately got hooked. The girl told a Myfin.by journalist how to plan routes two years in advance, why to look for a fourth travel companion on Instagram, and why a hostel with a pool for three dollars is a reality.
"I shop at Zhdanovichi and save 40% of my income"
"The salary of a person who travels twice a year shouldn't be astronomical. At my recent workplace, I earned 2,500 rubles."
Valera's secret lies in conscious consumption and financial literacy. She doesn't like to spend money on deliveries, taxis, and unnecessary trifles. She wears clothes for a long time, preferring to repair them rather than throw them away. This is both economical and ecological.
"I can find something interesting at a second-hand store or shop at 'Zhdanovichi-fashion'. Plus, now I live with my parents and only chip in for utilities. As soon as I get my salary, I immediately convert about 40% into currency and put it into my travel fund. And I simply intelligently combine public holidays, 'long weekends', and two vacations a year."
Valeriya mostly travels to visa-free countries. Usually, her current and next year are completely planned out. She's subscribed to dozens of travel chats with discounts and airline newsletters. She informs everyone she knows about her schedule: if someone wants to join, they know the dates six months in advance. Valeriya usually looks for flights from Moscow — it's cheaper that way. For example, in 2024, her most budget-friendly flight was Moscow — Bishkek with local airlines for only $130 one-way.
"I'll save on hotels, but take great excursions"
Sometimes, even for an ideal planner, everything doesn't go according to schedule. On one of her vacations, Valeriya and her friends were supposed to fly to Cuba. The girls bought ready-made tours – it was cheaper for that destination. But unforeseen circumstances intervened.
"Problems with gasoline started in Cuba, causing tours to be massively canceled. We had exactly three weeks left to come up with a new trip from scratch. That's how Cambodia entered our plan."
As a result, 12 days in Cambodia cost Valeriya and her companions approximately $1800 per person. Of that, $850 went to tickets, and $30 to the visa.
"Prices in Cambodia are simply superb. In Siem Reap, we reserved a female room for four in a hostel with a pool. In the end, three of us lived in the room, and each paid $6 for two nights."
The girl admits: she consciously chooses the strategy of "cheap accommodation — expensive experiences."
"I'd rather save on hotels, but take great excursions. I prefer to hire an individual guide with a car. Finding companions is also part of the calculation. It's expensive to travel alone, ideally with four people.
In 2019, I invited my best friend Yulia to Serbia, and we've been traveling together ever since. Later, I found Olga from Minsk on the website makhnem.ru — she became our third companion. And we take a fourth person "from the side": we look among acquaintances and on Instagram.
The costs of individual excursions and guides are split among everyone and stop being daunting. In Oman, for example, a two-day excursion cost $100 per person, and we paid $57 each for a personal guide to the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia."
Kyrgyzstan — top 1 in economy and sincerity rating
Valeriya graduated from a linguistic university, is fluent in English, but believes that the CIS is an ideal start for a budget tourist — everyone understands Russian, and there's no need to think about visas. Kyrgyzstan ranks number one in her personal rating for economy and hospitality.
"A beautiful country in every way: people, nature, cuisine. We took group excursions almost every day for only $10. And you can have a delicious and hearty lunch there for literally a couple of dollars."
The most expensive trip in the Minsk resident's biography was Mongolia. The flight with Russian airlines cost $890, and for 7 days of guide services, they paid another $700 per person — it's impossible otherwise in the steppes without roads and a guide.
"In Mongolia, I left a lot of money for souvenirs, realizing that I would probably not return there. But I only buy useful things: mugs, T-shirts, socks, or local food. No magnets."
Saudi Arabia could compete with Mongolia in terms of expense, where a single visa costs $450. But Valeriya flew there for a long business trip: accommodation and transfer were paid by the company. The travel time coincided with Ramadan, there was less work, so she managed to travel around the country. Nevertheless, over 2.5 months, the girl spent $1200 of her personal money exclusively on food and trips to neighboring cities.
A trip to Kazakhstan cannot be called budget-friendly either: 14 days of vacation cost $2089 per person. The girls visited three cities: Astana, Aktau near the Caspian Sea, and Almaty, and the biggest hit to the wallet was a trip to the steppe. Three days in tents cost $500.
"The most expensive excursions were in Oman — one day there cost 70 rials (almost $180). But we were incredibly lucky with the guide: the woman was so hospitable that she lodged me for free at her home, cooked, did laundry, and gave me another day of excursions from herself."
In Kyrgyzstan, Lera and her companion got stuck on an excursion: the bus went to the city, and the guide's mobile phone ran out of battery. They had to knock on the first house they found to ask for a charger.
"The owner of the house, upon learning that I was from Belarus, was delighted. He immediately poured a shot, treated me to plov, and brought out a ton of sweets. Then he called his friends, children came running — everyone wanted to take a picture with me. As a result, we stayed as guests for almost two hours."
Side effect of frequent trips
The girl travels within countries by public transport. The journey from Salalah to Muscat, the capital of Oman, took 12 hours but cost only 4 rials (about $10) in a comfortable half-empty bus with air conditioning and Wi-Fi. In Uzbekistan, Valeriya also opted out of planes, traveling throughout the country by local trains and buses.
When it comes to food, the Minsk resident has her own rules: she likes to try new things, but won't eat anything that looks unpleasant. In Thailand, she avoided fried cockroaches, and considered durian the most disgusting in taste.
"But in Mongolia, I drank pig's milk. Truth be told, it wasn't local; it was brought from South Korea. It tasted like regular milk, heavily diluted with water. I also tried shark, camel, and horse meat."
Frequent trips have a side effect: over time, the beauty of new places starts to get tiresome.
"You quickly get used to Asian and Eastern culture if countries follow one after another. After Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia seemed too similar to me. So my advice is — always break up the destinations. Flew to Thailand? Fly to Cambodia only in a couple of years. Now I've returned from Kazakhstan, which means I'll fly to Tajikistan in about two years, so as not to blur the impressions."
With her — a suitcase of dresses
Difficulties on the road also occur. In Kyrgyzstan, the girls accidentally chose a "medium difficulty" mountain hike, which in practice was extremely challenging. Valeriya couldn't continue the journey; she developed altitude sickness.
And in the Raspberry Canyon gorge, they were completely caught in a downpour. A local shepherd noticed the frozen tourists, called them over, poured hot tea with crackers, and gave them jackets. And then, leaving his flock of sheep in the mountains, on horseback, accompanied by his dog, he personally led them to the final point of their route.
Valeriya talks about all her travels on her blog valerieks_travel. She has a life hack for beautiful visuals.
"In my suitcase, I carry a bunch of outfits that I've pre-assigned to locations. If a desert is ahead, I take a green dress with a four-meter train. Tourists usually rent such things for crazy money, but I sewed mine for 150 rubles. Yes, it takes up a lot of space, but the shots turn out fantastic. In the tropics, orange or pink dresses look good against the greenery."
You don't have to wait until you become rich to start traveling, Valeriya is confident.
"Experiences and memories are the only things worth spending money on. More precisely, not spending, but investing. After all, what difference does it make how old your sneakers are if you're walking in them through the streets of Bahrain or Cambodia?"
Two sons taken from a Belarusian woman in Italy — because she did not recognize the state and did not send her children to school or to the doctor 1414
Comments