What’s All About the Après all about?
Hello, I’m Hannah. Welcome to my blog, All About the Après.
I’ve been travelling full-time and living overseas for six years while working both online and offline. Predominantly a long-term travel/remote work blog, All About the Après is where I share stories from the road, life, the world, and so on.
Sometimes I digress and talk about things that have absolutely nothing to do with travel.
What do I write about?
Travel experiences that made me laugh, smile, or even cry. Conversations or situations that gave me some food for thought. I like to wax lyrical over special destinations and recount tales from my experiences on becoming a ‘digital nomad’ – my least-favourite phrase. This long-term travel blog is a personal journal and place for me to share my musings on nomadic life and preserve a few memories before they fade away but I hope some of the content might prove useful to fellow roaming souls.
As a thrifty traveller, I also share some tips about how I save money on the road and how you (yes, you – I can see you) maybe can too.
There aren’t any sponsored posts or affiliate links on my blog but I do embed links to services, products, and other travel blogs that I personally use/like. One thing that I plan to avoid is those irritating ads and pop-ups that always dampen my browsing experience. But if you want to learn how you can work two hours a month and travel the world for free while making millions of money without lifting a finger please click here.
Life before All About the Aprés
I worked as a books’ publicist in London. If you’ve ever read or watched Bridget Jones’ Diary, her job was my job.
Unlike Bridget, I definitely did not sleep with my boss (and she definitely wasn’t played by Hugh Grant). Nor did I live in my own little flat in Borough, dining on blue soup and chain-smoking cigarettes. I did as any normal, financially-challenged 20-something-year-old does and lived with folk I found on The Internet and hoped wouldn’t kill me while I slept.
I bid England farewell in February 2018 bound for Hanoi on a one-way flight. Once there, I divided my time between setting myself up as a freelancer (taxes, yay), work-exchange programmes (free bed, yay), and exploring Southeast Asia (adventures, yay).
How do I afford to travel full-time?
Contrary to what some people assume when they see a woman trotting around the world alone, there’s been no rich man funding my journey. Nor are my parents wiring me wads of cash each month.
The only way that I can sustain this lifestyle and afford to travel indefinitely is by working as I travel and being careful with my spending habits. It’s a bit like how people might buy a house and continue to work and fulfil their mortgage payments.
Working in publishing in London was no ticket to a champagne lifestyle. It took a long time for me to save enough money to cover the initial costs of long-term travel. While squirrelling away at three jobs, paying off credit card debt, and reducing my outgoings, I started the gradual process of setting myself up as a freelancer.
Even now that I’m bringing in comfortable monthly earnings as a self-employed writer, I’m still extremely careful (aka fearful) about what I spend my money on.
My travel style
For a while, I was a footloose and fancy-free nomadic traveller.
Wherever I slept each night was my home that day. That might have been a night bus, a place I was housesitting, or an airport floor. When I left the United Kingdom as a solo traveller I usually dwelled in hostel dorms or guesthouses when I wasn’t house-sitting or on a work-exchange. After shacking up with my partner we tended to stay in Airbnbs and similar rental pads. We’d generally stay put for at least a few months in one place. During 7 years of flatshare hopping in London I lived in 7 different houses. So, obviously becoming a nomad was written in the stars.
I’ve always travelled slowly. It’s much more my style to stay put for a few weeks than to bounce around. I’m not one for ticking off sights, nor am I a passport stamp collector. I’m definitely not on a mission to see every single country in the world like it’s some kind of travel Pokemon game. I have no idea how many countries I’ve visited (and I dislike being asked that question as much as “where next?”).
The pandemic saw me living in Georgia for two years. It was the easiest option for my partner and I due to our different nationalities and passports. We respected the protocol and stayed put in Tbilisi.
I’ve lived in Chile for the past two years and have more of a home base there. Working, saving money, and learning Spanish has been the priority of late.
As a long-term traveller I travel on a careful budget. I’m lousy at actual budgeting (spreadsheets bring me out in a rash). Basically, I watch what I spend, without sacrificing on comfort. I’m always down for a 24-hour bus over a one-hour flight (need to watch that carbon footprint). I avoid posh restaurants with air-conditioning and cloth napkins where staff flutter around asking if everything is alright with the food. If I can travel independently then I’ll always take that route over a tour; the long way round suits me, I’m in no rush.
My journey
The first destination on my digital nomad journey was Vietnam. Once my three-month visa was up, I continued to make my way around Southeast Asia. I lingered in countries that I’d only passed through on short holidays and visited others for the first time, such as Borneo and Myanmar.
This was the first time in my life that I wasn’t bound by other people’s schedules and I loved every sweaty moment. The more I travel, the more I know that I do not want to return to the 9-5 lifestyle of my 20s. And I hope never to set foot in an office again.
After spending a little over eight months backpacking and digital nomadding around Southeast Asia on my tod I headed to New Zealand. Armed with my working holiday visa (easily the best purchase I ever made) I divided up the year between working and travelling. For most of my time there, I lived in a van. Well, okay, it was a car with a mattress and a portable potty in the back.
Southeast Asia 2:0
Once my New Zealand visa was up I was supposed to head to Australia on working holiday visa #2. But, fate intervened and sent me back to Southeast Asia, this time as a non-solo traveller. And this time, thanks to my car breaking down right before I sold it, splendidly broke. As in, only a few hundred pounds to my name. New Zealand wasn’t cheap and my poor van had used up all of its nine lives.
However, towards the end of my year in New Zealand, I’d found more direction. Being back in Asia gave me a chance to really ground down what I want to do going forward and start to think about developing my skills and portfolio as a freelance writer. Plus, you know, baking hot weather, lush scenery, affordable living, some of the best food in the world. I absolutely love that part of the world and I have no qualms about returning to a place I truly treasure. Yet again, no passport stamp collecting taking place on this blog.
Where am I now?
After spending a couple of years in Georgia, I enjoyed a brief visit back to England. My current home is on the coast in Chile where I’ve lived for the past two years.