Please tell us about yourself

My name is Jun Loayza and I’m the Co-Founder of RewardMe, a customer loyalty platform startup based in Silicon Valley, CA. I graduated from UCLA back in 2007 with a degree in Economics and Philosophy.

Post-graduation, I joined a corporate finance consulting firm in downtown Los Angeles: I wore a suit and tie and had to fill out time sheets (the legit corporate lifestyle). But the corporate job just wasn’t for me – I felt confined, uninspired, and day-dreamed constantly about building and running my own company.

3 months in, I abruptly quit my corporate job to build a startup with my friends from college.

During the past 4 years, I’ve failed two companies, successfully sold two companies, lead social technology campaigns for brands such as Sephora and Whole Foods Market, and raised over $1M in Angel funding.

Please tell us about RewardMe

The concept of RewardMe started back in the Fall of 2010. At the time, Groupon and Living Social were the hot startups and my team and I looked to capitalize on the trend. We saw that Groupon drove an initial burst of traffic to a local merchant, but that a local merchant had no power to capture the burst of traffic and make customers loyal.

Large corporations such as Starbucks and Best Buy have rewards programs, but the local merchant has neither the technical knowledge nor the capital to create one. RewardMe was born to solve the customer loyalty pain for local merchants.

We have raised over $1M in Angel funding thus far. We have 10 full-timers on the team: 6 engineers, 1 designer, and 3 business-focused people (sales, marketing, fund-raising).

Most important lessons-learned:

1. Build a startup in an industry you’re connected to: our first startup was a virtual world that makes this world more productive. We failed because none of our team members had gaming or virtual world experience. With RewardMe, our founding team members had connections to large franchise brands, allowing us to get clients from the very beginning.

2. Sell before the product is built: our second startup was a product recommendation engine for e-commerce stores. The product worked great, but we failed because I started selling way too late. With RewardMe, I started selling 6 months before the product was complete, which positioned us to launch with 3 paying customers.

Can you give us some advice on raising venture capital for a startup?

To be clear, my team and I have not raised venture capital yet. We’ve raised Angel funding from wealthy professionals and public companies across the globe. Our list of investors include:

1. Telenav – a public company based in Silicon Valley, CA
2. Wealthy professionals from the Philippines, England, and China
3. Stock trader from New York

How we raised funding

What is Minted Republic?

I’ve always wanted my girlfriend to build a company so that we can both eventually live a location-independent lifestyle. She has always wanted to own a fashion boutique, but unfortunately neither of us have the time or experience to open a brick-and-mortar store. Minted Republic was born when I suggested that I help her open an online fashion boutique that she can run on her own time during nights and weekends.

How we set it up

I recruited two partners for my girlfriend to work with: an online marketer and a developer, both of which went to my alma mater. My girlfriend therefore never had to worry about setting up the website or driving traffic; instead, she focuses on the things she loves – selecting the style of clothing and selling her collection online.

We utilize Shopify as the e-commerce platform, which is cost-effective and easy to use. Through her network, my girlfriend found a manufacturer and distributor located in Los Angeles, CA.

How it works in detail:

1. Customer orders an item via the website
2. The product invoice is handled by my girlfriend and emailed to her manufacturer
3. The manufacturer takes the order and ships the product to the customer

Initial cost structure

I remember a post where you spoke about wanting to be location-independent. Do you still feel the same way?

Yes, it is a future goal of mine.

However, right now I am 100% focused on RewardMe. I have sold two companies in the past for smaller amounts; with RewardMe, our goal is to change the face of an entire industry (the loyalty industry) and exit within 3 years for $50M+.

RewardMe is the big one, the startup where I’ve leveraged absolutely everything I’ve learned in the past 4 years to build and sell a multi-million dollar company.

Once I accomplish my goal, I can happily live a location-independent lifestyle with my girlfriend.

What does it take to have a successful internet startup?

Internet startups are very different from lifestyle businesses.

Goals:

• Internet startup: sell for millions of dollars within 3-5 years
• Lifestyle business: generate a target amount of revenue each month, allowing the founder to choose to live the life that he or she wants

Team:

• Internet startup: founding team should consist of a business-person, designer, and developer
• Lifestyle business: usually 1 founder that can choose to outsource development, design, and admin work to other countries

Capital:

• Internet startup: team aims to raise millions of dollars to scale the company
• Lifestyle business: no need to raise any institutional money

Exit:

• Internet startup: sell for a 10x return on the investment
• Lifestyle business: streamline operations to turn all income into passive income (work as little as possible)

In my experience, there are two factors that determine the ultimate success of an internet startup:

1. An A+ team
2. Perseverance

A+ team

Absolutely nothing is more important that assembling a founding team of A+ people that compliment each other. If you’re building a tech startup, then you need to have an A+ developer as a co-founder. Investors will not invest in a tech-company composed of all business people.

Perseverance

The startup life is a roller coaster. In January we secured our first million-dollar deal with a nation-wide chain; in February we found that our implementation partner could not execute across the US, causing us to delay implementation by 2 months.

For every up there is a down. The goal of course is to secure more ups than downs.

But there WILL come moments when all you encounter are downs: you lose clients, current clients won’t pay, team members leave, investors won’t invest, competitors will launch a better product. Only through sheer die-hard perseverance will you and your team make it through the bad times and hopefully to success.

What is next for you?

The next three years are very clear to me:

1. Have a successful exit with RewardMe
2. Help my girlfriend reach a point where Minted Republic gives her $5,000 in stable income each month (after all expenses)
3. Leave the country and begin our location-independent life

All I need to do now is execute

Links
Jun Loayza is the Co-Founder of RewardMe, a customer loyalty platform for restaurants and retailers. In his entrepreneurial experience, Jun has sold 2 internet companies and lead social media technology campaigns for Sephora, Whole Foods Market, Levi’s, LG, and Activision.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Entrepreneur and Digital Nomad Corbett Barr
2. Interview with Nomadic Entrepreneur, Chris Osborne
3. Interview with Successful Nomadic Entrepreneur, Dan Andrews

In this interview, Tom explains exactly what you can expect at the next Project Getaway, as well as provides some great details into his own businesses and travel expenses. Like most of us, Tom and Lieve are still struggling to build their dream business, but they appear to be having the time of their lives while doing it.

What is Project Getaway?

Project Getaway is an event for adventurous entrepreneurs to live, work and have lots of fun, while inspiring and learning from each other. The event will be held from the 16th of September until the 16th of October in several luxurious villas in beautiful Bali, Indonesia. This year there will be at least 15 participants.

In 2010, the first Project Getaway event was organized by Michael Bodekaer, who loved his lifestyle working on his tech startups while seeking out adventure traveling the world, however he missed connecting with like-minded fellow entrepreneurs. This eventually led to Project Getaway which appeared to be a huge success. To get a feel for the Project Getaway atmosphere and to see interviews with last year’s participants, please have a look at the videos on the Project Getaway Facebook page.

Is this your first experience with Project Getaway?

I attended the second Project Getaway event in 2011 and it was amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced an environment as positive as Project Getaway, where you get together with a bunch of people with common interests, who are all enthusiastic and passionate about whatever it is that they’re working on. Everyone is helpful and ready to learn from each other. It’s a great place to discuss business ideas, brainstorm and even start new projects during the event.

Please provide a rough itinerary of the event?

A typical day at Project Getaway is caught on tape. The great thing about Project Getaway is that we really get to focus on what we want to do. The villa’s lovely staff will take care of daily chores like cooking, cleaning, laundry etc. Then there’s also our own proprietary Mobile Luxury app, which enables us to order several items like juices, snacks, delivery-food, additional massages and even a haircut with just a “click” on our iPhones and we’re arranging for a masseuse to be around at certain times.

We’ll have “PG Talks” every few days where one of the participants will talk about an area they are knowledgeable at like SEO, outsourcing, branding or an in depth look in one’s business procedures etc.

We’re looking into organizing a hackathon-like event where participants experiment with starting something new over the course of a few days.

To keep in shape and to clear our minds we’re having crossfit sessions in our back yard. Lieve used to be a sports-instructor back in the Netherlands so we can expect some classes from her at a nearby gym.

We’re planning to arrange for live-video Q&A sessions with authorities on several different topics, like we did last year with Leo Babauta from Zenhabits.net.

Watching movies with the projector proved to be a popular way to spend the evenings, however Seminyak is very close, so it’s easy to go shopping, surfing or just have a drink at one of the nice clubs in the neighborhood.

About once a week we’ll arrange an exciting event like Scuba diving, snorkeling, hiking to the top of a mountain and other similar activities. And to get rid of the tension, we’ll of course be hosting pool and cocktail parties!

And this is just what comes to mind at this moment.

Applications are open for a few more weeks, so if this sounds interesting, send in your application A.S.A.P.

Please tell us about yourself?

I’m originally from the Netherlands and graduated from Law school in the summer of 2011. While in law school I started developing an educational management software suite targeting poker players, which really lit my entrepreneurial fire. Although I always wanted to run my own business, a few years ago it would have been a career in law, probably gaining experience for about 3-6 years to eventually start my own practice.

I’ve always been a tech-geek at heart though and the online industry just appeared so appealing. While working on the software suite (first trying to develop it myself with limited self-taught development skills, later hiring a professional to do the job properly) I got familiar with all kinds of inspirational blogs like yours and books like the Four Hour Workweek.

I wasn’t alone though since my partner Lieve and I have been living together since 2006. She studied neuropsychology and graduated in 2010. She has been working in the clinical field part-time for almost three years as well as helping me with the software product. Her big passion has always been writing, so now we’ve launched the software product she’s slowly starting to pursue a career in writing and has some concepts in ‘the closet’ that she’s silently working on.

Lieve and I had been saving for a trip around the world for after we both graduated from university, however the software development process proved to be more difficult than I initially anticipated. Due to many reasons (mostly lack of experience to avoid common pitfalls) the launch was being postponed time after time. When we learned that Project Getaway 2011 was accepting applications, it took us less than a week to apply and pretty soon after (way before we heard we made it through the selections) we booked a one way ticket to Bali for the 1st of September 2011, planning to combine work with our initial plans to do a world trip and of course to cut costs due to lower living expenses in Southeast Asia.

This proved to be the magic formula to finally pass my exams in law school and I graduated with a Master’s degree in civil law in July 2011.

Please tell us about your travels?

In August 2011, Lieve and I cancelled our apartment in Groningen, the Netherlands, stored our belongings at our parents and left for Bali. After Project Getaway 2011 we went to the Gili’s (a small island group near Lombok, the neighboring island to Bali) for a few weeks with seven other PG participants and thereafter spend a few weeks at Michael’s place in Bali.

This has been my third visit to Bali (in my adult life that is, sixth in total), and I’m loving Bali more and more each visit. To me Bali just has it all. Extremely friendly people, rich culture which I find very beautiful and elegant, extensive variety of interesting scenery like not-only beaches but also mountains, rice fields, cliffs, crazy partying in Kuta or posh clubs in Seminyak etc. all within a few hours drive. For me the less appealing aspects of Bali would be that it can be somewhat dirty and for Indonesia, it’s relatively expensive.

In November 2011, my niece that lives in Jakarta got married so we spent one month with my aunt in Jakarta in order to attend to the wedding in Jakarta as well as Cirebon. It was great to see my family again and we actually enjoyed Jakarta much more than 4 years ago. Probably because we were mostly working this time around.

Although our initial plans were to primarily travel after Indonesia to destinations such as Nepal, India and Laos, the software suite we had been working on still hadn’t been launched. Keith, a Project Getaway participant who had been traveling for a longer period already, also wanted to stay put for a while and eventually we decided to find accommodation in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a couple of months for the three of us in order to get work done.

We stayed in Chiang Mai for four months, which flew by in a glance. I thought Chiang Mai was great (Lieve is less of a fan). The food is amazing, prices are incredibly low, people are friendly and unlike a major city, it has a cozy feel to it. What amazed me the most is how incredibly hip and stylish certain neighborhoods like the Nimmanhaeman area are; definitely no lack of luxury there. Oh and of course how incredibly cheap you can get the most delicious food.

What also makes Chiang Mai pretty special to me is that there is a very lively community of “digital nomads” or whatever you’d want to call travelers that work from their laptops so there’s definitely no need to feel alone in Chiang Mai.

In April, we debated going to India or back to Bali. When we learned that Michael would be hosting a WDF  development course for his newly hired developers and since we really wanted to participate in the Bali marathon (for the half-marathon) we decided to go back to Bali.

So we’re currently in Bali at Michael Bodekaer’s place. He is running a startup incubator like environment and he’s kind enough to host us here for two months. It’s great to be here since there are about 10-20 people always around. So it’s almost like a semi-Project Getaway around here.

After this we’re heading back to the Netherlands for the summer to see friends and family and we’ll be returning to Bali for Project Getaway preparations in August. What happens after that pretty much is up in the air at this point.

What is it like to work while traveling?

Working while traveling is less productive than we hoped it would be. We work from different cafes, this in itself isn’t necessarily less productive (noise cancelling ear buds help a lot though), however, there are nuisances that all combine to impact productivity.

An example: due to traffic it took us 30 minutes to get to the cafe where we intended to work, only to find out that their internet wasn’t working at that day. Finding another place in the vicinity usually takes about 15 minutes, only to find out that their router doesn’t allow me to connect to our VPN server after having ordered our first cup of coffee. Of course, we’d finish our coffee and relocate after that. This third cafe however apparently closes at 4:30pm on that day so again we would have to relocate. This would be a very bad day indeed. These kinds of issues combined, add up in the end.

Working in tropical environments however, like where we are now, has been great. You have everything that you have at home, but with a much nicer scenery

Can you tell us about your travel and living expenses in Bali and Thailand?

We consider ourselves low-budget travelers, however we are not as strict as others we’ve met. Although we do seek out the cheapest accommodation and tend to prefer to eat local or street food as opposed to more western targeted restaurants, we do enjoy ourselves. We drink a few beers when we want to, go for a massage or join friends that want to go to the more expensive clubs. So in general we try to keep our costs as low as possible, however we definitely spend money on luxuries.

In Bali, a typical guesthouse is around $10-$15 per night for a “homestay” which we would be pretty happy with in general. Sometimes, the bathrooms are somewhat worn out. However, in general, rooms in this price range are fine. We can rent a scooter for about $50 per month and gasoline is very cheap. A full tank, which lasts us about 3-6 hours of driving, costs around $1.50.

Food costs greatly depend on the location. Often we work somewhere at the beach (Tekor Bali in Seminyak) which targets tourists. A typical meal with a drink would be around $5-$10 per person, however there are local warung-like places that have internet and where you can eat local food for about $2-4 per meal. Liquor however is quite expensive in Bali. A small bottle of beer usually is around $2.50. A typical 1 hour Balinese massage is around $5-10. I remember we tried to maintain a budget of $40 per day for the two of us and at first exceeded this on a daily basis. When we started to pay attention to our budget, it was perfectly possible to stay under the $20 per person per day, however we did have to actively track what we would be spending our money on.

We flew to Chiang Mai through Phuket and stayed for one week around there and the neighboring islands. This area definitely is more expensive than Chiang Mai.

In Chiang Mai, before we got our apartment, we used to stay in a local hotel (the Inthanin) for $7.50 per night. It was very basic though. Our apartment wasn’t low budget at all. Since we were planning to work in the apartment we opted for a more luxurious 2-bedroom newly renovated apartment with a very spacious living room, two balconies, kitchen, very nice new electronics and furniture in the Hillside 4 building, which was $731 per month, excluding utility bills (approximately $20) and 6Mbit ADSL internet ($20). This was a little more affordable because it was divided between three of us. The Hillside 4 Condotel building had a gym which we could use for either $30 per month or $3 per session. There also is a pool that is free of charge to residents.

Food costs vary greatly depending on where we eat. As mentioned, there are incredibly trendy and luxurious places in Chiang Mai, which of course would be more expensive. Meals are still relatively cheap though, somewhere around $6.50-$10 in a really nice place. Local food, which I find delicious, is very cheap though. We would often get Khao Soi, red/green curry, Tom Yam Kung or Tom Kha Kai for $1-$2 for lunch and/or diner. My favorite place, Lemon Tree on Huay Kaew road even delivered to our apartment for $0.50, so we used to order in lunch almost every day for a maximum of $2 per person. Liquor also is reasonably priced. A large bottle of Chang/Singha/Leo or other beer is approximately $1-$2.50. Asking if a bar “has promotion?” usually would get you a great deal on a certain brand. For transportation we always took Song Thaew’s: red pick up trucks, able to transport about 10 people. These will take you where you want to go for a fixed rate of $0.60. Thai massages also are amazing, the budget massages would start at $5 per hour. We often went to a place that charged $8 per hour, because it was much more consistent in quality.

Currently in Bali our costs are somewhat skewed since we’re staying at Michael’s place. Over here we just pay $50 per month for a scooter and about $8 per person per day for living expenses (there’s staff that prepares 3 meals and 2 snacks per day), so other than that everything we spend is on luxury items such as beer, eating out on occasions, and massages.

One thing one should account for are visa costs and not only the costs of the actual visa, but also the costs you have to make in order to extend the visa. Since one could write a blogpost on this subject, I won’t go into detail, however for 4 months in Thailand we spent about $200 per person. For the complete time we have been in Indonesia (5 months) we spent about $250 per person, not including time and costs to go to the Indonesian embassy in the Netherlands and Bangkok.

How do you earn an income now?

We aren’t earning an income that can support us. The money that does come in is fairly random and not able to support our software development costs. We’re living from savings that have actually run out not that long ago. Lieve got into freelance article writing and I’ll start applying for legal or web development freelance jobs, while we continue to work on our projects.

What are you working on at this moment?

Currently we’re working on the following projects:

1. PokerEduManager – a poker training software suite. We’ve just launched in April.
2. EasyOnlineResumes.com – Where people can get their own personal website at a very low rate.
3. Niche Sites – We’ve created a portfolio of niche sites in Chiang Mai.
4. Project Getaway
5. Groepsdruk.nl – This is Lieve’s baby, where she pursues her passion for writing (in Dutch).

Please tell us about your PokerEduManager.

PokerEduManager is an educational management software suite targeting poker players. I used to play poker a lot myself and invested a great amount of time and resources in becoming a better player by reading books, watching training videos and participating on forums etc. I had a hard time keeping an overview of what I’ve studied and therefore essentially wasted a lot of time, since a lot of my efforts were lost, due to not reviewing studied material.

This led to PokerEduManager, a platform to structure ones’ endeavors to become a better player with all kinds of tools like a knowledge base to archive studied content, a quiz player that measures progression (time needed to complete the quiz and overall quiz score), a messaging feature, calendar, goal-setting etc.

At this point we’re having some issues with development capacity. Once this has been sorted out, we’re going to create a market place where users can offer their own training packages, which they create with our product, for sale to other users.

Please tell us about EasyOnlineResumes.com.

EasyOnlineResumes.com basically was a weekend startup. Lieve wanted to have a personal site to be able to refer people to while applying for freelance jobs. After we created lievedelint.com, we figured we could easily re-purpose the custom content management system that I created for our niche sites, in order to create more of these portfolio sites without too much effort.

We haven’t done that much to market the service yet other than posting it on Fiverr.com, from which some organic sales came in. We just had a hot-seat session after lunch about easyonlineresumes.com where we got some great feedback and suggestions on how to proceed. We’ll be getting into that in the near future.

(Should any of your readers be interested in a personal site, we would be happy to provide 6 months of hosting instead of 3 months for our Standard Package if they mention jetsetcitizen in the job instructions.)

Please tell us about your experiences with building niche sites.

While in Chiang Mai we’ve created 25 niche sites. 21 of these rank organically anywhere from #2-#200 however income still is quite low (a few euro’s per day). We haven’t done any link building at all yet though. After the software suite launch in April I didn’t have the time to get familiar with link building.

It is the passive aspect that initially attracted us to this model. Since we haven’t yet completed all the steps we want to take in order to form an opinion about the niche site business model, I can’t really give an objective opinion. Personally I wouldn’t recommend getting into niche sites if your sole purpose is to rank by any means. I just don’t think this will be sustainable in the long run, since I think the search engines will eventually outsmart you.  Therefore, I think you should provide value with your sites as in trying to think of what the user is actually looking for and answering this question.  As our former room-mate Keith puts it, your site has to deserve the spot it’s ranking for.

A major perk that is a result from creating this portfolio is that we learned a great deal about keyword research, onsite and offsite SEO, which all are a very useful skills to have.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur, Michael Bodekaer
2. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur, Mike Henry
3. Interview with Location Independent Entrepreneur Brandon Pearce

• The Art of Non-Conformity Blog – Chris has blogged twice a week with out failure for four years.
• Unconventional Guides – A very successful series of ebooks and programs including: Travel Ninja, Frequent Flyer Master, Art + Money, Break out of 9-5, Freelancing 301, and The Empire Building Kit – teaching how to build a business in a year by doing one thing per day.
• Travel Hacking Cartel – A membership site where you learn exactly how to accumulate frequent flyer miles.
• Free ebooks – 279 Days to Overnight Success – Chris’s hugely popular free ebook. A Brief Guide to World Domination – Another free ebook with over 100,000 downloads. The Tower: a Free Report for a New Way of Life
• The Art of Non-Conformity best-selling book. A great read for those looking for more out of life.
• The $100 Startup Chris’s latest book. (I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve ordered it.)
• World Domination Summit The yearly conference the sells out in minutes. (I’ll be going this year, are any of you? Please get in touch!)

Chris is in the middle of promoting his new The $100 Startup book and getting ready for the sold out World Domination Summit in Portland, but he took some time to answer a few questions here.

Photo by Casey West

How do you feel now that you are getting so close to visiting every country in the world?

It’s funny you ask this—a lot of people are wondering the same thing. However, visiting every country was never just a stunt for me; it was something that seemed conceivable and got me even more excited about the travel I was already doing.

Right now I’m really focused on continuing to help the community of readers I engage with every day and doing the best I can to support the entrepreneurs highlighted in The $100 Startup. I’m also working on lots of other projects, so there’s always more than one thing happening.

You are one of the world’s top bloggers and authors, did you expect all this to happen when you were starting?

Absolutely not. A lot of this started because I happened to be sharing information as I traveled that was interesting to other people. Simultaneously, I knew it was going to be important for me to set a routine for myself—routine is key to working independently—so I set up a Monday/Thursday blog post deadline for myself.

I’m very privileged to have the attention of people who care about what I have to say. I try to be mindful of the value of their time and the honor that it is to have the opportunity to serve them.

Can you outline some of your key success factors?

Again, doing something well and doing it consistently are probably two of the primary factors of whatever success I’ve had. I also happen to be doing work that’s not incredibly common, so there is a bit of a fascination factor when people hear about what I do.

However, I’m not sure that the unusual elements of this are what are really important. More than anything, I’ve really chosen to hang in there over the long haul and let this grow into something bigger than myself. The factors that have proven to be the most valuable to getting there are hard work, consistency, and a relentless interest in helping others accomplish their own goals.

Please tell us about your new book?

The $100 Startup is both inspiration and how-to for creating a life and work that you love. It’s based on fifty case studies of people who have struck out on their own and created lives and businesses, many of which are even more interesting than what I do.

People have been asking me for years how they might begin to take steps to a more fulfilling and free life. Rather than write about myself—I do enough of that on my blog—I thought I’d shine the spotlight on some of the unconventional entrepreneurs I had met around the world.

Please tell us about the World Domination Summit?

WDS is a gathering space for remarkable people; it’s a welcome environment for people with shared ideals who are enthusiastic about supporting each other’s goals. Our team works hard on putting together a great program, but we also realized that the best thing about it is all of those other people who attend and participate.

 What is next for Chris Guillebeau?

I don’t really think about my life in that way. I just go through my daily routine of writing, connecting with people, traveling, and learning. Hopefully what’s next is a great deal more of that.

Links
Follow Chris Guillebeau Twitter
The Art of Non-Conformity Blog
The $100 Startup  Chris Guillebeau’s latest book.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Long-term Traveller, Roni Weiss
2. Interview with Perpetual Traveller Craig Martin of IndieTravelPodcast
3. Travel the World without Flying – Interview with Niall Doherty

In Canada, just getting a dentist to look in your mouth for a few minutes will likely cost you $60 or $70. In Thailand, that will get you two hours of a dental specialist’s time. Your home doctor will probably warn you of the dangers of venturing abroad for medical services, but are those criticisms valid?

Myth 1 – Western doctors are better.

I have visited lousy dentists and doctors in very developed countries and great ones in less advanced countries. Sure some countries should be avoided, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your country’s doctors are always superior. If you can afford private doctors in the top U.S. hospitals, you will likely get some of the best medical care in the world. If you are going to lessor known, public hospitals you will likely get a standard of care that is comparable to most other countries in the world. Higher medical profits and salaries do not necessarily translate into better service.

In Canada, dentists collude to set standardized prices. While that is illegal in most industries, these pricing practices are normal in the medical profession in Canada and are driving up costs at many times the rate of inflation.

Myth 2 -All doctors are they same.

There are great and less than great doctors and dentists in every country. Do your research, visit several professionals and get second opinions. You should do this in your home country as well. Doctors are human and they make mistakes. Find a doctor that takes time to explain everything and is pleasant to deal with. You will judge their quality more from their bed-side manners than their medical skills.

Myth 3 -Foreign medical professionals lack the training.

You can’t assume that foreigners have inferior training. For example, I find the holistic approach of Japanese chiropractors much better than their western counterparts. They have different philosophies that might actually be superior.

Increasingly, doctors and dentists in your home country are foreign trained and have immigrated. The fact that they are in your country doesn’t necessarily mean they are better or worse educated. Also, many of the doctors and dentists you find abroad have also been schooled in the US.

Myth 4 -Foreign dentists and hospitals lack the equipment.

In some of the less developed countries you are probably not going to find the expensive lobbies and waiting rooms of some of the private hospitals or dental clinics in the west. However, western technology is widely available. While I wouldn’t trust the technology in really backwards countries like Burma, North Korea or even India, most places that you would consider for medical tourism will have modern, high quality equipment. They couldn’t be offering the services you are looking for, if they didn’t have the tools to do it. Also, the fact that you find out about these medical services online, demonstrates a level of investment and professionalism that most lessor equipped facilities couldn’t afford.

Some countries even have superior facilities and equipment to what you would find at home.  In Thailand, most dental offices have large comfortable lobbies, relaxing gardens and even offer pick up services in comfortable vans. I have never seen that level of service in other countries.

Myth 5 -Materials used are lower quality.

In terms of teeth crowns and fillings, there are a wide variety of materials to choose from, just as in Western countries. You can choose, and pay for the quality you want. Often you will pay similar prices as in your own country. The savings generally come from the labour, not from the products used. Again do your research and find out what products will be used. They can all be readily found online.

Hungary in particular is famous for its dental industry and has invented and manufactures some of the supplies your dentist will be using. Not everything was invented in the west.

Myth 6 -Foreign medicine is cheaper so it can’t be trusted.

Yes, medicine prices can be as little as 10% of what you pay at home, but that doesn’t mean it is inferior. In fact, a lot of that medicine is produced by the exact company that sells the same product in your home country. It is just sold at a lower cost to developing countries. Of course, don’t buy your pharmaceuticals on the street or over the Internet. If it is prescribed by a real physician, it will likely be safe. (As safe as any medicine can be.) As with every medicine, do some research and understand what you are taking. The insane side-effects listed on US pharmaceutical advertisements should be a good indication of what to expect with any medicine.

Myth 7 -Foreign dental assistants have less training.

This may be true, but in my experiences in Hungary, Mexico and Thailand, the assistants didn’t touch my mouth. They were there to assist only. In more developed countries, assistants have been trained to do more of the routine cleaning and basic work. In many lessor developed countries, the dentist still does all the work. I would much rather get my teach cleaned by a Mexican trained dentist, than a US trained dental assistant.

Foreign medical services are always cheaper.

This is not always true. Patients can be charged exorbitant bills, particularly for emergency services. Make sure you know exactly what you are paying for in advance and how much care will be needed in total. You don’t want surprises after the fact.

In emergencies or accidents, you don’t have the luxury of shopping around so there is a higher likelihood that you will be over-charged. This is why travel insurance is generally a good idea. However, make sure you choose an insurance provider that has a reputation of paying. A Thai nursing friend has said that several of the top US insurance companies are black-listed in major hospitals in Thailand because of their history of not paying claims. Medical insurance is a business. Those companies make money by paying out as little as possible. Again, it is your responsibility to find a reputable insurer.

Myth 8 -Foreign doctors and dentists don’t speak English.

Most medical professionals speak decent English now. English is the language of science and the Internet so more educated people around the world will tend to have decent English skills. If you are in doubt, just ask. I found a great dentist in Mexico, just by walking in off the street and asking if they spoke English. The answer was yes, so I booked an appointment.

In Thailand, one dentist I visited didn’t take time to explain clearly and I felt her broken English was part of the problem, so I apologized and said that I prefer a different dentist. It might have been somewhat rude, but it is my mouth and my decision.

Myth 9 – Travel costs will eat up most of the savings.

This may be true, but I look at it in a different way. The inexpensive medical services subsidize my travel. For example, in Canada it can cost $300 or more to get your teeth cleaned and polished. In Mexico, Thailand or even Japan, it can be as low as $30. That is a $270 savings. Last year, my wife and I went on an all inclusive resort vacation in Mexico for a week, with airfare included for about $700. By saving $270 on our teeth cleaning, the trip really only cost $430 each. That is a pretty good price for all our food, drinks, accommodations and travel expenses.

Our recent trip to Thailand for two months was entirely paid for by the money we saved in dental visits there. If you are looking at getting serious medical procedures done, the money you save will likely pay for your trip and you will have the opportunity to recover in an exotic location. Why not turn your medical issue into a family vacation?

How do you choose a great doctor or dentist?

I certainly don’t want to promote getting any cosmetic or elective surgery. Any surgery is still surgery and should be avoided if possible. If you really need some medical procedure start by researching online. You will find hospitals and dentists catering to foreigners all over the world.

When you find some prospective clinics or hospitals, search for review sites to see what others have said about that organization. Use your judgement with the reviews, sometimes people with minor grievances dominate the results.  (“My teeth are too white” or “my first appointment was cancelled so I had to wait two weeks for another.”) Also, look out for planted reviews that sound exceedingly positive. Reviews can be faked, so a little bit of criticism is probably an indication of honest experiences.

The best place to get unbiased reviews is from city specific traveler and expat groups. Try to visit the country in advance of your treatment, connect with the local expat community and find out where everyone shares their information. You can often find these expats and forums through Twitter and Facebook.  Connecting in person will give you much higher quality recommendations. In the Chiang Mai, Thailand Facebook group many people have offered suggestions on dentists, accommodations and a whole list of other products and services. Those types of recommendations are first hand and are likely to be the least biased.

Should you use a medical tourism broker?

Brokers,  who will arrange everything, are becoming increasingly popular, but I haven’t gone this route. I am sure there are reputable brokers, but profits can often get in the way of making the best recommendations. I know of one Canadian service that goes and inspects clinics in Mexico for cleanliness and verifies the credentials of the dentists but I suspect that you would have to pay a substantial premium for this. If you are getting heart surgery or another serious operation, paying a few hundred dollars to a third party might make sense. For more routine services, like teeth cleaning, that much scrutiny is probably not needed.

US Residents.

As a US citizen, your only feasible option for health care may very well be overseas. For chronic conditions that require expensive pharmaceuticals, you can likely save a great deal of money by going to nearby countries like Mexico or Cuba. In countries with state sponsored health care, minor problems are often treated free of charge. My wife and I have been given free treatment in three different countries now.

Don’t Be Foolish.

You can potentially save a lot of money using overseas medical services and you might even get great vacation while you are healing, however surgeries and other serious medical services should not be taken lightly. Although it is rare, people die from cosmetic surgery. Are you willing to take that risk for an unnecessary procedure?

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Backpacking with a backpack is crazy

I don’t understand why anyone would travel with a backpack. That’s such a barbaric way to travel, especially if you are traveling long-term. A good hard shell suitcase like my Samsonsite is far more convenient and effective and here are 8 reasons why.

1. Why carry a backpack when you can roll your gear?

It’s insane to carry heavy stuff on your back when you can easily roll everything. It’s not like most backpackers are trekking through mountain trails. For the times you are trekking, you don’t need a full-size backpack anyway.

The huge wheels on my Samsonite make it easy to roll over any terrain. When I was younger, I didn’t mind carrying stuff on my back. Unfortunately, my shoulders and neck don’t like that punishment anymore.

2. You can’t carry your backpack on board anyway.

With stricter carry-on luggage limits, most backpacks will have to be checked in anyway. A good hard shell suitcase is more durable and will protect your belongings much more effectively.

3. You already have a computer bag, you don’t need to carry two backpacks.

Almost every long-term traveler has a separate carry-on backpack for their computer, camera and other valuables. Carrying two backpacks at that same time is damn heavy and uncomfortable.

4. Backpacks are dirty.

Your backpack will be set on the ground repeatedly. It’ll be on the floor in public bathrooms. It’ll ride in the back of trucks and luggage compartments on buses. It’ll be on the floor of restaurants and hostels. It’s going to get abused and soon become filthy. A hard shell suitcase is very easy to wipe clean.

5. Backpacks are hard to access.

Even with well designed backpacks, you will inevitably have to repeatedly sift to the bottom of the bag to get stuff out. Suitcases have much wider openings so it is much easier to get what you need. In fact, for shorter stays you don’t even need to unpack, because all of your stuff is always there.

My Samsonite Suitcase

6. A hard shell suitcase is a great safe.

Combined with a hard to open suitcase strap, a good hard shell suitcase is the perfect place to store valuables. The built in lock on most suitcases is enough to deter most thieves. That makes it impossible to access in crowded tourist areas. You can’t stop a crowd of gypsy kids from rummaging through your pockets on a packed train, but there is nothing to grab from a good suitcase.

I also use a an old feed-through-the-loop suitcase strap because it takes time to open.  Sure someone with a box cutter and screw-driver could get in if they really wanted to, but that is unlikely in any hotel or public place.

7. Hard shell suitcases are waterproof.

The plastic shell on the suitcase and rubber seal are very water resistant. I have no worries about my suitcase getting wet. A wet backpack on the other hand, will stink you right out of your own room.

8. The suitcase is better protection for your belongings.

It’s possible to check in semi-fragile items like liquor bottles, glass, and other items that are unlikely to fair well in a backpack. There’s always about 10 to 20 cm (3 to 7 inches) of empty space above my things in the suitcase, so breakable items are well protected.

It’s also very possible to take apart an electric guitar and bring it in the suitcase. I haven’t done this yet, but I likely will on future trips.

What suitcase should you buy?

I’m a huge fan of hard shell Samsonite suitcases. Don’t buy the fancy ones that are ultra-light, have complex locks or small wheels. Make sure you get the old-fashioned ones that are made of the thick plastic. They have large wheels that role over everything and the large simple locks are extremely durable. They weigh about 4 or 5 kg, but that is probably only a couple of kilograms more than your backpack.

My wife and I bought our first Samsonite in Europe about 7 years ago, and have gone through three other cheaper suitcases in that same time. Spend a little extra money and get something that will last.  The small wheels and locks frequently break on lower quality suitcases.

A couple of years ago, I was lugging around a heavy bag in Montreal and was killing my back so we went and bought our second Samsonite. Normally, we only travel with one suitcase between the two of us, but for longer trips we still sometimes bring the second suitcase. It was one of the greatest travel purchases we have made. (I am not making money from promoting Samsonite either. They really are that good.)

All you really need in life are good friends, a good suitcase, a good computer (that means Mac) and good coffee. The rest will take care of itself.

The Case for Backpacks

Collin Ferry shared this picture of his small backpack. If you are traveling this light and plan to do some overnight trekking, then yes a backpack is the better choice.

Collin Ferry and his Backpack

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