eTramping around the world for less than 25 dollars a day

Here's our interview with two travel bloggers from Poland who tramp around the world on a budget

Introducing Agness and Cez - the Polish duo who runs the travel blog eTramping.com. They call themselves tramps because they live without permanent home and for less than 25 bucks a day, since 2011. While travelling the world, working and living in different countries, they share the tricks to do it cheaply and even help other people do the same on their blog. HostelsClub asked them to reveal a little bit more about their particular lifestyle.

How did you start eTramping?

Over two years ago, Cez had an urge to create a website and I was in China at that time thinking of writing a personal blog on my teaching and traveling experience in the Land of Dragons. One day we talked about it on Skype and decided to combine these two ideas into one and set up a travel website. This is how it all started.

How do you fund your travel?

We work very hard on our travels. In each place we travel to, we try to find a job and save some money to travel further and longer. We are currently kindergarten teachers in China, having a lot of fun teaching English to Chinese students. This job allows us to save up to $18.000 a year still travelling around China and Asia. In the past, we were web designers in Cambodia and social media consultants in Thailand. Thanks to travelling we discovered our teaching and photography passions we could easily turn into our source of income!

Cez is also a freelancer web designer and helps people build their own blogs.

What's your most successful blog post?

It was definitely a blog post titled Couchsurfing or Sexsurfing? What’s the difference nowadays? In which Agness shared her personal couchsurfing experience when backpacking Europe in winter 2012. She was hosted by male hosts who offered her sex for the hospitality. The post was very controversional, thus it quickly spead around the Internet. Within a few days, there were more than 150 different responses in which our readers shared their opinions/experience on this issue.

How do you plan your trips?

It might sound silly, but we don’t plan them. We’re very spontaneous people. Most of the time we randomly pick up a country we have always wanted to travel to, then book train/flight/bus tickets at last minute, pack our bags and off we go!

Is there something you can’t travel without?

Cez can’t go anywhere without his kindle (yes, he is so passionate about reading books) and Agness never leaves her house without a big smile on her face!

Did you ever lose anything essential while travelling?

A camera case with memory sticks and memory cards at one of Chinese train stations in Guangzhou. We were carrying too many things while making a video for our blog. The place was busy and we accidently dropped the camera case on the floor without noticing it.

What's your biggest fear while travelling?

The biggest fear is to fall sick (there are so many bad tropical diseases out there) and not be able to carry on travelling. Cez was disagnosed with dengue fever while in Cambodia and it is not a nice thing to get. Being sick on the road is not cool at all.

Is there a disadventure you would like to tell us about?

Around May 2013 Cez has an accident while in China that stopped him from cycling across Japan. It was an unfortunate jump resulted in a broken leg, which ruined his travel plans for 6 months. An injury that would probably be quickly looked after, had he been in Poland. In China – not quite the same. Imagine a doctor offering you an ultimatum – demanding a bribe or otherwise promising he’ll operate on your leg in a way that will deprive you of your ability to walk. Forever. With the help of our Chinese friends and support we provide each other, we’ve overcome these obstacles.

Did you ever meet any extremely weird/interesting/inspiring person in your travel?

A few months ago we had a chance to meet two amazing and inspiring travel bloggers - Sam of Nomadic Samuel and Audrey of ThatBackpacker. They made a great impression on us. We love their travel style and videos they make together while traveling. We have so much in common – not only a travel and blogging passion, but we are also such foodies! Having a dim sum in Hong Kong together was just epic!

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done while travelling?

We danced with cobra and rode an elephant in Sri Lanka. Pretty exciting, yet dangerous!

Did you ever experience any embarrassing situations?

Not really.

If you had to settle down, what city in the world would you choose?

Agness would definitely choose Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet as it’s such an inspiring place to live. She would feel blessed being surrounded by religious and hopsitable Tibetans, wheareas Cez would go for Gdynia – his hometown located at picturesque Polish seaside.

Where's the best/worst place you slept?

The worst are Chinese trains. They are always overcrowded, smelly and dirty, but at the same time they are the cheapest! We slept on the floor a couple of times when moving from one province to another. It was a shaky ride and Chinese smacking while eating didn’t help us sleep well either.

The best place we’ve slept at was a cozy and beautiful beach in Hong Kong island. So peaceful and relaxing and free of charge!

Where in the world is your favourite beach?

We loved Koh Phangan beach located in the Gulf of Thailand in South-East part of the country. We could easily reached it from Bangkok. The island is mostly famous for its Full Moon parties at Haad Rin Beach, amazing seafood and snorkelling activities. The scenery was just breath-taking!

What's your favourite street food?

We both love Chinese dumplings called baozi. They go with various fillings, can be steamed or fried. They are usually stuffed with pork, beef and vegetables, and in addition provides a variety of Asian sauces such as soy-based sauce, chili, vinegar and sesame oil. Real yum!

What are the best qualities of your travel mate? And his/her worst flaws?

Agness is well-organised, but very impatient, whereas Cez is easy going but way too cautious and freaks about safety and security too much!

What's your favourite foreign word?

Agness loves the French expression „Bon voyage” meaning „pleasant journey” whereas Cez is a big fan of Chinese word „meiyou” meaning „no/there is not” (it used to drive him crazy to hear it).

What's the most useful travel expression for you? How many languages can you translate that?

It’s always „Hello, how are you?” which we can say in at least 15 different languages. We love to approch different kind of people on our travel and this phrase always helps us when trying to start a conversation/diaogue with someone.

Do you have any New Year's resolutions for yourself and eTramping?

We wish we could keep up the hard work we have been doing so far, improve our web design and writing skills and inspire more people to leave their comfort zone and explore the beautiful world as we do!

What do you wish for your future?

Good health and more travel opportunities.

HostelsClub team wish them luck and plenty of travel opportunities for the years to come.

We also hope Cez and Agnes will inspire more people to travel and discover the world!