Posts tagged accomodations

The area in which I currently spend most of my time, Rancho Santa Fe, does not allow for delivery of mail by the United States Postal Service. Basically, there’s nowhere here to put the boxes and nobody wants them here anyway.

I have accomplished what Kramer could not. I have stopped the mail.

I’ve been in San Diego for 1 week now. I’ve been looking for a semi-permanent place basically since the day I arrived and still have yet to find anything promising. Prices here are high ($700-1500/month for what I want) and my requirements for a place are limiting: large bedroom that I can fit a bed and a desk in (master bedroom, typically) + short term lease (3 months or less). The former is limiting, but the latter is the real killer. If I were willing to go to a 6 month lease, I could rent just about anything I wanted here… however I don’t know yet how long I will stay. Seems it doesn’t matter where you are in the world - nobody likes to rent short term.

I’ve been pondering an alternative which is to never rent long term and just hop from place to place, mostly via Airbnb. There are a few 1, 2, 3 neat ones here in San Diego, but I’m not sure there are enough “fun” ones to justify not having a space that I customize and can call home. Plus, doing that all the time adds up… $75/night = $2250/month.

I was talking with my dad on the phone tonight and we had a discussion about the cost of hotels, apartments and houses. One interesting finding for me was that I’ve always tried to do the “cost of housing” calculation by year - never looking at it from a monthly or daily perspective. This may make more sense for travelers, especially those working and traveling like me.

The rule generally goes “rent should be less than 1/3 of your gross (pre-tax) income”. This means if you make $30,000 per year, your rent should add up to no more than $10,000 per year = $834 per month = $28 per day.

Therefore, the cost of your hotel, motel or hostel should be that “per day” number - in this case, $28.

Join Couchsurfing.org.

1. Join some groups, add people you already know.
2. Get verified. You will have more people accept you AND, just as important, you’ll show up in more search results and get more people who want to stay with you.
3. Host people! Meet travelers, learn the pain and pleasure of being a host.
4. Join local groups when you start traveling. There are tons of meetups all over the world where you can meet other travelers and locals who want to socialize with you.

I’ve changed hotels since the whole mugging thing. Now I’m in one of the towers in Rockwell Center, a 38 acre (15.5 hectare) area that is effectively roped off from the rest of the city. You could easily forget the entire culture of the Philippines by being here. No jeepneys drive through or even near it; the only tricycles I’ve seen are across the street in the neighboring village, but they’re all bicycle style ones - none are motor driven. It would seem there are restrictions around what types of vehicles can be in and around this area.

I actually booked this place before the mugging happened - I came here for the internet connection. The place I’m staying, Joya, has apartment-style housing and each room has it’s own modem straight to the ISP - no shared funny business here.

It’s different here… almost the complete opposite of the rest of the country. The people are cold, formal and standoffish. They don’t smile. They all speak English and even mostly sound like Americans, but you can hear a touch of misery in everything they say, as though it is painful to speak. They don’t walk, they drive. There is an added physical separation everywhere - less occupants per residence, no jeeps or buses, no street vendors.. the streets and even balconies are empty because people are couped up in their air-conditioned apartments, taxis and luxury cars.
There are no strangers who approach me here. Maybe reasonably so because there is basically a physical lack of opportunity to do so. The hotel staff and staff at the places I eat don’t try to make conversation or befriend me like they do everywhere else. There are few young people and hardly any children to be seen, even on the weekend. I went across the street to the village next to Rockwell Center to find the streets littered with children and their families.

Is this a taste of the reverse culture shock I might experience when I come back?