very cool, I found it, I'll be reading it after a couple books I'm working through right now.

thanks!

ooh, no, thank you very much, I'll check it out now.

monarchs were limited by duties, responsibilities and mandates to such an extent they could not travel at whim.

those that did travel had to trade months of their life prone in a gilded cage of a carriage or ship to travel a distance i, an averageman, can reach in hours at an insignificant fraction of the cost and risk.

monarchs similarly could not learn about most subjects and cultures because the knowledge and expertise was simply unavailable. information traveled at the pace of "we can learn about that when we can gather resources to launch a 5-year expedition and perhaps return with the answer eventually but maybe not".

now, all available human knowledge is floating in the aether, constantly updating and instantly available at our fingertips.

divine mandates come with an unrelenting burden of responsibilities.

historically, those who shirked their responsibilities were likely to be dethroned or decapitated.

also, new reason: bidets.

life now is miraculous compared to the dreams of an aged king.

The cost of living in most countries is around $500 USD a month for transportation, rent, utilities and food, teaching English pays $2000 USD a month with zero qualifications or experience.

every month I taught English, I had a few exrra months of my cost of living.

I taught English for about 7 years.

as long as you're making more than 500 USD a month remotely in any job, you can travel long-term.

if you want to backpack, CoL shoots down to $200 a month real quick.

thank you, that's very helpful to know. I sent him a message

interesting, how do you mean?

I make my own DIY huaraches like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1FrEgeP9jI

extremely comfortable, you can make it with any old slipper lying around and some paracord, lasts for 6 months to a year, depending on the quality of the sandal base.

adjust it to exactly your size that fits perfectly and then you can sew the knots so that all the dimensions stay the same.

takes me maybe 5 minutes to make each pair, and then 5 minutes for the sewing of the knots so I never have to readjust them, costs nearly nothing.

people usually ship their belongings by sea or air(ocean freight is cheaper and slower, but I'm not sure by how much with Costa Rica being so near) with a company like DHL, I've used them and found them to be a reliable international shipping company, FedEx and UPS are also options.

I wouldn't worry about customs taking your stuff, especially if you have insurance or tracking or anything like that on the ticket, and especially with a wealthier country like Costa Rica where paper trails are more important.

I've actually never heard of customs taking anything legal in real life from anyone who's shipped belongings overseas(my friend's yak jerky got confiscated because it's illegal to import a lot of international meat products into the US) so I personally don't believe customs pocketing things is very common.

Legos aren't apparently valuable on their face and with the paper trail of receipts/documents I wouldn't think you have to worry about anything getting lifted by customs. plus, if you add some fragile notices and insurance on there the agents responsible for transporting the packages will be a lot more careful, for sure.

"...that molten glass was involved..."

yeaj, the process you actually go through is even more impressive than the already incredibly difficult fantasia-sequence molten glass process I imagined, haha!

creating a 40 piece picture frame or 60 piece or whatever it is, jeez, that is very cool, and to get it so smooth.

the podcast is called "bit of a rambler", it's everywhere podcasts are, main page here: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bit-of-a-rambler--6571124

the first two episodes are out and new eps will be coming out every Wednesday for a long time to come, travel stories and information.

those paints came out great, very vibrant colors, and the car polish you added is such a smart idea, they'll probably look that way forever.

the nail polish in UV lamp are another good idea, what's on hand is the way to go, I ended up using strips of old pool noodles lying around as sound insulation for the office I record the podcast in just the other day.

I'll be on the lookout for whatever you post here next. or I'll remember you from Lemmy when your YT shorts blow up!

at this point, visas are very easy to get in general, but Thailand is still one of the easiest and is one of the friendliest and most affordable countries around.

if you're a US citizen, you have visa-free travel in Thailand for 60 days.

if you need a visa, go to the evisa website, thaievisa.go.th, fill out the form, pay the fee, they'll email you the visa in a couple days.

I usually recommend Thailand or somewhere in Southeast Asia as a first destination. good food, great healthcare, cheap living, great people, beautiful environment, and they're very used to travelers so there are local and expat support systems nationwide.

another nice thing about Southeast asia is that there are tons of other friendly places close by.

it's about as easy to live there as anywhere else, but the support systems and the country being very used to travelers might make first time travelers more comfortable.

oh PS thailand has a lot a lot of really good all you can eat buffets for 3 to 10 dollars per person.

"This is not entirely true."

I'll check.

"Malaysia...English teaching industry...Most countries...standards...VIetnam requires...employ illegally...risk...very high"

yea, solid disclaimer, most of that looks less than entirely true. Honestly, a lot of that is barely half true.

real quick: ESL is still booming in April 2025 with thousands of currently available ESL positions, pay rates are higher than ever, outpacing inflation significantly, the requirements are about the same as they were 15 years ago; native english fluency, college degree or TEFL certificate sometimes required based on the position and location for 25 hours of teaching a week, not including the breaktimes each class.

Most countries certainly do not have enough of an english speaking population to have affected the ESL market, hence the thousands of currently available ESL postings and dozens of platforms for teaching online.

Vietnam does not require "TESL diplomas" to teach English.

Thank you, it was hide read posts.