A Belarusian Woman Earning 2,500 Rubles Travels Twice A Year

And she has already visited 34 countries.

There’s a common belief that frequent long-distance travel is the preserve of IT professionals or top executives earning several thousand dollars. Valeria, a 33-year-old woman from Minsk, proves otherwise. She doesn’t work in IT, but she travels at least twice a year, choosing off-the-beaten-path and distant destinations. Vietnam and Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Oman and Cambodia—her list already includes 34 countries and nearly two hundred cities. Lera traveled abroad for the first time at age 23—and was immediately hooked. She shared how to plan itineraries two years in advance, why to look for a fourth travel companion on Instagram, and why a hostel with a pool for three dollars is a reality in this article: Myfin.by.

“I shop at Zhdanovichy and set aside 40% of my income”

— Someone who travels twice a year doesn’t need an astronomical salary. At my last job, I earned 2,500 rubles.

Lera’s secret lies in mindful spending and financial literacy. She doesn’t like spending money on delivery fees, taxis, or unnecessary trinkets. She wears her clothes for a long time and prefers to repair them rather than throw them away. It’s both economical and eco-friendly.

“I can find something interesting at a thrift store or stock up at ‘Zhdanovichi-fashion.’ Plus, I currently live with my parents and only chip in for utilities.” As soon as my paycheck comes in, I immediately convert about 40% into foreign currency and set it aside for my travel fund. And I just make smart use of public holidays, “long weekends,” and my two vacations a year.

“I’ll save on the hotel, but I’ll treat myself to some great tours”

Sometimes even for the perfect planner, things don’t go according to plan. On one of her vacations, Valeria and her friends were supposed to fly to Cuba. The girls bought package tours—it turned out to be cheaper that way for that destination. But then a force majeure event intervened.

“There were fuel shortages in Cuba, which led to mass tour cancellations. We had exactly three weeks to plan a whole new trip from scratch. That’s how Cambodia ended up on our itinerary.”

In the end, 12 days in Cambodia cost Valeria and her travel companions about $1,800 per person. Of that, $850 went toward tickets, and $30 toward visas.

— Prices in Cambodia are just amazing. In Siem Reap, we booked a women-only room for four at a hostel with a pool. In the end, the three of us shared the room, and each of us paid $6 for two nights’ stay.

The young woman admits that she deliberately chooses the “cheap lodging—expensive experiences” strategy.

— I’d rather save on the hotel and splurge on great tours. I prefer to hire a private guide with a car. Finding travel companions is also part of the plan. Traveling alone is expensive; traveling in a group of four is ideal. In 2019, I invited my best friend Yulia to Serbia, and we’ve been traveling together ever since. Later, on the website mahnem.ru, I found Olga from Minsk—she became our third travel companion. We find the fourth person “from outside our circle”: we look among our acquaintances and on Instagram. The costs for private tours and guides are split among everyone and stop being so daunting. In Oman, for example, a two-day tour cost $100 per person, and we each paid $57 for a private guide to the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Kyrgyzstan—No. 1 in the ranking for affordability and warmth

Valeria graduated from INYAZ and is fluent in English, but she believes the CIS is the ideal starting point for a budget traveler—everyone understands Russian, and there’s no need to worry about visas. Kyrgyzstan ranks No. 1 on her personal list of the most affordable and welcoming destinations.

“It’s a wonderful country in every way: the people, the nature, the cuisine.” We took group tours almost every day for just $10 each. And you can have a delicious, hearty lunch there for literally a couple of dollars.

The most expensive trip in this Minsk native’s life was to Mongolia. The flight on a Russian airline cost $890, and we paid another $700 per person for seven days of a guide’s services—it’s impossible to get by in the steppes without roads or a guide.

“In Mongolia, I spent a lot of money on souvenirs, knowing I’d probably never go back. But I only buy useful things: mugs, T-shirts, socks, or local food. No magnets.”

Saudi Arabia could rival Mongolia in terms of cost—a visa alone costs $450. But Valeria flew there on a long-term business trip: her company covered her lodging and transportation. Her trip coincided with Ramadan, so she had less work and was able to travel around the country. Nevertheless, over the course of 2.5 months, she spent $1,200 of her own money exclusively on food and trips to neighboring cities.

The trip to Kazakhstan wasn’t exactly budget-friendly either: a 14-day vacation cost $2,089 per person. The girls visited three cities: Astana, Aktau by the sea, and Almaty, but the biggest hit to their wallets was the trip to the steppe. Three days in tents cost $500.

— The most expensive excursions were in Oman—one day there cost 70 riyals (about $180). But I was incredibly lucky with the guide: the woman turned out to be so hospitable that she let me stay at her home for free, cooked for me, did my laundry, and even treated me to an extra day of sightseeing on her own dime.

In Kyrgyzstan, Lera and her travel companion got stranded on a tour: the bus had left for the city, and the guide’s cell phone had died. They had to knock on the door of the first house they came across to ask to charge their phone.

“The homeowner was thrilled when he found out I was from Belarus. He immediately poured me a shot, treated me to pilaf, and brought out a bunch of treats. Then he called over his friends, and the kids came running—everyone wanted to take a picture with me. In the end, we stayed as guests for almost two hours.

A side effect of frequent travel

The girl prefers to get around within countries by public transportation. The trip from Salalah to Muscat, the capital of Oman, took 12 hours but cost only 4 rials (about $10) on a comfortable, nearly empty bus with air conditioning and Wi-Fi. In Uzbekistan, Valeria also opted out of flying, traveling across the entire country on local trains and buses.

When it comes to food, the woman from Minsk has her own rules: she loves to try new things, but she won’t eat anything that looks unappetizing. In Thailand, she steered clear of fried cockroaches, and she found durian to be the most disgusting-tasting food.

“But in Mongolia, I drank pig’s milk. To be honest, it wasn’t locally produced—it was brought in from South Korea. It tasted like regular milk, heavily diluted with water. I also tried shark, camel, and horse meat.

Frequent travel has a side effect: over time, the beauty of new places starts to lose its appeal.

— You get used to Asian and Eastern cultures quickly if you visit countries one after another. After Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia seemed too similar to me. So my advice is to be sure to space out your destinations. Been to Thailand? Wait a couple of years before flying to Cambodia. I just got back from Kazakhstan, so I’ll fly to Tajikistan in two years to keep the experience fresh.

Packing a suitcase full of dresses

There are also challenges along the way. In Kyrgyzstan, the girls accidentally chose a “moderately difficult” mountain hike, which turned out to be extremely difficult in practice. Valeria couldn’t continue the hike—she started suffering from altitude sickness.

And in the Malinovoye Gorge, they were caught in a downpour. A local shepherd spotted the freezing tourists, invited them over, poured them hot tea with cookies, and gave them jackets. Then, leaving his flock of sheep in the mountains, he personally escorted them on horseback—accompanied by his dog—all the way to the final destination of their route.

Valeria writes about all her travels on her blog, valerieks_travel. She has a life hack for creating beautiful visuals.

“I pack a pile of outfits in my suitcase, which I sort out in advance by location. If a desert lies ahead, I take a green dress with a four-meter train. Tourists usually rent such outfits for a fortune, but I sewed mine for 150 rubles. Yes, it takes up a lot of space, but the photos turn out fantastic. In the tropics, orange or pink dresses look great against a backdrop of greenery.

You don’t have to wait until you’re rich to start traveling, Valeria is convinced.

“Experiences and memories are the only things it’s truly worth spending money on. Or rather, not spending—but investing.” After all, what difference does it make how old your sneakers are if you’re walking through the streets of Bahrain or Cambodia in them?

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