crussssell - Tumblr blog

[crussssell]

Fully Furnished Loft Tour in Gangnam, Seoul ($750/ month)

Fully Furnished Loft Tour in Gangnam, Seoul ($750/ month)

After two full weeks in Seoul, and over two years in South Korea, I’m finally settled into my dream apartment. All of the furniture (besides the sofa and chairs, which are from Oneuli Jib) is from IKEA, and all of the small decorative pieces are from Daiso and Coupang. If you have any questions at all about anything in this video, life in Korea, or costing of apartments, just drop me a comment…

[crussssell]

Empty Loft Apartment Tour in Gangnam, Seoul ($750/ Month)

Empty Loft Apartment Tour in Gangnam, Seoul ($750/ Month)

Welcome back to my channel! If you’re not already subscribed, I would really appreciate it if you did so. I’ll be uploading lots of new content from Seoul in the coming weeks and months. Last weekend I moved into my new apartment in Seoul after living in Daegu for over two years. I’ve switched from a villa apartment to an officetel, and will be explaining exactly what that means in a video later…

[crussssell]

A Day Trip to Chiang Rai - White Temple, Golden Triangle and Pong Phrabat

A Day Trip to Chiang Rai – White Temple, Golden Triangle and Pong Phrabat

Last January when I visited Thailand for my school’s winter break, I visited Chiang Rai for the day after first learning about the city when I first travelled through Southeast Asia in 2015. Between being on a backpacker’s budget and a lack of time, I never made it. It was one of the most special days I’ve ever spent travelling, and it was made all the better by being able to see it alongside my…

[crussssell]

Days off in Daegu & Exciting News

Days off in Daegu & Exciting News

After taking a much longer than intended hiatus from creating any content, I’m working on getting back into the rhythm of starting to venture out of my bubble and get back into building this website that once consumed my every day life. Settling into my life in Korea and starting a new job has taken a long time for me, especially considering the state of the world over the past year. As I set…

[crussssell]

Two Days in Bangkok, Thailand

Two Days in Bangkok, Thailand

This video documents two days I spent in Bangkok earlier this year. The first half of the video shows The Grand Palace and Khao San Road, and the second shows the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and Maeklong Railway Market. For the first vlog on this trip documenting my trip from Korea to Bangkok and introducing you to the city, you can click here. For a full hotel review of all the hotels I…

[crussssell]

A Day in the Life - Cleaning, Organizing and Shopping

A Day in the Life – Cleaning, Organizing and Shopping

I spent the whole day yesterday getting my life organized after a hectic week at work. I wanted to show everybody what it was like getting around in Daegu and the differences in the supermarkets here and at home. It’s been almost a year since I made a vlog like this, but the ast time it was more focused on my work schedule. Seeing as everybody is unable to travel freely in and out of Korea right…

[crussssell]

Daegu to Seoul to Bangkok

Daegu to Seoul to Bangkok

I’ve finally managed to set aside some time to start working through the footage I took in January of this year during a trip to Thailand! Over the next few weeks I’ll be uploading a series of videos on the trip and my time spent in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

You can look through the tabs at the top of this page to see lots more information on where to stay in Thailand, how much you…

[crussssell]

Back to Blogging & A Year in Korea

Back to Blogging & A Year in Korea

I’m both nervous and excited to finally be getting back into making content for both my website and YouTube channel.

The last time I made a vlog was in January of this year, and for the reasons stated in the video I’ve been MIA from writing at all for the last eight months or so. I did, as discussed in the last video I…

[crussssell]

When planning our two month summer trip to Europe, visiting as many places in Italy as possible was high on our agenda. The thing about Italy, however, is that it’s expensive to get around, expensive to stay in, and expensive to eat in. The Amalfi Coast is probably one of the most costly to stay in and eat in. I knew we wanted to go, I knew how much we could afford to spend a night on hotels and I most certainly knew that staying along the coast wasn’t in the books, so I had to improvise.

What happens when we plan trips is that we will begin to draft an itinerary, and price hotels and trains or planes as we go along to see which version of the itinerary makes the most sense both practically and financially. We always book hotels with free cancellation so that if indeed plans do change or, like in this case, we decide we need to book a cheaper hotel to cut costs, then we can do so hassle free.

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

After initially booking a hotel in Positano for four nights at a cost of €400, we both knew that was way above board what we were prepared to pay. Had it been just those four nights we were travelling then we wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but considering we were gone for nine weeks it was reckless to dedicate that much of our budget to a less than mediocre hotel. We deemed the Amalfi Coast was far beyond what we wanted to spend on accommodation, and it was then we started to look at the possibility of staying in Naples for the duration of our stay and travelling out each day to a different town.

Naples is nowhere near as glamorous as the Amalfi Coast, but as backpackers we weren’t really concerned about that. In order to take the train or boat to the coast, it’s most often necessary to travel via Naples regardless. We were able to squeeze another city into our itinerary, enjoy the incredible Neopolitan food when we returned back to the city every night and save even more money on the cost of food and drink along the water. For us, it wasn’t about saying we had stayed in such a hotel or shopped in such a shop, we genuinely just wanted to go and experience the stunning coastal towns, and that’s exactly what we got to do.

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Our hotel in Naples, Hotel Colombo, cost us only €245 for six nights, which saved us €155 and gained us an extra two nights in the area. It was located directly between the port and train station, meaning access to both the boat to Capri and the Circumvesuviana (train) to both Sorrento and Pompeii were only a five minute walk in each direction. It was placed on a quiet side street just off the Corso Umberto I and the Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Trains cost a mere €3.60 in each direction, and the boat to Capri €18 in each direction. The boat is pretty expensive, but because Capri is an island travel to it from both Naples and the towns along the Amalfi Coast are costly and it helps to bear in mind that if you were to stay on Capri you would be required to pay the boat fare, regardless.

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Most of the days we stayed in Naples, we left the city in the morning and returned at night from day trips. The city was incredible and offered the perfect base for our travels. It allowed us to see the incredible sights of both Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast without having to worry about the financial aspect of the journey. So, not only were we actually able to go, but we were able to go and not have to worry about how it would impact the budget for the remainder of our trip which ultimately made it all the more enjoyable.

For more posts like this directly to your inbox, subscribe to my blog at www.caitlinjeanrussell.com/subscribe or see more travel content on my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zGoHEYgKJgqXb1DPF3hKQ

Amalfi Coast on a Budget When planning our two month summer trip to Europe, visiting as many places in Italy as possible was high on our agenda.

[crussssell]

For the full review directly to your inbox, subscribe to my blog at http://www.caitlinjeanrussell/subscribe or for a full video tour of the room, subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here.

Wellness Residence (Chiang Mai, Thailand) For the full review directly to your inbox, subscribe to my blog at or for a full video tour of the room, subscribe to my YouTube channel…

[crussssell]

For the past two weeks I’ve been in Bangkok, Thailand. It’s the fourth time I’ve stayed in the city, but the first where I’ve been in a financial position to stay somewhere that wasn’t either a hostel or a hotel on the extremely low budget end. I found the Montien Riverside Hotel via Booking.com – read my guide on how to use the website here – for an absolute steal, and I was thoroughly impressed with not only the hotel as a building, but the service we received on top of it.

If you’re looking for hotel reviews for elsewhere in Thailand, Southeast Asia or across the globe, see the ‘Hotels’ section of my website by clicking here.

Cost

Location

Decor 

Rooms

Cleanliness

Staff

If you aren’t able to tell by this point in the review then I’m happy to tell you I was thoroughly delighted with this stay. If ever I make it back to Bangkok I will for sure stay here again and will recommend it to friends and family. For more content like this directly to your inbox, subscribe to my blog at http://www.caitlinjeanrussell/subscribe or for a full video tour of the room, subscribe to my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zGoHEYgKJgqXb1DPF3hKQ/

Montien Riverside Hotel (Bangkok, Thailand) For the past two weeks I've been in Bangkok, Thailand. It's the fourth time I've stayed in the city, but the first where I've been in a financial position to stay somewhere that wasn't either a hostel or a hotel on the extremely low budget end.

[crussssell]

Chiang Rai, Thailand

[crussssell]

A Much Happier Update & I'm Heading to Thailand

A Much Happier Update & I’m Heading to Thailand

One of my earliest conversations with a friend who has lived here in Korea for over five years was to give it at least three months until things started to settle. At two months, I (probably prematurely) made a video updating everyone on how life was going. Whilst my work life and home was together, I still felt a longing for home that I couldn’t quite come to terms with.

In these past two and a…

[crussssell]

Norwegian Air

If you haven’t already seen the vlog I made detailing my personal experience with Norwegian Air, you can watch it below, or keep reading to see my full airline review.

I’ve read countless news articles and blog posts on people’s personal experiences with Norwegian Air, and they did not give me the best overall impression of the…

[crussssell]

How to Inexpensively Furnish a Home in South Korea Here's a brand new video on my tips and tricks to furnish your apartment for super cheap in South Korea.

[crussssell]

The Best ways to get from Incheon Airport to Seoul

The Best ways to get from Incheon Airport to Seoul

When I arrived at Incheon Airport from New York – read my full review of the journey here– I had only a vague idea on how to get to Seoul city center from there. Like many of the large airports for supercities, the airports that serve them are quite a while away from the city itself. In the case of Seoul, the closest international airport is in the city of Incheon, around an hour away by public…

[crussssell]

An Honest 2 Month Update on Life in Korea There's not a whole lot to say in the description that wasn't said in the video, but thanks to everybody who watches!