So often the travels are based around attractions and places to see but in my experience the fondest memories do not come from non-living statues and places but from meeting new people and interacting with them.

My trip would have been far more boring and FAR more expensive if I didn’t know – or got to meet – some wonderful people.

I started my journey on 26th of August at Slovenian airport with my best friend and tennis buddy Urban.

Our goal was of course the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament. Neither of us has been to the US Open tennis tournament nor to New York before.

The journey was also very cool as I had so many miles from my previous travels that I used some of them to upgrade our seats to business class from Zurich to New York.

Our first stop was New Jersey where I Chantal from unique-reception-theme-wedding-ideas.com lives.

She and her family showed us around and gave us the place to stay.

The hurricane Irene caused us some problems as we weren’t able to explore New York in the first few days but luckily Chantal and I had more time to talk about SBI!, online business and how to convince Google to send more people to our sites and more checks to our homes.

After two days of wonderful hospitality Urban and I then moved to stay with Charles who is a tennis enthusiast. Charles has been following my tennis site for quite some time and he offered us a place to stay – on one condition: that we play tennis with him.

I thought this was the best possible deal in the universe.

Charles lives in Long Island so in the mornings we played tennis and in the afternoons we went to the US Open and watched tennis. You cannot ask for more…

Urban had to leave at the end of the week so I stayed a few more days with Charlie and helped him with this tennis game. If he didn’t have to eat and sleep he would have probably wanted to play 24 hours per day.

I then moved to the city, more accurately to Roosevelt Island where another tennis friend offered me his place while he was on a business trip.

Of course, the conditions were the same: you get the place is you play tennis with me and give me some tips. I reluctantly decided to accept that offer and not pay $200 per day on a hotel in Manhattan.

I got in touch with Melissa from nycinsiderguide.com who was my tour guide for a few days. I got the same horrible offer again: “I’ll show you the city if you show me how to play better tennis.” That really got me thinking.

Since Melissa lives in New York and writes about NYC I probably got one of the top 5 tour guides in the city. I also got one of the fittest ones too.

If you’re overweight and will take a tour of NYC with Melissa, you won’t be overweight after the tour any more. We were fast – but got to see tons of places in a just a couple of days.

Oh, and we also played tennis in a fantastic New York setting – under the Williamsburg bridge. I’ll never forget the noise…

My next stop was Milwaukee where I met David from tips4running.com. David helps me with one of my sites and it was great to meet him and his family after chatting so long just over emails.

I was soon flying towards Houston where I met Ashley (and her husband Casey) who also helps me with one my sites. And that’s the real joy of traveling – meeting people, discussing life, sharing stories and feeling optimistic about future projects.

I stayed two more days in Houston because I had to meet Arturo who is also a reader of my tennis site and with whom we have been chatting about tennis and the mental game over emails for the past 2 or 3 years.

It  was great to play tennis again and dig deep into the game and talk about details and intricacies only players with many years of playing can talk about.

Soon I was off to Ft. Lauderdale where I met Vernelle who is another friend helping me with one my sites. We agreed to keep the project alive and kicking and had a really nice time chatting about life and how funny it works out sometimes.

After that I was off to NYC again where I finally met my friend Andrei who gave me his apartment in the first week.

I did my part of the deal and of course gave him some tips about tennis technique that hopefully will enable him to play with much less effort and much more joy.

My last evening in NYC ended with a nice dinner with Melissa and Azmat from after-car-accidents.com who was eager to join us and share his excitement about SBI and living a free life.

It was hard to stop talking and sharing stories about our journeys but it was really fun and interesting.

It’s one of the best things about SBI conferences besides getting some golden nuggets of information on how to succeed online.

You get to meet people on a very similar journey and sharing experiences and stories is great fun.

I am back in sunny and fresh Slovenia now reflecting back on how memorable this trip was because of all the wonderful and generous people I met.

It’s one of the best benefits of being free and traveling around to world – it’s really about people and how we all are on similar journeys and how we can help each other to take more and bigger steps towards a bright future.

Thanks everyone who helped me along and enriched my life.

If you’d like to meet, share a pizza and a beer – let me know!

I’ll be in NYC and have time to meet from 5th to 9th of September.

Then I am off to Milwaukee where I’ll stay a day or two.

Then I am off to Houston (a few days), Ft. Lauderdale (day or two)and back to New York where at the moment I plan to leave back for Slovenia on 20th of September.

I am visiting some business partners, tennis friends and friends I met through internet marketing.

If you’d like to meet, email me at tomaz (at) freedomideas.com!

The city is modern, clean, organized and it has tons of cool attractions that make your trip very colorful.

Here are some of the Singapore attractions that I checked out this time and that I recommend you visit…

The Zoo

The zoo is done in such a way, that there are no steel bars obstructing your view. The animals are kept in their areas by water and walls most of the times.

It feels quite exciting sometimes – for example the white tiger kept walking at the edge of his area and was probably gauging the distance to us tasty humans just 10 meters away.

I assumed that he has tried the jump a few times before and failed and that he really won’t try again.

You also get to about 2 feet away from a cheetah – behind a glass window – which is very cool…

Sentosa

Sentosa is an island of fun. There are tons of fun places to check out – and you can get there with a cable car.

Once you pay the access to Sentosa you can hop on free buses that drive from attraction to attraction and see them all.

Of course, you still need to pay for most of them.

Universal Studios at Sentosa

But it’s not like that at the Universal Studios. The entrance fee was 72 SGD per person and once you’re inside you have access to all attractions.

There’s so much fun stuff to do and see that I will take you probably a whole day to check them all.

You do need to pay extra for food and drink though…

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

I stayed for 2 nights at one of the most amazing hotels in the world – the Marina Bay Sands.

The place is HUGE, super classy, there are tons of shops, restaurants, theaters and the coolest thing of all – the pool on top at the 57th floor.

Even though the lowest price for 1 night is $350 SGD if you book early, the hotel is completely full. No sign of financial crisis here…

Besides the cool infinity pool there are also jacuzzis so that one really feels like a king…

More cool stuff to do…

Of course, even just walking in Marina Bay gives you extraordinary views. Then there are city tours, river tours, the Singapore flyer, Wild Wild Wet water park, seafood restaurants near the river, massive shopping centers, cruises and lots of other stuff.

Singapore would be a great city for a 10 day holiday, honeymoon or anything like that. The Your Singapore website is a great place to start planning your trip…

And if you’re living the internet dream, you can also spend an hour or two working in the morning before going out for an adventure…

There are so many people looking for ways to work from home. Why not taking it a notch higher and work from anywhere with an internet connection?

Work from hotel, work from holidays, work from Starbucks and work from the airport. The rest – live your life fully!

I was invited to Istanbul by Vejen, my good friend by now from Turkey whom I taught tennis already 2 years ago in Slovenia.

Vejen and me and the public tennis court where we trained

He found my website through Google (of course), realized that I know something about tennis and decided to visit me for tennis lessons. (I must have presold him with lots of quality content. )

This year he wanted to come again but since Slovenia was getting quite cold in October I suggested instead that I come down south to Turkey.

While the temperatures here were starting to creep under 10 degrees Celsius, it was still over 20 degrees Celsius on sunny days in Istanbul.

As soon as I arrived, I went to SBI forums and did a search for Istanbul to see if there’s an SBI-er with a website.

That’s how I found Zeynep and her website istanbulextralarge.com where she offers Istanbul travel advice and also offers to take you around and show you the city.

Zeynep taking me to a local fish restaurant

Zeynep was glad to show me around so here are some pictures from that trip.

The cars and trucks look like they're in the air

Cool architecture of ancient buildings

The freedom of internet business allows me to go to places whenever I want and my income from the websites covers all the costs effortlessly.

So if you ever plan to visit Istanbul and you need a local guide who speaks perfect English, knows a great deal about Istanbul historical places and their architecture, then I really recommend that you get in touch with Zeynep.

You’ll make a great new friend. Thanks again Zeynep for a great day!

But I was also planning to visit Chicago for some personal reasons – there are some personal development seminars that I will attend.

So if there’s anyone from Chicago that wants to pick my brain while they show me around, I’d be happy to do that.

Email me at tomaz at freedomideas.com or contact me through +38641923766. I’ll get a US prepaid phone once I get there…

I am arriving tomorrow on 10th and departing on 21st of June…

This is also another example of the freedom you can achieve with a home based online business. If you decide that you want to go somewhere at any point of time, you can actually do that.

You don’t need to take a holiday or get a permission from your boss. You also don’t worry about the price of that journey – I’ll actually earn more in these 11 days in Chicago than it will cost me for the whole trip – and that includes flying business class.

I hope that motivates you to keep your goal in mind and keep building your online businesses.

Will update this post with some pictures of my travels in Chicago…

Update: Chicago proved to be one of those typical American cities with huge skyscrapers, huge streets and huge portions of food.

Very friendly people too!

Airbus A340-600 from Lufthansa was very comfy

It gets cooler by the river

Fish & Chips - I can eat only half of that. Here's where US obesity begins...

Chicago a windy city? Looks more like cloudy city...

Simple American lunch. Now that's the right size.

Great view for a relaxing afternoon

Cool reflecting sculpture in the park

T-Rex Sue and me

Scary reality

I am writing this post as a journal for myself to remind myself later of where I have been and also to perhaps inspire and motivate all those who look to become financially free and do whatever they want to do.

New Year In Bangkok, Thailand

I arrived in Thailand on the 31st of December (flying with business class of course from Slovenia ) and spent the New Year’s Eve in Bangkok where hordes of people came to see the entertainment show in front of the Central plaza (a big shopping mall).

There was also a short fireworks show but really nothing spectacular. It’s interesting to celebrate New Year in short pants and sleeves and sweat at the same time – while most people in the Northern hemisfere wear thick jackets and gloves and maybe even enjoy some snowy conditions.

Cruising with Costa Allegra

My girlfriend and I flew to Singapore on the 6th of January (business class ) and spent a few days there before embarking on Costa Allegra ship on 9th of January.

This was my second cruise and I got us very cheap tickets since I booked the cruise in December and Costa company has lowered the prices 50% since they were not getting enough people to book the cruise.

I paid $599 for one ticket for 14 days of cruising – and the normal price was around $1200.

The cruise took us back to Phuket, Thailand where we stayed a day and a half.

We also stopped in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), and Jakarta, Bali and Komodo islands in Indonesia.

We also stopped in a few other ports but they were not that interesting.

The Costa Allegra ship is not the biggest cruise ship – it takes around 900 passengers and there were slightly over 600 on this particular cruise.

We also met Dusty and Rebecca from USA, who currently teach English in South Korea and Tom (from Norway) and Alina (from Romania) and had a good time talking about different ways of life on this interesting planet…

The food was amazing and so was the entertainment. There were excellent singers and dancers in the evening entertainment show so we probably didn’t miss a single one.

All in all, the cruise was excellent, the only negative thing that I have to say is that some of the ports were really not well chosen (what shall I do in Jakarta traffic jams?) and the excursions were very expensive and not really worth the money. A lesson for the next time…

They should have taken us to some beaches – since most of the people came from cold European winters and would surely prefer to enjoy sunny beaches and swimming in the sea instead of bus excursions in heavy traffic jams of mega cities.

We returned to Bangkok on 23rd of January and spent some time relaxing, burning the fat by jogging and swimming in the local pool and waiting for my best friend’s arrival.

Exploring Bangkok, Pattaya and Koh Chang

My best friend Urban booked a ticket to Thailand in July 2009 since I was sure to be here in the winter and he wanted to see Thailand for the first time.

By the way, he paid 620 euros with Turkish Airlines for a return ticket Ljubljana-Istanbul-Bangkok and back – which is very affordable!

Consider Turkish Airlines if you plan to visit Thailand at some point…

Urban arrived on the 30th of January and we got to play some tennis at the hard courts of Tennis Academy of Asia.

We also spent a day in Bangkok, checking out some temples, the Paragon shopping mall and had some traditional pad thai (thai pasta).

After a few days we went to Pattaya (about 2 hours drive with a bus) to show Urban a typical Thai tourist place where lots of dark side (prostitution) of Thailand can be seen too.

We spent two days in Pattaya and then took a van to Koh Chang – which took us about 5 hours all together to arrive in the Coconut resort.

Koh Chang is one of the hidden gems of Thailand. It’s the second biggest island in Thailand but fortunately it’s not so well known.

In fact, it’s not so commercialized and there’s no sign of the dark side (prostitution) here so there are much fewer tourists here.

The Coconut resort is very nice looking, they have their own restaurant, their own beach and their own pool – so it’s a perfect place to relax and enjoy the summer conditions.

We spent 5 days in Koh Chang (exploring the island on the bike, taking a swim in the river in the jungle, enjoying mango, papaya and other Thai delicious fruits and seafood) and then returned to Bangkok since Urban had a plane to catch on the 12th of February.

After another short period in Thailand, my girlfriend and I headed for Penang…

Exploring Penang, Malaysia

The main reason why we went to Penang was because my visa was about to expire and I had to leave Thailand and then return one more time to get another visa.

This time we opted for the cheaper ticket with AirAsia.com which cost us only around 300 euros for both.

We spent 12 days in Penang, staying 2 to 4 days in one hotel and then moving on to another. I booked most hotels with Paypal through Agoda.com and then just handed the printed voucher in the next hotel where we arrived.

We also met Ricky – an SBI-er – who was kind enough to show us around and in exchange I poured tons of my tips into his brain on how to get more traffic and income.

(Ricky! I am still waiting for your success story! )

Mon and I stayed the last 3 days at a five star hotel Equatorial in Penang and it was really an incredibly comfortable and luxurios stay. Kudos to Equatorial.

We then arrived back to Thailand on the 2nd of March and I left for Slovenia on the 16th of March.

The winter in Slovenia was very harsh this year since there was lots of snow compared to previous years and the temperatures were often below zero.

Thailand temperatures on the other hand almost never dropped below 30 degrees Celsius – and almost never below 35 degrees in March.

The Freedom Of Doing An Online Business

Having a successful online business gives you an incredible freedom. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection and you can work on your business at any time you want.

Google, Chitika, Amazon and Clickbank all allow you to put the payments on hold which is another great bonus. I had my earnings accumulate during these 2 and half months and then released them in time so that I received all checks when I returned home.

The bank clerk almost melted from kindness when I brought her 4 fat checks to cash in to my account…

I hope my story increases your motivation to achieve financial freedom and live the life withot being a slave in some company and spend hours and hours staying afloat while someone else on top reaps the benefits of your hard work.

Free yourself!

The ticket price from Ljubljana to Bangkok through Istanbul was just around 1600 eur which translates to around $2,300.

That’s a good price for a business class since most other airlines charge double or more for the same distance (Austrian Airlines through Vienna and Lufthansa through Munich or Frankfurt).

There’s not much difference flying business class on Airbus 319-100 which took me from Ljubljana to Istanbul except that there is more leg room and that flight attendants bring more drinks and food.

But the business class on the Boeing 777-200 flying from Istanbul to Bangkok is a high tech luxury seat.

Business class on Boeing 777-200 Turkish Airlines

The Boeing 777-200 has 16 of these small suites and you’re basically sitting alone in your own adjustable seat which can go to completely flat position. You get a pillow and a blanked and can sleep quite comfortably for a few hours.

Adjustable seat and TV on Boeing 777-200 business class

The only » problem« is that you get served dinner at around 1:00 AM since the flight starts from Istanbul at 23:45.

Our flight started 40 minutes late and so our dinner was served even later – at around 1:30 AM. We were going quite fast and it’s amazing when you consider that the plane is going at over 1000 km/h at 11 kilometers high and the outside temperature is -54 degrees Celsius – while I am having a delicious dinner.

About 9 hours later we landed safely (and softly) in Bangkok and I was really not tired since I could sleep for about 4,5 hours during the flight.

I think I have a small problem now; because once you fly business class on a long flight, you REALLY don’t want to go back to the economy.

I don’t mind economy at all for up to 2 hour flights (which covers most of Europe from Slovenia), but there is a huge difference in comfort when you fly 8 and more hours over night.

Turkish Airlines has really lowered their prices recently and if you book an economy flight from Ljubljana to Bangkok for example, you’d pay only 620 euros (return flight). Most other airlines charge around 1000 euros for the same distance.

And if you can pay for your flight with paypal, that’s even better…

There are two reasons why I wanted to share this with you; it’s my first time (but definitely not last) flying business class and I wanted to record this on my blog (so that I can check this in a few years ).

And secondly, to motivate you, to give you some exciting goals for which you’ll focus more on improving your online business and earning more so that you can easily afford a business class flight next time you travel somewhere.

If you want to stay motivated and keep working on your sites for many hours, you need to have strong reasons WHY you’re doing this.

»Having more money« is not strong enough motivator. You need to know WHY you want to have more money.

What are you going to do with it?

And looking forward to flying business class to Thailand is definitely an exciting goal for me – since I like planes, traveling and Thailand.

So… What are your specific goals and things you want to do with the money earned from your online business?

In other words, I’ve been looking for websites where I could book a cheap flight or book a hotel and complete my payment with Paypal.

There are some very useful sites that offer Paypal as the payment option and here’s what I’ve found so far:

Cheap Flights in the USA

If you’re traveling in the USA, these companies allow you to pay for your flight with Paypal:

1. Hotwire.com
2. American Airlines (only for US, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands residents)
3. Northwest Airlines
4. JetBlue Airways
5. US Airways
6. Continental Airlines

Cheap Airline Tickets In Europe

The following websites allow bookings for flights (in Europe only) with Paypal:

1.    Jet2.com

International Flights – Any Country

The best website I’ve found so far that allows Paypal payments for cheap flights to any destination is Jetabroad from Australia…

1. Jetabroad.com
2. Lufthansa
3. Air Asia X (mostly Asia and Australia)
4. Singapore Airlines (Payment with PayPal is only available for travel originating from Australia, Greece, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and USA.)

Hotel Bookings Payable with Paypal

The best one I’ve found so far is Hotelopia which allows you to book a hotel and pay with Paypal anywhere. Hotwire.com has the most choices though…

1. Hotwire.com
2. Hotelopia.com
3. Excelloz.com
4. Agoda.com

If you have come across any other websites that allow payments with Paypal for cheap tickets or hotels, please email me at tomaz (at) freedomideas.com and I’ll update the post. Thanks!

Why Payment With Paypal?

There are various ways to earn money online and get paid through Paypal. The most well-known is eBay.com, but if you’re into internet marketing, then consider these programs which I use, that pay to my Paypal:

1.    Chitika.com – Chitika is my biggest earner and they pay on time. I could easily now live only on my Chitika earnings, if I could pay for other stuff with Paypal. Chitika also sends you a check if you wish.
2.    Sitesell.com – The Sitesell Affiliate Program also pays to Paypal (or check).
3.    Infolinks.com – They pay to Paypal or wire transfer to your bank.
4.    Shoppingads.com – If,  like me, you cannot use the eBay Affiliate Program, Shoppingads is a good alternative and pays to Paypal too.

So why is using Paypal so cool? Because you don’t pay tax for the money in your Paypal account, whatever you earn, you get to spend.

I’ve just completed my planning for a trip to the Roland Garros Grand Slam tennis tournament and was able to pay for my plane ticket and 8 day stay in Paris all with Paypal. Great!

Now I only need the real money for the tennis tickets, food and souvenirs!

It’s been a great experience from the holiday perspective and from the online business perspective – or maybe I could say enjoying freedom while doing almost nothing for my websites.

I took my laptop and found some nice places on Koh Samui where there was free wi-fi in the restaurant. So I had my pad thai, checked my emails, updated a few Content 2.0 pages and went swimming again.

Free wi-fi on Koh Samui

The power of internet allows you to earn money while doing minimal maintenance work on your authority content sites. I’ve had my best month so far and I’ve done the least work in this month in the last 3 years of my journey into the internet marketing arena…

Here are a few more pics from my travels…

Having breakfast on a ferry to Koh Samui

Beautiful temples on the island

Thai food is great!

I hope you also take some time ocassionally from your work and enjoy life. Otherwise you may happen to die with thousands of dollars in your bank account. What a waste…

Before you check the photos, I want to add something; a few months ago I was reading a blog post which was something like “A Day in the life of… (I forgot the name)”.

The guy who was interviewed was making around $20,000 per month, mostly on passive income (Adsense, affiliate programs, …).

Here’s how I remembered his day description: wake up at 8, quick breakfast and start checking and replying to emails (1 hour), writing articles for his websites (2 hours), checking the RSS feeds (1 hour), lunch and a short break (1,5 hours), uploading articles to his sites and uploading them to other sites + social bookmarking and voting (1,5 hours), checking email again (30 minutes), doing other website related stuff (design, planning new sites, link building, … – 2 hours), short break and dinner snack, then maybe watch some TV news or play a computer game (1,5 hours), checking email and RSS feeds again (1 hour), going to sleep at a around midnight.

This story always reminds me of how I NEVER want to live my life. Having more than enough and still wanting more and more and more…

Here’s what me and my girlfriend did:

The really sad thing is that some people start this journey to financial and personal freedom, manage to free themselves from working for someone else, but then become slaves of their own obsession for money.

I’d be really interested in hearing your thoughts on that…