How this woman met her husband, traveled the world, and built a business

Nira Macaspac

February 3, 2021

“Hindi mo naman kelangan makapag-asawa ng successful para umahon sa buhay, pwede naman kayo magsikap pareho and umasenso ng sabay! Hindi rin porke’t you married a foreigner ay magiging mayaman ka na kagad. It takes hardwork and finding the right partner in life!"

These were the exact words from Kach Umandap-Howe’s Facebook post in Two Monkeys Travel Page. Her post has won the admiration of many netizens gaining 25k likes, 2.9k comments, and 14k shares as of this writing. Kach’s journey with her husband, Jonathan, has been an inspiration to many women and is being followed by more than 358,000 people on Facebook.

In 2013, Kach and Jonathan met in the small, historic town of Luang Prabang in Laos while Jonathan was on a budget motor bike trip in Asia and Kat was backpacking with her brother and sister.

These two spent a couple of days exploring the countryside using Jonathan’s motorbike. Then they went their separate ways after that trip. Kach went on to travel for another month with her brother and sister while Jonathan went to Vietnam to pursue his plans of looking for a job there as an English Teacher. Kach’s plan was to go for a sabathical leave for 6 months and return to middle east to work again.

They kept in touch online until Jonathan convinced Kach to visit him in Hanoi and they’ve been together since then. After 6 months of teaching English and doing side hustles, they saved their money and flew to India where they studied to become yoga teachers and Ayurveda massage therapists.

According to Kach, their 6 years of nomadic life brought them to over 80 countries together and all the 7 continents around the world including Antarctica. She’s also traveled to 143 countries. She also said that she still go on solo trips and have a goal to visit all the countries in the world while traveling with a Philippine passport.

"From backpacking, hitchhiking, volunteering, cleaning toilets, teaching Yoga, and doing Ayurveda massage to finally starting our travel blog and online business in 2014. We were so broke for years, living with a 10$ per day budget (for both of us!) and we never asked our family for financial support since it’s our choice to quit our jobs to go traveling around the world"

Kach Umandap- Howe

After getting married in 2016, they bought a sailboat and lived in the Caribbean for 2 years.

Then in 2019, they finally settled in Europe and bought a stonehouse in Montenegro with their 6 cats while they manage their business, The Two Monkeys Travel Group.

Kach's Advice

"Learn new skills and consider working online, “work from home” is a new trend now and there are so many opportunities to earn money while traveling anywhere you want. You can become a digital nomad. Also, never give up on your childhood dreams, your current situation might not where you wanted to be but always remember, everything happens for a reason. Dreaming big is good and don't listen to naysayers when they say you're too ambitious. Go change your life in 2021, it's your time to shine!"

Kach Umandap- Howe Tweet