Guest Blog Post

Living at home certainly isn't as exciting as living on the road, which is why I was happy to write a guest blog for a rental property company in the Lakes District in England. Hopefully, this can lead to other writing gigs so I can relive other fun travel experiences until Sara and I have the money to jet-set once again. Cheers.

Lakes Cottage Holiday Guest Blog

Kauai Not?

Tired of winter? Wondering when the myth of the start of spring will finally become a reality? Willing to skip spring altogether so that you can jump right to the summer vacation? Still pondering where to take that vacation? Why not Kauai, Hawaii? Now, I realize everyone has probably at one time or another thought about going to Hawaii. So this post isn't really going to tell you something not already lurking in your sub-conscious. I'm just telling you to finally listen to your sub-conscious. Stop making excuses and settling for the same convenient yearly vacation destination, because I promise you, there will come a day when you look back on your life and regret not being a more adventurous traveler.

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Go Go Go

I've now been to Australia twice and I'd have no problem going back again. It's an easy vacation. Seriously. It would certainly be a long flight to get there, and potentially cause a bit of jet lag, but that would be the only inconvenience once on the ground. When you consider that you could fly just as long to get to Africa or Asia, not speak the same language and have loads of other logistical nightmares, Australia is easy, and just as beautiful as any place in the world. Even though they don't finish their words (ending quite a few of them with -ie), they do speak the same language, the food is familiar, driving is easy (though on the left side of the road), and the scenery is amazing.

Same Same But Different

Referring to things which are almost the same, but with slight differences, 'Same Same but Different' is one of the most common phrases in Southeast Asia. In reality, they are usually just flat out differences, but it's much more fun to say, "Same Same but Different." I'm writing this post to address a question I feel I will encounter when returning home. How does  traveling by yourself compare to traveling with someone else? The simple answer is, "Same Same but Different." But that's a very unsatisfying answer. So, since I ain't scurred of my wife, here are the more thoughtful answers.

72 Travel Tips for Efficient and Worry-free Adventures

When I started planning for my trip in 2012, I knew very little about worldwide travel. Sure, I spent 2 months backpacking through Europe in 2007, but I pretty much followed Rick Steves' itinerary suggestions to a tee. In 2012, I constructed a more personalized journey. I spent countless hours reading books and searching for websites on: country info, itineraries, transportation, lodging, weather, gear, food, health, and safety. I was single at the time, without kids, and it still consumed my life for months. It was quite daunting, and in all honesty, a bit scary venturing out into so many unknowns. Fast forward 3 years to present day, and now it all seems commonplace.

This post is designed to be a reference to which you can refer the next time you, or someone you know, is planning a holiday as I've constructed it to include just about everything I've ever learned during my travels to 7 continents and 72 countries. My hope is that this advice will help ease your planning, save you money, increase your travel safety, and most importantly, make you a smarter traveler. So whether it's solo or family travel, a long or short holiday, local or international travel, these tips will help you avoid many of the headaches I've encountered during my travels to date.

Note: Since this post was written in Australia, some of the embedded links may default to .com.au. If so, it might take a bit more effort to locate those links using your country's browser.

So without further ado....

We Had a Wale(s) of a Time in England

It's been about a month since I last blogged. We've spent much of that time working on an organic farm in Melbourne, Australia, traveling around Tasmania with friends made during our July trip to Morocco, and I've been writing a post chock full of travel tips learned over the past few years so that you, my readers, can save money, travel smarter, and more thoroughly enjoy your next vacation. I'll be publishing that post in the coming days, so keep your eyes peeled. This post will mainly be pictures from the last month of our time spent in the UK.

Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer

Spoiler alert: The weather in the UK this time of year is cold, windy, rainy, snowy, and occasionally sunny. Who'da thunk, right? In spite of knowing the weather fate we were going to be encountering on this leg of our journey, it was one of the legs I had been anxiously anticipating all year. I was finally going to see my family. Not the family who I hadn't seen in 5 months, but the family I haven't seen in over 2 years. My travel family.

The Sights of Sri Lanka

One of the great things about traveling, and only having a fairly loose agenda, is that it allows for expectation free, spontaneous decision making which can end up taking you to random and amazing places. With the lengthy planning which usually precedes most vacations, we frequently go into each vacation with elevated expectations. With those expectations comes the risk of a vacation that could actually turn into a crushing disappointment. Conversely, going to a destination with only very limited planning, as we did during our trip to Sri Lanka, a scenario exists where every day is an expectation free adventure. The potential for disappointment is far less with this more ignorant version of travel, but it's quite freeing. You do run the risk of missing something uniquely beautiful to a specific region, but if you didn't even know it existed prior to arrival, can you really miss it in the first place?

Manic Wednesday

I've never really experimented too much with time lapse photography. The photo of lightning over the Colosseum in Rome was actually my first foray into the style. This video is a compilation of the 800 photos I took in 3 second intervals as we were packing for an international flight from Sri Lanka to Ireland. We thought it would be fun to use time lapse photography to chronicle what its like for a backpacker to get everything in order as they leave yet another place of lodging. Enjoy.

The Colors of India

Hello everyone. I'd like to take a moment to personally thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I spent the better part of 20 hrs editing these photos during down time, train rides in Sri Lanka, and long airport layovers. I'm now in Ireland amongst my people but I loved the photographic opportunities which India presented. So many colors, unique landmarks, interesting people, and festivals. I don't know if I've ever enjoyed taking photographs in any other country as much as I did in India. So while this sexy child molester-esque mustache no longer exists, the memories of the time we shared in India linger on. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Is it Possible to Love India?

India is a place I never figured I'd visit. Whether it was fear or laziness, as mentioned in my previous post, I never felt like dealing with the crowds, noise, garbage, and wasn't too keen on figuring out how to navigate their public transportation system either. Armed with that pre-existing negative mindset towards India, I figured I would take note of what I was seeing and how I was feeling during each day of the trip to see if the country would grow on me, have the opposite effect, or be somewhere in between. Some of the phrases will only mean anything if you've been here, other phrases will just speak for themselves. This experiment proved to be an interesting exercise and I'm a bit surprised by the result.

The Problem with India

What's the problem with India? Which is to say, why has a seasoned backpacker like myself never had the desire to visit this vast and colorful country? What is it about India that terrified me, and why have I visited such countries as Bulgaria and Serbia before finally making my way here? I've always felt India is a rite of passage for backpackers, but to make it part of our 2014 itinerary was due mainly to my wife Sara. Without her desire to see India, I might never have made it part of my travel plans. Why?

Slow Motion Thoughts

I've been a bit bummed that I haven't really had any real moments of self-enlightenment on this trip, or at least not like I had back in 2012. I learned so much about myself during that year-long trip and was thinking I would have similar revelations on this trip, especially since I would now be traveling with my wife. But I really haven't. This 2014 journey has felt like it's been going in slow motion, which isn't a bad thing, it's just a product of having done so much traveling, that I'm used to the lifestyle. You hear athletes say all the time how the games go so fast when they're rookies and that when they get more years under their belts the games start to slow down. Well, the same holds true for travel. I've seen and done so much that I generally know what to expect and am more than used to dealing with the unexpected. I never thought I'd travel to such an extent that I would ever feel this way, but I have, and it's an interesting state of being to which I am slowly becoming accustomed. Here are some other thoughts which have been running around between my ears lately.

Drunk Traveling

Back in 2012 I wrote a post about travel hangovers. Similar to an an alcohol induced hangover, it described that 'blah' feeling you get after an amazing travel experience where you don't really want to get out of bed and see something new because you need to recover from the time that just was. I now present to you another drinking related travel comparison: Drunk Traveling. While my sleeping in the lobby of a 24 hour bank ATM way back in 2007 was the culmination of a day spent at Oktoberfest followed by a train ride to Fussen, the drunk traveling which occurred back then is not what I will be discussing here, though this post is inspired by the sequence of events following another long day of drinking at this year's Oktoberfest. Funny how that works.

It's Gonna Be a Montage

I hadn't realized how long it has been since I last posted pictures from this trip. Since I last posted photos I've been to Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Germany, China, Nepal, and now have just arrived in India. I'll be posting pictures of Nepal in a future post, but before we get to the photo montage of those other countries, let me give you a summary of my time in those countries.

Be Advised

Hello again. Been almost 2 months since my last post due busy days in Italy, Oktoberfest in Munich, and internet censorship in China. I promise to post some pictures when I again have some reliable internet, as the signal here in the chaotic city of Kathmandu, Nepal is often infuriatingly inconsistent. In the meantime, here is a post about how best to use guidebooks and travel sites when planning your next getaway.

The Night I Slept with a Princess

Arguably, the most enjoyable part of a trip is the planning for the trip itself. Generally, you've been working for months on end with only the occasional day off providing relief from the daily grind. The prospect of a whole week away from your boss while spending time in the wilderness, exploring a foreign land, relaxing at an all-inclusive resort, or catching up with infrequently seen loved ones, makes it hard to contain your excitement. You've planned the trip for months, and the time has finally come to enjoy the fruits of your planning labor. Then it rains. Your bags get lost. Everyone gets food poisoning. It becomes painfully obvious why those relatives are infrequently seen. Reality has let you down to the point you're disturbingly and somewhat sickeningly thankful to actually return to work. Expectation and Reality share an interesting relationship in that regard. When reality meets heightened expectations (see Tanzania safari), the fruits of your labor will never taste sweeter. When reality clashes with heightened expectations (see Morocco), you feel cheated and betrayed. Very rarely would you ever willingly put yourself in a situation where you would want reality to confirm lowered expectations. That just seems like a depressing waste of time. Which leaves the final relationship: an unimaginable reality stemming from lowered expectations. Or for the purposes of this blog entry: The Night I Slept with a Princess.

A Day in the Life: Serengeti

While I didn't give the name, "A Day in the Life" to other posts, I am probably going to start a segment of posts with such a title to give a little snapshot into what can happen in just 1 day as a backpacker. Not every day is glamorous, nor is every day at home. In the 4 days since the safari ended, I did very little but lie down in a bed in my hostel and just decompress. Arusha, Tanzania isn't exactly high on sights, so I didn't miss out on much in my laziness. The 2 weeks prior to my time here was full of adventure, including 4 days in the Serengeti. Here is what happened in one 24 hour time span during that trip.

Sand Blasted

I finally made it to the Sahara desert while in Morocco. It was a singular day on this worldly journey which I was highly anticipating. A camel ride in the desert terminating at a Berber campsite, we were to camp there for the night in a home made of dunes and an infinite number of twinkling stars. It was supposed to be an escape from the chaotic souks, a chance to exhale and reconnect with nature. But by the time I actually had a chance to exhale, all that came out of my mouth was Saharan sand.

The Long Overdue Latvia and Norway Pics

Fjords of Norway