If you were to read every article on this blog, you would probably notice that there are only a handful of occasions when I speak about travel or any of the destinations I’ve been to or any of the experiences I’ve had over the years, in a negative manner. This is not some trick and I am not trying to deceive anyone into thinking that travel, or more specifically, long-term travel, is nothing but a never-ending stream of overwhelmingly positive experiences. But I do believe that

Most travelers carry some technology, some combination of gadgets, with them these days as they bounce around the world. Yet some travelers actually don’t carry any technology with them at all. It all depends on one’s needs. For me, in order to get my blogging/online work done, ensure I read often and keep me as connected to friends and family around the world as I can, I always travel with the following: Macbook Pro 13.3” Retina Panasonic Lumix ZS20 Camera Samsung Google Nexus

Often times, whenever I tell someone that I have been traveling, living and working around the world for the past 13 years or so, I receive a very similar response. It begins with a “Hmm…” and continues with a “You don’t look like someone who has been traveling for 13 years!” At that point, I’ll ask for some clarification. And this is when such observations as “Your clothes are clean. Your hair isn’t a mess. You’re clean shaven. You don’t stink.” are men

You arrive in Rome. You call your friend to have him pick you up from the airport. You talk for ten minutes. You still can’t find him, so you call again. Ten more minutes later, you finally understand where he’s telling you to meet. = $20 USD You have a few drinks while partying on the beach in Thailand. You decide to start texting that guy/girl you met in Bangkok last week. You exchange twenty texts. The next night, you do the same. You also send a bunch of texts to friends ba

When I first began this blog several years ago, it was purely an experiment. I knew absolutely nothing about blogging and I had never really written much before, especially not for an audience. I also had no idea how to attract readers, although that didn’t bother me since I never believed it was even possible for anyone apart from a few family members and close friends to be interested in what I had to say. Heck, I didn’t even know what I had to say or what I wanted to say.

Fear. There was a time when I didn’t enjoy flying at all. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that I wrote a post about that very subject, reaching the conclusion that the older I was getting, the more afraid I was of flying. It turns out I was wrong though. It was only a temporary bout of flying fear that had gotten a hold of me. Last week I was flying through the air at 38,000 feet, from Europe to the US, and I had a groovy time, no worries at all. I didn’t exactly want to

It happens all the time of course. I show up in a new town, I check out a few different guesthouses or budget hotels, I ask for the room prices and then I make a decision. And when I first started traveling, I would almost always choose the cheapest option for the sole purpose of saving my money. However, that is no longer the case these days, and the same is true whether I’m looking for a place to eat, an activity to participate in or anything else I might do while on the road. I

Her name is Eliza Massey. She’s 57 years old and she’s riding her motorcycle around a good chunk of the world over a period of 18 months…all on her own. I met Eliza while in Palolem, Goa, in the south of India, just a couple of weeks ago. Her mighty BMW G650, complete with a “USA” sticker on the side and a license plate from the state of “Maine”, had caught my attention when I first saw it and after trying to locate the owner for a couple of days,

I love Las Vegas. I love it so much in fact that I made sure I included a visit to Las Vegas on the itinerary for my recent road trip around the Western USA back in December. That itinerary also included visiting a good friend of mine in Los Angeles, a couple of days wandering around Santa Barbara, a drive along the California coast through Big Sur, a stop in beautiful Monterey and some days in San Francisco. It was a very nice trip, and I enjoyed every destination, but when the trip was o

This post is brought to you by Bupa Travel Insurance. During my senior year of high school, and after a great deal of debate, I eventually chose the university that I would attend for the next stage of my studies. I chose a university in Atlanta, Georgia. However, when I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree some four years later, I had not only attended that university in Atlanta, but I had also attended a university in Melbourne, Australia and a university in my home state of Massachu

An hour ago, I was about to start writing a post. Everything was in place – my laptop, my fruit salad, my glass of beer – until I quickly realized that one thing was missing. A topic. I had no idea what I was going to write about. My next move was to check my Twitter account and check my Facebook page, and it was there on my Facebook page that I had a thought. I would invite my FB followers to ask me any travel questions they had and I would select one of those questions and respond with

Do you enjoy being challenged? Would you maintain your sanity if you had to constantly face unexpected situations, surprises, plans that always changed for one reason or another? Could you handle a lack of routine and perhaps not knowing where you’ll be in a week or two from any given moment? Are you okay with sleeping in different beds all the time, some comfortable, others barely more than a thin piece of foam set upon a hard piece of wood? What if you had to eat different foods, some f

If you’re planning a travel adventure this year – be it a long-term, multi-country, round-the-world tour or a just a one week vacation – the experience may be a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, culminating what may be years of planning and preparation that you’ll want to remember with some great images. Unfortunately, many people come home from their travels disappointed with their photos. Although it may be tempting to hop online, use a man and van delivery service and have a fancy, expensive

Wait. Is this really possible? No. Well, yes. Well, maybe. If you look at travel as most of us do, an activity that involves the standard transportation, accommodation, sampling of the local cuisine and visiting sights and attractions, then it’ll be somewhat of a challenge to even imagine how your daily spending budget could be as low as $1.94 per day. However, if you’re able to approach travel from an entirely different perspective, you may suddenly find it difficult to understand how yo

About 8 months ago, a friend and I had an idea for a new website. We worked hard on the project for a couple of months, we experimented, we tested and then, one day while in a cafe in Istanbul, we made the decision to trash the idea altogether. However, the reason we trashed the idea is that, during the course of our discussion that day, we came up with what we believed to be an even better, more useful project. The goal remained the same – to help all kinds of people receive reliabl

The day I started enjoying my travels the most was the day I stopped worrying about my hair. You see, an old girlfriend of mine used to tell me that I was much worse than her mother and grandmother combined, referring to the amount of time it would take me to get ready every time I was about to go outside. I could shower quickly and I could throw my clothes on in a flash, but for some reason, I would always get stuck in front of the mirror, carefully manipulating every single curl on my he

While walking around New York City yesterday, I stopped for a break in Washington Square Park and tried to figure out where I should eat lunch. I had no idea what I wanted to eat or where I wanted to go and so I just sat down on a bench right near a talented street performer who was playing his guitar. And with this pleasant music in the background, I then pulled out my phone and opened Trover. Trover is a travel app, and a website, that has quickly become my new travel companion, which I

Wouldn’t it be brilliant if there was one definitive, perfect travel guide full of specific instructions that, when followed step-by-step by anyone on the planet, magically guarantees that we will be out there traveling the world long-term in no time at all? Oh, it would, it really would. But, the reality is that no matter how much we want such a guide, it simply does not exist. When we first discover that travel might be significantly more accessible than we once thought, it is natural fo

Ah, meditation. Legs crossed, hands placed ever so gently on the knees, back straight, baggy cotton clothes flowing perfectly and alas, the look of pure zen on the face. Well, what if I told you that I meditate sitting down in a chair or lying on my bed, wearing jeans and a t-shirt at times, hands on my stomach or by my side or perhaps behind my head, legs laid out however they end up being laid out. The look on my face? I can’t exactly see it myself, but I doubt it’s a look

Three weeks ago, I attended my close friend’s wedding on a Sunday night in Vancouver. It was a great time, with great people, great food and just a great atmosphere. Once the wedding ended shortly after 1:00am, I then bummed a ride back to the apartment where I was staying and I went to sleep. My plan was to spend the next four days exploring Vancouver before flying to the town of Santa Rosa, California for a mini-family reunion with some relatives I hadn’t seen in many years. After some t