Welcome to round 77 of ‘Meet a Random Traveller’. The series dedicated to bring attention to fantastic people all around the world doing their thing.

Random Traveller 77

Liz

Who are you?
My Name is Liz and I am from Washington DC. I’ve been traveling sporadically in between holding a full time job. Since graduating college in 2008, I’ve been to 23 countries across five continents and I can’t wait to see more!

What’s the deal?
My blog is called L’appel Du Vide which is French for the “Call of the Void” which is that psychological phenomenon where you feel this strange urge to jump when standing on the edge of a tall cliff. My blog is all about taking the leap and doing something a little risky (preferably not jumping off an actual cliff).

I also like to highlight what I call “misadventures” of travel. Things like getting sick, losing your passport, and being robbed. I think these are the most interesting stories and give readers a taste of what travel is really like, but also show that when things go bad people overcome the challenges and go on to have amazing trips. I have a whole segment on my blog called “Misadventure Mondays” where other travelers tell me their tales of woe.

Have you surprised yourself while travelling doing something you never thought you could?
Usually when I travel I am challenging myself. It’s hard to leave your comfort zone and do things that are scary and weird. I am actually pretty afraid of heights and through my travels I’ve gone canyoning (where you jump off large waterfalls), jumped out of planes, hiked up to the Monastery in Petra and so many other things that I never thought I could do.

Gorgeous Peru

Of all the places you’ve been where could you see yourself setting up home most?
I loved Budapest and can totally see myself living there. It’s a beautiful, modern city that’s also really unique. Plus I loved the hot water spas that are all over the city – I could definitely get used to that.

I would also love to live in South East Asia. The food is amazing and it’s so warm all the time and you are right by a beach…pretty much perfect.

If you could have one a special talent to impress other travelers what would it be?
If I could have one special talent it would be being fluent in multiple languages – I always feel really bad about my horrible language skills when I travel. It would be great to be able to communicate with locals and other travelers with more than a few broken words. Somehow repeating things like “bathroom” and “hello” don’t usually open up deeper topics.

Wadi Rum, Jordan

What’s the plan?
I am leaving to go to Iceland in a few weeks with my friend Holly. I have a ton of fun things planned for while I am there including puffin watching and glacier hiking. I have read so much about other people’s adventures there and I can’t wait to go!

A big thanks to Liz for taking part, great to have you.

Be sure to check her out:
Blog: Traveling Liz
Facebook: /travelingliz
Twitter: @ElizabethJ_Bird

Fancy being Random Traveller 78? Contact us.

Random Traveller #77 with Liz from Traveling Liz -

Poi completed his open water course in January this year, It was something we had always planned to do together but I was pretty pleased when he went off with a friend and did it without me. Over the course of the year we had been travelling I had lost all interest in diving, I was even becoming a bit scared of the whole idea.

While we were in the Philippines Poi had already gone off diving twice in Donsol and Boracay leaving me on dry land and bored!

Over the course of that week he slowly convinced me that I should give it a go, after all he planned on diving a lot and I’d already spent enough time by myself.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Well… a lot with me, I’m fecking accident prone! I went skiing in my second year at uni, went down one piste and injured myself just enough to ruin the whole week! On this trip I regularly fall down, even on smooth roads and the one Poi loves to tell everyone – I nearly fell off the great wall of China during our first week away.

So yeah, for me there usually is some worse case scenario!

However, within 30 minutes of being on Malapascua Island I had signed up for my Open water course, I think Poi wanted to make sure I didn’t back out even at this late stage.  Luckily for me the dive shop we chose doesn’t have hundreds of students passing through every week so I would be learning 1 to 1 with my instructor Jo.

And so my scuba diving journey began.

After some quite lengthy and pretty boring theory (I know, they have to do it & I should know it) I was to start my confined water dives. This is done in about a metre or two of water, if you feel uncomfortable you simply have to stand up.

First time underwater... very strange feeling!

Fear 1 – breathing underwater

My only main hiccup was the first skill I was required to do underwater.  Jo asked me to take my regulator out, you know, the thing that allows you to breathe underwater.  There was terror in my eyes and I point blank refused… WHY would you take the one thing out that is allowing you to breathe underwater?? IT’S MADNESS!

Jo was really calm and just demonstrated it again and on the second try I thought ‘what the hell’… I took it out and I was fine, I don’t know if you know this but you can actually breathe out for quite a long time.  It was back in my mouth within seconds and hey presto I had completed my first skill!

I actually got to the point where I didn’t mind taking “the only thing that lets me breathe” out whilst swimming around on dives later in the course.

Fear 2 – Mask

Getting over the breathing under water was my main thing but I was also worried about taking my mask off.  I couldn’t work out how water wouldn’t rush into my nose and being generally against having any water around my face didn’t make it any easier.

Again Jo demonstrated the skill first and explained that I could keep my eyes closed throughout and she would tap me to let me know that all the water had been cleared.  The first time I took the mask off underwater was strange, laws of physics means that no water comes into your nose (something about the pressure inside being greater than the pressure outside or something like that). As much as it was horrible to have salt water in my eyes it really wasn’t that bad, not that I would want to repeat it.

I did this once again on my 4th and final dive of the course at a depth of about 10m and didn’t even think twice about it.

It seems that is is harder to take your mask off at the surface than underwater - this was the biggest drama of the day!

Fear 3 – Ears

During the theory part of the open water course I kept being told how important it is to clear your ears (equalising the pressure of the air pockets) as it can get really painful or worse pop your eardrum during a dive.   I was pretty worried about this as I sometimes have problems with my ears on flights etc. What if I can’t pop them, then I have done all this theory for…. Nothing.

Once in the water I did have a little bit of trouble at first, it’s a really weird sensation but there are plenty of ways to equalise your ears, the instructor will go through them all with you. So if one doesn’t work the next one is likely to and as you do it more and more you’ll find the one that works best for you.

For something I was so worried about it became second nature very quickly.

Fear 4 – What the hell happens if your air runs out

Ok this is a natural fear, but by the end of my 1st open water dive I realised that it is highly highly unlikely that this could happen! During the confined water session we went through different scenarios of air running out and what you can do, including sharing someone else’s air, going to the surface etc. BUT as long as you check your air regularly you shouldn’t ever need to do these. (I probably check my air too much because of this!)

Just me fighting a nemo! Supposedly Clown fish are territorial and so swim out to chase you away!

So what did I, as a scared of everything person, make of the open water course?

I was amazed at how easy the whole thing was, all the skills are designed to build your confidence slowly and by the end of the confined water dive I was actually looking forward to getting in the water the next day.

All four open water dives were amazing, each time I was fully briefed on what to expect and both Jo and my diver master Graham looked after me throughout the dives.  I truly felt comfortable in the water – something I never thought I would say.

I never thought I would like scuba diving as much as I do, which pleases Poi as now he gets to do a hell of a lot more diving!

If you’re interested in getting your open water certification in the Philippines I highly recommend Thresher Shark Divers – I enjoyed both learning and diving with them.  The cost of the course was 19,500 Philippine Pesos.

Open water – If I can do it so can you! -

Welcome to round 76 of ‘Meet a Random Traveller’. This is a special one as we have already interviewed these guys once (check out their orginal interview here). These guys have now broken the world record for the longest ever taxi journey, but they kept going. Now they have been on the road 15 months and in the final leg….

Random Traveller 76

For those select few out there who still haven’t heard of you guys, can you tell us who you are and what you’re doing again? (The original plan)
Our original plan was the drive our twenty-year-old London Black Cab about 30,000 miles from London to Sydney and set a new World Record for the Longest Ever Journey by Taxi.
We left from London in February 2011…

The team near the Dead Sea Isreal

Last time we spoke you were on your way to Australia and even mentioned using dynamite to solve the problem of getting your taxi home. That didn’t quite happen though did it? 
That’s right. I think we last spoke when we were somewhere in Turkey and had just about run out of money. Although we did start with about twenty corporate sponsors and some money we saved from working all of the additional costs of constant taxi breakdowns and delays had destroyed our budget.

We were just starting to look at trying to get fruit picking jobs in Australia to pay for our flights back home when I got a proposal from the marketing manager of a company called GetTaxi. At first I thought it was just spam but after some research I found out that they have a Smartphone App that lets you send a taxi directly to your phone and view it on Google Maps in real time. They also has the idea to break the World Record for the longest taxi journey as a marketing exercise but once they found out about us they thought, “If you can’t beat them, join them!”

It was a bit of a crazy coincidence actually but the marketing manager happened to be going on his honeymoon to the Thai island of Koh Phangan at the same time that we were there. We met up for a lunch and agreed to a proposal to become sponsored by GetTaxi and extend the trip onwards from Australia… across the USA coast-to-coast and then back through Israel and Europe so we arrived back in London after driving all the way around the world!

The day that we agreed the new sponsorship was also the Full Moon Party so we had a very good night (we actually bumped into the new sponsor and his wife later in the evening but luckily they were in the same state as us!

The boys drag racing in the US

How did driving through the USA compare to everywhere else you’ve been? 
The USA was really great, I loved the place. I know sometimes in Europe there can be a bit of anti-American sentiment so it was nice to be able to actually go and see the place and prove all that wrong.

The reaction to the car and the journey was incredible and we met all sorts of interesting people. We did all the typical tourist things like gambling in Vegas, Spring Break in Florida and the Grand Canyon plus some more unusual stuff like shooting guns in desert and a guided tour of a legal brothel with a famous pornstar…

So where are you now? and what’s the plan?
We’re  in Moscow for the second time on the trip. Last time we were here all three of us slept on a Couchsurfer’s floor and got arrested for drinking vodka where we shouldn’t have been. This time we’re on the 19th floor of a City Centre Hotel and have had no run-ins with the cops yet…
From here we drive back to London and we should arrive back at Covent Garden on 12 May 2012 at 11am after over 45,000 miles…

West Bank, Palestine

Did you ever imagine the first day you set off you’d still be driving around now?
The trip was originally supposed to to be about eight months and is now pushing fifteen months… I thought the trip might open a few doors but everything has been beyond all our our wildest expectations. We’d just like to thank everyone who has helped us out along the way and made the trip the success it was been so far.

And finally, are you ever going home and do you have anything else lined up? 
Hah! We’re all more than ready to head home, if only for a little while. We’re writing a book about the trip that will be out next year and are talking to some TV production companies about making a TV show about similar adventures.

Along the way quite a few people said to us, “I wish I could do something similar” and  this made us think about how we could bring the experience we have had to more people. Paul and I are running an event this summer called Russin’ Roulette (http://misschiefevents.com/  https://www.facebook.com/misschiefevents) which is basically a week-long road trip from London to Moscow where teams complete a load of challenges along to cause ‘mischief’ and have fun. We have tried to set it up  that people can easily just take a week or so off work, not spend too much cash but still have a great adventure.

Random Traveller #76 with Johno from it’s on the meter -

One of the things I was most excited about while planning our trip to the Philippines was the chance to go diving again.  I completed my open water course this January and had done no diving since. That meant I had four dives logged in my book, all of which were part of the course.

The Philippines is known for having some very good dive sites and I was really looking forward to getting in the water.  It’s not however the cheapest hobby so Kirsty told me I was only allowed to go diving twice… Reading reviews I had settled on Malapascua island and Moal Boal the last two places on our trip.

However during our whale shark interaction trip one of the guys mentioned he had been diving in Donsol the day before and seen manta rays and whale sharks, now that does sound appealing.  It just so happened our guide that day had his own dive shop and was already taking a couple of people out the following day. I agreed to join them and signed up later that day letting Bobby, my guide turned divemaster, know that I had only just done my open water and these would be my first real dives, it didn’t seem to bother him.

The next morning we met at 7am, had a quick briefing mainly explaining how he had renamed all the dive sites to include his name, set up our equipment and headed out on the boat.

My dive companions included two chaps in their twenties who by the way they spoke had dived a lot all over the world and a couple living in Singapore who I overheard mention they had over sixty dives logged each other a number of years. I was very much the novice on this trip.

Going in!

The first dive began with a backwards role entry about 4 feet high, my first such entry.  No problems there, it’s nicer entering the water head first.  We descended down to around 10 meters in very clear water before swimming away from the boat towards ‘Bobbys Wall’ a gorgeous coral wall that immediately outdid anything I had seen on Koh Tao.  What I wasn’t expecting however was the current, Bobby had mentioned very briefly there is sometimes a very small current but this was different.

I stayed close to the wall to try and avoid getting caught too much but it was still very strong.  As the dive progressed the current frequently changed, one moment we would all be drifting uncontrollably and the next fighting against it and barely moving.  There were up and down currents to contend with too.  At some points I would be floating along upside down and had no way to control it.

By the time we made it back to the boat I was exhausted, more mentally than anything after dealing with situations I have never experienced before.  My more experienced companions even commented straight away on the difficulty of the currents which re-confirmed my suspicions that this probably wasn’t the dive I should have been doing directly after my open water course.

Despite checking my depth gauge during the dive it didn’t occur to me that I had exceeded my 18 metre limit by nearly 10 metres.  All round it had been quite an exciting but challenging dive and the next one Bobby had planned sounded even harder.

It was not only I who admitted to being nervous in the group. We would be diving ‘Manta Boal’ where the current could get even stronger than our last dive.  So much so that we would be using hooks to hold ourselves to the bottom in order to wait and hopefully see the manta rays and if we were especially lucky, whale sharks.

Down and out.

The plan was to sit at around 12m where it was apparently sometimes good enough to see what we had come for but when that didn’t work out we headed down to 20m (there goes my depth limit again).  Other than a roughly 20m head on swim between two sheltered areas the current wasn’t much of an issue.  I remained quite nervous throughout the dive expecting to swept away at any moment and my air consumption was showing it.

We drifted back out into the current and I searched for somewhere suitable to hook in and wait.  After a few moments holding on I began to relax  and we spent about 15 minutes out in the open on the look out for something coming towards us.  Unfortunately it seemed none of the big boys were out to play and I was running low on air so we had to begin our accent.

Climbing back onto the boat we told the snorkelers of our disappointment at seeing nothing but although I was disappointed I definitely felt like I had achieved something that day.  Dealing with the currents was a completely new experience and on the whole I was just happy to be diving again and have my first dives  after open water under my belt.

It was definitely a baptism of fire and despite diving lots more during our time in the Philippines I faced nothing nearly as hard.  An instructor who used to work in Donsol we met later in our trip looked horrified when I told her they were my first dives since getting certified.

It may not have been the best route to take so early on in my diving life but it definitely made me a better diver in the long run and now my air consumption is awesome

How not to start your life of diving -

Welcome to round 75 of ‘Meet a Random Traveller’. The series dedicated to bring attention to fantastic people all around the world doing their thing.

Random Traveller 75

George and a Koala bear

Who are you?
I’m George, a 20 something traveller and Gap Daemon Travelling Intern from Cardiff in Wales. Currently I am finishing off my final year of Uni but that hasn’t stopped me from travelling. As a German student I spent the whole of last year living the dream teaching English in Germany and with trusty Ryanair by my side I managed to go on holiday to different European destinations every other weekend. Now I can never stay in one place for very long.

What’s the deal?
When I finished my teaching placement I used some of the money I had saved to backpack solo through Australia for three months. This was when I started my blog. These days I can’t live without travel. The blog is full of hints and tips discovered through my experiences as well as stories from the road. Despite still studying I have been to Morocco and Dublin so far this year with further plans to go to Croatia, Bremen and perhaps Amsterdam. My aim is to encourage all girls to take the leap of faith and become solo female travellers too.

So you’re off an adventure very soon – Give us the plan or lack of!
In just over a week me and my friends Will and Nich setting off to hitch-hike across Europe to raise money for Link Community Development. Destination Croatia. The plan is to set off from Nich’s house in Sussex, to head East and that’s about it. There is a few cities we’d like to stop off on, on the way (detour via Budapest anyone?) but as usual there are no plans. Just to go where the wind takes us (if we don’t kill each other first).

A low point stranded at an airport on Sunday morning.

Have you got much experience of hitchhiking in the past?
I’ve only actually hitch-hiked once before. Nich and I took part in a challenge to reach 5 UK cities (Leeds, Birmingham, London, Brighton and best of all Cardiff) within 24 hours spending no money on transport. Not just this but we had to find a person hidden in each city (which is no mean feat in London!) We set the record rolling into Leeds 23hours and 10minutes after we set off. We also smashed the fundraising target of £50 raising £369 for Amnesty International. Basically we were just too competitive not to win, which is why it’s good that this one isn’t a race against time.

What’s next?
After an amazing 2011, studying all through 2012 has been a bit of a let down. However, this is the part where I admit that you guys are a big inspiration of mine *blushes*as my main ambition is to get the travel blog a proper website and to go teach in Asia. I really want to teach in Japan following graduation. I have my interview with Interac this week, so we’ll see how that goes first … but really I would love to explore everywhere in East Asia (I’ve never been!!) so maybe after working in Japan I’ll work my way around or maybe even hitch-hike back home.

George in a school in Morocco

A big thanks to George for taking part, great to have you.

Be sure to check her out:
Blog: George on the Go
Facebook: /Georgeonthego
Twitter: @georgegoingdown

Fancy being Random Traveller 76? Contact us.

Random Traveller #75 with George of George on the Go -

The first stop of our ‘two weeks isn’t long enough’ tour of the Philippines was Donsol, Legazpi.  It doesn’t really have a lot going on other than it’s main tourist attraction, whale shark interactions.  We like all other tourists had arrived for exactly that.

Donsol is a small place with a few guesthouses in the downtown area but most accommodation are in the form of beach resorts a few minutes away, much closer to the tourist centre, where the action is.  We chose to stay in the town where it’s much cheaper. It was also fun wandering round getting stared at and saying hello back to the hundreds of shouting school kids.

Helping the evenings pass

We arranged to stay three nights in Donsol and the morning after arriving got straight on with what we had come to do.

After the 40 pence each journey to the tourist centre we signed up to be placed in a group, watched an instructional video and got kitted up with masks and fins ready to go and find some whale sharks.

Moments later we were being led to a boat with our guide ‘Bobby’ and some other tourists.  It was explained to us early on that we would have to break some (most) of the rules we had seen in the video only moments before.

The main one being ”only one boat per whale shark”.  Bobby explained that when the video was made there were over seventy whale sharks coming to Donsol during peak times. However, since tourism has become bigger numbers have been dropping every year as the sharks avoid the area.

Apparently this year there were only seven.

With more tourists and less whale sharks it would be impossible to follow the one boat rule as tourists would never see anything and stop coming.

Obviously this made us both feel terrible and pretty bad about being out on the water and looking for one of the seven.  The procedure seemed pretty clear, head to where the rest of the boats are because they must be there for a reason.

Sure enough that plan worked and we were soon being told to jump in the water. Almost immediately Bobby shouted at me to look straight down and although visibility wasn’t great I saw something coming towards me a few meters below.  You hear whale sharks are big but it’s hard to imagine them until they are right there in front of you.

I gave up trying to take pictures very quickly - This is as good as it gets.

I stayed on the spot floating just watching while it passed underneath me before turning to start swimming with it as it had almost passed.  Unfortunately that isn’t easy when five other boats have just dropped tourists into the water in front of you to do the same.  Within seconds I had been consumed by a crowd of people, unable to move and very frustrated.

All I could do was climb back in the boat and wait for another opportunity.  We seemed to get lucky with our boat crew who repeatedly dropped us in great positions away from the crowds.  Both Kirsty and I were able to enjoy swimming along with a whale shark peacefully for a few minutes on a number of occasions and it was very special experience.

The fact is though it’s hard work and many times we were left floating frustrated in the water.  I was being pushed by people, had fins kicking me in the face and getting blocked off by non-swimmers huddled together in a big ball of life jackets.  What are you doing in the water? If you can’t swim? you’re not going to see anything!!

A small group compared to the rest.

On the whole it was a great experience but I’m left with mixed emotions.  On one hand I’m glad I got the chance to see them so easily,  Donsol practically guarantees seeing whale sharks.  This may not be the case in a year or two though and that’s why on the other hand I feel bad about being involved in the tourism forcing them away.

Next time I would rather just take my chances trying to see them on a dive somewhere.  It may be nothing like as guaranteed but it would be a much better experience for the animal and myself.

And that’s exactly what I hoped to do the next day when I went out again with Bobby, this time with his dive shop.

Whale Shark Interaction in Donsol -

China is a beautiful but extremely large country. When we were planning our travel there we really had no idea where to go, there are so many different places we wanted to see and at the time we kept forgetting that a lot of the cities we wanted to visit were 18 – 24 hours away from each other. I can definitely say that China would be one place I would look into organised tours for – if we were on a tour we wouldn’t have missed out in seeing the Terracotta army as they would have booked the tickets for us nor would we have had the worry of booking train tickets and planning travel round the vast country. So for people that want a little bit more of an easy way to travel china – check out www.chinatours.com

First Look
What’s great about their website is how easy it is to navigate through the pages; the homepage itself already contains all the information you might need in booking a tour. The first things you notice on the homepage are the contact information and payment options, the two things that are really important to know in order to purchase tickets. The homepage also includes tour options—pictures from promotional tours, custom tours, and featured destinations.

Chinatours.com

How Does it Work?
There are several options available in the website. Just choose among different tour packages from the dropdown menu and it will take you to a page which will show you scheduled tours and the cost for each tour package. Once you choose a particular tour, it will take you to a page with an even more detailed description of it. This includes price comparison of tour options, duration of the tour, a map of the tourist destination, and a description of what to expect during the trip. Details are clear and easy to understand; and for further questions, you can always click the online service button where you can Skype an agent or send in an inquiry.

Comparison Tool
In each tour option, it includes a comparison tool. It lists 3 different classes: the Premium class, Luxury class, and Standard Class. This page lists down important information on hotel reservations, tour destinations, and accommodations included in your selected tour class. Through this tool, it will be much easier for you to decide which option to choose on the budget you have.

Overall
It’s a a good website which is very user-friendly. The options are presented clearly and you can easily find the information you need. It’s nice to see that the makers of the website really have the first-time visitors in mind.

Review of Chinatours.com -

“It’s amazing how relaxed we are at the moment, I mean we’ve not really planned anything, we’re going to a new country and yet I feel like I’m just nipping to the 7/11”

We were heading for the airport. It was a Saturday night,  Kirsty had finished her last day of work, we’d just packed our bags and jumped in a taxi to head to the Philippines for two weeks.  We were feeling pretty smug, remarking to ourselves, two years ago we would have been planning everything down to the last detail, now we don’t know where we will even be staying tomorrow night!

The two weeks away were incredible (plenty more on that in the next few weeks) but despite our easy going attitude the trip got off to a pretty terrible start.

We walked into the airport and were surprised by the unusually long queues for access to the departure lounge. Not a problem as we’d arrived for an international flight with plenty of time to spare.

We approached the check in desk and followed the usual conversation pattern.

“Tickets please”
“Sorry we don’t have them”
“Booking number”
“No, sorry”
“Ok what flight are you on? Can I have your passports?”
“Manila tonight, about 1am”  (Note the word tonight, it’s important)

Cebu Pacific - Bangkok to Manila

Usually this is followed by a few moments silence before our boarding passes are handed over. However this time we were left staring at the long departure gate queue for longer than normal.  After a few anxious looks and some brief conversations amongst staff behind the counter we were getting a little bit nervous.

Did they know we were smuggling 1000’s pounds worth of heroin out of the country? (jokes)

We found the booking number in an email thanks to the not so reliable free Internet at Suvarnabhumi Airport but that didn’t seem to help their confusion.

“Did you book your ticket for 10^th March”
Phew, “yes, that’s the one”
“Sorry but you’ve missed your flight”
“How???”
“Your flight left today, this morning at 00.35”
“OH SHIT”

Yes, we’re those idiots. Or should I say I am! Somehow when I was booking the tickets it didn’t get through to me that if you book a flight for AFTER MIDNIGHT you need to book them for the next day and check in the day before! I was booking them for Saturday night but really I needed to book them for Sunday morning.

How the hell did I miss that one? I looked at Poi – he looked pissed and slightly confused. Should we still go? It was a split second decision we knew we had to just suck it up and rebook the flights for 24 hours later the flight we had actually arrived at the airport for.

It was a very expensive mistake…. We agreed to forget about it straight away, pretend it didn’t happen and get on with enjoying our trip.

Please please please tell me at least someone else in the world has done this? Or something equally as bad!

Some mistakes cost! -

Welcome to round 74 of ‘Meet a Random Traveller’. The series dedicated to bring attention to fantastic people all around the world doing their thing.

Random Traveller 74

Who are you?
We’re Matt (thinkCHUA) and Erica (LOCAVORista), a wandering couple originally from Minneapolis, MN. In our previous lives, the years before we started this trip, Erica ran sports, health and recreation programs, and Matt developed new companies and business strategies. We had a comfortable life in Minneapolis, but the travel bug got to us and made us set off on our 2-3 year trip.

Erica and Matt - SIam Reap

What’s the deal?
LivingIF is about living life to never have to look back and wonder “what if?” All too often in life our “shoulds” hold us back, when presented with opportunities we think, “that would be great, but I really should….” LivingIF is about our journey traveling to always know what did happen instead of forever confronting the question “what if we’d taken that open-ended trip around the world?”

Yum? Bulls testicles and beer Tokyo.

Where are you right now and what are you doing there?
We’re in India, heading to Nepal for the spring trekking season where we hope to do both the Annapurna Circuit and the Three Passes Loop.

Have you surprised yourself while travelling doing something you never thought you could?
Not really. Being open, adventurous and over-confident people (for better or worse) there isn’t much we don’t think we can do. Of course, this attitude gets us into surprising and humorous situations, such as when our Tokyo Couchsurfing host suggested we go out for raw bull’s testicles. Assuming he was kidding we said, “sure, we love bull testicles, especially raw.” Next thing we knew we had raw testicles, liver and horse meat sashimi in front of us. As the good guests we are we dug right in, leaving no scraps.

Cooling down in the ocean - El-Nido-Philippines

What’s your pet hate in hostel situations?
Air conditioning haters. We stay in dorms quite often and get into passive aggressive standoffs with those that don’t like air conditioning. It’s not that we want to sleep in an igloo, setting an air conditioner to 26 degrees C will at least cut the humidity and warmth of the summer months. We’ve stayed in rooms where outside temperatures reached into the mid-30′s C and roommates would turn off the A/C due to fears of fan death and cold air making people sick.

What’s Next?
We’re currently in our 15th month of continuous travel, about halfway through our trip. After trekking in Nepal we’re headed back to India for several months before heading to the Middle East, Turkey and making it to South America by New Years 2013. From there we’re going to start the long road home, where we’ll have to get back to real life, working and all. But, who knows where we’ll end up?

A big thanks to Matt and Erica for taking part, great to have you.

Be sure to check them out:
Blog: LivingIF
Facebook: /LivingIF
Twitter: @LivingIf

Fancy being Random Traveller 75? Contact us.

Random Traveller #74 with Matt and Erica of LivingIF -