While there is still a great deal of world left for me to explore, I have to admit that I’ve managed to see many of the places I was really hoping to over these last few years. In the last 18 months I’ve visited Argentina, Uruguay, New York City, Ireland, Scotland, Oahu (Hawaii), Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Bali (Indonesia), South Africa, England, New Zealand, Brazil, Malta, Italy, France and Serbia. I also did a few trips around Canada, including Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Montreal. This year I really only had two goals in terms of where I wanted to visit. The first one is Machu Picchu, ...

Another year is almost upon us, and I thought a final post was in order. It was definitely an interesting year for me, the highlight (at a personal level) probably being a third surgery on my eye socket (which I was told four years ago wasn’t possible). But I also did a fair bit of traveling, and I thought a little photo-finish finale was in order for 2012. Las Vegas Las Vegas Samantha in Cape Town, South Africa Penguins near Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town, South Africa Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa Sunset, Cape Town, South Africa The moon rising over Cape Town, South Africa Me ...

As many people know, I tend to travel quite a bit – over the last 18 months I believe I have visited on the order of 13 or 14 countries. And while there are always interesting things to do in each new city or country I visit, sometimes I miss some of the comforts of home (such as english TV or movies). Back home when I am bored I typically watch Apple TV or Netflix. Unfortunately when I am outside of North America and I try to access Netflix I often end up with a message like this: One way I’ve found around this is to simply tunnel all my traffic through a VPN server in the United States. ...

While I own several guitars, I previously have never attempted flying with a guitar. A quick Google search on the Internet reveals a lot of confusion about the process, as well as a few horror stories about damaged or stolen guitars. An infamous story of breakage ended in a viral internet video known as “United Breaks Guitars”: When I was in Argentina in 2011, I ended up having more free time than I thought I would have. In those moments, I really missed having access to a guitar that I could pick up and play. I went down to a local guitar store thinking I would buy something cheap, but it’s ...

In just a few days I’ll be leaving for the city of Buenos Aires again. As people who read this blog know, I started off this great travel adventure of mine last year in that very city. At the time I was a pretty green traveler, and struggled with the language and figuring out how the city worked for the first month or so of my trip. I was frustrated a few times, and a little disheartened with how hard it was at first to meet people. But I eventually overcame most of those obstacles, and probably grew as a person in the process. When my three months were up in Argentina, I was looking forward ...

Back when I was in Thailand, Scott and Sam gave me the official invite to their wedding in Cape Town, South Africa for March of 2012. I was actually really excited about visiting Cape Town, but after leaving New Zealand I was pretty much out of money and had a lot of expenses back home to deal with. But I decided it was important for me to go, so I bit the bullet and purchased a $1,500 plane ticket to Cape Town, South Africa, leaving from Las Vegas (flights are always quite a bit cheaper out of the United States, and I was going to be down there for my mom’s birthday anyways). Journey Cape Town ...

In the fall of 2010, I decided I wanted to set out on a big travel adventure. At the time I had become a bit bored of life in Chilliwack, and wanted to take advantage of the fact that I can work anywhere with an internet connection and actually see some of the world. I sold most of my furniture at the time and put the rest into a storage locker. And almost exactly a year ago, I boarded a plane and headed to South America. Natalie and Bruno in Wellington I spent approximately eight months of this past year living out of a suitcase, bouncing between apartments and hostels, working from little remote ...

In less than three days I’ll be vacating my little apartment here in Auckland and hitting the open road again. Most people told me beforehand that Auckland wouldn’t be that interesting, but I quite enjoyed my time here. Here is a summary about my four week visit to Auckland, New Zealand. First, I took two weekends worth of sailing lessons from a pretty famous New Zealander named Penny Whiting. While I still have a ways to go, I now have a Certificate of Sailing Competency, which should allow me to charter a boat on my travels if I want. Penny was a great teacher, and she’s well known for ...

As per my last post, I was supposed to spend the weekend in Bangkok this weekend and then head to Auckland on Monday. But given how people are evacuating from Bangkok, I decided to try and change my flights around to get out before things get even worse. Even the smallest penguin can change the course of the future Thankfully most airlines (including mine, Air Canada) are offering free change fees on flights to and from Bangkok due to the flooding crisis there, so my ticket was eligible for a change. I tried calling last night to sort it out, but unfortunately due to the time change I didn’t ...

I checked out my hotel in Ubud, Bali and made my way down to the airport. I gotta say, driving in Bali is one of the scarier driving experiences I’ve ever had. People are fairly ruthless on the roads, and most of the paid drivers are extremely agressive (passing in the other lane when there’s lots of traffic). You sort of have to trust that these guys know what they are doing, and do your best not to pay too much attention to what is going on. I heard that traffic might be bad, so I left the hotel early knowing I’d probably end up with time to kill at the airport. Unfortunately for me the ...

My phone gave me a warning last night that my Internet package was about to expire. That means I’ve officially been in Thailand one month now. Chewang Beach I still have to do a write-up about my adventures in Chiang Mai, but I’m just waiting for a few of my photos to go up, as well as some Scott took with his point and shoot (I didn’t take my SLR out around the elephants as it was a bit too dirty and wet for my liking). But hopefully this week I’ll write a big post about my adventures up there, as it was a really good time. West side of Koh Samui I have only four weeks left in Thailand. ...

I’ve been in Thailand now for about three weeks. So far, it’s pretty much everything I hoped it would be. Food is amazingly cheap, the people are super friendly, and in general Thailand is really laid back and accommodating. While the weather has been mostly cloudy lately, it’s still warm by North American standards, and a daily dip in the pool has become part of my routine. Pad Thai Back home a Pad Thai dish probably runs around $12 or $13 a plate. Some of the best Pad Thai I’ve had here costs around 50 baht ($1.66), so there’s quite a big price difference. At one place, you can pay ...

I was just lying in my hotel bed here in Richmond, about to go to sleep, when I realized I hadn’t written anything about heading out tomorrow. On the last round of travel I did, I couldn’t wait to write a post and get the ball moving. But with my cousin recently dying, and the last minute shuffle to get everything back into storage, I’ve actually been pretty wiped out lately. But in about 12 hours I’ll be heading to Vancouver International Airport and getting ready to head to Thailand. I have a 10.5 hour flight to Tokyo in the morning following by a 6.5 hour flight to Bangkok. Together ...

Me and my cousin, Corey About a week ago, I got word that my cousin Corey had died back in Chilliwack. It obviously caught everyone off guard, since he was only 38 years old and was relatively healthy. As a family, all we have been left with are questions, sadness, and the hole where Corey’s life used to be. When I originally set out to Argentina at the start of this year, my mom sat me down and we talked about what would happen if someone were to pass away while I was gone. Obviously if possible, I would do my best to get back home for a funeral or support. But I was told by my mom, and later ...

At exactly this time in one week, I’ll most likely be heading down to Vancouver International Airport for my flight to Tokyo, Japan. That means I only have five or six more days to get everything sorted again before I take off – I’m starting to feel the pressure! The most pressing issue is packing up my room and taking everything down to my storage locker. My brother in law is coming on Friday to help me move my bed back to Chilliwack, and I need to have everything sorted and boxed up by then. That means the next two nights are likely to be busy. But the bright side is that I should be mostly ...

I have less than a month to go before I return everything to my storage locker and hit the open skies again. Last time I departed I headed south and ended up in Argentina. This time I’m flying west and hitting a little island off the coast of Thailand called Ko Samui One of the aspects discussed in the book Vagabonding that seemed was relavant to me this summer was the concept of reintegration. The author claims in the book that after an extended trip it becomes difficult to find a way to fit yourself back into your old life. That was definitely the case for me this time around, and lately I’ve ...

I wrote a post recently about my travel metrics from the last six months. One of the observations I made was that I had spent roughly $500 a month on average for airfare. Given that I gave my apartment up in British Columbia prior to leaving, airfare is one of my only extra expenses I have when I travel. Taken together with a $90 a month storage locker and roughly $50 a month in travel insurance, that’s a rough cost of $650 a month that is in excess of what I would normally spend back in North America. If you do the math, a person will realize that they can actually make money traveling the ...

One of the hardest parts about traveling with technology is lugging all of your gear around with you. Once you arrive at a destination and rent an apartment, you can store some items and only carry along a few things at a time. But when you’re in the process of traveling to or from a destination, you have to have all your items on your person for a period of time. I’m actually using the MEC Pangea 40 litre backpack as my main travel bag. For small trips I only bring the backpack with me, but for my major travel between destinations that I plan to live at for more than a week, I store everything ...

When many people think of traveling, their thoughts often gravitate towards all inclusive trips, usually containing a beach, a buffet, and a week escape from the daily grind. In North America especially, those pre-packaged vacations are generally the only options for people to take, since their vacations are often only a week or two long in duration. But world travel isn’t just about the places you go; it’s also about the physical and personal journeys that it takes to get there and the growth that often occurs along the way. It involves mishaps, missteps, and a natural learning process that ...

One of the main reasons I came back from my last trip was to take a bit of a breather in BC for a few months, and also to enjoy a bit of time camping in the outdoors. I’ve managed to do both since arriving back at the end of April, and so it’s time to start thinking about moving on again. I quite liked escaping some of Vancouver’s dreary rainy/cold season last year in Argentina, and I thought I would head to the southern hemisphere again this year. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about New Zealand for almost a year as a place I’d like to visit during North American fall/winter. Around ...