Tag: friends Posts

Traveller Profile: Rebecca Bollwitt

Profiles

Rebecca Bollwitt is one of those rare people who doesn’t need an introduction. Her Vancouver blog, Miss604.com, is well known in Canada and parts of the United States, and has been voted the #1 Vancouver blog for the last four years. Rebecca has organized several conferences in the Vancouver area, including two WordCamps, several Twestivals, and several blog-until-you-pass-out 24-hour sessions of Blogathons. Not only is Rebecca actively involved with Vancouver and her website, but her and her husband also co-founded a WordPress-centric design and development company called Sixty4Media. She even co-authored a business book that contains some powerful business, blogging and WordPress tips: Blogging To Drive Business. And like me, Rebecca can perform both of her jobs while travelling, something I find more and more people are adjusting their lives to accommodate. Rebecca also does a great deal of travel, both personal and sponsored trips, all the while writing for […]

My TekEh Podcast With John Biehler

Interviews

I had an opportunity the other day to record an hour long podcast with my friend John Biehler. John recently started a technology-based podcast called TekEh that has a particular emphasis on Canadian content and guests. His first episode was Kemp Edwards from HootSuite, and talked mainly about the experiences of being in Austin, Texas for South by Southwest. I was excited to be the second guest in the series, and spent an hour sipping a rum and coke and talking about WordPress, our experiences at BraveNewCode creating commercial plugins, having clients, photography, travelling around the world, and everyone’s favourite beverage, beer. It was a really fun experience, and I hope I get additional opportunities to record a few podcasts in the near future. To take a listen, head on over to TekEh and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes or listen to the embedded audio there.

2012, In Photos

 Journal

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. I hope everyone has a really amazing New Year’s eve – all the best to everyone for 2013.

My Visit To Malta

Malta

I left Vancouver approximately five weeks ago, and headed for Malta via Paris. My ultimate goal was to end up in Serbia, but I thought I would stop and visit two friends of mine that I met in Kuala Lumpur last year: Krisztina and Debbie. Here’s a summary of my one-week visit to Malta. Despite all the travel I do, I actually really hate flying, and would say I have a mild phobia. To counteract that, I usually have a bottle of Ativan (anti-anxiety medication) with me on the plane. For short haul flights (generally less than an hour or so), I typically don’t bother, since I’ll end up feeling a bit loopy after the plane lands. But anything over that amount of time and I usually pop a pill to calm my nerves on the plane. That’s why for the most part I generally stick with bigger name schedule […]

Argentina, Round Two

Argentina

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 to heading to New York and to Ireland. But I really enjoyed my time in Argentina, the people I met, and the culture I got to experience. Over the last year or so I’ve […]

2011, A Year In Review

 Journal

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. I spent approximately eight months of this past year living out of a suitcase, bouncing between apartments and hostels, working from little remote coffee shops, and taking in as many experiences as possible. Without a doubt, it was an amazing year, filled with breathtaking scenery, amazing natural wonders, and great people. Coming back home has been a bittersweet experience for me, especially pulling my […]

Two Month Visit To South-East Asia

Thailand

Last summer I was sitting in a rented room in Vancouver, trying to decide where I was going to go next on my little adventure. I had always had New Zealand at the top of my list, but given how it was winter in the southern hemisphere, I needed to come up with a plan that didn’t involve freezing to death. After all, I am a migratory nerd, so I should probably follow the sunshine. That’s when my friends, Scott and Sam, contacted me and said they were going to be in Thailand for a few months and that I should come for a visit. Thailand: land of smiles; I like happy people, so it seemed like a good fit. Before I knew it, I had booked a multi-leg journey from Vancouver, to Thailand (via Tokyo), to Auckland and home. It cost me about $2,000, but I figured given the […]

Welcome To Thailand

Thailand

I made it! After nearly 18 hours of flying, I finally landed in Koh Samui a few days ago. My friends Scott and Samantha had an airport shuttle booked for me, so I simply got in the shuttle after landing and headed down to my new apartment here. The place I’m renting is about a 10 minute walk from the beach, but it’s in a new complex with a pool, internet, maid service (for $5 a pop), and air conditioning. Normally these units run for about 21,000 Baht/mo (around $700 CAD), but because we were renting two units for two months each, Scott managed to negotiate down to 18,000 Baht/mo ($600/mo), which is a great deal. It turns out that most people around here get around the island with motorized scooters. When I was in Costa Rica a few years ago we rented some for the day and it was […]

12 Days Left Until To Thailand

Thailand

I’m down to 12 days until I leave to Thailand, and it’s definitely fast approaching. My friends Scott and Samantha leave tomorrow, so I’ll get to starting watching their Facebook stream in the next few days to see my first glimpses of Thailand. I spent the last few days camping up at Cultus Lake, which is one of my favourite summer activities. It was pretty much perfect weather, other than being a tad cold at night, and was really enjoyable and relaxing. I have all my camping gear in my car right now, and am going to start getting it ready this afternoon to put back into storage for probably another year. Tomorrow I plan on spending the entire day sorting out my storage locker out in Chilliwack. It’s been almost nine months since I put the first few boxes into my locker, and some of them have started to […]

Traveller Profile: Scott Hadfield

Profiles

If there is one person in particular who has inspired my travels to date, it would be Scott Hadfield. Scott discovered he had the ability to work remotely years ago, and left to go explore the world while still working for a North American company. He would show up in Vancouver from time to time, but mostly he was working remotely in Buenos Aires or South Africa. I was recently planning a trip to New Zealand for the fall when Scott and his wife Samantha informed me they were going to be having a three month party in Thailand. A party? Without me? Not gonna happen. So I bought a flight and will heading down on August 31st to crash it. So without further ado, here are some wise words from one of my traveling mentors, Scott Hadfield: Tell everyone a bit about yourself – what you do for work, […]