Wow, hard to believe I’ve been away from the USA for a year now. Thanks to everyone who recognized the 365th day was November 30! Since so many new readers have joined along throughout the months, I thought I’d highlight a favorite experience from each country so far.

The latest news is Brussels for Christmas, followed by a visit to Holland thereafter. New Year’s Eve is still to be determined!

• French Polynesia - Driving A VW Down A Tahitian Mountain
• New Zealand - Heli-Hiking Franz Joseph Glacier
• Australia - Sailing The Whitsunday Islands (3 parts)
• Indonesia - Day 1 In Bali - Sensory Overload
• Singapore - School Daze, Crab A La Bourdain, And Durian
• Hong Kong/Macau - Escalators, Victoria Peak, Dance Mania, And A Light Show
• China - Spa Life, Giant Pandas, And Movie Night

• Nepal - Annapurna Sanctuary Trek (12 parts)
• India - A Teaching By His Holiness The Dalai Lama or Indrahar Pass Trek (4 parts)
• Thailand - Thailand’s Full Moon Party - July 2008
• Cambodia - Cambodian Hospitality
• Laos - Slow Down, You Move Too Fast
• South Africa - Dare #16 - Completed - Cage Diving With Great White Sharks

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Nathan, author of the Ubertramp travel blog, had suggested I stop by Viking Divers once I arrived on Koh Phi Phi Don so we could meet up. Given how much I’d enjoyed meeting other travel bloggers in New Zealand and Bali, I was excited to meet him.

I know being a dive instructor entails work, but it also seemed to entail a lot of hanging out in the dive shop, being available to answer questions from potential customers. And if you love to dive, and are working and living in one of the prettiest spots on Earth, then I’d imagine life is good.

After a few chats in the shop, I stopped by my last night on the island and we headed to the beach for a beer. Inevitably, we talked about our blogs and the ability to earn money through advertising. I also took the opportunity to confirm the family that controls much of the island (as referenced in The Lonely Planet) is basically the Thai mafia. They apparently have their hands in everything from resorts to the ferries. I also confirmed, as on Koh Phayam, that the Thai police are well aware of the drugs available/brought onto the islands, and as Nathan suggested, such information would allow them to know exactly what is going on and clamp down if deemed necessary. For some reason, I find these aspects of local life on the touristy islands fascinating.

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Good news…I’m alive and well in the sweltering heat of India. 

Since leaving Darjeeling, and a great little internet cafe with lightning fast broadband, I’ve been left adrift from quality internet connections and computers from which to upload my latest photos and stories.

I hope to get back on track in the next few days, with posts to include high altitude lakes and mountains in Sikkim, entry into the “real” India with a 34-hour pilgrimage to Bodhgaya, and later Sarnath outside the holy Hindu city of Varanasi (along the Ganges), the Taj Mahal, and more.

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The following is a sponsored post.

One’s desire to travel abroad is often born from stories of adventure and photographs of exotic locales. In the years leading up to my current journey, I sought inspiration from television shows, magazines, and travel blogs. Halfway around the world, I still find myself seeking the next cool place to visit, and the HotelClub Travel Blog is filled with potentially great destinations.

The travel blog is the product of HotelClub, an online hotel reservation site operated by a subsidiary of Orbitz Worldwide. The first thing I appreciated about the blog was its clean and professional layout. Featured posts are highlighted in the upper left corner, followed by the archives organized by category and month. The right side column showcases similar articles hosted on other blogs affiliated with HotelClub.

The best bloggers know the importance of a catchy title which can reel the reader into browsing the content, and the author(s) of the HotelClub travel blog deliver. The post entitled “5 Lagoons That Will Take Your Breath Away” captured my attention immediately as I was curious to see if they included any from Southeast Asia. While Thailand didn’t make this particular list, pretty tourist photos (sourced from Flickr) of a lagoon near Cape Town have given me yet another reason to visit South Africa.

My curiosity was also piqued by another post introducing readers to the world of underwater hotels. The post traces the movement from the initial Jules’ Undersea Lodge off the Florida coast to two mega-projects underway in Dubai and Fiji.

While the Forums appear to lack sufficient membership to be used as a resource for travel advice, the strength of the HotelClub travel blog is clearly in the concise and fact-based writing which compliment the well chosen and motivating photographs.

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Dear readers,

You may have picked up that I schedule posts (about a week) ahead of time.  This allows me to enter a new country and get acclimated (financially, physically, emotionally, etc.) before sitting down at a computer.

I’ve fallen a bit behind, and am a few days from leaving on a 10-14 day trek in the Annapurna Sanctuary of Nepal, amongst the mighty Himalayas.  Kathmandu is a trip, with daily power outages at any time, lasting an average of 4 hours.  Tomorrow I take the bus west to Pokhara where I’ll organize the trek.  I’ve been told Pohkara is far quieter with scenic mountain and lake views.  It also has about 8 hours of no electricity per day, and far more expensive internet access.  I am currently unable to use my laptop due to some kind of problem I can’t figure out with the AC connection.

So, to everyone out there who has been with me since the start, or just joined up recently, I am in a mad rush to write down all my thoughts from China AND capture the initial ones from arriving in Nepal.  WOW….would be a good start for Nepal.

Please excuse any inconsistencies with layout, regularity of posts, and lack of imagery in the next few weeks.

Your travel bud,

Dave

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I found nomad4ever.com in early 2007, when I first entered the world of travel blogging.  The man behind the scenes is Chris, a German expat who retired in his early 30’s to live the good life in Southeast Asia.  After a stint in Thailand, he moved to Bali where he’s been living for about a year with his girlfriend.

Gary from Everything-Everywhere.com responded to a post I made on BootsNAll, and since we would be in Bali at the same time, arranged to meet up.  Gary is about 12 months into a 3-year trip around the world.  He thoroughly covered the tiny island nations of the Pacific, and is now tackling Indonesia and Australia.  Check out the Google map on his blog if you can - very cool!

I hung out with Gary for a day before all three of us met up at the Kuta Food Court across from the beach.  The food was good, and the conversation fantastic.  Three guys talking about the life on Bali, Indonesia, various cultures, working life…and the desire to abandon it for travel!

Before anyone got to the food court, torrential rains began and it guaranteed we’d be almost the only patrons.  We didn’t care though - just kept talking and drinking Bintang beers as the staff used a broom to push the rain water off of the tarp above us every 10 minutes.

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I’ve posted 239 times in the last 10 months and that’s A LOT of writing. I thought it’d be a good time to look back and pluck out a few of my favorite pre-trip posts for the newer readers.

1. Saving for a Trip Around the World (6-part series)
2. Couchsurfing - A Brilliant Social Network for Travelers (3-part series)
3. My Backpack Tells a Story
4. 5 Reasons Why I Travel
5. Would You Accept a Sponsored Trip Around the World?
6. Picking a Trek: Annapurna Circuit v. Everest Base Camp (Jake Norton commented, sharing advice with me - he has climbed Mt. Everest twice!)
7. Top 5 Adrenaline Rushes in New Zealand (see what I’ll be doing next month!)
8. Blue Ribbon Manhattan - New York City’s Best Late Night Dining (photos: bone marrow and rack of lamb)
9. Cambodia and The Killing Fields
10. Dental Dilemma (4-part series about getting an implant)

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In the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to share my current Comment Policy for the GoBackpacking Blog.

1. All comments with URL’s in them require moderation.

2. Moderation of comments may take several days (and possibly weeks) once I am traveling abroad.

3. The top 5 commentators will receive a link in my sidebar with a URL to their website (if given). The link is based off of the number of comments left in the last 4 months. This allows new readers the opportunity to make the list.

4. As of May 11, 2007, I adopted a Do-Follow approach, which gives commentators who leave a URL to their website a small search engine benefit because the back link will register with Google and Technorati. This topic is regularly debated in blogging circles, so here’s a link to get you started if you want to learn more.

5. As of September 15, 2007, I installed Lucia’s Linky Love WordPress plugin to provide a little structure to my commenting policy. In order for a commentator to receive a Do-Follow link, he/she will need to leave 3 comments. In order for a URL in the actual comment to be Do-Follow, the commentator will need to leave 5 comments. A commentator’s name must also be fewer than 25 characters in length (this is to prevent spammers who use keywords as their name).

6. I reserve the right to delete any comments I feel are an attempt to spam this site.

Happy commenting!

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