Besides considering myself a lifelong traveler, I also am an outdoor enthusiast, city explorer, nature lover, food connoisseur, mountain climber, adrenaline seeker, surfer, and travel photographer. While I do gravitate towards being an adventure traveler, I also can easily let hours pass by while sitting at a cafe on a street corner and watching the locals go about their day! I have done both quick and slow travel, and I've got to say, like most things in life, balance is key!

My travel inspirations

My ideal Sunday morning involves reading a Condé Nast Traveler magazine from cover to cover. I gain immense inspiration from reading the stories of various world travelers exploring places in depth and feeling inspired by the locals they interact with, the unique experiences each country can offer, and the food they try. (I mean who doesn't travel to indulge in the delicious local food?!)

Speaking of food, another travel documentarian I followed closely was Anthony Bourdain, who embarks on wild adventures exploring cuisines and cultures in lesser-known places. One of my travel goals is to explore more parts unknown - similar to Bourdain and show others that not all countries that the media deems as dangerous are indeed dangerous. Many of these places are full of kind people, beautiful landscapes, and rich culture.

And at last.. my final and most nerdy inspiration for this travel blog stems from my favorite fantasy series: The Lord of the Rings. This is my version of Bilbo Baggins's journey in The Hobbit: There and Back Again. As I travel the world, I am in search of finding places off the beaten path, places where I feel a sense of awe, inspiration, and novelty. My goal is to discover places around the world that I love and want to come back to, time and time again.

So why did I start traveling full-time?

I decided that I no longer wanted to be defined by my job title. I want to be introduced by words such as "world traveler" or "adventure seeker" instead of "project manager of xyz". Throughout my career, I would find any way possible to stretch out my allocated 10 vacation days so that I could be out exploring the world without the confines of the office walls. To make that dream a reality, I took a huge leap of courage plus many years of squirreling away money from my corporate career to make this happen. As of spring 2023, I managed to uproot my life in America to experience the thing that makes me the happiest: exploring the world one country, one city, one interaction, at a time. There she goes: there and back again!

So with all of that on the table... welcome to what I call my "adult gap years"!!!