Later 2015
Sorry I have hardly made a peep on here lately. Works busy, holidays suck up time, Grant has been home, adventures to be had… I have a life. Plus I haven’t had a whole lot to say anyways. And I don’t want to bore everyone with a stupid “16 travel bloggers to follow in 2016” post since EVERYONE is posting one of those. I am not a lemming that’s going to follow the rest of the blogger lemmings off the ice cliff. Really travel bloggers, it’s enough! This is Industry is enough of a circle jerk the rest of the year… I never realized it’s a goddamn virtual reciprocity hand job every December. I feel the same about the “My top 15 Instagram posts of 2015”, boo.
Rant aside, I will bore you with my usual month-end roundup… But December is different since it’s also the end of the year. here’s what happened this year:
I started this blog in February with no idea and no goals (and no idea of the aforementioned circle jerk). I just wanted somewhere to put up photos for people I know, and to force me to write down my stories. I know, I’m not that old yet, but I really am starting to forget which events happened in what locations.
I had tickets to Japan and Thailand by that point and figured I’d write a couple posts before I left to get a feel for this and then give it a go while traveling.
I probably didn’t write as much as I thought I would on that trip, mainly because I didn’t want to waste my trip searching for good wifi, typing or loading photos.
Once we got home I neglected this blog almost entirely until July, and then sort of picked up at it. Started a couple social media accounts and boom here we are and 2015 is over.
Where did I travel to this year?
California (briefly)
Nevada (seriously again??)
What happened travel wise?
Only spent a few days, mostly in Tokyo while in Japan. The highlight being the day we left the city for Kawaguchi Ko to get a good look at Mount Fuji.
Next we moved on to Bangkok, where two notable event that happened was a visit to a ping pong show, oh and I got engaged.
Then the next move was on to Krabi where we island hopped and played around in the Andaman Sea. Then I got violently ill in Koh Lanta. Well it started in Koh Lanta, I had to fight not shitting and puking simultaneously the whole van ride back to Ao Nang.
Finally we headed home after a month in Asia with a 12 hour stop in San Francisco, where Grant set foot in California for the first time in his life and he nearly froze to death even though I told him it would be frigid.
The summer I spent at home in Alaska exploring around. All my road trips included:
Valdez, McCarthy, Kenicott Mine, Fairbanks, and Denali National Park… All the way to Kantishna.
In October we headed off to Vegas (a completely unwanted trip for me) where I endured the typical Vegas shit and the worst hotel stay in the history of the world at the Hard Rock Hotel that included a bat in or hallway, and zero response to my emails sent to them letting them know that they suck. And I’m talking a bat, as in those flying rat like creatures, that Ozzy Osborne allegedly used to orally behead in the 1970s. Naturally I grabbed a camera and started taking pictures… I’m not scared of rats, winged or grounded.
After Vegas we were off to Maui for friends wedding… Much better.
Since Maui I’ve been at home in Alaska, the most exciting thing right now is that we’re at the peak of the 11-year aurora cycle.
So that was it in the travel realm for me in 2015, not a very big travel year for me. But mainly that’s because I wanted to behave a little before leaving for a year i.e.: make ‘mo $$$monaaaaay$$$. That was one of my first questions after Grant proposed, “I want to leave and travel for a year before we get married, what do you think?” He told me to go.
And here’s what’s on the agenda for 2016:
February:
Puerto Rico where we (by ‘we’, I mean my ex-roommate. Her name is mom) get on a cruise to:
St. Thomas
Barbados
St. Lucia
St. Kitts
St. Maarten
I don’t have any plans for the island stops yet, need to research how to best utilize my short 8 hours in each location. I expect to be blinded with beauty of these Caribbean beaches, and my bar is set extremely high.
However the time we have in Puerto Rico I expect to visit Culebra, the small island to the east, see the bioluminescent bays, explore El Yunqe rainforest and hopefully see the coastline between Ponce and Cabo Rojo, and of course check out San Juan.
Mid-May:
In May I plan to leave for year of travel, so far the plan is to start in Nicaragua, but at this point we aren’t entirely sure (by we I mean Tay will travel with me for the first month). After that I think Europe is the next stop, but really who the hell knows?
So between then and now I really do have my work cut out for me. I need to sort out annoying things like where I need visas that I think I want to visit and then get the processes rolling, decide if I want to buy airline RTW vouchers or if I want to book each leg as I go (I’m indecisive as fuck, so this is paralyzingly difficult for me), and well, what to do with Yoshi. I am not going to get rid of him. I feel bad trying to pass him off on my parents for an entire year, and Grant is gone for 2 weeks at a time. Parrots aren’t easy like people think, you have to interact and play with them everyday or they turn into giant assholes or worse, lose their minds. He can’t be locked in a cage all the time either… So everyone with a dog or cat can’t just take him either.
Ok I’ll get to the point here and rather than list all the articles written in December, there’s only 8, so there’s not a whole lot to scroll back thru. But I will leave with you the most read of the year, minus the homepage… That technically is the most viewed.
Adventures of Lil Nicki’s Top 10 Posts of 2015
10. 10 Reasons to Visit Moldova
(I know I hate top 10s, when I do write lists I just list the things and whatever number is happens to be is what it is and this one just happened to be 10). Some of Moldova’s tourism sites shared this one, plus Moldova was awesome!
9. Yemen
I know Yemen is a dangerous place to visit, so I went there, and that way you can all stay safe and read about it.
8. Vaginas Can Do Some Weird Things… in Bangkok That is
I went to a ping pong show, and then I decided to share the crazy evening. One of my first posts.
7. 22 Hours, a Syncope, and Destroyed Luggage Later, We’re in Japan!
My first post after arriving in Tokyo, even earlier than the above ping pong show. Grant and I getting to Japan was a complete and utter shit show.
6. Worst Travel Advice I’ve Ever Personally Been Given
People that have never done certain things seem to love to pass on their expertise with passion.
5. Buying Alaska: Fake as Fuck
I had this plan for a series to rip on all the Alaska reality shows, but haven’t gotten around to continuing it. Buying Alaska is completely staged and fake… And me stating the obvious really pissed off some people on Twitter. Surprised I didn’t receive hate mail or cunty comments on the blog.
4. Socotra
Socotra, my most favorite travel to date. Few make it here, so that’s exactly why I went.
3. Must Be Nice… How Do You Afford to Travel?
An earlier post, around July. This is how I did it people, I’m not rich, I’m not a trustfund baby…. I have a job and am good with money.
2. 6 More People to Hate on Airplanes
These people make it so easy.
And the winner is…..
1. 6 People to Hate on Airplanes
I still think this post is hilarious. And hey, the Thought Catalog thought it was funny enough to publish!
That’s it, the top 10 posts from this year…. See you next year!
Share this:
