Thanks to Ginger over at One Year, My Dear I was nominated for the Liebster Award!

The Liebster Award is a nomination the new bloggers receive by being nominated by another one.

So here it goes:

Where are you from?

Eagle River, Alaska.

What’s your favorite place you’ve been and why?

Socotra, which is a small island in the Arabian Sea that is technically a territory of Yemen. It is one of the most strange, unique and least-visited places on Earth.

It’s all around one of my favorites. The people are very friendly with a very unique culture. The scenery is is just amazing and like nowhere else. I loved the dragons blood and bottle trees around th island. And it’s home to, in my opinion the most beautiful beaches in the world.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to a new traveler?

Be open minded and try new things. Had I been closed off to trying new things I wouldn’t have half these crazy stories. With that said though, use good judgement and don’t get yourself backed into a corner in a bad situation.

What has been your favorite new food you’ve tried while traveling?

A Thai snack that I absolutely love and cannot find anywhere at Thai restaurants at home is Khanom Buang. At first glance they look like little tacos. But they’re not! They’re sweet, crunchy and delicious! So please someone in Alaska start making these, I’ll be the first in line!

I fell in love with kebabs during my first backpacking trip to Europe. I’d never really had much Middle-Easten cuisine before (aside from a handful of Iranian dishes that a high school friend’s Mom would make- my friend was born in Tehran). The thought of a kebab has me drooling on my keyboard.

What is the scariest thing that has happened to you while traveling?

Well it didn’t happen to me, but I found it alarming. I was in Bangkok during the 2012 Bangkok Bombings. It actually happend fairly close to where I was staying in the city. I had no idea until I got the frantic messages from my Mom asking if I was okay. I love Bangkok, and I in no way feel unsafe when I’m visiting. It’s just a little unnerving when you find out you were only a few blocks away as it happened.

Where did you make the best friends on your travels?

Sheesh there’s so many!

Definitely my fellow travelers from my Africa Travel Co. tour form Capetown to Zanzibar. I miss those guys! We were stuck together for 6 weeks and you end up a dysfunctional family by the end of it.

I also made friends with my guide Sami in Socotra, and my guide Mario in Sri Lanka. I still keep in contact with them fairly regularly.

Do you prefer traveling to large cities or countrysides?

I’m not a city person, but with that said I do have my cities that I love, some definite faves being Bangkok, Ljubljana and Sana’a.
I do prefer not even countryside but middle of nowhere. I love being far away from anything at all, oh and I love it even more if I don’t have any mobile reception. It was so freeing the time I spent in Yemen with no contact to the outside world, (aside from the two times I had the option to access some wifi.)

Do you prefer luxury travel or budget?

I like right in the middle. I used to be a budget backpacker style traveler because I was young, broke, in college and didn’t have much money to play with. Now that I have a good income, I like to splurge here and there. I will opt for luxury if I’ve been roughing it for a long time and just want to relax. That’s how I ended my 6 week tent camping, and for the most part self service tour of Africa. I spent my last 3 nights in an all-inclusive resort on Zanzibar. Sometimes you just gotta treat yo self.

With that said, I couldn’t travel luxury style all the time because I get bored with it.

What is one of your biggest accomplishments so far?

Having absolutely zero debt as of now! I love it. I graduated college with $15,000 in student loan debt, and paid it off in 6 months. Ye olde rustbucket finally was on it’s last leg shortly after paying off my student loans, so I bought my Hammy. I paid $5,000 cash and got a $10,000 auto loan and paid it off in 6 months. Shortly after paying the car off, I went $162,000 in debt buying my first home, then did some remodeling on it myself and turned around and sold it for $223,000! I’ve just left the money sitting in an account for now. I’m planning to use my profits to pay for my RTW trip, and then use the rest towards another home.

If you had to stay on one continent for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

I don’t have a good answer for that. I think overall continent wise I’ve liked Africa as a whole the best.

What made you start blogging?

People I know pestering me to start one. Never had really thought about it before. Now that I have started I actually enjoy writing and I like the fact that there are people that do read what I have to say and follow me. Even people I’ve never met in my life! It’s pretty exciting actually.

 

Thanks again Ginger, if you would like to read her nomination, click here.

Here are my nominations:


Charlotte over at Following My Wanderlust


Andreja of Adventurous Journeys


Hadas at The Fashion Matters
 

and here are my questions for you:

• Where are you from?
• What is the weirdest food you’ve tried while traveling?
• Where are you going next, and why?
• Where is your favorite place in the world to be and why?
• What country that you haven’t been to yet has the biggest draw for you, why do you want to go?
• Where did you make the best friends on your travels?
• What’s you weridest/crziest travel story?
• Do you prefer roughing it, or traveling luxuriously?
• What is one of your biggest accomplishments so far?
• Who has influenced you and pushed you to travel?
• What made you start blogging?

 

• Liebster Award