Hi all! You may have or not have heard about the ‘Liebster Award’, which is handed to bloggers from bloggers, so it’s very humbling to have been handed it and I thank John of Salsa World Travel for doing that to me, he runs a brilliant blog which is a great mix of flying, photography, places and more. So please check out his blog! He really is one of the best travel bloggers out there and I feel so humbled that he chose my blog to hand this award to.

Rules: 

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you. 
3. Nominate 11 bloggers.
4. Ask your nominees 11 questions.
5. Notify your 11 nominees .

So as I’ve already thanked John, I will answer the 11 questions!

• Describe the best vacation you have taken.

Well… I really enjoyed my vacation in 2009 I think perhaps the most of all. It was around six weeks and I took in Dubai, Jordan and Ethiopia. In Ethiopia I travelled with a couple of good friends, Nila and Graham, and we had a lot of fun discovering the country. I got to see Petra in Jordan, Lalibela and the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia – where I hiked for four days in probably the hardest hike I’ve ever done, and of course it was my first time in Dubai which was pretty cool too, I really loved the Wild Wadi Water Park!

• What is the best vacation you want to take?

Well, in 2004 I set out to go from Dhaka to Dakar by land. Although I sort of made it, I’m hoping and dreaming one day to attempt it again, possibly in reverse starting from Senegal and going to Bangladesh. Really, I just want any vacation right now as Melbourne is still in Stage Four lockdown.

• What are the three best blog posts you have published?

That’s a really tricky one. I hadn’t really thought about that until now. Thinking of this year I think I did a good job on reviewing my time in Turkmenistan. And I got really good engagement on my post about Touts, Hustlers and Hassle.

• How do you measure success with your blog?

Tricky. A mixture of views, visitors and engagements. It’s been a very slow process to build to where I am today, and that’s been achieved by posting daily. I’m still motivated to write, so ultimately that’s the main thing because as of yet I’ve never earnt a cent from the blog – although I am now monetized and technically have earnt around $3.50 I won’t see anything until that hits $100 = probably in six years time. So really, you can’t measure success by money made at all.

• What do think about using miles and points for travel?

I do this a lot. It’s fun and I get into it. It is a bit of a trap in some respects though because you get nothing for free, the taxes are high so you still need a few hundred bucks to fly internationally, and it sort of ties you into a group of stores etc.

• Are you no longer travelling?  If so, what will it take for you to resume travelling?

No haven’t travelled anywhere this year. Was planning to go to the Philippines in May but obviously had to cancel. I really don’t know when we can even head to a holiday within Melbourne, let alone upstate or interstate. Governments here are very strict so I’ll be fine to travel once they let us. Unlikely to have international travel beyond New Zealand and a couple of other countries though before the end of next year.

• What do you look for in deciding which blogs to follow and read?

Really I try to reciprocate when people comment or like my posts. I look for travel related content and hunt WP Reader for it. I think it’s important to support those who support you in terms of reading, liking and commenting.

•  Who is your favorite author?  

I must admit the older I get the less I read. I used to travel with books though, and I used to read Dostoyevsky a lot despite the material being more than a little on the depressing side.

• What is favorite musical album?

That’s hard. I’m going to go with ‘Cosmic Thing’ from the B-52s.

• If you had a favorite sports team in the city you lived in and moved to a new city with its own team, who would you root for?

My footy team is the Western Bulldogs. If I moved to another city, it would still be the Bulldogs I couldn’t give them up and go for the home town team, I’m too emotionally invested lol!

• What is your favorite non-blogging activity?

Well, it’s travel but that seems to be woven into my blogging these days. I also love to write, create, film, edit etc Doctor Who fan fiction called ‘Professor Who’.

Again a HUGE thanks to John for the nomination. Now, my nominees are – and I understand if you’ve already received this award and don’t want to answer – but here they are!

1. Tim Blight of Urban Duniya
2. Tanya of the Red Phone Box Travels
3. Ayla Boswell – aylaboswell.com
4. The Flying Tofu
5. Lookoom
6. Living Free and Making a Difference – Mrs Wayfarer
7. The Frugal Foodies – Katie
8. I’ve Bean Travelling – Jess
9. Handstands Around the World – Diana
10. The World of Cruise and Travel – Anna
11. Insaitama – Lynda

Here are my questions for these fine folks. As I have been interviewing a number of the above – and by the way if you have a travel blog and would like to do an interview like I present on Sundays, please just shoot me a message and I’ll tee it up – so anyways, my questions are mostly NOT travel related, but I hope will show us more about the fine bloggers I have nominated!

1. How are you living day to day in 2020?
2. What are the challenges to finding things to blog about?
3. What are you binge watching (if anything) right now?
4. What are you looking forward to in the upcoming ‘holiday season’?
5. Name one thing that makes you happy.
6. What’s your favourite blog you are reading right now?
7. If you could go to any city in the world right now, which one would it be?
8. Why?
9. What do you think you will be doing in 12 months from today?
10. What gadget have you bought in the last year or two that you couldn’t imagine doing without?
11. What is you single most wanted ‘hope’ for next year?

Thanks for joining me today – take care – and May the Journey Never End!