The Travel Blog Award Nominees are….

My First Travel Blog Award Nomination – Yippee!!

I started TravelTheGlobe4Less in April 2015 so am delighted to have been nominated for this award.

The award showcases bloggers who could benefit from some recognition, and nominees are invited to respond to a number of questions to allow their audience to get to know them better.

Thank you so much to Trip Bitten for nominating me. It’s a great opportunity to get to know my fellow bloggers and for my audience to find out a little about me (and my ever suffering husband!).

I enjoyed reading Trip Bitten’s responses to the queries posed by wandererspurpose and hope you find my responses as interesting…

My Ten Questions

What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?

The career can wait! Life can’t!

I was terrified that taking a year off to travel in the early part of my career would derail my career. In reality the skills you learn when travelling are fantastic tools for managing conflict, problem solving and communication in the workplace. Staying in strange places and having to continually meet and interact with new people is a great skill and builds confidence.

Fortunately I’ve been successful enough in my career to allow me to travel to some amazing places and meet some incredible people so I don’t feel like I have missed out. Besides I have just returned from a mini career break and it certainly isn’t going to be my last.

I’m still working full-time in Financial Services, moonlighting as a travel blogger and planning my long-term ultimate escape….

Do you have any pets? Tell us about them.

Just my husband. He is tall, hairy, needs a lot of love and affection and can always make me laugh….even when I want to be mad at him!

Here he is chilling in the Intercontinental in Hua Hin on a recent trip…

What do you think of when you think of China?

The Great Wall of China of course – it is definitely on my bucket list as the scenery looks incredible! And I hear you can do a half marathon there too. What an awesome place to run (or crawl)!

For 2015 what is your biggest goal?

To build the audience for my blog by delivering content that people want and value.

Please feel free to get in touch with any topics you would like me to cover in future blogs.

Perhaps more importantly I would like my marriage to survive an Ayurveda retreat in India. My husband’s idea of a holiday is to eat well, drink well and indulge his sugar habit with copious amounts of chocolate!! Did I mention he also hates yoga and meditation?

I have pre-warned him that he will be denied all of this but I think he thinks he is going to smuggle in a secret stash! Let the battle of chocolate v Buddha commence…

Who is your dream dinner party guest?

Richard Branson – he’s controversial, looks like fun and who knows I might be able to persuade him to allow me to review ‘Necker Island’ or just retire there!

Otherwise it would have to be Bear Grylls – I suspect he is a bit like New Zealand. You get talking to him and before you know it have agreed to climb a mountain! I ended up doing things in New Zealand that I never intended but the country simply has that effect on people.

Here’s me paragliding in New Zealand (a long time ago)!

For those unfamiliar Bear was in the British army and broke his back on a climbing expedition. He now is a television presenter doing survival programmes and other crazy things. Plus he hung out on a cliff face with Channing Tatum for a night….how cool is that?

What is your favorite outdoor activity?

Running but I also love skiing, scuba diving and tennis.

Running is accessible, allows me to clear my head and I love how different the world looks when running.

Some of my favourite travel memories are of running through tiny villages in Indonesia with children chasing us, to being chased down the beach by dogs in Goa. I’m in no rush to repeat the latter!

Here’s me preparing for a dive in Borneo and really wishing my race was over on the right! Wine the night before a race is a bad idea!

What does a normal day look like for you?

Totally exotic….first class flights to 5 star resorts, Michelin star restaurants and an assortment of incredible outdoor activities.

OK so that is in my dreams – current reality is study, blog, work, study, run, blog…..repeat! It just doesn’t have the same ring does it? But I can dream right?

What are you really, really good at?

Organizing trips. It’s a true passion and I like to do it all independently. I helped my physio plan her honeymoon, my colleague plan his anniversary weekend away and if I’m not planning my own trip, I am certainly thinking about it.

My husband would probably say talking but what does he know?

What surprised you most about blogging?

How little it is about the actual writing. The end reader sees little of what goes on behind the scenes including a momentous learning curve covering:

• Basic code
• Different design tools
• Sourcing images
• Search Engine optimization
• Data analysis to understand what does and doesn’t work
• Article research
• Proof reading and formatting
• Content creation

It can be really overwhelming especially fitting it in around work and study for an MBA. The positive news is you can see impact quite quickly with the wide range of tools which are freely available.

It is also immensely rewarding when people start to engage and comment on articles.

What’s your favorite travel product?

Simple but stunning. Travel Pods which come in different shapes, sizes and designs but allow me to compartmentalize my packing.

I have separate ones for my electrical cables and plugs, my underwear and toiletries and can easily retrieve key items I need without unpacking the entire case.

6 weeks in Asia travelling with cases (a deliberate decision!) makes clever packing essential!

You can see some examples below although there are lots of different sizes and colours to suit everyone’s tastes.

What are the top 5 countries on your bucket list?

It’s a long bucket list. The more I travel, the more inspiration I get.

1. Antarctica (I know it’s not a country!) has to be on there for the scenery and the cheeky penguins. I mean, how incredible is this picture?
2. China for the Great Wall, scenery and culture, plus I always like a big stamp in my passport!
3. Philippines for awesome diving and scenery.
4. Costa Rica for wildlife, yoga and scenery.
5. India for an assault on all the senses. I have visited a few times but absolutely love this country for the colours, the noise, the sacred cows and sheer authenticity. I am also a great yoga lover and have visited a number of Ayurveda centres for retreats.

I hope you have found my story of interest and in turn will enjoy some of those I nominate.

First the important stuff – Liebster award rules are:

1. THANK the person who nominated you and link to their blog website  🙂
2. Answer their 10 questions and link your answers back to their blog website.  🙂
3. The 10 questions that I’ve asked my nominees to answer should be linked back to my blog website by posting the link to the comments section of my blog so that everyone can see your answers to my questions.
4. Make up 10 of your own questions to ask your 10 nominees and have them link back their answers to your blog website. 💡
5. List 10 random things about yourself. Nominate 10 blogs with 0 to 1000 followers. 🙂
6. Tweet the nominees informing them about their award. 🙂

Some are more established than others but I particularly like their personal stories and have included them for this purpose.

My 10 Travelicious Nominations

1. Johnna and Ron – No Shoes Travel
2. Leigh Anne – Boundless Itinerary
3. Alex – Wanderlust
4. Richard Senior – BeatsTheOffice
5. Travelheart 101
6. Life Thoughts Camera
7. Backpacksnbeers
8. Exploring Florida
9. Sergey and Jenia – House to Laos
10. Tom and Nade – The Whole Book (link removed as broken)

My Ten Questions

1. Why did you start a travel blog?
2. What is your best tip for growing your travel blog audience?
3. What are your favourite 3 countries and why?
4. What is the country you would most like to visit but cannot due to security issues?
5. What is your worst travel experience and why?
6. What is the best travel advice you have received and why?
7. What advice would you give to a new visitor to your home town or city?
8. What is your favourite mode of transport and why?
9. What was your first overseas trip, with whom and what is your strongest memory of that trip?
10. How would you describe British people in 3 words?

And finally, I haven’t forgotten the ten random facts. Here goes:

1. I missed the departure flight for my honeymoon because I thought we were leaving the following day! Doh….hard to believe I am an organised person!
2. I have been to 69 countries
3. I have broken my collar-bone, snapped my ACL and media ligaments and developed cellulosis all on trips overseas and still I keep travelling…
4. We missed our flight home from Singapore in 2012 because the airport in Bali was closed – thanks for the heads up!
5. We got stranded in Brazil in 2010 due to the Icelandic volcano eruption…there are worse places to be stranded!
6. I’ve danced on stage with the Chuckle Brothers (sorry you won’t get this if you are not British!)
7. I slept through an earthquake while living in Belgium!
8. I studied Politics and French at University and am now part way though a distance learning MBA
9. I secretly think I am twenty years younger than I am!
10. I miss my husband even when I am in the same house but a different room….

For now bye from a younger and slightly ‘happy’ Anne (and Jason!) x

Photos by  tpsdave, sudeep1106, and Memory Catcher