Entries about interviews

In this month's Industry Interview we chat to Stephanie Yoder, a freelance travel writer and founder of the popular travel blog Twenty-Something Travel. She is a non-9-to-5 enthusiast, a self-described "Girl who can't sit still" and on a mission to encourage others to launch their own international adventures. On a smaller note, I think she's got one of the best blog headers going!

Steph and a cute panda

What is Twenty-Something Travel?

There is this idea, particularly in the United States where I'm from, that you need to go to school, get a job, start a family, and then maybe when you are older you'll have time to travel. I think that's really a shame because in many ways your 20s are the ideal time to see the world: you have more energy, less responsibilities, and the lessons you learn while travelling can stick with you your entire life. I created my website with the goal of encouraging other young people to get out and see the world.

What inspires you to travel? What have been some of your most memorable experiences and destinations?

For me the most important part of travel is constantly learning and discovering new sights, foods and ideas. As a result, many of my favourite destinations were places that I knew very little about going in. Places like Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Cambodia.

Vietnam was one country where I felt like I was constantly encountering new things. The country is so big and crowded and frenetic; there were always people to meet, weird shops to discover and new amazingly delicious street foods to try. I spent five weeks there and I was exhausted often, but bored absolutely never.

A shot from Vietnam

According to your blog, London is your favourite city – what is it about it that you love?

I love to travel, but I also honestly believe that there is enough going on inside of London to keep me busy for my entire life. I lived in London for a while in my early 20s and just fell in love completely. It's a huge city with massive amounts of history and culture. I'm also a huge book nerd so I love it's many literary associations. There is always something going on, something to do, some new little corner to explore. In all my travels I've never found another city that gets my imagination and sense of romance racing the same way. I love it and I miss it everyday.

What words of encouragement would you give to people wanting to do a big trip but are a little hesitant?

The absolute hardest part of executing a big trip is actually making the decision to do it. It's such a big mental block and a lot of people struggle with the choice. Once you actually commit to making it happen, the rest falls into place fairly easily.

It can be really daunting to upend your life - but hey you've only got one chance to live.
I've never met anyone who has regretted taking time off to travel, but I've met plenty of people who wish they had.

I've never met anyone who has regretted taking time off to travel, but I've met plenty of people who wish they had.

You often journey solo: what advice do you have for young female travellers?

The idea of travelling alone is so much more scary than the reality. Even now before I set off somewhere on my own I get kind of nervous, but then once I push off I'm so glad I did. Travelling alone gives you so much freedom: you don't need to take anyone else's needs into account when deciding where to go, what to have for lunch, whether to nap all afternoon. It's very liberating and, as long as you possess basic common sense, much less dangerous than the media would have you think.

Travelling solo at the Forbidden City in Beijing

You've been referred to as an upcoming travel blogger to watch – what factors have contributed to your success and what's or more importantly where's next?
I just celebrated my two year blogaversary (yes, I made the term up), and nobody is more shocked than me at the amount of attention my blog as gotten. I am first and foremost a writer so I am really grateful that I can use my blog as a platform to share my thoughts. I write a lot about my personal experiences and emotions, but I try to connect them with the same universal travel truths that everyone experiences. I think as a result a lot of people feel like they can identify with what I have to say.

Right now there is so much going on! I'm home in the United States for the Summer working on some projects and writing. I've launched a second site called Everywhere Connection, with my boyfriend (who is also a travel blogger) and I'm working on some other still-to-be-announced projects. In the fall I will be headed to Central and South America for the first time - exciting!

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Check out our other posts in the Industry Interview series:

• Industry Interview with Igor Bratnikov from GreenXC
• Industry Interview with Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere
• Industry Interview with Darren Cronian of Travel Rants
• Industry Interview with Sue Gough Henly

Tammi's Trip Map

In this month's Talking Travel series, we had the pleasure of chatting to Tammi Jonas aka tammois. Tammi is a travelling mother, a studious traveller and a well-travelled cultural theorist from Melbourne, Australia. As well as working on a PhD on the role of food in cosmopolitan, sustainable societies, she and her husband have just purchased a farm near Daylesford, Victoria, where they intend to farm free-range pigs and advocate for sustainable, ethical agriculture and a low-consumption lifestyle (which helps fund their incessant travels). To give you another insight into Tammi, her email signature reads: "I awake each morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savour the world. This makes it hard to plan my day." ~ E. B. White

Tammi and her partner Stuart at Canyonlands National Park in the US

You're a few months in to what's been dubbed 'RoadTripUSA', tell us more about this? Including info about the shipping container!

RoadTripUSA is one of those things I guess people now refer to as an item on a 'bucket list' – we've wanted to drive across the States (and Australia) with our brood for a while, and a mystical alignment of events led to our current adventure:

1) We were evicted from our rental in Melbourne so the landlord could renovate;
2) Stuart and I had solar and food and ag conferences to attend in the US in May and June;
3) We said, 'what the hell', booked flights, bought a 1977 GMC motorhome on Craigslist, and commenced planning for RoadTripUSA;
4) We bought a farm near Daylesford, Victoria a fortnight before we flew to San Francisco;
5) We bought a 40-foot shipping container, packed all our worldly belongings into it and dropped it off at the farm a few days before we flew.

The trip was all about spending a solid few months on our own as a family exploring and discovering America up close. We wanted history, culture and nature, and we wanted to learn how they vary from coast to coast. RoadTripUSA has hugely exceeded all our expectations for family fun, learning and adventure, as you can read on the Crikey Back in a Bit travel blog.

The shipping container we bought will be converted into our bedroom/study/bath to supplement the existing three small bedrooms in the farmhouse as soon as we move onto the farm. Stuart's just ordered windows from a supplier in China (good to have a man with a useful skillset - he is importing things directly from China at a quarter of the cost we'd pay in Oz, plus the ability to then build us a home!), and we hope to be in it within six weeks of moving onto the property.

The 'RockVan' courtesy of Craigslist

What do you hope to have learnt by the end of your trip?

One of the things I like to learn on every trip is just how little I know about the world. Even though I'm a west-coast American who migrated to Australia 20 years ago, I have loads to learn about this complicated, confounding and beautiful country full of people who floor me with their constant acts of personal generosity yet who are collectively individualist to the detriment of the greater good, in my humble opinion.

Travel helps me better understand my own contradictions as well as others, and so hopefully serve as a sort of cultural translator at times – a latter-day Atticus Finch who probably just irritates the crap out of everyone with my 'it's just their way, Scout' attitude about difference as I experience it.

This trip in particular though is intended to help my children understand the American side of their heritage better, and to give Stuart and I insight into the 'rebel farming' movement, including real knowledge about raising pasture pigs and running a small family farm.

You're travelling with your partner and three children, what advice do you have for families on the road?

We've travelled with our kids since they were bubs – I remember flying to Europe with all three of them when they were four, three and three months old. People said, 'how do you cope?' My response was always, 'I'd rather they have a tantrum somewhere new and interesting than at home in the lounge room.' We only had one 'international incident' on a flight from London to Paris that challenged that view.

I guess the most important things we've learned from travelling with little kids are to be flexible, manage our expectations, help them predict what will be happening in the days ahead, and when all else fails, say yes to pancakes. As for expectations – in Paris we had this silly idea that we'd revisit and recapture our youthful experience of falling in love in Paris – yeah, right, 'cos that was going to happen with three kids aged four and under! So instead of long days at galleries, we plan a couple hours, and instead of lots of cafes, we picnic in parks more. When they were very small (they're 11, 10 and seven now), I'd make pre-trip scrapbooks with them – we'd cut or print out photos from the internet of places we'd be going, people we'd be seeing, foods we'd be likely to eat, etc, and make up a timeline (even if rough) so they could see at each stage what to expect next. I knew it was working when we walked into our courtyard apartment in Paris for the first time and Oscar exclaimed, 'this is it!'.

The ages they're at now, I think the most important thing we have to remind ourselves is that they still need play time. If they don't get a couple hours of adult-intervention/direction-free time each day, they're more likely to resist our attempts to expose them to culture or go for long hikes. Their play time also gives us time on our own (sort of), which means that even after two months 24/7 together in the RockVan, we still love each others' company. ;-)

The non-troublesome trio

You're currently doing a PhD on the role of food in a cosmopolitan, sustainable society – what role does travel play in your research?

I've had the privilege to travel a fair bit for my research – to both Vietnam and Italy for fieldwork, and to India, Finland and the US as well as domestically in Australia to give conference papers. I've had to self-fund a lot of it as universities keep decreasing funding to research students (and even tenured academics, actually), but as I've always valued travel enormously I certainly haven't regretted the money spent.

Before I commenced this PhD Stuart and I had been keeping a 'food diary' when we travelled for a number of years – when I'm too busy to keep a 'proper' journal of my travels, I simply note down what I eat each day. It's an incredible mnemonic – I know exactly what I ate the day I met Stuart in London – mushies on toast.

So my research has simply honed a travel technique I'd been using for a long time – but it really has sharpened my insights into what I'm eating, why, and how it's affecting me and everyone I'm with. I love what my PhD has given me personally, especially when travelling!

It's hard to ignore the impact of food in your life, why are you so passionate about it?

Food is central to everything. One of my greatest pleasures is simply to cook and feed others. To do so, I am conscious of my connection to so many people, places, and animals – it helps ground me and understand my part in the world, as well as simply providing an intensely pleasurable creative outlet.

I figure if everyone was more knowledgable about and connected to food – where it's produced, by whom, and to what effect on the local environment and economy, as well as how it's prepared and consumed, again, by whom, under what conditions, to what cultural norms, with whom and why, everything would really be okay. Until everyone 'gets it', but especially those with the economic, political, social and cultural power to do something about it, we will still have obesity epidemics, hunger, and famine, often in the same country at one time. And we will watch our soils die before us as agricultural workers are poisoned and impoverished. And the wealthiest nations in the world such as America will continue to dive on 'happiness' ratings, at least partially because we've outsourced the things we need (to do) daily, such as cook, eat, and spend time with our families and friends.

Where's your favourite place in the world?

Wherever I am at the moment.

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Check out these recent interviews in the Talking Travel series:

• Talking Travel with Bill Lehane
• Talking Travel with Inspiring Travellers (JohnAndrea)
• Talking Travel with Andre Frieden
• Talking Travel with Vagamos
• Talking Travel with Tracey (TTG)

In this month's Industry Interview we are pleased to chat to Igor Bratnikov, one of the initiators and founders behind GreenXC – an organisation of people trying to raise awareness and raise money for national parks and forests. He's also a seasoned travel photographer and journalist who shares his experiences through his photo blog.

Igor with fellow GreenXC founder Polina Raygorodskaya

What is GreenXC and who's involved?

GreenXC is an organisation of young professionals determined to make an impact on the preservation of National Parks and Forests. At the end of July, we are setting out on a three-week mission to get cross country using only ride-shares and conducting a national outreach and awareness campaign for parks and forests with the help of the USDA Forest Service. Stopping at various destinations along the way, we will be documenting our travels and bringing our followers along for our journey through our site. Follow us along our journey!

We are a collaboration of enthusiasts with seasoned experience in the fields of public relations, marketing, business, law, journalism and photography who share the common goal of enriching young minds to encourage the future generation to take action to protect our national parks and forests and create an eco-sustainable nation.

You can view a photo story of the trip that started GreenXC here.

Why is it important to protect national parks and forests?

America's National Forests and Parks, since the days of President Theodore Roosevelt, have been serving the nation's interests in protecting the pristine beauty of nature and preserving eco-environments across the country. Thanks to this rich heritage, today we can all visit places like Old Faithful in Yellowstone and Half Dome in Yosemite. Visitors can be awed by the majestic hush of giant trees in our National Forests, and enjoy the rushing waters of the Deschutes, tumbling falls of the Cascades, magnificent mountaintops of the Rockies, and the colorful forests of the Appalachians. Whether you enjoy these special places for the hot springs or cool rivers, craggy peaks or verdant valleys, they are places to enjoy, and places to protect. We are raising awareness for them to ensure that these special places and the unforgettable experiences they provide will sustain us for generations to come.

Is the initiative based in the US only?

Currently the initiative is focused on the US but we focus on spreading environmental awareness across the world and plan to do campaigns in other countries in the future. Also, many of our readers come from all over the world and we hope to bring everyone that comes on our website along our journey to visit the national parks and forests together.

What are some of your favourite outdoor and nature spots around the globe?

We recently took a trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua where we hiked volcanoes and visited various beautiful villages. Nicaragua was one of our favourite places that we visited together. Both of us have travelled all over the world separately as well. Polina loved hiking in New Zealand and the beautiful forests there. Igor loved hiking in Colco Canyon in Peru and rice terraces in Batad, Philippines. And of course we love the nature that surrounds us here in the US that we endear so much.

You're using Travellerspoint to map your trip – what do you like about our service?

We LOVE Travellerspoint map for many reasons. We first tried using Google Maps to map our journey but found it very difficult to work with and nearly impossible to change and add points. We love that Travellerspoint map allows you to easily add points and move the sequence around without messing anything up. We also LOVE that each point has a great explanation of the locations that we will be visiting, many of the facts we did not previously know.

You can view GreenXC's Travel Map here.

What advice do you have for people wanting to travel green?

There are many ways to travel green really it is all about desire, little steps or big ones they all count in the end. Understanding that you can add green elements to your travels without having to change your entire routine. Also, try out ride sharing! It is fun, you meet interesting people and save money on gas and protect your environment! Also, you get to exactly where you want to go and don't have to sit in a cramped bus or train. And as far as safety goes, it is a far more safe form of transportation than many others. Make sure to get references and background information on the people you are getting in a car with. And stay-tuned, GreenXC is working on a platform for people to connect for ride-shares, to make it a safe, convenient and practical way to travel very soon! Would love to integrate some of the fantastic Travellerspoint's travel resources with what we are working on.

Disclaimer: Travellerspoint is supporting GreenXC as an early-stage partner.

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Check out our other posts in the Industry Interview series:

• Industry Interview with Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere
• Industry Interview with Darren Cronian of Travel Rants
• Industry Interview with Sue Gough Henly

Bill at White Sands National Park, New Mexico

In August's Talking Travel we chat to Bill Lehane (BillLehane), a journalist and writer from Dublin whose hobbies include: "Hanging out with Megan, writing in all its forms, drinking coffee, visiting art galleries and churches, and seeing the world."

You're a Dubliner living in Prague who's also lived in the US and China, where's been your favourite place to date?

I think I would have to say New Mexico, my wife Megan Eaves' home state! We spent almost a year there after a six-month teaching stint in China, it was really great to see the American Southwest – still a bit of an unknown for most Europeans, I think - and get to know all of my wife's family at the same time. But no-one can go to China without being wowed I think, it was great to be able to do that as well. I really enjoyed seeing places like Shanghai and Beijing, as well as our little port of call for most of our time there, Lishui City.

As a journalist, how does your travel affect your writing and perspective on the world?

That’s an interesting question. I think that you grow as a person as you see more of the world, and of course that helps mature your writing. My experience as documented on the blog has been more about living abroad than just visiting new places however, which is definitely a different kind of travel. I think when you stay longer in a place you get a better sense of how people live in that city, and it's always different.

What are your must-sees for the Czech Republic?

The best is probably the most obvious – Old Town Prague. The Old Town Square itself is just magnificent no matter how many times you step on to it, I was just thinking the same the other day when walking out onto the square and seeing the Týn Church (we have nicknamed it the Disney church J ) - it still amazes me how great it looks after a whole year living here.

Aside from that, I would have to say the historic medieval town of Český Krumlov, a fresh pint of Svijany - Prague's beer of the moment – and getting a sausage at one of the outdoor markets (that are most famously at Christmas but actually pop up regularly throughout the year.)

Bill and Megan outside Prague Castle

Tell us more about book 'Interculturalism in Irish Public Service Broadcasting' and your inspiration...

Well back in my home town of Dublin there's been a massive immigration boom linked to the Celtic Tiger economic boom where the foreign population that was basically at next to nothing in 2000 rose to 10 percent of the population by 2006.

I was inspired by this change, and while I was working for the website of Ireland's biggest TV network at the time I completed a Masters in Intercultural Studies and wrote a dissertation on that part of the issue. That was in 2007.

A German academic publisher then called me out of the blue nearly three years later when I was staying in a historic hotel in downtown El Paso, Texas (where my wife was researching one of her books) and offered to publish it in paperback format. So that was just fantastic.

Speaking of Germany, I would just like to note that while the poor Irish economy is obviously doing really terribly at the moment, the German immigration experience does show that immigrants do not leave their adopted homes in significant numbers during a recession, so hopefully this is a text that will still be of some small use in the years to come.

You're an active member of the Travellerspoint community, what do you like about the site?

I think the Wiki Travel Guide is a great idea because it gives travellers instant access to all the relevant info they need without having to scroll through pages of stuff that doesn't interest them. It's a bit of fun as well just to update the various pages by spotting things you know that haven't been mentioned and adding them to the rundown.

Where are you off to next?

Well as it happens I just took a job in London, so I'll be there by early September. I think while Prague has lots to offer in terms of historic sights, beer and so on, myself and Megan will really relish the huge selection of dining and cultural things going on in such a large, multicultural city. And of course we’ll be there for the Olympics!

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Check out these recent interviews in the Talking Travel series:

• Talking Travel with Inspiring Travellers (JohnAndrea)
• Talking Travel with Andre Frieden
• Talking Travel with Vagamos
• Talking Travel with Tracey (TTG)
• Talking Travel with Zero Dean

In July's Talking Travel we chat to Andrea and John Spirov of InspiringTravellers.com (JohnAndrea), a self-described "couple of nomadic thirtysomethings currently travelling the world full-time".

John and Andrea Spirov in Torres del Paine in Chile

How did you guys meet?

John was at the very end of two years of work and travel in Europe and had returned to a tiny little town at the bottom of Crete called Plakias. Andrea was visiting the same hostel with some friends from New York and we ended up in the same dorm room. We still find it incredible that we found each other there because the place is so remote.

We've been drooling over your mapped trip on Travellerspoint – what does your itinerary look like for the rest of 2011?

We've added Colombia to our itinerary and are looking forward to a couple of weeks there before we head to Europe. We're planning 10 days in Portugal, three weeks in Ireland, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a month in Croatia and almost three months in Central and Eastern Europe. In December we'll head to Japan.

How do you stay connected so you can blog on the road - especially in remote and developing locations?

We travel with a netbook and have found wireless internet to be pretty universal. We were able to stay connected even in some of the smaller towns in Bolivia. It's interesting how internet is a priority in developing countries - we see more internet cafes in South America than in Australia and parts of the US.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to travel around the world for a year?

If it's something you've been wanting to do, just plan it and go. Many people get weighed down with concerns about what friends and family will think or whether their career will be affected. Many employers today are sabbatical-friendly and travel can provide knowledge and skills that are invaluable in the workplace. We also recommend that you stay flexible. You may plan to visit several specific places but then discover that you love one part of the world so much that you want to spend most of your time there.

We meet you at the Travel Massive (formerly Travel Tribe) Christmas meetup in Melbourne. What did you think of the event and how important is connecting to a community while travelling?

We really enjoyed the event. It's always great to catch up with fellow travellers and having such a nice mix of bloggers, industry professionals and travel enthusiasts made for some very interesting conversations. We feel very connected to the travel community through our blog and have been fortunate enough to catch up with heaps of incredible people that we already felt like we "knew" from online. It's so fantastic to arrive in a city and meet up with someone to show us around the city or get together for a drink. We're always happy to do the same for fellow travellers when we're living in one place.

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If you'd like to check out more of John and Andrea's inspiring content, visit their site or find them on Twitter and Facebook.

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Check out these recent interviews in the Talking Travel series:

Talking Travel with Andre Frieden
Talking Travel with Vagamos
Talking Travel with Tracey (TTG)
Talking Travel with Zero Dean
Talking Travel with Vicki Hatfield