Entries about interviews

In this month's Industry Interview we chat to Anthony Asael, one of the founders of Art in All of Us (AiA) - a not-for-profit organisation trying to raise cultural awareness and encourage children's development through art. He's also a renowned international photographer and has visited each one of the 193 countries that make up the United Nations!

What was the inspiration behind Art in All of Us and how does it work?

I founded Art in All of Us seven years ago with the objective to promote tolerance and cultural exchanges around the world. We wanted to reach schools in each one of the 193 UN member countries of the world and give children in each country a chance to express themselves. Art was the best communication method as it is the universal language. We stimulate the creativity and curiosity of children through our interactive activities. Today, more than 155,000 children have participated in our programs around the world.

Anthony with AiA students in Thailand

What has the partnership with UNICEF done for the program?

UNICEF was one of our first partners and have been supporting us logistically since 2005. UNICEF believed in our program and approach since the very start in spite of being kind of a “crazy idea” in the beginning. They gave us a chance and opened the doors to the Ministries of Education and their own partners. Today, we have worked together in over 100 countries, and they call us regularly to train their own staff or partners in our programs or to organize photo missions.

You've travelled to 193 countries - what first interested you in travelling abroad?

My mother is from Turkey, her mother was born in Cuba and my father is from Italian origin. I shall be the only “real” Belgian of the family, even though I left my home country and my home some 15 years ago, and never really went back. I don’t have a home anymore and am kind of happy with this nomadic situation.There is so much to explore, so much to learn from, so much to exchange, that I never really could stay at one place. I remember that when I was 5-6 years old on holidays in Italy, I already wanted to cross the Mediterranean on a pneumatic boat. I effectively took a tiny boat early morning and left before my parents woke up. Fortunately a couple of hours later an Italian fishing boat found me alone in the middle of the sea…

Do you have a favourite cultural exchange story?

It is very hard to pick one, there are really hundreds of them...

Let’s choose North Korea then, as it is less known. It took me two and a half years to receive the authorization from the government to do my work in a local public school. I was closely monitored but very surprised by the fact that I was not censored in any way. The children could also ask the questions that they wanted during our sessions and we had some fascinating creative discussions. One month after our activity, the government called me back and they organized for the first time a nationwide art contest wherein the winner’s artwork is published in our book.
After my introduction workshop in the class, I remember also the first question of a local child. She was about 8 years old and asked if in Belgium the children were communist like they are. I was stunned by the question and wanted to avoid to enter in political consideration. I thought of myself not knowing what communism was at her age. After a couple of thoughts, I understood that she neither knew. Communism for her was an inherent quality. Her question was more “are the children in Belgium happy as we are” or “do they play the same games as we do”…. A question that was much easier to answer.

You're also a travel and people photographer - what advice do you have for achieving great travel photos?

Follow my rules of the 4P’s: Passion, Practice, Perseverance, and Patience.

Where's next for AiA?

I believe that we will keep doing what we do best with passion and creativity…. We also have a new book coming out soon so keep posted on our website.

Everyday we have more schools wanting to participate in our programs. Everyday, we have more travelers wanting to give a hand. Last week an old student from Jordan wrote me telling me that my visit in 2006 was her best school day of her life. Today she finished school and is part of our broad volunteer team. We hope that those students will be able to “educate” their children, their parents, and friends in the same way. I am conscious that we cannot change the world, and I know that there is still a huge amount of work to do.

Last year, I met a German girl on a train in Thailand. She never heard about Belgium, my home country – and we are neighboring countries. However, every small step can help to make many lives better. As Gandhi said “be the change you want to see in the world”. AiA will continue to follow this philosophy.

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Check out our other posts in the Industry Interview series:

• Industry Interview with Mark Hodson of 101 Holidays
• Industry Interview with Alexis Grant of The Traveling Writer
• Industry Interview with Colin Wright of Exile Lifestyle
• Industry Interview with Stuart McDonald of Travelfish
• Industry Interview with Steph of Twenty-Something Travel

In this month's Talking Travel series we chat to Matt Watson of the adventurous Watson5. Over 86 days, 4100km, 8 towns, 15 "homes", and 500L of bottled water, Matt toured Turkey's ruins (and ice cream parlours) with his wife and young children - aged 5, 3, and 18 months! The family's blog of the three month journey continues to attract visitors interested in their balance of cultural travel and child-friendly holiday.

The Watson family waiting for a dolmus in Cesme

Tell us about your trip and what led to the decision to take your family to Turkey.

The opportunity to travel occurred after I sold my business. My wife and I decided it would be great to make the most of the time off work and take the kids away to show them what a wonderful and diverse world we live in. The destination we picked was Turkey as it had everything we were looking for: magnificent landscape, incredible history, and a culture which is very family orientated and child friendly.

Initially some friends doubted that the trip was a good idea. Looking back, is there anything you would change? What do you think your family gained from the experience?

We had a mixed response from family and friends when we told them of our plans, it was either one of great excitement or utter horror - no in-between.
The trip was quite well planned 'though we didn't book anything outside of the first few weeks. We wanted freedom to travel about without having a fixed itinerary and this worked well. There's not much I would change, some things got the better of us but that's life when you're travelling whether you have kids or not. I wouldn't take a car seat for Bella if we did it again, as it proved cumbersome to carry around along with luggage and 3 children.
As far as what the kids got from the trip, they amazed me with their resilience to long haul flights and lengthy bus trips. The opportunity to try new foods, culture, religion, and language they all adapted to and accepted. Their interest in the mosques and ruins surprised me. A year later they still count to 10 in Turkish, recreate cave houses of Urgup at home playing, talk often about camel rides, hot air ballooning, scorpions, and the friends they made.

Making new friends in Istanbul

You left well prepared yet travelled lightly - what are your tips for travelling with kids?

My tip for travelling with small children is "keep it simple". We had to mix sightseeing and day trips with down time. At their age they can't go on day after day so with being away for 3 months we spent longer periods in towns taking our time. We also made things fun. Visits to mosques and ruins were balanced out with ice creams in the parks or a swim in a pool. Where possible we stuck to their usual routines in terms of the times we ate and bedtime. As long as kids feel safe and loved they will be fine.

The kids enjoy a Roman bath in Selcuk

You documented the whole trip with a popular and entertaining blog. What advice do you have for other travel bloggers wanting to share their experiences?

The blog through Travellerspoint was fantastic. We were able to connect with all our family and friends at once. It was great for posting our photos and sharing our stories with everyone back home. We ended up having over 12,000 views so we had a few others checking out our trip also.

Where's next for the Watson five?

As for what's next, I recently published my book on our trip. It's called "Hot Sun and Scorpions" and is available on Amazon Kindle or through [self-publishing company] The Copy Press. It's a humorous take on what life is like on the road with a 5, 3 and 18 month old!
As for the next trip, well that's booked. We head off on the 7th May for Vietnam and Cambodia. This time for 2 months. I'm really looking forward to taking the family away again, especially with the kids being a bit older - Holly is 7, Toby 5, and Bella 3. It will be a bit easier not having to worry about nappies, baby formula, and finding cots for Bella.
We will be using Travellerspoint to start another blog to document our travels again - so stay tuned!

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Check out these recent interviews in the Talking Travel series:

• Talking Travel with Glynn Hammond (nzhamsta)
• Talking Travel with Rebecca Barnshaw (bex76)
• Talking Travel with Mike Riley (vegasmike6)
• Talking Travel with Margaret Metcalfe (margaretm)
• Talking Travel with Tammi Jonas (tammois)

In this month's Industry Interview we chat to Mark Hodson, co-founder of 101 Holidays. A travel writer by profession, Mark spent 12 years working as a full-time freelance travel journalist at The Sunday Times in London before launching the popular travel experiences site. He co-founded the successful sister site 101 Honeymoons a year later. Mark also shares his travel recommendations on Google+.

Mark in Chile's Atacama Desert

You worked in journalism straight out of university; how did you break in to travel writing?

I’d like to say it was all part of a well thought-out masterplan but like most things in life it just happened. I had a well-paid job as a sub-editor on a national newspaper at 23 and - faced with the bleak prospect of a long career in an office gazing at a flickering screen - I quit to go travelling. I managed to spend three consecutive winters in Asia and Latin America, returning to my former employers in the summers to top up my bank balance.

It was a great life but not one that appealed to me long term. I wanted to return to London but realised I no longer had a taste for office life. So I started writing articles about some of the places I’d visited and posted them to various travel editors (this was in the early 90s, before email).

Even though I was a trained journalist and a decent writer, I got nowhere. A particularly unpleasant editor at the Mail asked me in for a chat, pulled out the article I’d sent her and (metaphorically) tore it to pieces. It wasn’t meant to be helpful, just bullying.

Then one editor at the Financial Times published a few of my pieces which gave me a cuttings file. I could then send articles to editors with these photocopies attached and suddenly I was taken seriously. Shortly afterwards, I landed a regular gig at The Sunday Times, doing two shifts a week on the desk and filing freelance articles.

Ramen Bar, Tokyo

What was the hardest lesson you had to learn as a travel writer?

The hardest was that editors don’t give a monkeys about you. If they need you, they will be nice. If they don’t, you’re out. It’s not personal, it’s just the way it works.

However, the most useful lesson I learned was that the reader doesn’t care either. Unless you are Bill Bryson or Paul Theroux, nobody wants to know about what you did on your holiday. The skill with travel writing is to know when to put yourself in the story and when to gently step aside to let the real action unfold.

What's your most memorable travel story?

After the Asian tsunami in 2004, I persuaded my editor to let me travel to the Maldives, then to Sri Lanka and Thailand to write about the devastation caused to the local tourism industry in each country, and how travellers could best help the people affected by booking holidays (which many people regarded at the time as being in poor taste).

It meant that The Sunday Times was able to lead the way in helping to rebuild confidence in tourism to those destinations worst affected by the tsunami and - I like to think - helped a few local people to rebuild their lives.

Local children, Maldives

Where's your most recommended destination?

I think if you want to experience the world, rather than skim the surface as a casual observer, you can’t beat India. It’s the most astonishing, fascinating, colourful, complex and emotional country. I also have a very soft spot for Burma.

How would you like travel writing to develop in the future?

Travel writing and travel journalism are going through difficult times. There is a surfeit of supply and a steady fall in quality, even in the so-called serious publications. I would like to see travel bloggers spend less time Tweeting each other and selling links, and more time trying to create high-quality writing. The best way to do that is often to step outside the cultural bubble created by permanent connectedness and spend time alone in a truly foreign place.

What are your top three travel tips?

Go slowly. Put down the camera and talk to people. Try to leave your ego at home.

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Check out our other posts in the Industry Interview series:

• Industry Interview with Alexis Grant of The Traveling Writer
• Industry Interview with Colin Wright of Exile Lifestyle
• Industry Interview with Stuart McDonald of Travelfish
• Industry Interview with Steph of Twenty-Something Travel
• Industry Interview with Igor Bratnikov from GreenXC

In this month's Talking Travel series, we chatted to regular TP contributor Glynn Hammond (aka nzhamsta). A prolific traveller and blogger, he has mapped over 40 trips and shared more than 2000 photos. Glynn is an avid believer in making the most of travel opportunities, having spent his life balancing work with long trips overseas, and takes his inspiration from the Mark Twain quote: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Glynn with the Great Sphinx

Most recently you spent four months travelling through Europe and the Middle East both on organised trips and also on your own. What do you like about organised travel and what do you like about making your own plans?

I like to use organised travel for places that are less “easy” to travel around independently. Some of the Middle East falls into the “easy” category (Dubai, Oman (wonderful place by the way), Egypt), whereas in other places it falls into the “less easy” (on this trip, Syria). The use of an organised tour can eliminate all the headaches regarding transport, accommodation, arranging guides and so on. The downside is that you are with a group and that does not suit those people who do not like being herded, having to be ready by a certain time or be left behind, group meals and so on. The make up of the group is also very important.

The trip went to all the places I wanted to go (with the exception of the Western Desert oases) and was well organised with a decent standard of transport, accommodation (notwithstanding Egyptian plumbing), guides and food.

With regard to the balance of the trip, I had spent many years in the UK and so had travelled to Europe several times. This trip therefore cherry-picked several places that I had not gone to before (Athens, Verona, Split, Krakow and so on). I spent a lot of time planning, booking early to get the best deals on flights and trains, hotels etc. Being the type of person I am, I do like to have things organised in advance. I came to grief many years ago when I did not have bookings and thus could not find anywhere to stay when I arrived late in the evening and I had to crash out on a relative’s floor. Not appreciated by anyone. So I suppose you could call the first section and final section of my 2011 trip an “organised tour”, but organised by me for me that suited my interests.

A felucca on the Nile, Egypt

Planning things for yourself allows you to choose where you want to go, the type of accommodation you like (a nice hotel in some places, hostels in others) and so on. However, if something goes wrong, then it is up to you to fix it. You cannot call a travel agent or tour company to complain and get them to fix things. Luckily, all my bookings were honoured and everything worked fine.

Was there anything you wished you had seen?

I would have liked to have spent more time in Poland and Germany as there is a fair amount of history and culture (and excellent beer!) in both places. However, given that I had a fixed itinerary, changing it would have been both time consuming and costly. But having missed out this time, both places go back onto my list for next time.

Your motto on your TP profile reads "Life needs adventure…". What has been your most memorable adventure?

I define adventure as being anything not ordinary. Thus a weekend away in Sydney and Canberra meets the definition (although a lot of people in Australia would hesitate to define Canberra as adventurous!). The definition also can be used for elephant trekking through the Thai jungles, cruising down the Rhine looking at castles and crossing Canada on a train.

Best adventure so far... travelling through the old Soviet Union back before a certain wall fell over.

Where's the best place you've visited so far?

You cannot beat Angkor Wat at dawn, sitting in front of the main temple with the mug of hot coffee so thoughtfully provided by the chair rental people, watching the sun come up from behind the temple. Also, sitting in a cafe watching the chaotic traffic in Hanoi, walking along the Great Wall of China, slobbed out on the beach at Phuket, and sitting by the Rhine on a beautiful summer’s evening with a large stein of excellent beer also rate highly.

Angkor Wat

What do you like about TP?

I found TP by mistake. I was looking for some information about something and a blog was listed on the Google search results. I then rummaged around the site and thought that this would be a great way to record my travels. I did have my own site but was concerned about how I was going to update it. I would need photo editing software, web design software all loaded on my laptop. I tested TP with my Fiji trip, liked what it did and so decided to start using it properly. I have since taken down my old site, saving myself $10 per month hosting fees.

I like the way it does everything that one would need to record one’s travels. It looks after the photos, creates decent maps (how are my enhancement requests coming along guys?), is easy to tweak the layout, colours etc. The organisers answer your queries and solve issues promptly. I have yet to use the accommodation booking part of the site yet. It is also great to read what other people are doing, where they are going and what they think of the places they go to.

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Check out these recent interviews in the Talking Travel series:

• Talking Travel with Rebecca Barnshaw (bex76)
• Talking Travel with Mike Riley (vegasmike6)
• Talking Travel with Margaret Metcalfe (margaretm)
• Talking Travel with Tammi Jonas (tammois)
• Talking Travel with Bill Lehane

In this month's Industry Interview we chat to Alexis Grant, a journalist and travel author who's the founder of the popular blog The Traveling Writer. Alexis launched the blog to chronicle her experience writing her first book, Please Send Pants, about backpacking solo through Africa. She is now a frequent guest-writer for other popular sites on achieving career/life balance and following one's dreams. You can also connect with Alexis on Twitter.

Alexis reporting in Africa

You describe yourself as a solopreneur. What is it and what does it mean to you to be a solopreneur?

A solopreneur is an entrepreneur who works on her own. I'm already deviating from this definition because I have a small team who helps me (no full-time employees though), but I like it because I do think of myself as an entrepreneur, but not the kind that's trying to build a huge company and make a ton of money. I'm a lifestyle entrepreneur, building my own business because it allows me to do work I love and have a flexible schedule.

I also sometimes call myself a "slasher" -- because I'm a journalist/social media strategist/entrepreneur. Most of my income comes from helping small businesses with blogging and social media, and I also create and sell digital guides and courses, which is the part of my biz I'm super excited about right now. For anyone interested in transitioning away from working for an employer to working for yourself, I offer a weekly newsletter called Solopreneur Secrets that shares what I'm learning.

What inspired you to backpack through Africa and what are your must-do recommendations?

I really wanted to challenge myself and explore a part of the world that was different from my home. I traveled overland through a handful of countries in West Africa, then to Cameroon, South Africa and finally, Madagascar.

That last country, Madagascar, is my must-do recommendation. What an experience! I spent two months there, so I was able to see a lot of the country. It has an African-Asian feel that's different from West Africa, and the island boasts so many species of plants and animals that don't exist anywhere else in the world, including the lemur. Accommodations are lovely compared with other parts of Africa, and traveling there is super affordable -- once you've bought the plane ticket, that is. Go! You won't regret it.

Alexis and a new friend in Madagascar

What made you decide to write your travel memoir?

I'd always thought about someday writing a book, but I didn't decide to do it until the very end of my trip. I was writing down all the people I'd met during those six months of backpacking, just for my own benefit, so I wouldn't forget them. And I realized just how many stories I had to tell. I also think Africa's not written about as much as it should be, so by writing this book, I'd help fill that gap. Now I just need a publisher to buy it!

You travelled solo for six months - do you have any suggestions for coping with long-term travel?

Lots! The biggest one is -- no surprise -- pack light. Carrying around all your belongings gets old real fast, but it's certainly easier if you have less to carry. Look for opportunities to swap books with other travelers, so you always have something to read. This has changed now that ereaders are out, but if you're traveling in places that don't have electricity, old-school books are still your best bet. Bring a pocket knife, plastic bowl and spoon. I wasn't doing anything fancy with the pocket knife, but it allowed me to carve up a pineapple for a snack or cut up a cucumber when I was craving veggies. Oh, and here's a tip I heard only after I returned home from this trip: bring a doorstop. You can use it to prop closed a door from the inside, for safety purposes, when your hostels have shoddy locks.

As for coping with loneliness, two tips: 1. You get used to it, and even start to enjoy it. Now that I'm back in the States, I crave alone time and quiet more than I used to. 2. Even if you travel solo, you're not alone most of the time. In many places around the globe, it's easy to befriend locals or other travelers if you're willing to put the effort in. I hooked up with several long-haul travelers who also wanted company -- and made some great friends!

Travelling solo through Madagascar

Where will you go next?

I'm thinking about a trip to Nicaragua in March. It'd be for three weeks or so, a lot shorter than six months! But I have an added challenge this time because I now run my own business that I can't leave behind for weeks at a time. This will be my first shot at traveling while working, and I'm a little nervous about finding the right balance (and Internet connection).

You successfully combined your journalism skills with your dream to travel. What advice would you give to someone contemplating working on the road?

Go for it! There are lots of obstacles, of course, but the best way to work through them is to just do it. That also forces you to figure out which skills you're lacking to be successful, and learn them. I do think it's easier to build a business at home, where you can depend on your Internet connection and ask for help when you need it, so I'd recommend getting your freelance biz or whatever you're going to use to bring in income off the ground before you go. Then, while traveling, you can focus on maintaining and maybe growing, but hopefully the framework is already in place. Even better, save enough money so you can leave the workforce for a year or so; then you can really focus on your passions while traveling -- and use that experience to get an even better job when you return home.

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Check out our other posts in the Industry Interview series:

• Industry Interview with Colin Wright of Exile Lifestyle
• Industry Interview with Stuart McDonald of Travelfish
• Industry Interview with Steph of Twenty-Something Travel
• Industry Interview with Igor Bratnikov from GreenXC
• Industry Interview with Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere