Today I’m talking to Jeremy from the travel blog, Living the Dream. Jeremy has been travelling for over four years, recently wrote an e-book called ‘The Long-Term Traveler’s Guide’, and more recently got married. It’s been a busy year for him so far. Let’s hear what he has to say.
Jeremy from Living the Dream petting a tiger cub
Tell us a bit about yourself and what your website is about.
My name is Jeremy and I am the primary author at Living the Dream (http://www.livingthedreamrtw.com). By training I am an engineer and work in environmental services right now. But by passion I am a travel addict who has been all over the world in the past four years with more destinations every year.
When I started Living the Dream, it was mostly to chronicle my first long-term trip abroad in 2010/2011. Since then, the site has evolved into a travel resource for all those looking to get out and explore the world as well a place for stories from the 35 countries I have visited, most in the last 4 years. Our thought is that you cannot truly understand a recommendation about a destination without knowing the person behind the review or story, so we try and make sure everyone knows us and our travel styles as much as the destinations we write about.
You’ve been to quite a few countries now, do you have a favourite?
No, I don’t. It is really too hard to say because not every country is the same. If you were to ask me what my favorite place to chill out at is, I would say Thailand because it is cheap and the beaches are fabulous. If you asked me my favorite place for mountainous scenery, I would say Switzerland. If you asked me about food I would say Singapore. But overall, I can’t answer that. I like Earth quite a bit and try not to discriminate past that, although when I am traveling my favorite is always the place I am currently at.
You recently got married to Angie (congratulations by the way), was she interested in travel before meeting you, or did you inspire her to travel?
Thanks! I think Angie had always had an interest to travel, but never really explored the option. Like me, she would have had to go by herself and was in school with limited funds for a while. I can’t take credit for inspiring her to travel as it was something she always wanted to do, but I would like to believe that I did push her off the cliff without a safety net to jump start her travel addiction. I’ve been known to randomly ask her if she wanted to go somewhere for a weekend, but meaning that very weekend, such that we hop on a plane the next day!
Jeremy & Angie eating crabs
If you both could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
I don’t think I’ve found the perfect destination to live at yet. Out of my favorite places we mentioned above, Singapore would be great because our industries are there, the food is wonderful, and it is a great location for exploring SE Asia cheaply. I would be happy to live in Switzerland or Thailand but probably couldn’t find work there so it would be a hard balance in terms of finding a way to earn enough money to live comfortably. As far as destinations I haven’t been to yet but am looking forward to, Norway seems to be high on the list of potential spots for living and working!
But if you want to play the game of “if we had all the money in the world” that little bungalow on a secluded beach in Thailand has my name on it.
Jeremy & Angie on an island
You recently released a book ‘The Long-Term Traveler’s Guide’, what made you decide to want to write this book? And how long did it take you to write?
The Long-Term Traveler’s Guide came about from my own long-term trip and reading dozens, if not hundreds, of blogs. After reading so many, I realized that the one downside to blogs is that they often only give a one-sided viewpoint of a topic. For example, someone from the UK talking about visas to India. Well, that information is fun to read, but may not be useful for someone from another country who has other hoops to jump through. The information is out there but quite time consuming to find and in many cases very easy to overlook.
After having many moments while planning and being on the road of going “I didn’t think of that!” I wanted to build a resource for any long-term traveler that would be not only destination independent but represent travelers from all countries throughout every part of the process from deciding to go to returning home. So to expand on the visa scenario, the guide doesn’t go into what visa you would need to go to India. Rather, the guide goes into all the visa types that exist, why you need to care about them, and then lists resources to find out what countries you want to visit require each. Each chapter focuses on one topic of long-term travel in this style, and is a great resource for everyone.
A year of writing, formatting, and designing and The Long-Term Traveler’s Guide was finally released in early 2012!
Do you have any travel plans in the future you can tell us about?
Well, I am writing my responses to this interview from Northern Alberta right now where I am working on assignment for my day job. Does that count? Hah!
Angie and I have big plans for the next few years but I really cannot get into it just yet. Recently we just got back from Spain on our honeymoon and we are looking at doing a number of weekend trips later this year if we can fit it in such as out west to San Francisco to see family and maybe a trip down to the Caribbean for a long weekend. After that, well, you’ll just have to check out Living the Dream for more info when the time comes.
Jeremy from Living the Dream in Egypt
Thanks very much for your time Jeremy, I know how busy you have been over the last few weeks. You can follow Jeremy on Twitter here, or go have a look at his travel blog/resource Living the Dream.
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