The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

It's Christmas time again - it comes so fast! - and I'm replaying this Christmas episode of the podcast from the early years, which I know many people won't have heard. It's full of both fun and poignancy, and even includes a guest appearance from the Easter Bunny.

At this time of year, when I've mostly wound down from work for the year and am spending lots of extra time with my son, who's on holidays from school for six whole weeks, I have lots of time to reflect and one of those reflections is just how much I love creating The Thoughtful Travel Podcast and how grateful I am for my fabulous audience and community.

So, if you celebrate Christmas, I hope it's a fabulously merry one. And delicious, too.

In this episode, I chat with Annalicia Lynn who had an interesting Christmas in Taiwan while she was teaching English there. We talk about the cultural differences between many Asian countries and English-speaking nations and she has one of my very favourite stories about how her Taiwanese colleagues tried to create a Christmas atmosphere in the workplace.

Emma Mann started a tradition of spending Christmas abroad, and she talks about the difference between spending Christmas in another country where the traditions are strong, versus a place where Christmas generally isn’t celebrated.

Finally, Joe Baur chats about his experience living in Germany at Christmas time – one of my favourite places to be during this season!

Links:

• Annalicia of Exercise180 - https://www.exercise180.com/
• Emma of The Vagabond Feminist - https://thevagabondfeminist.wordpress.com
• Joe Baur - https://joebaur.com
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers/

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been a whole year since The Thoughtful Travel Podcast launched and it has been an immensely fun and rewarding time! Episode 48 is the Grateful Anniversary Episode and Amanda starts off giving plenty of thank yous out to many people connected to this podcast, including Brooke and the fantastic Jackrabbit FM team, the dear old friends who agreed to be interviewed for the show before it even started, and above all, you amazing listeners who leave great reviews and chat with Amanda in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook group and make all the work worthwhile.

Amanda's guests today are all people she has only met because she started The Thoughtful Travel Podcast - and she's so grateful to have got to know all these new friends. First up, Hayden Lee of the Travel Stories Podcast has a great tale to tell about choosing a fork in the road in Vietnam. Amanda then chats with Matt Treglia from Words With Winos about how he made the mammoth decision to give up a conventional career path and travel long-term. Finally, Amanda looks back to a chat she had a year ago with photographer Kiliii Yüyan about taking risks when we travel.

Links:

• Hayden’s Travel Stories Podcast - http://travelstoriespodcast.com
• Travel Stories Podcast on iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/travel-stories-podcast/id1097413901?mt=2
• Matt’s site Words with Winos - http://wordswithwinos.com
• Words with Winos podcast - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/words-with-winos-travel-podcast/id1144965534?mt=2
• Kiliii Yüyan’s website - http://www.kiliii.com/
• Kiliii Yüyan on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kiliiiyuyan/
• Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NotABallerina
• Show notes: http://notaballerina.com/48

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes, the things we learn from travel creep up on us in a cumulative way. Other times, one trip teaches us so much and just whacks us in the head and makes us change something significant about our lives! And this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is definitely about the latter situation.

First up I talk to Dean O'Shea who took off on a huge challenge to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in California when he was 22 - and he chose it purely because it was the longest, hardest journey listed in his mother's book of long, hard journeys! What happened in and after California is not what you'd expect - and certainly not what Dean expected either - but it changed his life in some significant ways.

I then chat with Seng Mah, a friend of mine here in Perth who has long told me that going to India is life-changing for many people (and yes, I'm now convinced I need to go there sometime!). Seng's first experience of travelling through India gave him so many insights and new perspectives that his life then changed very significantly, changes that have lasted now for a decade.

Links:

• Sign up to hear about the new Travel Journal School course, "Start a personal travel blog", at https://traveljournalschool.com
• Dean’s site Unbelievable Adventures - https://www.unbelievableadventures.co.uk/
• Seng Mah at Venture Photography - https://www.venturephotography.com.au
• Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Show notes: http://notaballerina.com/133

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet or not, the stories in Episode 225 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast will still fascinate you, I'm sure! I start off chatting with Lindy Alexander, a social worker turned freelance writer who spent eight months living in rural Uganda in her mid-twenties. As a vegetarian, she was a bit concerned about what she could expect there in terms of food and what she actually found is very interesting!

I then chat with Tasha Goldberg who, like me, was raised vegetarian and tends to follow that diet on the whole, but can be flexible at times when travelling, and she tells me about her experience with this, starting out with a special invitation in Senegal.

Finally, I speak with Brighde Reed who has been vegan for the past decade and has lots of useful tips and resources for anyone looking to research their trip and wanting to eat a plant-based diet along the way.

Links:

• Lindy Alexander - The Freelancer’s Year http://thefreelancersyear.com/ is all about giving practical advice about how freelance writers can earn great money from their writing
• Tasha Goldberg’s project Evidence of Hope - https://www.evidenceofhope.com/
• Brighde Reed - World Vegan Travel - https://www.worldvegantravel.com/
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/225

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of my very favourite topics in the world is talking (for hours) about why travelling is good for you and all the self development and educational benefits of travelling. Happily, a lot of the guests on The Thoughtful Travel Podcast feel the same way, and in Episode 86 I chat with three women who all agree the benefits of travelling the world are many and varied.

First up, I chat with Pam Lynch, who had travelled a lot with her family but really took things to the next level a few years ago when she started travelling solo. She's in no doubt of the importance of travelling in life and describes how much stepping out of her usual comfort zone has impacted her self development.

Next, I talk with Anna Kwiecinska about that feeling you get when you just need to travel to a certain place, without any particularly concrete reason that you can explain - but inevitably, you end up discovering a lot about yourself by doing so. Why people travel is an endlessly fascinating question to me and what Anna articulated here is something I've been trying to explain for years!

Finally, psychologist Kristen Truempy talks to me about the fear and growth process in the context of her own regular travel experiences. She says something eminently sensible about travel and your comfort zone but you'll have to listen to find out exactly what!

Links:

• Our great sponsor Career China - https://www.careerchina.com/
• Pam Lynch’s site Travelling Bag - http://travellingbag.com.au
• Pam’s new book, How the Hell Did I Get Here? - http://amzn.to/2Gs4QzJ
• Anna Kwiecinska’s main website - https://www.annakwiecinska.com
• Paul Bowles books - http://bit.ly/PaulBowlesBooks
• Brilliant Blogging retreat in Bali - http://www.villanilayabalibeach.com/art-and-yoga-retreats/art-and-yoga-retreats-at-villa-nilaya-in-2018/amanda-kendle/
• Kristen’s The Positive Psychology Podcast - http://strengthsphoenix.com/listen
• First trips episode I mention https://www.notaballerina.com/2017/09/first-trips-episode-65-thoughtful-travel-podcast.html
• Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Tweet me @amandakendle
• Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod
• Follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NotABallerina
• Show notes: http://notaballerina.com/86

Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.