Beautiful views, exotic places, mysterious food and all from the comfort of your own home, what’s there not to love about Travel Blogs? I can’t remember if it was reading Into The Wild, watching The Motorcycle Diaries or loving surf documentaries as a teenager, but I became obsessed with travelling from a pretty young age and this was only further fuelled with the rise of YouTube travel blogs.
Now, let’s be completely honest for a second, there are some terrible videos (what might as well be family holiday videos) and some incredibly obnoxious people creating content on YouTube. For some reason this seems to be even more prevalent within the travel/backpacking section, however, if you can get over throwing up due to camera motion sickness; or just over how unbearably self-centered some of the videos can seem; then you might stumble upon some absolute gems. If you’re planning a trip yourself these can be an absolute godsend, warning you of tourist traps, giving you a rundown of cost and even helping you plan a route.
One of our all time favourite travel bloggers, Alexander Travelbum, does all of the above and he does so with a great personality. Not to mention; in our humble opinions, one of the most soothing voices on the web. We couldn’t watch hours worth of his content and scribble down loads of notes based on his content without getting in touch to say thanks. Lucky for us, he agreed to answer some questions too. This has been one of my favourite interviews, not only because I want to visit the places he has, but also because I’m incredibly excited for everyone to catch on to how great his content is and to follow his journey just like we are. Hopefully he will inspire you as much as he has us.
People choose to travel for so many reasons. Trying to overcome personal fears, a love of food, the hunt for a perfect surf spot or simply because they saw photos on Instagram and it looked cool. You’ve quite obviously taken travelling on wholeheartedly and have an infectious passion towards it. What was your motivation to start and then to carry on down this route?
You know, I’ve actually been asking myself this question my whole life. Where does this passion for travel really stem from? I mean, at its core. I’m really searching for the answer. I don’t know why it took hold of me, but I’ll tell you what i do know. I love the challenge of travel. The growth it forces upon you. It’s difficult waking up in a different place every day, around strangers, with no one around who really knows you. You have to take new roads everywhere you turn, you have to learn to make friends with new people every day, and then what comes with it, you have to learn how to leave new friends. But because you have to deal with all of this, I believe you grow at a rate that is impossible for most people to keep up with. I learn more on the road in a yeah than I did in twenty years at home. I’ve learned to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and when you learn that, you can be handle any situations you get yourself into.
So many people I talk to have such a huge fear of the unknown that it prevents them from taking trips like the ones you have, some of the more remote hikes and especially life in a van can seem pretty daunting! As opposed to asking the obvious advice type question, let’s get right to it, what’s the worst that you’ve had happened and … was it still worth it?
So I’ve traveled by myself all around Europe, Southeast Asia, and The United States, and typically my trips last 4-6 months at a time. I’m not exceptionally safe, and I don’t visit the safest places either. But in all my travels, I’ve never really had anything terrible happen to me. You could call it luck, but I don’t. I attribute it to my confidence as a traveler as well as my unshakeable enthusiasm for travel. I try to exude confidence and blend in best I can in cities, to avoid tourist scams, pickpockets, and things of that sort. And because of my excitement for places I’m visiting, I do the research before I arrive. Travel research is like candy to me. I learn about all the common scams to avoid, I memorize the best trails, and read stories of travelers who’ve already been there. On another note, I also think people are so afraid of the outside world, of things they don’t know, when really, the world and its people are so good. And so I am never really afraid anywhere I go. The bad stories people hear are single experiences in many. So as for advice, I would say just that people should have more faith in people. To trust that most are good, and if you ever get yourself into trouble, someone will be there to lend you a hand. Or an arm.
Travelling can be stressful enough, add an extra person into the equation and all hell can break loose, any useful advice for couples heading out together
I actually don’t have too much experience with this. Until a month ago, I considered myself a solo traveler, because that is what I’ve always liked best. But so far, it’s been great to have someone with me whom I can talk to and share sunsets with. To keep things sane and keep the relationship stable, I think it’s all about empathy and compromises. You have to constantly put yourself in the other person’s shoes to really understand when they aren’t at their most content. And in turn, you have to make them understand that you have shoes for them to put themselves into. You compromise on the little things every day, and switch off doing things that the other wants to do. I make sure that whenever I want to raise my voice when I’m angry, I take a breath and lower my voice again to voice my opinion. And when their voice raises, I remind them to lower their voice as well so that we can “have a conversation, not an argument.” Because that’s more pleasant, and ends up in a better place.
Whenever I chat to someone new, the conversation generally comes round to book recommendations, with my go-to being Tim Ferriss – The 4 Hour Work Week, what book would you recommend people read before heading out on a trip and what book should they take on their trip with them?
Haha, 4 Hour Work Week is a great one, and it is definitely one I’ve recommended in the past. But now, it’s the one and only ‘The Alchemist‘. It’s about a Shepherd boy who’s on a quest to find a treasure, his journey takes him from Spain to Egypt and it tells of all the people he meets and the lessons he learns from them along the way. It’s really about pursuing your dreams at all costs, and never giving up. We all have our own personal legends, and we have to follow them through to the end or else we never really become who we were meant to be.
I can’t really interview you and not ask about the food in SE Asia. How good was it, what can we not miss out on and how much of the trip will we spend ill?
Haha, the food was great in most of Southeast Asia. Thai food, Vietnamese food, and some of the Indonesian food was amazing. There were also times when I couldn’t find a decent meal. Like traveling through Myanmar and parts of Indonesia, I couldn’t find anything but stale fried chicken and rice for weeks. But I would not miss out on many types of Pad Thai in Thailand, Massaman Curry and other Thai Curries, Pho and bhan Mi in Vietnam. You know, the main dishes you hear about. Oh, and smoothies in Thailand. I got multiple smoothies per day, because they are made with fresh fruit and they cost less than a dollar, they were my favorite things to consume.
What are your plans from now on? Is it life in the van for the foreseeable future, another continent to explore or will you be heading back to Asia?
The plan is to spend the next six months traveling around the US and Canada in my van. I am making a big circle around the States. After that, we plan to go to Romania where my girlfriend has family to stay with as long as we want, and then probably do another several month backpacking trip around Europe. From there we have plans for Hawaii, Iceland, India, Nepal, South Africa, and back to Southeast Asia again. We really can’t decide. My plan is to make this Youtube thing work. Even If we aren’t making too much money, if it’s enough to sustain budget travel in developing countries, then I’m happy.
Please, please, please go give Alexander Travelbum a like and subscribe to his channel, we promise you won’t be disappointed, he’s also on the wonder that is Patreon should you want to support Alexander Travelbum in this way. Got a recommendation for us? Travel yourself and want to have a chat? We would love to hear from you.
Co-founder @kitschinc and @wearefoodscouts. Musician and spoken word artist🎸@larkhilluk & Chicharrero. Podcast Host and Producer: Promote The Hell Out Of It!
One thought on “Interview with Travel Vlogger Alexander Travelbum”