Holla!

We’re Alex and Sebastiaan. We voyage around the world, alternating between swashbuckling skullduggery and gallant gallivanting depending on the alignment of the stars.

… or so we’d like to think. Actually, we’re just a pair of twenty-somethings from America and the Netherlands (respectively) who decided to quit our desk jobs and fuck off to travel the world for a while. We live out of backpacks, enjoy wandering hither and thither, and often get lost with purpose (as well as without). Our current trajectory is taking us through uncommon destinations in Asia such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. You won’t find us sipping coconut water on a beach in Bali!

(Not yet, anyway.)

 

 

Alex

I’m 26 years old, an American, self-proclaimed ice cream Addict with a capital A, and reveler in the feels of having absolutely no idea what is going on around me.

My story began on the east coast of the US, where I lived until 2013. No crazy origin stories here—my life was pretty straightforward, but I was lucky to have a family who encouraged travel from day 1 (though they’re still telling me to come back and get a “real job” these days).

One half of my family is Filipino, the other half English, so living in the States meant growing up amongst a trifecta of cultures, and my parents didn’t stop there. Summer vacations always included adventures such as choking on yak hairs my milk on the Mongolian steppe, being sprayed in the face by unnecessarily advanced toilets in Japan, and crunching on fried centipedes-on-a-stick on the street markets of China (note: definitely not tasty).

After graduating with a degree in Fancytalk and Politically Correct BS from an Esteemed Institution of Pretentious Learnings in 2013, I transplanted myself and two suitcases over to the Netherlands so I could bask in the presence of inhumanly tall people and uncreative fried foods.

(Sebastiaan living there was also a factor, I suppose.)

While in the Netherlands, I honed my design skills, and learned how to make websites and software marginally less painful to use. Sweet useful, usable things!

As far as the blog goes, I’m Captain Creative, head of the departments of Rambling, Photography, and Getting Distracted by Social Media. I also coded and designed the blog, which sounds pretty cool… but actually just means I have to constantly play IT Help Woman all the time and bear all responsibility every time something goes wrong.

Some equally sweet but wholly unusable tidbits:

• I like parentheses (most excellent for interjecting trivial thoughts)
• I love cameras (though they don’t love me)
• I’ll eat any and all street food I encounter that does not involve rotting things, fish, or tomatoes (Satan’s gift to mankind)

My favorite post: Patan Patola, the cloth of kings

 

 

Sebastiaan

One day, when I’m older and reminiscing about the past, the memories I’ll look back on with most fondness won’t be the days when I sat behind a desk, staring at a screen. They won’t be those days I looked outside my window and saw sad, gray skies and endless Dutch rain. The days full of wondrous adventure and mischief will be where my mind will doubtlessly wander.

As a 28-year-old who has been on several backpacking adventures and other worldly escapades, I thought I would settle down a bit after I finished university. You know, find a nice job, make some money, the normal stuff a business graduate thinks off when he goes into the final stretch of his studies.

Fate, it seems, had different plans.

I met Alex, and we ended up living together. Living with a girl so full of wanderlust made it all but impossible to think about anything but the wide open world. Future “adult” plans were thrown out the window. Through savings and some small investments, we set enough money aside to start a new journey (although I might need to live as a bum if we ever settle down).

We started this blog to share information with other travelers, and I keep the tradition alive. Most of the informative posts are my doing. Beyond that, I’m the one who tracks all of our finances, answers business enquiries, manages communications, and keeps Alex’s scattered mind on track (when possible). If you’re sending us messages, it’s probably me on the other end… though you can never know for sure.

Anyway, I’m absolutely thrilled to be back on the road again. It is one of the most exciting and rewarding endeavors I could imagine. I hope this blog will inspire you to make (yet another) leap and explore the world around you. It is one of the most amazing experiences you will ever have. Who knows, we might even cross paths one day.

Until then, wish us luck!

My favorite post: 5 serious dangers of traveling in Pakistan

 

How we met

The full tale of our [not-very-romantic] meeting is a bit lengthy, so here’s the abridged version: we met at university in Thailand, traveled around Southeast Asia together, subjected ourselves to the misery of a long-distance relationship for a time, then co-habitated in the Netherlands for several years. Since February 2016, we’ve been wandering around and adding new destinations to our list!

 

Want to know more about our blog and/or journey? Everything you need to know is right here.