Travel Essays

Hey, Starey McStares…Knock it Off! The Start of My Self-Partnered Backpacking Trip Across China

March 29, 2012

It’s been a month of wandering so far. I know that because I finally broke into my stash of tampons this morning. I’ve seen Shanghai,

read about my first adventure
on a one-way ticket...

That time I went to China & made friends with a punk band

I was born on a land called Tio'Tia: Ke, Mohawk na

I was born on a land called Tio'Tia: Ke, Mohawk name for "Montreal", an unceded Indigenous territory. Unceded, meaning it was never surrendered.
Do we really know the lands in which we live? Who built them? Who labored to create the scenes we see and the roads we walk everyday?
As much as we've been educated to believe quite the opposite, it does not belong to the white man, nor the white woman, who was so complacent in the white man's nonsense.
We've got lots of unlearning to do.
And think of how much better things can be on the other side, once we've unlearned and listened. And then work everyday to rebuild this broken world.
I'll be showing up everyday, and doing that work with you.
Black lives matter.
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#regiskorchinskipaquet #georgefloyd #breonnataylor #colonialism #truth #aboriginalcanada #supportartists #supportblackbusiness #supportblackartists #worktogether #iseeyou #lovetrumpshate #lovewillwin #montroyal #tiotiake #indigenouswomen #indigenous #streetphotography

About a week before landing in Mexico City I had n

About a week before landing in Mexico City I had no idea I would be going there. I was in Chicago staying with a good friend @jetlagjean (check her feed for some of our old school travel pics together!) and it was the end of July, and I'd found a good deal on flights to CDMX on @skyscannerca (not an ad!). This was back in 2017. That year was the year I spent on the American continent side of the world....hopping between AirBnb stays in Montreal to a one way ticket to Cuba, then Colombia, then on to cities in the US where I could stay with family or friends. And of course Mexico. I was taking a break from teaching ESL and finally got the courage to try and work remotely. I started by volunteering in hostels just to get by, and then I was able to pick up small writing gigs. Very small, but they led to more work opportunity eventually. I made plans as a solo traveller and used the skills I'd learned from over six years of living and working abroad (I left for a new life in China at the end of 2009 and never really looked back!) to get by on this risky journey with little savings but lots of dreams.
Mexico surprised me. It's so beautiful and culturally rich but still not that far from the US or Canada. It's an "exotic" getaway for me even though it's on the same continent. I was able to reflect on the colonial history of where I was born (it's all one big fluke, really) and the story of the New World that's been lost to many in our modern times, but one where we still have a chance to make amends with. Plus, I got to eat fresh tacos every day.
Also I mastered a recipe of mango margaritas while helping out at @laredondahostel in the beach side town of Sayulita in Nayarit province on the Pacific coast. One night I watched turtles hatch by the nearby beach and thought of when I first saw hatchlings just a few countries down the coast, in Costa Rica, almost ten years prior. I thought of how I seemed to be running in circles, with no plans but apparently a purpose. 🌿
A virtual cheers 🍻 to all of you for #cincodemayo! Have you been to #Mexico? What's your favorite thing about it?
Photo cred: @hfsilje

And just like that, everything changes. ✨ Am I i

And just like that, everything changes. ✨
Am I in mourning cause I never got to say a proper goodbye? That the life I knew is one I'll probably never get to return to?
That my everyday problems I had as a nomad for ten years... like finding the next country to make a temporary home in, making a new set of friends and being sure I kept in touch with the old, navigating new cities to discover my local coffee shop, a place for good food, a place where I could get health care, and decorating a new space that would be mine for a year or less are no longer problems but merely memories?
Think back to our lives two months ago. Whatever your situation, I'm sure the everyday stress today is at a whole new level. What are the priorities now? How are we going to recover from this? What's normal?
With industries cutting back I'm sure lots of us are struggling for work. I feel you. Jobs and gigs that we thought were bulletproof are now specs of dust.
What to do? Now's the time to really think outside the box. To get creative, even if you think creative isn't really your thing. Now's the time to reflect on what really work and service is. What's our next gig? How essential will it be to the ones around us and the city or town in which we live and love?
I don't have the answers, but I think questions right now are very important.
💜 & ✌️
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#traveljournal #travelgram #wherewillwetravel #whenlifegivesyoulemons #whenwillwetravelagain #coronakindness #covi̇d19 #lifeinthetimeofcorona #lifeisagamble #digitalnomad #stayhome #stayathomenomad #nomadsathome #vagabond #wanderlustbitesthedust #travelblogger #travelblog #dailyreflections #inspiration

Simpler times. This was taken a month ago, as I wa

Simpler times.
This was taken a month ago, as I was doing a tour of my beloved Thailand. In the south of Koh Lanta one Sunday, I found a new ethical elephant sanctuary where the owner had three elephants and allowed them to roam free all day. Tourists could come and watch them from afar. I stayed the whole day and had a guide take me to the national park nearby. Due to the drought this waterfall was almost non-existent, but we were still able to catch a rainbow.
If you would have told me less than three weeks ago when I left Thailand for Nepal what things would be like now, when I was having dinner by the Bangkok river on my last night at a tiny restaurant filled to the brim as we ate, drank, and were merry, i would have laughed at you. I'm sure we all would have.
Right now we need to pause, and take care of each other.
Stay in, stay safe.
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#lifeisagamble #lifeinthetimeofcorona #thailand #kohlanta #ethicalelephantsanctuary #responsibletravel #southernthailand #elephant #rainbow #naturepark #stayhome #travelgram #kindtravel #traveljournalist #nationalpark #ecofootprint #traveljournal #leaveonlyfootprints #solotravel #nature #solobackpacker #responsibletourism #dontrideelephants #ecosanctuary #naturewalks #smallbusiness

Time to start following me on a new journey! 🌏

I've been blessed to have spent the past two new y

I've been blessed to have spent the past two new years in one of my favourite places in the world. Last year I didn't even make it to midnight, but I'm sure I woke up a few times to elephant roars and dogs barking into the night as I chose to spend my holiday week at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. This year I was with some friends and lots of Chiang Mai locals, foreign and domestic, dancing to drum and bass into the night. I tried to think of something to write for all those nostalgic posts people are doing about their decades. But I'm not really into that right now-I just want to look forward.
I have to say though-I'm surprised that I'm still on the road. In 2009 I was just starting; confident and curious at 26, when I let myself be led to places like China and Korea, where I knew my eyes could be opened and to learn what i could really do for the world. I had no idea, and absolutely no plan that I would still be someone living day by day, paycheck by paycheck, and country by country ten years later. And so it goes. ✨
I'm setting an intention for this year to be better than the last. Let's think more about others; be kinder, be bolder, be less-of-a-waster (with time and with plastic), be open to new ideas, be listeners to the people around you. If there's anything I've learned on the road, it's that at the end of the day people are all the same, and we are happiest when we live simply, and get back to that pure connection with others and ourselves.
2020s...we got this.
Photo cred: @gastronomadistas
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#travel #wanderlust #wander #travelgram #writersonig #mindset #mindfulliving #travelblogger #backpackerlife #travelwriter #travelwriting #newyearseve #newyear #2020 #2020vision #2020goals #Marianne2020 #orbgang #worldpeace #peace #stayconnected #jennyisfree #connection #entrepreneur #roaring20s #roamtheplanet #travelwithlove #LoveWillWin #travelwithpurpose #travelwithmeaning

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