Big fat thank you to Kim and Rob at Simply Travelled for flattering us with the Liebster Award nomination! Their kind words about us really meant a lot and we love the “pay it forward” idea behind the entire Liebster Award concept. First off – it’s awesome to find blogs like Kim and Rob’s because you come across people that share the same passion as you do and to add to that – they seem like people we’d be friends with. It’s such a cool community to be a part of!

Second – the Liebster Award is great because it helps get the word out about new and upcoming travel bloggers. It’s a recognition award that basically says “hey…we think you’re awesome and think other people should too!” So being nominated is quite the compliment. Thanks guys!

Here’s the basics behind how the award works:

• Answer the questions given to you by the person(s) who nominated you
• Come up with 10-12 questions of your own to send to your nominees
• Spread the love by nominated 5-10 blogs you enjoy reading that you think deserve more exposure!

With the ground rules explained – here are the questions given to us by Simply Travelled and our answers. Hope you enjoy!

1. What’s been the strangest thing you’ve eaten on the road? This is easy for us because it happened quite recently – durian. Now we know some people LOVE the stuff, but for us? Not so much. We were walking into a cafe in Ipoh, Malaysia when a group of local dudes, about our age, were all eating it. As we walked by they offered us a taste. So we did. The smell is notoriously horrible (which it was) and the taste reminded us of gelatinous, rotten, weird onions or garlic. The aftertaste was not easy to get rid of.
2.  What do you miss about “home”? Although we’re not necessarily homesick or anything – there’s tons of things we miss about home. Mostly though – the people. Hanging out with our friends and family is something that we think about and miss every day. Coming from Portland, Oregon we also especially miss the restaurants and of course – a good IPA. We’d just about kill for a Double Mountain “Truffle Shuffle” pizza and a pint of their beer right about now.
3. What’s your favorite travel hack? Not really sure if this counts as a “hack” but for us we’re all about using Airbnb (and Uber) for our travels. The times we’ve used Airbnb – we’ve ended up making great friends who end up spoiling us and giving us insights to things we never would have known about if we stayed in hotels or anything similar. Not to mention – we can always find something reasonably priced.
4. Is there anywhere you DON’T want to visit? The general answer is no. We want to see everywhere and everything. But right now? We’d have to say places with extreme conflict like Afghanistan or Syria. We have no doubt those places are insanely beautiful and rich in history but for safety reasons? We’d have to pass.
5. Have you ever been worried about your safety whilst traveling? Again – the answer is no, not really. Of course safety is always a huge priority so we make sure to research where we’re going and what/where we should/shouldn’t go. But there’s never been a time during our travels where we felt unsafe.
6. What’s the most challenging part of keeping up your social presence? As with so many things in life – time, I think is the answer for this one. Finding the time to hop online to write a post or share photos when you’re busy actually doing things or getting on flights can be a bit hard. But we always seem to make it work! Sometimes picking what to share is a bit difficult. “Is it cool enough? Is it interesting? Am I oversharing/undersharing?” Thoughts like that are challenging too. Oh, that and crappy WiFi.
7. What is your biggest travel pet peeve? Since we’re a traveling couple I think we’ll have to answer this separately. For me (Ashley) it’s transit days. I can’t stand re-packing my backpack and I get frustrated in airport security/unknown bus or train stations. Not my fave. For Kile – he says it’s getting water. The countries we go to tend to not have potable tap water. So making an effort to buy drinking water is pretty low on his list of fun things to do.
8. What excites you most about traveling? So many things! This is a super hard question to answer because everything is exciting when traveling. One of the most exciting things though is eating/trying new foods of a culture/country you’ve never been to. Plus just meeting and talking with the locals wherever you go is super fun. And of course seeing landmarks or cities or beaches you’ve only seen on TV or online, finally seeing them in person is incredible. When traveling you don’t have a routine anymore so the monotony of day-to-day life isn’t there anymore. It’s awesome. I could seriously keep going but those are some of the most exciting things.
9. Tahiti or South Africa and why? We both immediately said Tahiti. We love tropical islands and the chill beach life. Not that South Africa doesn’t have some incredible nature or beaches to offer but we like being away from the hustle and bustle of any big cities and concrete jungles. Tahiti is just a place you always hear about growing up that sounds like the “ultimate” getaway.
10. Where has been your favorite country to date (and yes, you can only pick one)? Thailand. We’ve now spent a collective of about 2 months in the Land of Smiles and we just love it. Specifically though – Koh Samui. We recently just spent 3 consecutive weeks on the small island and for the first time during our travels we thought “we could live here.” The people are so nice, the food is amazing, the beaches are glorious and I’ve never once felt uncomfortable or unsafe. And it’s super affordable! Next year at this same time – we might have a different country in mind but for now? Definitely Thailand.
11. Who is your favorite travel companion? We’re a married traveling couple so the answer is pretty obvious here. There’s not many people we could spend months (or years) on end traveling with. It’s hard to do. Aside from each other there’s just a handful of people we love to travel with (they know who they are.)
12. What type of bag do you travel with? We both only have backpacks. I (Ashley) travel with an Eagle Creek Digi Hauler backpack. I love it because it unzips like a suitcase so it’s not top loading. Plus it has a handy little special area for my laptop. Kile has a 35L Teton Sports Canyon2100 backpack. Works for us!

 

Now for our nominees this year!

Road Unraveled – These two, Stephanie and Adam, nominated us last year and think they deserve to be nominated this year! Not only are they friends of ours but they’re constantly traveling to the coolest places and making traveling a priority when they aren’t working. They definitely deserve some love!

360 Honeymoon – A newlywed couple, Spencer and Candace, have a blog that we just discovered on Twitter and Instagram. They have awesome photos, great traveling tips and seem like people we’d like to hang with. We think more people should know about these two, for sure.

Wanderlust For Two – Amanda and Steve are newlyweds and they seem to have a great idea of what they want out of life. We actually have tons of similarities which is always cool to find with other travel couples. They provide some really awesome blog posts for budget travelers – and we love that!

100 Places 100 Kisses – You’ve got to give mad props to solo travelers. And Cristina is just that – plus? She’s killin’ it! She’s been to 34 countries and counting. She also writes about her experiences dating too. Love the candor!

Llamateurs – These two (Emilka and Pawel) AND their dogs (Narcyz and Lajka) are another blog that we think more people should know about. We like them because their blog is full of personality and they’re quite funny. We look forward to seeing what they do on their adventures!

So fellow bloggers – here are YOUR questions!

1.) What’s the funniest and/or strangest situation you’ve found yourself in while traveling?

2.) What is your favorite country you’ve visited so far? And just like we had to do – you can only pick one!

3.) What are you favorite things to do while traveling (sports, lounging, excursions, etc.)?

4.) How do you deal with or what do you do during long layovers or really long flights?

5.) What are your go-to resources when it comes to booking your flights or places to stay?

6.) Has travel blogging ever rewarded you or provided you with any perks?

7.) What is your absolute favorite part of traveling?

8.) Is there a question people ask or advice that people give to you while traveling that drives you nuts?

9.) Where is someplace you’d like to visit that you haven’t visited yet?

10.) What’s been your favorite thing you’ve eaten while traveling?

 

We look forward to reading your responses! Thanks everyone!