Welcome to the TravelPod forums

[whereshegoes]

As you may have noticed, the TravelPodium is growing

We have recruited some of our key members to help us help you! I would like to take this time to welcome our new team of TravelPodium Stars!

Our new moderators consist of the following members:

Barrett of Barrett
Jenn of Incrediblelife
Kevin and Sian of kevandsian
Steve of stevejames
Ross of technotrekker
Scott of ScottWoz
David of Uncle Davros

Thanks for your wonderful support, helpful advice and overall travel support. You guys ROCK

It would be great if each of you could post a little something here to let everyone get to know you a bit more. How about you tell us how you found TravelPod and what it means to you?

"In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us." - Flora Edwards

[stevejames]

It would be great if each of you could post a little something here to let everyone get to know you a bit more. How about you tell us how you found TravelPod and what it means to you?

OK Carmella, here we go...

I'm Steve from the UK. I've just arrived back home from my first year-long RTW trip (may there be many more!), during which I visited Japan, China/Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. I decided to write a travelog mainly to keep in touch with friends and family; I looked at a whole load of travel blog sites, and concluded travelpod had the sexiest maps I started writing every day, and everyone said I wouldn't keep it up, so stubbornly, I did... I have an entry for every day of my trip - my Year in the Life. I have a terrible memory, so my travelpod also serves as a permanent reminder of the most wonderful year of my life so far.

Feel free to fire me any questions you have about travelling in the above countries, and I will do my best to help!

cheerio

[technotrekker]

Greetings all,

I don't have too much time to spare in this dodgy internet cafe in downtown Aswan, but suffice it to say it's good to be on-board as a mod and travelpod.com was the only option for my blog after long and extensive searching and evaluation. I was sold on the range of features and like sj, the sexy maps too

Now that I'm on the road I find it great to focus on producing great blogs and pics that readers follow avidly. It's great motivation to keep moving and seeing new things and beats slacking about like many a traveller I meet these days. And the memories will be forever, not just reliant on my beer soaked brain!

I've been a bunch of cool places so if you have any questions, just shoot.

In the meantime, keep trekkin!
TT

[Barrett]

Hi everyone,
Carmella thanks for the welcome.
I returned to Canada recently after 1.5 years of travelling RTW and before that a year of living in NZ. I'm stoked to be able to give something back to the traveller community which is one of the best communities to be a part of. So many people gave me comfort and advice I feel being a moderator is the least I can do.
I've been all through NZ, Oz, most of Asia, the Middle East and half of Europe and across Canada. Happy to answer any and all questions. I am also a big fan of Andrea's 'Traveller's Conscience' forum and you will see me in there fairly often.
If anyone is coming to Ottawa and wants to have a travelpod reunion drop me a PM.
Cheers,
Barrett
My travelogue

[kevandsian]

Hi Everyone,

We completed a RTW trip taking nearly 3 years from Oct 2002 - Aug 2005. Way back in 2002 when I had loads of time to research our trip, I stumbled across a blog written by a fellow TPod member, thought it was a great idea and so we gave it a go.... A great way to keep everyone up to date but on their terms, i.e they can read our tales when it suits them without us bombarding them with emails and they can see our pics. It also serves as an invaluable reminder for us now we're back. We owe Travelpod heaps, it's grown so much since we first joined and it's great to be able to do something in return whilst passing on tips and advice to fellow travellers and planning our future trips from here in Scotland.

Again, if anyone has any questions then feel free to give me a shout.

Sian

Our Travelblogs

[Incrediblelife]

Hey Carm!

Something about ourselves huh? K, here goes...

I came across TP last year after doing yet another trip and having to send out emails to everyone from the road and being very frustrated by the whole thing. A friend suggested TP and after being hooked on Carmella's pod, I started my own and have loved it ever since!

I live in Calgary, Canada which is a mere 3 hrs from Carmella - yet we haven't actually met in person if you can imagine! In the last 3 yrs my traveling has picked up, and am currently in the process of planning my RTW trip with my fiance John who is from Oz.... and no I didn't pick him up along my travels He's been in Canada for 3yrs - a work holiday visa that has turned into becoming a Landed Immigrant (so if you have questions about the immigration process, feel free to ask!).

I've been throughout the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, London, Italy, and East Coast Oz. Not nearly as impressive of a resume as the others, but that is to come! Our trip next year will consist of all of Central America, South America, Western Europe (with some Eastern thrown in for good measure), SEA, Oz, NZ, and I'm working on John for Africa...

I'm a Life Coach and therefore I have been working on my own balance in life between work and travel. My goal is to be able to freely travel and work as much/little as I feel.

If you have any questions, or just want to chat, feel free to drop me a line any time!

Love and light,
Jenn

[ScottWoz]

Cheers Carmella and Hi everyone,

Ok here goes, in a nutshell…

It was a life-changing experience in Africa which put the final nail in the coffin of my old clockwork life – a stable, predictable normality that I chose to sacrifice for one of risk, adventure and uncertainty. My whole outlook and approach to life changed radically. I sold the house, the bike and reduced my entire life down to a few boxes and a backpack. Then I bought a one way ticket and flew over the equator. The rest is online!

For me, blogging is essential. It means I can keep my memories and experiences logged and treasured, and also let friends and family know what I’m up to without suffocating their inboxes. I looked at a few blogging sites before I left and when I found Travelpod they were swiftly put in the shade, I was well impressed.

As my journey’s evolved, so has my travelogue and writing it has helped me in more ways than I ever thought possible. I’ve found one of the great benefits is that it often helps me turn an inner eye and reflect on my life. It’s become more than just a blog, it’s become a way of life. In the last couple of years I’ve seen Travelpod grow immensely and I’m thrilled to be part of the fast growing community.

I’m looking forward to getting to know you guys and it will be a real pleasure to help out wherever I can. I’ve been shown heaps of kindness so far on my journey so there’s plenty of good karma to be thrown around. I’m currently in the South Island of New Zealand and plan to ‘cross the ditch’ to Australia for a good while before scouring more of the South Pacific. By then it should be time to switch continents. Though my method is slow and one of immersion, I’ll be chugging along quite randomly getting up to a whole lot more - country by country - so my travelogue, my life, should be one of continuous expansion. Anything I can help with along the way, please feel free to fire away!

See you around the podium!

[uncle_davros]

Greetings all

Ten years ago, I realised I was going nowhere, so Lucy aka lucinate, and myself, packed up our things and went travelling Europe with our pushies. Being the lucky son of a pair of ten pound poms !!!!! I had both and Aussie and Pommie passport. We settled into the day to day regime of living in London and doing the travelling thing into Europe with whatever means of getting there. Be it a car, motorbike, plane, trains or buses, we went. But we did not stop with Europe. I managed to find the time to see SEA and once back in London, we went to see more of that part of the world.

I managed to scam a job at British Telecom. They paid me loads to do not much and in 2004, I discovered TP and wrote down my memories, and then kept them up to date with all of my travels.

In June, 2005, we set off on our dream trip. We flew to Italy, went through Eastern Europe. The prices had gone through the roof since we were there in 98 and they all now want Euros !!!!! Into Turkey, onto Iran, Pakistan and India. The last of the year was in Nepal. Back into India, we have been travelling around, and then somehow, I contracted Hep E. So, after five days in a private hospital, we jumped on a plane and flew home to Sydney so my Mum could look after me !!!!!

The trip is not over by all means. At present, it is hard to get the motivation together to move, but we have a flight booked for the 1st of April back to India. Then we go to Bangladesh, and so on, and so on.

Quite boring really, but if you would like to find out more, and read really good relevant info about our trip, check out Lucy's blog - lucinate, as mine is just one big story that I make up as I go, (just to keep my friends amused !!!)

Enjoy your reading, and if there are any questions about anything, do not hesitate to drop me aline

David - Uncle_davros

[Caro!]

Well Done guys! Thanks for sharing some words of wisdom in all the forums you participate. Hopefully one of these days I'll be part of the Travelpod Team!
Caro!

[uncle_davros]

My advice is to post posts in the forums and get travelling and keep your blog updated. From what I have seen, the TP team is a group of people of all different ages from different places around the world, and the thing we have in common is the love of travelling and letting people know about it

Enjoy yourself, and if you do need any info, we are all here to help

Have fun

Everyones favourite Uncle

uncle_davros (David)

[whereshegoes]

Well our Moderators have shifted a little over the past year. We have bid farewell to Barrett of Barrett, David of Uncle Davros, and Jenn of Incrediblelife. They all did us proud and we are grateful for all their efforts. Thank you!!! We will miss you ...hope you will come and visit!

In the past few months, we have some new additions such as Lucy of Lucinate, Simon of Siscri, Caro! of Caro!, Jessica of Jessica_CDN, and most recently, Rich of Rbisset and Susie of Wakingdream. If you please, give us a little blurb about how you found TravelPod and what it means to you?

Added to our present team of Kevin and Sian of kevandsian, Steve of stevejames, Ross of technotrekker and Scott of ScottWoz, that brings us to a total of 10 mods in the TravelPodium Mod Squad!

This is what happens when a message board grows with such a helpful and friendly atmosphere! Let's give these mods a hand for being so supportive and generous with their time and energy.

It's been a great year and 2007 is looking to be even more exciting with heaps of new developments!

Happy Posting!

[wakingdream]

I stumbled upon Travelpod first from finding some of Uncle Davros's stories, and became pretty addicted to the sight from then on. I love it here. I feel a great sense of community with the members which really gives this site and these forums staying power. I also find that it's great to have TP as an outlet as well. We can't always be travelling when we would like to be, so it's nice to keep up on current events and read stories about all kinds of different countries from first hand experiences. It's my first time blogging about my travels, though I have always written about them, and find writing is essential to my existence. I see writing very much like photography-another of my passions- where it is moments of time captured forever.

My love of travelling sparked a huge flame from my first trip to Europe with my family, mum and dad being from (the former) Yugoslavia and ethnic Hungarians. I have always been interested in people and their cultures and have found that the more I learned about others, the more I also learned about the world and myself in many ways.
I've travelled around a bit and plan to do alot more travelling! I have been to about 18 countries so far, some including; Peru, Brasil, Mexico, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and my love of loves to date; all of SEA, to which I have travelled 5 times to date, for months at a time, exploring cultures and people and places that have gripped me with fascination. I was married in very southern Thailand, almost 2 years ago this January, and so far was one of my most wonderful experiences there as we were able to share it with many of the locals we call family, and many other Thai friends who travelled from the north to share the day with us.

Thanks for the welcome! I am just getting my bearings around here as a mod, and though it may take a bit of time, I am more then willing to be of any help I can be to anyone!
Happy Travels All!

[ScottWoz]

Welcome to the fold Suze,

It seems like you're doing a gem of a job already, glad to have you around. To think that the members have increased by well over 20k this last 9-12 months is incredible. The future's bright..

[rbisset]

Before I left home to start travelling I was looking for a way to document my trip. I was in the process of setting up a some webspace and playing around with blog software, databases and stuff but it was very frustrating looking for free webspace and I'm too tight to pay for it.

So I had a little hunt around on Google to see what was available and the pick of the bunch by far was Travelpod. After reading a few peoples blogs I realised just how good the site was!

In the space of a few hours I had found loads of interesting places to visit but I have to admit it was the swanky map that sold it for me

So in September last year I set off from London to Tokyo and never looked back. I documented the trip whenever something interesting happened (daily in Asia) and I'm so glad I did.

On returning, with no prospect of travelling again for quite a while, I hit the forum and haven't stop since Looking forward to helping whenever I can until that day when I throw on the backpack again!

[whereshegoes]

Solid. I am so happy to have such positive and bright mods joining our team! I have already witnessed so many members benefiting from both your presence. Thank you!

In the past few weeks, we have had quite an influx of new members and I attribute this to the welcoming vibe that we are all maintaining here. I guess like attracts like, huh?

[rbisset]

I'd like to think it was down to our presence but I think it has more to do with the sexy maps

[wakingdream]

Sure do Carmella! It seems that if travelling is a passion for someone, it is usually quite a strong passion. It's so good to know there are so many wonderful people in our global community!
Yup, the maps sure are sexy!

[Caro!]

Welcome All!!!!

Caro!