In this week´s ¨Who´s Out There Now¨ feature, we bring to you Anthony (Ant) and Elise, who are traveling the world and documenting it all on PositiveWorldTravel.com.  As a teacher (Elise) and chef (Ant), they are diving head first into the world´s cultures…all without a guidebook.  One of the aspects about their blog that I love is that they are using video on their YouTube channel as a way to show others their adventures and what the rest of the world looks like.  So far they´ve been traveling in Asia, but are looking to head towards Europe next. And, if they make it to Colombia, I’m going to make Ant cook for me!

1. So, where in the world are you answering these questions?

Currently sitting in a cafe in Bangkok, waiting for our Indian Visa to get approved.

2. Where did you get the name ¨Positive World Travel¨? Did you notice a troubling amount of ¨negative¨ world travel out there?

Not necessarily ‘negative’ world travel, but we wanted our website to define how we want to travel around the world. We want to impact a country or culture as positively as possible; we want to have positive interactions with locals. We feel, as travellers that we come and go so rapidly that we need to also give back in positive ways when visiting foreign countries and most of all we always try to do it with big positive smiles on our faces!

3. You started blogging long before you left Sydney. Why didn´t you wait until you hit Borneo in January?

Since it has been our first time to ever blog we wanted to get some practice on how to write and what our styles are. We also we did some blogging on some of our favourite places in Australia so we get reminded of what a beautiful country we live, but also to let others know too!

4. So, you hadn’t been on the road a week before you got a foot scrub.  Was your transition to traveling that hard on your footsies or do you just prefer a pampered backpacking approach?

Our footsies didn’t need a break, but we both love to get a massage or foot scrub or two and especially in Asia it is so cheap! We saved for about 3 years for our trip and worked really hard, so when we can indulge on our holiday why not?!

5. Career break, nomadic adventure, backpacking, how do you characterize your trip?

Can we be all three?! We both quit our jobs to go travelling and we have no plans at ‘bunking down’ somewhere for a period of time, so our lifestyle is quite nomadic and we are doing it on a budget to make our money last as long as possible so backpacking is how we travel! It’s a mix of them all! We just go with the flow and do what we want, when we want!

6. What are some of the secrets to travel that you´ve discovered that you think more people who aren´t traveling should know?

Patience. Definitely. Both of our jobs back in Sydney required varying levels of patience and we both considered ourselves as patient people. Yet, travelling really makes you not ‘sweat the small stuff’. There have been so many times when buses have been late, accommodation has been cancelled and we have gone on wild tuk tuk rides where there is nothing much you can do except shrug your shoulders and say ‘eh!’.

7. Not surprisingly, you showcase the food you´ve been enjoying in your World Food section via great photos and videos.  How important is food to your overall travel experience?

We LOVE to eat! Anthony will try anything once and as a chef he really appreciates preparing good food and fresh ingredients. While we don’t go out of our way to try every exotic food we will sample and eat at most of the time at street vendors who always dish up tasty and cheap food.

8. What was your first ¨We´re not in Kansas (Sydney) anymore¨ moment?

We have both been to Asia (Thailand) many times before, but every time it still takes some getting used to the amount of people everywhere (as well as the amount of electricity work bunched all over the palce!) A very surreal moment was when we were in Hanoi, Vietnam and we were taken back by the amount of Motorbikes everywhere! Crossing the road takes on a whole new level of skills in that city!

9.  What’s been your most ¨local¨ experience so far?

We bought a motorbike in Vietnam and travelled from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City so we were able to stop at small towns along the way. It was such a good way to travel the country. There were many times along the Ho Chi Minh Trail where we would stop in at a small village for an iced tea and the women would always bring out extra food and snacks for us. We would often chat to them in the little Vietnamese we knew and they were always so happy and would never let us pay for anything. Small local moments like these make our trip.

10. What has been your most embarrassing moment?

Falling into a rice paddy in Vietnam off our Motorbike. We were trying to get to another road rather than the one we were one and the only way to get there was through a muddy road in between two rice fields. It has recently been raining so there were puddles and mud everywhere! Needless to say our little bike ‘bullet’ couldn’t handle it and we fell off the road deep in the mud of the rice paddy below us!

11.  What’s your secret for getting the most out of your journey?

Appreciating every moment. Whether it is sitting on a beach in Southern Thailand or waiting for a bus in rural Laos for 6 hours each of these moments will be remembered and we often gain or learn something from then (whether it be a sun tan or patience!)

12.  You don’t have your itinerary on your site. So, what´s next on your itinerary?

We don’t have one on our site because we are constantly changing where we are going. For example, we had originally planned only 3 months in South East Asia, yet, 7 months later here we still are! We are about to make our way to Southern India then hopefully off to Europe for ski season.

13. Finally, our lightening round.

• Best dish you’ve found so far
  • Ant: BBQ herb stuffed local duck in Vietnam
  • Elise: BBQ marinated chicken wings in Borneo
• Most exotic food eaten
  • Ant: Snake, Cockroaches, Spiders
  • Elise: Not really exotic, but I have enjoyed eating all the wonderful and tasty fruit in Asia. I’m not as brave as Anthony!
• Most breathtaking moment
  • Ant: Scuba Diving at Sipadan Island, Borneo and being right in the middle of a school of Barracuda.
  • Elise: View along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam.
• Biggest disappointment
  • Ant: Nothing, only overpacking and then sending a lot equipment home
  • Elise: Meeting some unfriendly people along the way-although I guess that’s part and parcel when you travel.
• Most memorable place
  • Hands down, Vietnam. Amazing country.
• Most memorable person
  • Ant: His name is Qui, a young child who is a street kid in HCMC that entertained every tourist who walked past. He had pure charm; we ended up donating our motorbike to him and his family.
  • Elise: We met a man in Chamcar Bei in rural Cambodia. He had nothing and was working towards building up a small plot of land so he has crop to sell at markets to support his wife and 8 kids. Insipring.
• Best thing to have on a long bus ride
  • Ant: Socks – they blast the air conditioning on long commutes it gets freezing!
  • Elise: Eye Patch
• Worst thing to have on a long bus ride
  • Ant: Not enough leg room – I’m 6’2
  • Elise: Travel Sickness/Crying Babies
• Best thing you packed
  • Ant: Earplugs
  • Elise: My Merrell thongs-so comfy!
• Dumbest thing you packed
  • Ant: Tent – we sent it home after 2 months
  • Elise: I have this shell clip thing for my sarong. Never even used it!
• Funniest travel habit your partner has
  • Ant: Elise always tries to get into taxis with her backpack on and is convinced she can fit in with it on!
  • Elise: Anthony has exact places for EVERYTHING in his bag all sectioned off and just so. He has a photographic memory of each item in his backpack!
• Place you wish you could´ve stayed longer
  • Koh Rok, Thailand. However we have no strict itinerary so we stay as long as we want to in each place and get Visa extensions if we need to! We are very lucky!

You can follow Ant and Elise online at PositiveWorldTravel, on Facebook and on Twitter @PositiveTravel.

Every week, Career Break Secrets profiles a different traveler or traveling couple who are embracing the ¨Because Life Is Out There ^TM¨ travel spirit.  These are people who have taken the plunge to embark on a career break and are currently traveling the world.

Related posts:

1. Who’s Out There Now: Jaime and Martin
2. Who’s Out There Now: Family on Bikes
3. Who’s Out There Now? Simon & Erin
4. Who’s Out There Now? Felicity & Marco
5. Who´s Out There Now? Amar

Tags: career break advice, career break travel, travel advice, Who´s Out There Now

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under Jeff's blog, Who's out there now?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.