TRAVEL INTERVIEW WITH DAVID LEE OF GO BACKPACKING

David Lee- Go Backpacking

David Lee at Cheetah Conservatory in South Africa

TRAVEL INTERVIEW WITH DAVID LEE OF GO BACKPACKING

David Lee is the bright American behind the highly successful websites GoBackpacking and TravelBlogSuccess. Dave is a travel blogging pioneer and now educates hopeful bloggers on how to build and monetize successful blogs. He started his world travels with a 20-month world tour in 2007-2009. Today Dave talks about his travels past, present and future…

Q1. From 2007- 2009 you traveled around the world for 20 months visiting 22 countries. Sounds amazing! What were your 3 favorite places and why?

 

 

Q2. Are there any places you dislike/ hate/ never want to visit again/ would not recommend? If so, where and why?

Egypt was one of my least favorite countries due to the hassles from touts, and need to bargain for everything (my favorite example being a Twinkie from a street vendor).  My first view of the Nile River was in downtown Cairo, and I was utterly disappointed by the pollution.  Of course it gets better once you head south toward Luxor and Aswan, and despite the negatives about travel there, the Great Pyramids and ancient temples are well worth any traveler’s time.

David Lee- Go Backpacking

Dave on Annapurna Sanctuary Trek

Q3. Amidst all your amazing travel adventures you had a few mis-adventures like getting sick, getting robbed, etc. Did you ever feel really scared, worried or fear for your life? Could you please tell us about one of those experiences?

Travel long enough and you’re sure to have some unpleasant experiences.  I was 3 days into my 10-day Annapurna Sanctuary trek in Nepal when I, my Dutch friend, our Nepali guide and porter stopped for lunch in Sinuwa, a dot of a village 3,000 meters high on the side of a mountain.

I continued to breathe heavily well after everyone else went about ordering lunch.  I laid down on a bench, and started to feel a tingling sensation in my arms that I’d never felt before. Our guide took notice of my state, and started taking my pulse, which drew the attention of a French doctor who was on her way down from Annapurna Base Camp (ABC).  She began to ask me a series of questions, and eventually suggested I was suffering from exhaustion (ie. I wasn’t eating enough to keep up with the amount of energy I was exerting).

My Dutch friend didn’t have a day to spare on the trek, so I had to decide whether to push ahead another day and a half, and thousand meters in elevation to ABC, or stay back, rest, and reunite with the others on their way back down.  Despite traveling halfway around the world for the experience of trekking in Nepal, deciding to put my health and body first, and remaining back was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made.  I still intend to return one day and complete the full trek.

Annual Flower Parade in Medellin

Annual Flower Parade in Medellin

Q4. You’ve been based in Medellin, Colombia for nearly a year now and also lived there for 6 months at the end of your world trip. I noticed recently that many other long-term travelers have visited the city for a chunk of time. Why Medellin? What’s so special about the place? Why does it have particular appeal to western travelers?

Medellin has become my second home.  The city has Spring-like temps year round and sits in a valley surrounded by green mountains. The music, salsa dancing, nightlife, pretty girls, and Colombian culture had me hooked from Day 1.  The same can be said for most Western men that visit.  The cost of living is low, which is why it has become a popular place for expats and long term travelers to spend several months at a time.

 

Q5. What’s the cost of living in Medellin?

The cost of accommodation is relatively cheap for what you get.  I’m paying $250 per month for a room in a brand new 3-bedroom, furnished apartment. This includes broadband Wi-Fi internet access and all other utilities.  I chip in an extra $50 per month for groceries and my Colombian roommate cooks up a storm of local dishes.

A 375ml bottle of local rum will cost you about $8 from a convenience store, and you can usually buy a full bottle for about $30 at a club.  Split that between friends on a Friday night, and you can party all night for $20 or less.

A single ride on the metro (the only in Colombia) costs about $0.90, and a typical taxi ride across town is no more than $5.

wax palms of cocora valley colombia

wax palms of cocora valley colombia

Q6. How much travel have you done since returning from your big round the world trip in 2009? Where have you been and for how long? 

After my RTW trip, I spent 11 months back in the US, and made 4 trips to NYC, one trip to Los Angeles, a week-long trip to Rwanda to trek with mountain gorillas, and most recently, a 2-week trip to Japan one month before the big earthquake struck.  Aside from those experiences, I spent 6 months of 2010 in Medellin, and am spending another 6 months here in 2011

 

Q7. You’re about to relocate to Chiang Mai, Thailand, a small city in Northern Thailand which is very popular with westerners.  So I get the impression you prefer to have a mostly settled life overseas with some traveling thrown in from your home base. Why do you prefer this to the continuous long-term travel favored by some world ‘nomads’ ?

Actually, the post about me moving to Chiang Mai was an April Fool’s joke.  I don’t want to leave South America until I’m fluent in Spanish, and I’m not in any rush to achieve that!  However, after living in Medellin, I realized that it was the perfect cross between the experience of discovering new cultures while traveling and having a certain degree of comfort that you get by settling down or calling a place “home” for awhile.

traditional dancer in rwanda- Go BAckpacking

traditional dancer in rwanda

I doubt I’ll travel continuously for 15 months like I did from 2007 to 2009.  I don’t have the same motivation as I did back then.  Now that I’m supporting myself through travel blogging, I don’t have any time constraints and can afford to take my time and linger in a country I enjoy.

Also, I found that after about 7-8 months of straight travel, I began to appreciate experiences less than when I was getting started.  Everyone is different. For me a 6-month trip would keep the adrenaline flowing the whole time

 

Q9. Dave, GoBackpacking is one of the most successful travel blogs on the web in terms of readership, recognition and earning money with your blog. In 2010 you averaged $3000/ month and you’ve been in the top 20 of ‘Top 100 Travel Blogs’ list for a long time. To maintain this great site how much time to you devote to it? Is t a full-time job or does it run by itself? 

Because I’ve wanted to turn travel blogging into a means to support myself, I now spend much more time working on my blogs than I did just a few years ago.

But much of it is fun, so I don’t perceive it as work.  And I’m also terribly inefficient, spending way too much time on Twitter every day.  I’d estimate I spend an hour or two a day, every day (including weekends and holidays) doing real work (requiring my full attention).

During my RTW trip, I’d be devoting an hour or two per day to blogging whether it was writing or uploading photos to Flickr for use on future posts.  But that was before the rise of social media. Serious travel bloggers now need to be omnipresent on Twitter and Facebook if they want to stay competitive, and that means devoting more time while traveling.

Sunrise over Himalayas- Go Backpacking

Sunrise over Himalayas

Q11. What upcoming travel plans do you have?

I’ll be in Medellin until mid-August 2011, at which point I’ll fly back to NYC for a week to attend a wedding, and then it’s off to Quito, Ecuador to begin exploring the rest of South America.  I intend to visit just about every country and am especially excited to see Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.Q12. Do you think you ever want to live in the USA again? Why or why not?

I don’t know.  I am just now discovering the excitement of living outside the USA, and want to leave myself open to future opportunities to live in other countries beyond Colombia.  Because it’s cheaper to live in a developing nation, I’m able to support myself through travel blogging, and that was the dream I had for myself as I was on my trip around the world.