From A Wanderluster To The Other Lost Souls

Without a doubt Thailand is one of the most famous and vibrant countries in South East Asia that no backpacker can skip. Within the South East Asia region, it's one of the safest and most developed countries; with good roads although not necessarily good drivers, with a decent connection within the country, a railway network that connects the main cities and most of the country. Last summer, I was lucy enough to explore a good portion of the country, so I'll divide this post according to the regions I went to and the recommendations I consider appropiate. BANGKOK The capital of Thailand, and unnavoidably the fist stop for most South East Asia trips is a beautiful and perfect disaster. It's a massive city, with more population than countries like New Zealand and the unspoken rule for locals to try to rip off tourists. Once you get off the plane, your first duty is to get to your hostel, which hopefully will be near the KaoSan road, for reasons I'll explain late...

About a week ago I started a 2 months adventure backpacking throught the South East of Asia and my first stop was Kuala Lumpur, the main reason is because it's one of the cheapest airports to fly to in the region. Another reason was that there I was to meet two of my classmates from my exchange program in the USA, at UWEC, Yanying and Emelia. I shall mention that Yanying is who I spent the most time with and she made it her personal task to show me Malaysia all the way. First, when you arrive to KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) you can take the KLIA Express that's 100 MYR round trip and takes about 30 minutes to KL Sentral or you can take the bus that'd take about an hour for a lot less money. As soon as I got to Kuala Lumpur, I learnt rule number one the hard way: always, and I mean always, go to the bathroom with toilet paper or tissues. And I don't only stress this because it's not uncommon to become ill with the water or food, but also because normally...

There's a lot to be said about Australia, there's no doubt. However, the one thing that we can all agree on is that it holds one of the most breathtaking ecosystems in the world, one of the 7 World Natural Wonders, known as the Great Barrier Reef. We've seen it so many times, in so many pictures and documentaries that it seems more like a scenery made up by Hollywood than a real place that exists. Even when I arrived to Australia I coudn't truly believe I'd visit the only organism that can be seen from space. When I started planning my trip I realised how overwhelming all the information can be, so I decided to write the most important information discovered on my trip there.  First of all is the issue of diving in the GBR. Many of us never came around to getting certified by PADI so do free diving, but what most good tours offer is an Introductory dive. This means that you'll be with an instructor at all times. Normally you won't be in a group large...

So it's been 6 months since I moved to one of the most curious and expensive cities of the world: Sydney. To be honest, it's been such a busy half year that this is the first weekend in months that I can finally sit on my computer and start writing my little bitácora of the journey of a lifetime.  There's many aspects about Sydney that make is such an interesting city, and I must say this: it's an even weirder city if you're a single gay man, even more so if you're latino. Australia is full of adventures, that's something everyone can agree on. So, why don't we divide this post in the different aspects that make this city make me feel like I'm the sanest person in the world? Work Life: Work in Sydney, and possibly in most places in Australia is what we all wanderlusters must go to if we don't wish to starve to death. Australia is a very expensive country, specially if you're from a third world country where the big sums of mon...

The last month has been the bigger rollercoaster I've ever been on in my whole life. I actually went through with it and moved to the other side of the world, to Australia. I left everything I had built for the past 4 years in Chile and started from scratch. I left my friends whom I loved dearly, my ex-boyfriend whose love haunted me at night and I left my family with my grandpa's about to pass away. I knew somehow if I didn't leave at the moment I would never leave, I loved the three mentioned above with all my heart, but my soul needed the release only traveling would give me. This has been beyond I could ever dream, it's been amazing. I've fallen in love with this city, with opportunities to offer that mae it seem like everything's possible. I couldn't say it hasn't been a bumpy ride. At the begining of my third week here my grandpa passed away, he left the day after I called him on FaceTime. That one really hurt as it being the first time I have e...

Humans are one of the few species in the planet that get to live up to 80 years or 90, if they're extremely lucky. In this new period of evolution, humans do not require to migrate during the seasons. However, for some humans, this primitive instinte has not faded away throughtout the centuries. Some of us spend most of life craving adventure, craving the need to leave our nests and feeling with our own senses the places that most only get to see on pictures.  This rare trait has been named by experts and the people alike as The wanderlust.  The wanderlusters like myself constantly find themselves looking out of the window thinking of the next destination, thinking of that place that will finally satisfy this thrist that only exist in our hearts. We are usually not happy at come, we don't settle for content. Wanderlusters use the tools this new century has granted us to leave home in our twenties only to come back when rest is needed or we need time to plan our next adven...