Its Buisness Time

After a day to take everything in, I think I can finally say, WAHOO!!

Now that Ive got that out my system I ought to say a few words. Firstly to those who have been tweeting, blogging, posting videos and pictures over the last month who didn't make it through, commiserations.

The biggest surprises for me that did not make it through were Amanda Jenkins and Sophie Collard, both great contestants who I thought had done enough to make it through. This begs the question, what the ruddy hell are STA looking for?

It was nice to see some inspiring words from some of the fallen, my favorite was from Elle, who has now responded by going on her own mission to travel the world regardless, this will no doubt help her no end if she fancies reapplying next year. Some guys took it personally and I saw someone delete their twitter accounts to go back to their 'real friends'. Good luck with that one.

For those of us who made it thought to the top 20, well done! Mixed bunch overall I feel. The male-female numbers seems to have been evened out which is nice to see. Certainly twitter followers, YouTube channel subscribers and the application forms have shown themselves to be an aiding factor to get us through to this point. As for the next round, the dreaded phone interview. I am actually quite looking forward to it. We get to talk to the STA guys for the first time, get a feel about who they are and what they have to say. I am currently knee deep in writing my dissertation, but as soon as that has been put to bed I shall get myself nicely prepared for next weeks antics.

I want to say thanks to all the other applicants throughout the process who have shown their support to me via blogs etc. It means a lot to see those comments, but to be honest this is business time, so good luck to all and let the best man and woman get the job.

If your looking for a laugh in these testing times -

Reviewing the Stuff

Here is a review of this week's 'Stuff of the World'.

Day 1- Who said gardening wasn't cool?

Day 2 - BT men in Laos

Day 3 - Ever wondered what its like to bike the coast of Vietnam?

Day 4 - Got an infection in Saigon?

Day 5 - Ever been to Cambodia?

Day 6 - Wildlife of Malaysia? sure!

Day 7 - What's the best beach in S.East Asia?

What did y'all think?

Stuff of the World

Day 7 -

What's the best beach in S.East Asia?

Answer. This place.




Forget Maya Bay (aka the set of 'The Beach') off the coast of Koh Phi Phi, tourism and sadly the tsunami have tainted this otherwise stunning beach. For me there is only one place you ought to see if your on the lookout for the best beach in the S.E Asia, if not the world. Here is the view from a top a rock on the east side, shot by my good friend Justin.






With no official name, the locals call it 'Romantic Beach' or 'Paradise Beach', which as you can see is not a bad attempt.. Accessible by taxi boat or canoe, this beach offers the chance to chill out in awe of the teal seas and the thick jungle.





To get here head to the Perhentains on the north east coast of Malaysia, and ask a local to take you here. You will be met by hovering eagles, and the odd snorkeler taking a well deserved rest. Go here at least once in your life, I order you to !



And once you have had enough of the idyllic surroundings, just head down and have a deserved rest.




The beach at dusk. Guess the tune playing on our ipod dock and win a prise!

Stuff of the World

Day 6 -

Wildlife of Malaysia? sure!

Firstly, like any place hot and far away from home, yes there are spiders. Lots of them!






However these little devils don't linger round all day especially if you head towards to the beach. At which point you might be greeted by one of these bad boys living under your beach hut.



You will be occasionally treated to some unforgettable wildlife that won't have you running to the hills. Firstly, I saw a whale shark this year whilst diving the in the Perhentians. I also got to know Eddie the eagle quite well, a friendly 4 foot tall sea eagle with claws the size of pincher's. The poor blighter had lost the ability to fly, and the locals fed him rats and fish. He became very tame and I found great humor in walking up to tourists taking photos of the beastly looking bird from afar, strike up conversation about how stunning and wild the bird looked, only to waltz over and practically give Eddie a kiss on the beak, much to one American tourists complete amazement....... 'dude your crazy!'

If your lucky you also might get to meet one of these little guys.





Although don't try to eat them, apparently this is very naughty!





And one final tip if your lucky enough to stumble across one of these miniature works of art, they are very difficult to keep still.

Stuff of the World

Day 5 -

Ever been to Cambodia?






Forget the temples, beaches, and the jungle. The people of Cambodia are the highlight!

After at $50 taxi from the boarder to Siem Reap, me and my buddy Dave were invited by our tuk tuk driver to his house party. With little rest and no real motivation to do anything else but sleep, we decided 'hey, whens the next time a friendly Cambodian guy is gonna invite you to his house party?'

So we headed off into the dark, hot Cambodian night. An hour through the jungle clinging for our lives to a moped welded with two extra forks of steal as make shift seats, we arrived at a his house, or should I say hut.




We drank the local brew for hours, feasting on chicken feet and deep fried beetles and sang endless amounts of Cambodian karaoke (which by the way is HILARIOUS). As you can see I had a great time with these guys.



And if you ever get yourself over there, make sure you hook up with the locals, there are super friendly and by far the most hospitable humans you could wish to meet. And hey, if you must go to the temples, get yourself down to Angkor Wat, my mate Dave can rustle you up some great cocktails.

Stuff of the World

Day 4 -

Got an infection in Saigon?


Firstly don't panic.



Find a local who doesn't speak English but understands you need to get to hospital pronto!





Bring a trusty friend and jump aboard.





Wait in the holding area surrounded by injured locals and think about how great the NHS is.





Fancy a fag in the hospital? No problem.





Get four or five not so skilled hands to fix you up.




And then get back to business.




Want to see our short journey to the hospital?

Stuff of the World

Day 3 -

Ever wondered what its like to bike the coast of Vietnam?




There are some amazing roads.




If you break down, there are worse places to do so.



And you just look damn cool. Nothing better than riding into a new town as a troop, on looking backpackers who took the train or bus staring in awe! The best feeling in the world!

Stuff of the World

Day 2 -

BT men in Laos.


Woke up in Vientiane to this lovely gentleman outside my hotel room tweaking the phone lines. Looks safe.

Stuff of the World

Inspired by Lindsay's photo of the day posts, I thought I'd start a series of photo's of people, places and things Ive seen along my travels that I love and admire.

Day 1.

Who said gardening wasn't cool?


This guy is 67 years old, cuts grass and picks up rubbish on the smaller island of the Perhentians (Kecil) in Malaysia. I met him every night for a month in 2008, and on my return in June 2009 he welcomed me back and although unable to speak a word of English, made it very clear he was grateful I returned to his patch. What a character.

One Last Push!

With five or so days until the deadline for the STA WTI hopefuls to finish their application forms, I sat and pondered.

2,500 or so people applied and now we are left with 50 great potential world travelers.

I was surprised to see the form to be so short. I suppose STA at this point are looking for any reason to scrap 30 of us. Lack of PC software experience, travel history and alike all huge obstacles for us to tackle. How can I stand out?

After pondering this question for about an hour over a few martini's in Skippy's, I came up with an idea.

A CV to support my application. 50 down to 20. Desperate measures.

x x

Top 50 Baby!

Firstly congrats to all the other 49 guys and girls (mostly girls) for reaching the top 50 STA WTI. So what do we know.

1. Our videos were awesome.

2. Our blogging has been great.

3. Tweeting hasn't been a waste of time.

4. Those twenty five minutes while the site was down sure was an interesting passage of my life!

&

5. We now must await the application form.

I count 16 lads, and 34 girls. I think this goes to show that girls really are better at juggling two things at once. Or perhaps girls are just drawn to this job more than guys. For what ever reason the ladies really did show their skills off in a big way so well done girls.

50 will very shortly become 20, and I think this round is for sure, THE MOST IMPORTANT ROUND, underestimated by anyone sure to be a perilous decision.

I think its sad that some guys video applications didn't make it through when they had clearly made way more effort than some of the guys who did go through, but hey, votes certainly did count for something.

I think the voting side to this competition is by far the most unsettling part of the whole internship. Its caused the competition to become a REAL competition, resulting in major competitiveness from even the most uncompetitive people (me for one). Its put people through to the top 50 and its caused rivalry (mostly friendly). Our votes have been sheared and I presume at this point we must grasp as many more as we can get. Which is going to be hard. Another challenge is something I'm looking forward too.

What does everyone think now the top 50 are up? Are we feeling good? Nervous? Sad?

My birthday today too, so thanks STA for a great early birthday present.

//discuss

Travel Blogs & Travel Boars

Reading travel blogs of mutual friends, acquaintances and even family, can be a tad tasking at times. Travel blogs on the whole, essentially detail people's day to day goings on during their travels. I Googled myself today and found I appear in travel blogs from people from the US, Canada, Denmark and Norway, mostly referring to when I ran a bar on the Perhentians in Malaysia called 'Bellends Bar', opening cans and skinny dipping every night - aka best time of my life.

But my point is, on the whole travel blogs suck!!

That was until I came across a few good ones. What makes a great travel blog? I believe it is the ability to show off your experiences without patronizing, confusing, over detailing and blurring those experiences.

We know where you are, and if we don't then please don't detail every brick and tile in the style of an Edwardian novelist, we just don't need to know. Don't tell us everything, keep it relatively short and capture our imagination with a funny story, or a tale of adventure. The key is to use all the mediums you can. Carefully selected words, perfect photos to accompany the mood and atmosphere of the location, and certainly include fantastic video. This final medium of video captures for me, the ultimate 'inspiring' hook than any other format can possibly deliver. If a picture tells a thousand words, then how many does a video tell?

A gazillion, that's how many. nomadderwhere.com has caught my attention over the past month for obvious reasons, and I hope you enjoy Lyndsay's blend of clever & educational posts, coupled with stunning photography and the best use of videography with regards to amateur travel footage known on the face of the cyber planet. Cuddo's to you as they say in the US of A cuddo's.

//discuss

A silver fox asks.....

How you been preparing for the next stage if you get through?

It may come as presumptuous and certainly exposing to embarrassment to admit this, but Ive been thinking about the next rounds since I heard about the selection process. I have been studying the STA WTI inside and out, and to be perfectly honest, I'm prepared for rounds 2, 3 and the final if it were to arise already. Yes I have talked to myself on the walk home going through phone interview questions!! (oh dear, first sign of madness).

How you ask? Well without giving it all away, I have sourced locations, key people, and equipment to help me through the next stage and I cant wait (fingers crossed) to finally have the excuse to start replicating magic!!!HAHAHA joking guys.

Any views about the competition so far?

So far its been an amazing ride, if not a ridiculously distracting one. I made my STA WTI video pretty much straight away, which looking back was a great idea. STA travel buzz were first to mention me on their site, and I had the chance to get my hands dirty straight away with a follow up video detailing my day out, which helped me in my video making skills no end. Social networking has been fun, and Ive met a few cool people.

There has been moments when it has caused some stress. Abusive wall post's made to me, and from people pretending to be me. I kinda expected some stick, after all my application video is awesome, who wouldn't be jealous!! haha, don't miss quote me people!! x x

The ride has been up and down, but certainly unforgettable. Strange to think it will be over soon.

Have you been impressed by the other applicants?

Overall I would say the other applicants applications are so varied its impossible to generalise. On the whole, they are AWESOME! Which is of course a bad thing :(. Two clear finalists in my eyes are Sparky and Hazza!!.

I'm glad votes aren't really the main thing anymore too. Slide shows aren't really that cool.

All the best guys. Good luck with Top 50 and beyond.

Peace!

Traval Literature Debate

So we all read travel literature of some description. Before, during or after an expedition of any kind. I have been rather skeptical towards travel books that elaborate the travel 'mindset'. I don't really understand this. What is the travel 'mindset', and should we bother to read these tales of travel in search for inspiration.

I have been really interested recently why we read about other people's experiences. For me, I can barely bring myself to look through people's photo's of their travels let alone read their online blogs or via any other medium.

Since Rusja Foster's STA WTI application video in which she mentions books by Alexander Supertramp and alike which have really inspired her to get out there and experience new and exciting things and really get out of her comfort zone. I wondered if a book or blog has ever inspired me in this way. I like to think its better to do something first. Jump before you look if you will.

My first trip two years ago to S.E.Asia I had cuttings from half a dozen Lonely Planet guide books all carefully cut out and placed in order according to my itinerary, so that every town and country I visited I could read up on and be ready for where ever the next destination may be. Looking back I can only cringe at this mindset, but hey, I was young, naive and a bit scared.

When planning a trip nowadays I just book the flight, talk to a few people and try and get the gist of a place before I go. That way, everything will be a surprise, and hopefully even the bad times will be just as memorable. After all, planning a trip is fun, doing it is up and down, and reflecting and remembering is just as good.

What I want to try and achieve, is to spark off a little debate which will hopefully educate me in what people think to travel literature. Can it really inspire you? Am I missing out on something great? And the traveler 'mindset', what is this?

Cheers x