How I Started World Travel

You asked me how I got started as a world traveler.

This is what happened.

It was a solo trip to Italy and Spain in 2004 and then meeting my Son in Nepal and teaching photography to the Nepal Youth Foundation’s faculty that spun my world upside down…

And suddenly I was never the same again.

Starting World Travel in my Mind

Being 4 years old was the beginning of my dream to travel the world. I didn’t know how I’d do this. But doing it was important.

Exploring the world and meeting people I didn’t know yet; I’d discover my heart’s calling. This truth was a secret in my soul.

So finally when I was old enough to have a teenager and make my own money I started to realize maybe I could live this dream at age 47.

And this is the introduction to my 2nd book, Kitten Heels in Kathmandu, Adventures of a Female Vagabond, I finished writing in my rented home on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Check out the book here.

So I was sitting around one day; my work was done, my bed was made, and I noticed there was no one to make dinner for.

My son was riding camels in Morocco on his own dime, when suddenly light entered my brain.

I need adventure and the unknown! If he can do it at age 17, I can sure as hell do it.

It should be easier for me. I’m older than him.

So I took my first three-week vacation to Italy and Spain after 15 years of doing only week-long escapes or less.

The Italians I met said I was plumb loco for waiting so long. They checked my head for fever and suggested there may be cellular damage.

But I had an epiphany in Florence, walking under an umbrella in the rain. I was ready to leap into life and not look back. I felt utterly at peace. And so happy I didn’t want to ever leave.

Each hour was a blissful state of not knowing what would happen next.

So I took my hands off the steering wheel and let the journey take me.

I was happy being hit on by handsome men in Italy. Probably would have married one of them if I’d stayed another week. One man’s dimples were divine. I swam in them with my eyes.

This was just the beginning.

My son then informed me he was going to Asia for nine months. No problem I said, as I cried into my pillow.

But I wiped away my tears and decided to take the world by storm and live a life I was excited about.

Wandering the world was a cherished dream but how to start this lifestyle?

One thing was certain. I raised my son to be adventurous and to express his heart’s desires. To reach out to the world and love it.

He flew over oceans, continents, and the Himalayas; spreading his wings so wide it felt like an umbrella for me and the wind caught me and I floated like Mary Poppins.

It carried me to Kathmandu Nepal to teach photography to the kind-hearted faculty of the Nepal Youth Foundation. Thank you Olga Murray!

More about this life changing trip to Nepal here.

Kathmandu felt like third rock from the sun.

Everything was different; the light, the food, the faces, the language, the clothes. The way people worshipped God. It changed my life and made me see my purpose.

I was off and running. Drunk on my own freedom.

And continuing to take 6 to 10 month solo trips every year. Traveling around the world twice. Buying one way tickets along the way. Teaching and traveling in 27 countries.

Suddenly I knew this was not just a trip; it was my life.

So I sold my car, all my furniture, stuff, and even my vintage red motorcycle jacket. I gave the rest away.

No more stress, insurance, car maintenance or rat race. Poof – all gone.

It was liberating.

Now I’m a professional vagabond. I teach photography worldwide, shoot for businesses, non-profits, and ex-pats. I teach writing, kundalini yoga, and meditation, play with people, and love elephants. My title?

I’m an artist and CEO of Fun. Projects find me, travelers want to learn photography and yoga, and invitations arrive for me to volunteer my skills.

World Traveling: It’s a big wide world full of people who need help and inspiration.

I used to spend over $500 a day on vacations in the 1990s. I drove a new car, bought cashmere and silk clothing, lived in a swank apartment, and regularly went out to eat and drink at posh places in Silicon Valley AKA Palo Alto.

Working incessantly, I could afford this style of living.

But now I spend $1000 to $1500 in a month and live a happier, richer, and simpler life.

You don’t need a car in third world countries. Why? Asia is notorious for providing low cost and high quality transportation for everyone.

Yes, it can be colorful to sit next to a large box of baby chickens with a fresh caught flounder at my feet on a local bus in Ecuador.

But it was memorable.

Starting world travel and going solo has made me stronger. It’s a learning eye-opening incredible journey. I’d never be growing like this if I stayed at home stuck in the safe and swank suburbs.

Now I meet dynamic people from all over the world and my eyes are pried open and wits sharpened. I’ve learned how to trust my gut with unflappable certainty.

And now I can sleep on a plank with my camera as a pillow or under a table at the airport after a cancelled flight with my backpack bolted to my thigh and just to be certain, a table leg as well.

Squalling babies and rock-hard mattresses don’t annoy me; air turbulence lulls me to dreamland.

Traveling into the unknown has transformed me on a cellular and spiritual level. I no longer see life as black and white.

There are a lot more gray areas and I’m not just talking about my hair. I’m talking about being opened up and changed by new people, foreign money, fresh ideas, and new spirits.

And I’m not in a rush anymore. Now I just wait. The answer will come.

Sometimes I want to be alone with my own soul to see what’s in there. I never know what I’ll find so I’m just letting it be.

Letting the world come to me as I quietly get on a plane and fly to a new country. Then hitting the ground running and traveling overland to feel the energy of the place bubble up from the soles of my feet into my heart and explode out the top of my head.

How will I change from it? I never know.

This is why I travel. Not only to take photographs and capture a place on film. But to know myself through the eyes of a different world: the rarified air of a new culture with new customs, new souls, and new faces.

And food I can’t identify but it sure tastes good.

The best places never seem to be in the guidebooks. They pop up in a friendly face, an accidental discovery, or a change of plans. Nothing is set in granite and that is also why I travel to see that everything is impermanent. This could all be over in an instant.

We could die suddenly, get sick, or be annihilated.

If the world is going to hell in a hand basket why not see it before the basket breaks?

Living outside the USA I stop thinking about myself all the time – it’s exhausting. And reaching a hand out to someone who needs it is fulfilling.

There are worlds to discover in our own souls. Digging with a big shovel here to reach those new layers inside me. To change and to keep on changing.

So I’m rich with experience, seeing how the world lives out side my former bubble of a life devoted to the almighty buck, cashmere, and comfort.

And through out my life I’ve been stupid, smart, well off, broke, mocked, and loved. And I’ve learned something from every damn second of it.

Life has been an astounding education:

Being a professional photographer

A published author of 6 books

A hitchhiking hippie

Teaching Buddhist nuns how to do kundalini yoga in Nepal

Leading programs at Apple, Intel, and Stanford University in the USA

Photographing the Dalai Lama in India

Riding elephants bareback in Nepal

Learning how to surf, ride a motorcycle, and scuba dive

Living in a home for abandoned people in Argentina

Exploring the Himalayas and the Andes,

Teaching and shooting photography in humanitarian foundations, a swank boarding school and ashrams in India, nunneries in Thailand and Nepal and in my own private retreats worldwide.

Being on an open-ended worldwide adventure; I’m grateful for the blessings and every moment of the ride.

I didn’t set out to have a nomad life. This life found me. But when it did I was ready to take the leap.

Kitten Heels in Kathmandu is not linear – you can pick it up anywhere and just read it.

Even in the bathtub.

May you enjoy the fun, frivolity and at times daunting adventures of a world traveler.

Write and tell me your thoughts.

Going to Nepal? These are hotels I recommend as I’ve stayed in all of them.

Get in touch if you need more help with your journey to Nepal, I’ve visited 6 times. Consultations are 30 min to 60 min, one on one. You’ll learn a lot and get all your questions answered!

Friends Guesthouse

Shiva Guesthouse 

Kathmandu Guest House