In December 2010, I was dreaming about traveling and working two jobs—waiting tables and folding clothes at the mall making roughly $20K/year. I was dreaming about the life I currently live a decade later—freelancing and basically traveling full-time. I’m typing this from Chiang Mai, Thailand, my home for the winter. (I’ll never understand people who like the cold.)
People often say I’m “lucky” to travel so much but I always disagree. My life has more to do with relentless persistence, hard work and timing. The last two years were even more proof of this because they were far from easy despite how it looks on Instagram.
While 2018 was a year of growth, chaos and food poisoning, 2019 was—thankfully—more stable.
The year didn’t look too promising when it started off in cold and wet Da Nang, Vietnam waiting for the remnants of a late-season typhoon from the Philippines to pass through. (Ironically, my trip to the Philippines was just canceled a few weeks ago due to another late-season typhoon.) When the rain cleared in Vietnam, life improved overall aside from some hilarious chaos in Bali a month later.
After Vietnam, I went back to Australia—my first trip back since I lived there in 2008-9. That trip was the catalyst for my current globetrotting life. Other highlights of the year included hiking in Utah, photographing whales in Southeast Alaska for most of the summer for work and eating my weight in egg tarts in Portugal. I also spent a month visiting my parents, building furniture with my dad and remodeling a bathroom at their house. Another huge life milestone was getting to interview one of my heroes—travel writer Pico Iyer—for a story I wrote for AFAR.
My first self-published book, Good With Money, has been out for exactly a year! I’m very humbled (and honestly, shocked) by all the amazing press that has come out recently featuring the book and myself as a travel expert including these stories in Forbes, The Washington Post and my interview on the Extra Pack of Peanuts podcast! I would like to sincerely thank you for the support! (I’d love any feedback on the book so please email me: Anna (at) TravelLikeAnna.com)
2018 drained me physically, mentally and financially. It was my first full year of freelancing full-time in a decade and required a relentless amount of work and persistence. Due to work projects falling through last minute, I only made $15K last year but I’m proud to say that I’ve tripled my income in 2019 and replenished the savings that I used last year! (I believe in full transparency, which is why I’m so honest about money.)
Enough about money—here’s a recap of my 2019 adventures and some of my favorite photos of the year!
Portugal
Portugal has been on my travel list for YEARS. I flat out turned down work projects just to be able to spend a month exploring the country this fall while the weather was nice. (Again, I do NOT do winter.) The goal was to visit friends in Lisbon that I’d met in Colombia the year before and travel with two of my best friends who flew out to meet me.
My two favorite memories from the trip were hiking a stunningly beautiful and uncrowded trail on Madeira island, an autonomous region that’s roughly a 90-minute flight from the mainland, with two of my best friends – Rolando and Becky. The majority of the island’s hiking trails follow levadas, a series of irrigation canals developed in the 16th century. The second was paddle boarding to the famous Benagil Cave (photographed above) in rough seas with Rolando who managed to stay dry (along with my camera) while I got toppled by waves multiple times! I literally fell in love with every aspect of Portugal – the egg tarts, the green wine, the castles and picturesque lighthouses on rugged cliffs. (Portugal Guide coming soon!)
Vietnam
My goal in Vietnam was simple – to travel slowly from centrally-located Da Nang to the beaches in the south over the course of a month. (I’d already done the north on a prior trip.) I spent the first week freezing and waiting for the remnants of a late-season typhoon from the Philippines to pass by. (Ironically, my trip to the Philippines a few weeks ago was foiled by another unseasonably late typhoon. Thanks again to climate change.) One of the highlights was all the amazing people I met during the trip! Hoi An and Mui Ne were probably my places aside from the fantastic craft beer scene in Ho Chi Minh. For more from my trip, check out my photo guide to Vietnam and my guide how to get to the Cu Chi Tunnels by public bus.
Bali
While in Bali, I had an epiphany: my life is a Wes Anderson movie filled with awkwardly hilarious moments in beautiful and perfectly symmetrical settings. My week in Bali was so insanely random that there’s no way you could make them up. First, there were bed bugs (my worst nightmare!), then I stepped in a knee-deep hole and almost broke my leg. For the full details, check out this post: Misadventures in Bali. Overall, Bali was stunning though – an interesting mix of Angkor-style temples and Hinduism that were visually different from the temples I remember from my summers working in India.
Alaska
Alaska was haven for wildlife – orcas, humpbacks, sea otters and bears just to name a few. I spent roughly seven weeks in Southeast Alaska working as a photo instructor for Lindblad/National Geographic Expeditions. Tracy Arm, a fjord with twin glaciers, and the iceburg-filled LeConte Bay were my two favorite spots. It was really hard to narrow down my favorite photos for this post since I literally shot thousands of frames.
Alaska was hit by a heatwave this summer—a stark reminder of the terrible effect of climate change on the environment. The typical summer weather is usually rainy and in the 50s, but this summer, it was mostly sunny and in the 70-80s. All of this was bad news for Alaska’s temperate rainforests that rely on usually wet climate to thrive.
Olympic National Park
Since I had to connect in Seattle to get to Alaska, I decided to fly in a week early to visit friends and explore the greater Seattle area a bit more. I borrowed my friend Trevor’s car and got up a 5 a.m. to drive out to Olympic National Park for the day to explore the Hoh Rainforest, which is part of one of the largest temperate rainforests in the U.S. Every shade of green was on display – which I’m sure is what inspired the many shades of green in a deluxe set of crayons.
Chiang Mai & Lantern Festival
Winter is a choice. For the past two years, I’ve chosen wisely and rented an apartment in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Thailand feels like home to me now – I worked here running photo trips and even teaching English during 2009-2013. Last year, I missed the famous lantern festival – the Yee Peng Festival that’s held during the full moon of the twelfth lunar month every year (usually in November). This year I made it a point to be here for it! It was a little chaotic but totally worth it!
Utah Hiking Trip
For the past three years, I’ve been taking annual hiking trips with a group of friends to the Southwestern U.S. Each year, we tackle a different place – last year was Havasu Falls and this year was Zion, Capital Reef and Bryce Canyon. Climate change foiled our plans to hike most of the trails in Zion that were closed due to landslides or flooding from snowmelt when we visited in May. (Snowfall the previous winter was absurdly higher than normal.) While we’ll have to go back to hike the trails we missed, we got to hike the most iconic trail of them all – Angel’s Landing where I shot this epic image of Rolando!
Tasmania
Even though I lived in Australia for a year, I still haven’t seen all of the country. This year, I went back for a nostalgic look at a beautiful place that was one of the hardest years of my life. (More on that in this post!) After visiting friends in Sydney and Melbourne, I hopped over to Tasmania for my first visit. I rented a car for a few days to explore – my first time driving on the other side of the road! One of the highlights was the art-centric MONA Museum – the largest privately-funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. To be brutally honest, I normally skip museums except for the world-class ones like Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology or the Musée d’Orsay (my favorite) in Paris—because 95% of the time I’m disappointed and annoyed I wasted my money. MONA was different – it was quirky, amusing and entertaining. I literally ran back to my rental car to grab my camera just to shoot this installation in one of the cafes!
Cornwall, England
I decided to extend my two-hour layover in England to a week on my route to Portugal. Even though I was just there in 2018, I couldn’t resist another trip. After all, studying abroad in England during college was the start of my vagabond life! My former housemate, Rosey, invited me to Cornwall, the rugged Southwestern tip of the country. It was my first trip to Cornwall, which has quickly become one of my favorite parts of England.
Texas
I spent about three months of the year in Texas for work projects. No matter if I’m in a new place or somewhere I’ve lived for years, I always try to explore. I explored some new towns – Llano, Brenham and Elgin to name a few— and some fantastic barbecue joints. One of the highlights was Snow’s BBQ, which made Texas Monthly’s list of best barbecue joints in the state and their 80-year-old pit master named Tootsie. And, of course, my visit to Peeka Ranch, an alpaca farm in Brenham, Texas. If I ever quit traveling, I’m starting my own alpaca farm.
The Adventures of Alfred the Gnome
If you’ve been following me for a while, then you know about Alfred, my globetrotting gnome. He’s been to six continents with me in the past 11 years. Here’s a recap of Alfred, the globe-trotting gnomes, best shots of 2019! (You can see all of his adventures here!)
Can I pick your brain?
What type of content do you want to see more of on the blog? I’ve got a lot of great stuff planned for 2020 but want to hear from YOU. Tell me what you like about the blog and how it can be better! I appreciate your support and wish you a wonderful 2020!
