Background
I started this blog on the advice of my accountant, who stated "Dude, you travel, post that stuff, you'll be rich". Well, so I did. I have not gotten rich. No no no, far from it. But what happened over the years of travel is it started from a necessity for work to a way of life. As Newton stated, an object motion stays in motion, and for the last 5 years, I have been that object now to just go places.I am a traveling consultant, 18 years a top tier frequent flier. Lifetime Marriott Titanium, no longer a Marriott Ambassador (Oh the sadness), Hilton Diamond. I am also an affiliate of various travel brands, so some of the links to external sites might include my affiliate ID that helps me defray some costs of travel and this blog (actually the amount has been so small it's almost not worth mentioning), but regardless my blogs are still my honest thoughts on places.
While traveling, I get tons of hotel points, airline miles, and this allows for special treatment as I jaunt to various locations. I am the grand nephew of John Clouse - Former worlds most traveled man, and I guess it's just in my blood. Admittedly a lot of my experiences are pretty far off the charts to what many people might experience (I do feel most of my experiences are attainable by people if they save miles and plan accordingly, this is approachable luxury). I do rather enjoy the high end treatment, but it doesn't mean I am a snob. Far from it.
I have stayed over 3000 nights in hotels around the world, over 130 properties, many countries, 1400? flights. Maybe more... that one I lose count of as it's not easy to lookup. Given that, I tend to stick to OneWorld Flights and Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt Properties. You will notice my trips skewed in that fashion. I do have a particular affinity for JW Marriott's. I find them the best value for the dollars spent overall.
My passions are traveling well to exotic locations, staying comfortably when I get there, meeting up with friends I have made for drinks, seeing places I find interesting, and hot wings.
My Blogging Mantra
I blog places that excite me, so traveling well (special airline lounges, premium cabin flights), interesting locations, nice hotels (and I try to also do a video of really top of the scale hotels), excellent places to have a drink which usually ends up being a rooftop bar, and chicken wings.So far over 5 years I have spent more money than I care to remember on my blog, the last 15 years so much on travel, and it has generated about $75 back, so obviously this is not a money maker for me but an exercise of passion.
My Travel Gear:
- Mac Pro 2013 - 2tb SSD drive, 64gb ram, dual 27" Apple Cinema Displays. A very pleasant, older machine that still just kills it, to work on my videos and posts.
- iPad 10 with external SD card for photo uploads. Apps to access and work with my blog while abroad. It does the job.
- Western Digital EX4100 external NAS with a 16tb RAID for Timemachine backups and a 18tb RAID for storing my videos and other items permanently. Rob got sick of HD crashes losing his content.
- Bose QC3's On the ear noise canceling headphones. Had them for over a decade. They are not the newest, nor probably the bestest, but they do a great job.
- Sony a7rII 42mp digital camera. I've never seen such astounding color capture before on a digital.
- My Travel Bag! Connections are unavoidable how I travel and I take Multi-day flights to get to places, this bag, has all my needed items to be presentable and refreshed on those 45 hour flights to Asia with toothpaste, moisturizers, etc.
- My Victorinox Werks Traveler 5.0 22" Two-Wheel Carry-On. I am not a fan of spinners, and this gives me 2 more inches of storage space (which computes out to 3 square feet of volume) inside. It's stupidly rugged, holds easily 5 days of clothes. Fits in any USA overhead and all International big boys (777, 767, A330, A350) overheads. As I change planes and hit the showers in the airline lounges, everything I need is in here. I would be dead without this.
- My International currency. As you can see I have a lot of different currencies onhand. Never go without some local cash for a cab, train, etc. Invaluable for convenience.
- Ear Plugs - Macs. Period. They are soft, stay soft, and expand in your ear quite awesomely to block out all the noise.
- Advil PM. 8 hours before landing, I pop one, only one. It kicks in and I am out until about 1 hour before landing. Critical for time-readustments.
- My Neck Pillow - Cozy Hut Easy to Carry Memory Foam Travel Neck and Cervical Pillow, I only use it for my neck... Not always able to get First or Business class internationally at $10k each way fares! This makes Premium Economy tolerable.