GLOBAL NOMAD// For the Independent Female Traveler

Maybe you’ve got some vacation time to kill, or maybe the Canadian winter is making you mental and if you don’t see the sun again soon you’re going to snap. You want to go somewhere — the challenge is figuring out where. Sometimes I find the best approach is figuring out where not to go. To read the full story, click here.

Photo Credit: iStock

Choosing a career as a freelance writer isn’t something you do for the money. In fact, you’re essentially relegating yourself to the lower echelons of the CCRA income tax scale. So, considering this, people often ask me how I can afford to travel. Nope, I don’t have a sugar daddy, and I’m not living off an inheritance. And yep, I have a mortgage. Here’s what I did… To read the full story, click here.

Photo Copyright @ 2011 VH Media

So you’ve booked a flight to Thailand, and now you’re hearing news reports about protests in Bangkok. What do you do? When traveling to destinations where political or social unrest may occur, it doesn’t mean you have to cancel your trip (or spend the entire time holed up in your hotel room). To read the full story, click here.

Photo Credit: Keith Bacongco @ Flickr

I remember how, when I took off for a year of backpacking — which turned into three years — that people commented on how lucky I was to take such a long “vacation.” Aside from the fact I was still working as a freelance writer, it was hardly what I would call a vacation, and there were many times when I seriously questioned my sanity. Like one Christmas Eve I spent alone in a Cambodian village with a schoolboy following me around town on his bike, masturbating. Yeah, good times. To read the full story, click here.

Photo Copyright @ 2011 VH Media

People often ask me why I travel. It’s a simple question, but one I find almost impossible to answer. The answers sound lame: I like to meet new people, step outside my comfort zone. All true, of course, but there’s a lot more to it than that. I can think of a lot of reasons why one shouldn’t travel — if you’re trying to run from your demons, they’ll find you, even at the height of the Himalayas or the depths of the Amazon Basin. Funny thing about demons, they’re even worse when you have to face them alone in remote, foreign lands. Read more »