The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

Lots of people keep a travel journal when they travel and in episode 32 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, Amanda talks with three guests about their travel diary habits. Chris Christensen of the long-running Amateur Traveler podcast kicks things off by describing the journalling habits he has learnt from his wife, a hardcore travel journal keeper from way back! After Chris, Amanda speaks with Aggie Lim, who keeps varied travel journals including sketches and all kinds of paraphernalia. Finally, Holly Galbraith talks about how her commitment to keeping travel journals has ebbed and flowed over the years, but like many, she’s happier when she’s got a great record of her travels to refer back to. Links: Try a module of Travel Journal School Chris Christensen’s site Amateur Traveler Chris’s Amateur Traveler podcast Aggie Lim at Drawn to Explore Aggie’s new toy - the Polaroid Zip mobile printer Holly Galbraith’s website Holly’s Tourism Upgrade podcast My first travel journal aged 8 Tweet me @amandakendle Hashtag

In Episode 31 Amanda is talking about the different ways, both good and bad, that the internet has changed travel - how we plan and book it, how we act when we’re travelling, even how much money we spend on it! Jeff Ryan has a great perspective on this topic having spent 28 years gradually hiking the Appalachian Trail in the US. Over those three decades, he has seen the internet change many aspects of how he travels, and he has fully embraced them. Lola Akinmade-Åkerström has, as always, something particularly thoughtful to say about how the internet has changed travel - and Amanda agrees that we need to use its power pretty mindfully to make the most of it. Finally, Mark Wyld rejoices about how the internet has changed the way we book and plan travel - and how it can save us money, too. Links: Jeff Ryan’s author website Jeff’s book, Appalachian Odyssey Lola’s site Geotraveler’s Niche Lola’s post from Ireland - The Farmer Who Inherited a Medieval Kingdom  Wyld Family Travel Episode 21: Pros and Cons of th

It's time for another round-figure episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, and Amanda is celebrating Episode 30 with a random mix of chats with some of her favourite travellers. What do they have in common? They're all talking about topics which start with L and have four letters! That's good enough for Amanda! First up, she returns to the story of Martin Bailey, who moved to Japan pretty much on a whim 25 years ago to work in a lace factory. This move completely changed the trajectory of this life – but it also impressively helped him to become bilingual, thanks to a lot of hard work and determination on his part. Next, at the special request of Amanda's six-year-old son, she digs behind the scenes of the Lego Backpacker by finding out more about how Tom Parsons takes very cool pictures of his Lego minifigures at famous destinations around the world. Finally, Amanda chats with Lola Akinmade-Akerstrom about transitions when moving from place to place (having moved from Nigeria to the United States and th

Whether or not you have any artistic talent, Amanda believes that sitting down and doing some sketching on your travels is a great idea, and in Episode 29 she chats with two travellers who do just that (although it must be said that they both have great artistic talent!). Candace Rardon is an amazing artist who has sketched, drawn and painted her way around the world. She chats about the connections you can make if you sit down in a new place to sketch something of the scene around you. Aggie Lim is a former psychologist and long-time travel-lover who has come to sketching in more recent years, but is completely converted. She chats about the various benefits of taking a sketchbook with you wherever you go. Links: Candace Rose Rardon at The Great Affair Candace’s book on Amazon Beneath the Lantern's Glow: Sketches and Stories from Southeast Asia and Japan Aggie Lim at Drawn to Explore Aggie's Instagram account Tweet me @amandakendle Hashtag #thoughtfultravelpod Chat on Facebook See omnystudio.com/listener

Getting around on our travels can be fraught with both fun and difficulty. In Episode 28 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda chats with fellow travellers who’ve had some hairy experiences while getting from A to B, or have had some problems actually finding B! First up, Stephen Henson shares some stories of getting lost in Germany and China. Despite spending a large amount of time in China for work, Stephen still has plenty of moments when getting from A to B is rather tricky. Following that, Linda and Craig of the Indie Travel Podcast have a great tale to tell of the time they went hiking in the West Highland Way in Scotland. It might even involve some kind of yeti! Jean of The Traveling Honeybird has had some scary moments getting from A to B and her and Amanda discuss those horror taxi rides and other problems with transport on our travels. Links: Journeys with Stephen Craig and Linda at Indie Travel Podcast Craig and Linda at Performance Foundry  Jean at Traveling Honeybird Tweet me @amandakendle

In Episode 27, Amanda covers a very serious question: Are all Aussies tanned and tall? It’s all about stereotypes of different cultures but especially those of people Amanda's countryfolk - Australians. The first guests are Katie and Jeremy Kloberdanz of The Life Bohemian who have all these delightfully nice things to say about Australians (which gets a big thumbs up from Amanda!) Following on from them, she chats with Tom Parson, the Lego Backpacker, and hear about the stereotypes people are discussing in youth hostels across Europe these days. Finally, Amanda talks with her friend Dianne Bortoletto of Travelletto about both Australian stereotypes and how travel broadens our outlook and helps to dispel stereotypes completely. Links:  Jeremy and Katie Kloberdanz of The Life Bohemian website - http://www.thelifebohemian.com/ The Life Bohemian Podcast - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-life-bohemian/id1079385152?mt=2 Tom Parson of The Lego Backpacker on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thelegobackp

Encountering foreign languages when we travel is both a challenge and a joy - and some of us dream not only of learning a few phrases when we travel, but becoming bilingual. It’s definitely not easy to be bilingual but the guests in this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast show that it’s not impossible, either. Amanda starts by chatting with Leyla of Women on the Road, one of those amazing people who can speak a multitude of languages, and treats coming across a new language as meeting a new friend. If you’re considering raising your kids bilingually, then Amanda's second guest, Adam Beck of Bilingual Monkeys, is the man to listen to. He’s got a wealth of information about it and shares a few ways he’s helped his children grow up speaking, reading and writing English nearly as well as their more-native Japanese. Finally, Martin Bailey shares his journey to bilingualism which didn’t begin until adulthood when he moved to Japan to work in a lace-making factory. Links: Leyla at Women on the Road http://

So just how slow is slow travel? We can probably all have some kind of similar idea on what slow travel is - being more mindful with how we spend our time travelling, not rushing around to tick off lists of all the sights, and possibly spending longer than usual in one spot - but how slow is slow? Amanda's guests in this episode all have a different take on how we can travel slowly, and her first one is a real champion at it: Jeff Ryan has taken 28 years to hike the Appalachian Trail! Not all at once, of course, but he has learnt some great lessons from these experiences about travelling slowly. Following this she chats with Jeremy and Katie Kloberdanz who are currently travelling full time and have used this experience to figure out the kind of slow travel that works for them.  Finally, Amanda talks with Lola Akinmade-Åkerström who has quite a different way of approaching slow travel, and one that has a lot of merit, as you can use her strategy even if you don’t have a whole of time to travel. Links:  Jeff R

Lots of people with a deep sense of wanderlust develop it by travelling at a young age, but as Amanda chats about in this episode, it's definitely not the only path to developing a love of travel.  Today she speaks with three guests who love to travel now, but never really got to travel much as kids. First up, Amanda speaks with Lisa Luken who grew up on a farm and didn't do much travelling at all, but who now does amazing road trips with her husband, three kids and their dog. It's really interesting to hear how her wanderlust came to be. Audrey Wanders also grew up without travelling, but her story is a little different, because her parents were definitely wanderers before they settled down to have a family. It seems like she definitely inherited that love of theirs and she has started to travel more and more as she’s got older.Finally, Amanda speaks with Mark Wyld of Wyld Family Travel, a fellow Aussie who does as much travelling as possible - especially to Europe - with his wife and two daughters. He de

Are you an adventurous eater? The topic of food in foreign countries is always a fascinating one and today’s episode addresses it on a couple of different fronts. To start with, Amanda speaks with Lola Akinmade Åkerström, who has built a fabulous career as a travel writer and photographer. One way she approaches foreign food is to get down to grass roots level which has seen her chatting with farmers and getting up very early to go out with fishermen. The next guest is Martin Bailey, another travel photographer who is based in Japan. It’s his decades of experience in Japan that led him to talk about some of the more unusual food experiences you can encounter in Japan, and they are not all experiences that Amanda would like to repeat! Jean Cheney of Traveling Honeybird has also eaten some particularly interesting foods in her time, and she discusses some of the meats she was served up in Mongolia, among other tasty treats she’s seen around the world. Links: Lola’s site Geotraveler’s Niche - http://www.lol

Recently Amanda has started asking her guests about their craziest travel moments, but really, what she's looking for is those particularly memorable experiences that stick with you forever - the kind of stories you tell over and over. The three guests in this episode all have fascinating stories to tell of memorable things which happened to them in various spots across the world. First up is Jeff Ryan, author of the new book Appalachian Odyssey: A 28 Year Hike on America’s Trail. Jeff had a particularly interesting mishap on the trail involving a porcupine. Amanda then speaks with Diana Edelman of D Travels Round about one of those slightly-scary-at-the time, but ultimately life-affirming moments while travelling where you actually end up in completely the wrong place - in this case somewhere in Croatia ... Finally, Tom Parson of The Lego Backpacker reminisces about his experiences on the grand railways of Russia. Tom took the Trans-Mongolian route while Amanda has taken the Trans-Siberian, but they both got

Episode 21 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast is all about the internet. What did we do without it? On the surface, the advent of the internet can surely only be a huge bonus for travellers, right? We can research, book and communicate with so much ease. But as all of today’s guests point out, there are definitely both pros and cons of the internet for travellers. This whole discussion starts when Amanda speaks with Leyla of Women on the Road, as she reminisces on the “old school” way of getting information about the safety of countries long before the internet. Amanda also speaks with Jeremy and Katie Kloberdanz of The Life Bohemian. They are indeed living a pretty Bohemian life, working online as they travel the world, but it’s not always all that digital nomad life is cracked up to be. Finally, Amanda chats with Tom Parson aka The Lego Backpacker, who had some really interesting comments about hostel life since the internet and mobile devices became everyday items. Links:  Leyla at Women on the Road - http:/

The Thoughtful Travel Podcast has reached its 20th episode, and Amanda is celebrating by sharing a collection of special stories her guests have offered that haven’t fit into a particular topic yet, but are far too good not to share. Annalicia Lynn kicks off this episode with some of her fascinating experiences in Taiwan, and in particular some of the more unusual English names chosen by her students. On a completely different tack, Kerstin Pilz talks about two experiences she and her friend had overseas after becoming widows - and while these stories arise from tragic circumstances, these particular anecdotes are ones you definitely have to laugh at. Amanda's favourite guest today is none other than her own father, Barry Kendle. He lived and worked in Papua New Guinea in the late 1950s and has some very interesting stories to tell about his times there, many of which Amanda had never actually heard before.Links: Annalicia Lynn of Yoga and Pilates Online -http://yogaandpilatesonline.com Kerstin Pilz of Trav

In Episode 19 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda returns to the topic of travelling with kids - she's on a mission to prove to everyone that taking kids traveling is beneficial both for the kids and the parents.  First up, she speaks with Bethaney of Flashpacker Family who has several years of experience of travelling with very young children and is certain it has many benefits for them. She provides a great argument against the people who think that because kids won’t remember their travels, it’s not worth taking them. Lisa Luken of Simple Joy Living has taken several long (and many short) road trips with her three children in their quest to visit every state in the US and she has some great tips for taking kids travelling. Her and Amanda also chat about some of the great lessons both the adults and kids have learned from these experiences. And finally, Adam of Bilingual Monkeys tells Amanda how his Japanese-born-and-raised kids enjoy the experience of returning to visit the American side of their famil

 Discovering new cultural norms and comparing them to our own is one of the most fascinating parts of travel and the three guests on Episode 18 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast have all given this issue a great deal of thought as well. First up, Annalicia Lynn describes the cultural confusion she felt when she first moved to Taiwan to speak English. The assumptions she made about the culture based on her own experiences back in the States led her to some uncomfortable moments in her early days in Taiwan. Jeff Sandquist talks about cultural fusion and his experience of Scandinavian heritage as he grew up with in Minnesota, and what he found when he visited Norway and saw Scandinavian culture up close. In another case of cultural confusion, Glenn Shiell describes the issues facing the Japanese ski resort of Niseko with the growing numbers of Australians coming to ski during the Australian summer - and what happens when these Aussies don’t necessarily show quite enough cultural sensitivity. Links:  Annalicia

  Where does wanderlust come from? It’s a question that’s intrigued Amanda ever since she discovered that some people don’t like travelling, others love it despite their parents never mentioning it, and others still (like Amanda) have been led to a life of travel by their parents’ example. In Episode 17 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda talks to three travel lovers who have had their wanderlust sparked by very different things. For Bethaney Davies of Flashpacker Family, it was a childhood babysitter who started it all - after which she became a teenage Lonely Planet addict! The next guest on this episode is Diane Bortoletto of Travelletto, who was somewhat influenced by her parents - although she didn’t take her first overseas trip until the age of 24. Lastly Amanda speaks to Ava of My Meena Life who is a really interesting guest because her wanderlust has only hit her recently - but it’s hit her hard!Links:  Bethaney at Flashpacker Family: http://flashpackerfamily.com Dianne Bortoletto of Travellett

Travel is a powerful tool for so many things but one more way that travel can bring great meaning to your life is by helping you to process grief - and that’s what Amanda's two guests in this episode have certainly discovered. Episode 16 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast features two women who have found travel to be very therapeutic in dealing with grief. Amanda's first guest is Ava of My Meena Life, an American who has temporarily relocated to Germany, and has travelled extensively throughout Europe in the last year. Sadly, Ava lost her father a couple of years ago, but her experiences abroad have been instrumental in helping her deal with her grief about his loss. Secondly, she speaks with Kerstin of TravelPilz, who not only lost her husband about five years ago, but then had her feelings of grief doubled when a devastating cyclone hit her town just weeks after his death. She took off on a journey through Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India as a way to process some of this grief and her story is a fascinating o

Gaining confidence from your travels is just one more great reason to get out there and travel often. In Episode 15 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast Amanda talks to three guests who all agree that travelling has increased their confidence substantially and helped them out in all kinds of ways, including life beyond travel. First up, Amanda chats with Jeff Sandquist of Intentionally Wandering, who only started travelling relatively recently and learnt so much from it - travelling gave him a brand new kind of confidence. After that she speaks with Annalicia Lynn who spent a year living and working in Taiwan and was particularly able to notice how much her confidence had grown when her family came to visit. Amanda's final guest is Candace Rardon, and when they spoke, Candace was spending a couple of months in Norway writing a book about a trip she took to India, which was the kind of trip which pushed her far outside her comfort zone and therefore boosted her confidence significantly. Links:  Jeff at Intention

In Episode 14 Amanda returns to the topic of scary tales from our travels. Frightening experiences can be entertaining, but they also teach us that most travellers simply feel the fear and travel anyway. The three guests in this episode certainly do. Annalicia Lynn is a yoga and pilates instructor who taught English in Taiwan for a year and had some really interesting experiences there - including quite a few frightening ones! Likewise, Glenn Shiell spent some time in China for a conference and ending up having quite a scary experience at the Great Wall, but he lived to tell the tale. Finally, Diane Bortoletto returns with a fearful moment from a trip to Brazil when she became separated from her travelling companion and ended up in a taxi ride through the jungle. But like all Amanda's guests, she lived to tell the tale. Phew! Links: Annalicia Lynn of Yoga & Pilates Online - http://yogaandpilatesonline.com Glenn Shiell of Snowriders Western Australia https://snowriderswa.com Snowriders WA Facebook community at

Slow travel is a real buzz word these days but many travellers have been using slow travel principles for decades - because travelling slowly is a fantastic way to see the world and really get to know it well. In Episode 13 of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, Amanda talks to three different travellers who have all embraced slow travel in their own way. First up is Tim Leffel, who prefers smaller towns and villages over big cities because it’s easier to travel slowly in a place where you can get to know the locals. Amanda also speaks to Candace Rardon, who as a freelance artist and writer is able to really practice slow travel, and she does it both on a daily basis by sitting still somewhere for a few hours to sketch, and planning her trips so she stays places for weeks or months. The final guest today is David Soto Jr who is currently in the middle of his own slow trip in a van around the United States. When Amanda spoke to him he was sitting in his van on an airforce base with his dog Rusty looking on; since