Hi, I’m Anna.
Originally from sleepy Suffolk in the UK, I’m a crazy dreamer with an insatiable desire for travel and adventure who could never settle for an ordinary life or conform with the norm.
After graduating from uni and ‘selling my soul’ as a corporate slave I started to feel like I was wasting my life sitting behind a desk working for someone else’s passions and dreams. I thought that there had to be more to life than this!
But still, most of the time I thought it was easier just to carry on with the routine and the daily grind than it was to take the leap out of my comfort zone and run off to explore the world, I kept telling myself ‘one day’, ‘once I’m ready’, ‘when the time is right’.
The turning point for me was when I was told I had a detached retina and had to have an operation on my eye. It was the jolt I needed to realise that life is far too short to put off things off until ‘the right time’, or not make the most of every day. You never know what might happen tomorrow.
So after the operation I made up my mind to take control of my life, to live it the way I wanted not the way that others thought that I should.
I saved like mad for the next 18 months and then quit my job and left the UK in December 2012 to follow my dreams of a life of travel – to make the most of my precious time on earth.
I have since travelled slowly and mostly independently through much of India, Southeast Asia, Australia and Europe and along the way I built this travel blog to share my story and help others.
Read More: My Journey to a Life of Full Time Travel
Why I Travel
I believe that travel is more than simply sights, selfies, and sunshine – I believe that travel, and the lessons you learn from it, can really change your life for the better.
I travel to grow as a person, to meet others who inspire and educate me, and to (hopefully!) do the same in return, to have my life enriched by the beauty and diversity of this amazing world, and to have my eyes, mind and heart opened wide.
I travel to make the most of my time on earth, to make every day count. Instead of counting down the days until the weekend or to a 2 week vacation – because life is simply too short for me to live it any other way!
But most of all I travel for freedom – to live life on my terms, to be in charge of my own destiny, to give myself the biggest luxury – time. Time to pursue my passions, dreams and ambitions instead of spending my years daydreaming out of a rain streaked window while working towards someone else’s dreams.
My Travel Style
Although I am self confessed travel addict I do not travel just to rush between the famous sights, ticking off a bucket list – I don’t find this kind of travel fulfilling. I like to travel slow, to experience, understand and immerse myself in different cultures and to learn from them.
Instead of days I often spend weeks (sometimes even months) soaking up everything a destination has to offer, meeting the locals, chilling out in beautiful, secluded areas, and looking beyond the tourists traps to get a real feel for the place.
I like to travel on one way tickets whenever possible and to be open and able to be spontaneous. To allow time for those chance meetings and random events that only happen when you take it slow or get lost! These random events so often become the highlight of my trip.
How I Afford to Travel
Many people think that travel is simply too expensive to be a viable lifestyle choice. Of course, to travel long term you would need a small fortune if you wanted to stay in luxury hotels every night – but the reality is that living a nomadic lifestyle is much more affordable, and achievable, than many people think.
Of course, I had to make sacrifices to save the money I needed to break free, I have to be careful with money and I work hard while I travel – but there are many ways you can travel for free, or even make money while traveling, and there are many destinations where you can travel comfortably for under US$50 / £40 a day. Don’t let money worries put a hold on your travel dreams.
Nowadays, I’m a little older and wiser and no longer a shoestring traveller. I’ll choose the best places to stay based on their value, not their price tag. I guess I would call myself a flashpacker – a kind of boutique backpacker and more recently – a digital nomad.
A Flashpacker has the same adventurous, independent spirit and lust for travel as a traditional backpacker but with a higher budget. Generally Flashpackers travel independently and look for adventure and unique experiences, often taking the same trail as backpackers but with a bit more money to spend.
Good value for money is important (especially when traveling long term), but so is style and comfort. Sometimes spending a little extra on a flight to save a long, bumpy bus ride, checking into a character filled boutique hotel, or going on an off beat tour to really experience the best of a destination is worth the extra money for a more fulfilling travel experience – that’s what it’s all about after all!
For example, I love to stay at a heritage hotel where I feel like I can connect with the local culture and history in comfort, but I also like to stay in a backpacker hostels when I want to meet other travellers. I love traveling by train, meeting locals and seeing the landscape go by ,but sometimes I’m also happy to pay a little more to save time.
I’m happy just wandering around a city, exploring quaint lanes at my own pace, but I also love to have a local guide who can show me all the off beat secrets and bring a city to life in a way that would be impossible alone.
And I would hate to miss out on once in a lifetime activities, like diving the Great Barrier Reef or ballooning over the temples of Bagan, but I’m quite happy to take a local bus or eat street food as it gets me closer to the local culture and saves me money for other things – perhaps you could call it luxury backpacking!?
And I’m sure I’m not alone in this – I mean how many travellers hit the road without a smart phone? Do you check the price of the flight before deciding whether to take that 14 hour bus ride? Are you happy to pay a little extra for a more comfortable stay instead of staying at the dingiest and cheapest hostel? Do you splurge occasionally on a sunset cocktail at a swish rooftop or beach bar?
Becoming a Travel Blogger and Digital Nomad
When I first starting traveling terms like ‘digital nomad’ and ‘remote workers’ weren’t really a thing but nowadays I guess I would call myself a digital nomad as I work online while I travel but I was never chasing some digital nomad dream I saw on Instagram -because it wasn’t even invented yet!
After I began traveling full time I was so inspired by what I saw and the lessons I learned that I started writing and blogging about it for friends and family to read back home but it wasn’t long before I started getting messages from readers all around the world. I started the blog because I hoped that, by showing all the incredible experiences and lessons learned from long term travel, I could inspire others to make their dreams a reality too.
I started this site as a simple wordpress blog while I was on my first backpacking trip around India and Southeast Asia in 2013. After my working holiday in Australia I realised I needed to find a way of making money online so that I didn’t have to go home back to a soul sucking corporate job so I started researching ways to make money while traveling and online and realised that I might be able to make enough from my blog to sustain my travels.
So in February 2014, I launched this website, Global Gallivanting. I’m often asked what does ‘Gallivanting’ mean? Well, it means ‘to roam or travel for pleasure.’ People told me that I should get a proper job instead of gallivanting around the globe and that’s where the name Global Gallivanting cam from – and nope I haven’t had to get a proper job yet! 🙂
My original goal was to make $1000 a month, enough to live comfortably in India or Southeast Asia at the time, but it took a long time to make a full time income from the blog alone. At first I mainly relied on freelance writing, blogging has been a bumpy road, with a lot of new skills to master and constantly changing technology and algorithms.
To be a travel blogger you need to be good not just at writing but also photography, website design, SEO, marketing, social media. The list goes on and on …… you need to master a lot of skills to be a professional travel blogger.
The main reason I can still afford this lifestyle after more than 10 years is because I am constantly reinventing myself and have built multiple income streams. I started off with freelance travel writing, and then made money with advertising and affiliates on my travel blog.
I also now work with tourism boards and travel companies, offer travel and itinerary consultancy and am working on adding products like travel guides and maps in the future.
Read More: How I Afford to Travel (and loads of tips on how you can too!)
Living in Goa, India
Even though I set out to travel full time, it’s too exhausting to be constantly on the road all the time, especially when you are working or trying to build an online business.
Anyway, most people who travel full time or are digital nomads experience burnout after a few years. I travelled full time for about 3 years until I got more settled in Goa, India where I spent at least 6 months every winter there for over 10 years.
This gave me more grounding than the average traveller or digital nomad and gave me time to write, make friends, become an expert on Goa, and feel at home there. Living in Goa gave me a great balance between traveling, being immersed in another culture and working.
The heavy Indian monsoons coincided with European summers so then I would travel for 6 months, usually to Europe or Southeast Asia, but I’d always end up feeling drained and home sick after 6 months and looking forward to going back to my little house in Goa.
Now, with changing visa stay restrictions for India, I’ve spent a lot of time in Thailand, living in many places for a couple of months each and enjoying exploring this amazing country and writing in depth travel guides too.
My Favourite Travel Moments
My Favourite Travel MomentsI’m often asked about my favourite destinations, but as, for me, travel is also about the experiences rather than counting countries or ticking off sights – I’ve complied a list of my favourite travel moments instead:
Since Dec 2012, the highlights of my life of full time travel include;
- Living in Goa, India
- Getting lost in Vietnam, sleeping in a wooden shack and eating caterpillars
- Attending a stranger’s wedding anniversary party in a village home in India
- Working in an outback pub in Queensland, Australia and living and traveling around Oz in a campervan.
- Feeling transformed after my first, life changing, trip to India
- Exploring the amazing ruins of Angkor Wat and falling totally in love with Cambodia,
- Interrailing for a month around Europe
- Climbing in through a hole in the wall to explore the abandoned, UFO like Communist Party Buzludzha in Bulgaria
- For all the best blog posts, stories and my favourite destinations check out my most amazing moments and travel highlights so far …
Travel Has Been Life Changing
More important than the sights I’ve seen, is the change that has occurred in me. I know it sounds cliché but it’s true – travel really has changed my life!
Travel has made me happier, less stressed and more confident, I’ve learned new skills, made more friends that I can count and most importantly of all I learned that the world is not a scary place, that people all over are inherently kind and I am constantly overwhelmed at the kindness of strangers.
Even though I’m not hopping from one place to another every day anymore, my life is still all about travel and the more I see the longer my bucket list grows!
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