Hello, and welcome to my blog!

My name is Mia, and as you could have guessed, I love traveling and hiking.

However, I’m not a full-time traveler. I am a full-time student, with only one year left in my degree. After graduating, I hope to live a nomadic lifestyle. I want to go, well, pretty much everywhere, and I’m impatient to get started.

That being said, I have already traveled a bit. To date, I have visited 4 continents and 13 countries. The countries I’ve visited so far include: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. It is definitely on my bucket-list to travel to all 7 continents!

A picture I took on my first day walking the Camino de Santiago del Norte in Spain.

While I’ve loved the places I’ve visited so far, and it is undeniable that the popular locations are stunning, I get tired of seeing the same Instagram photos over and over again. This is why I wish to explore the more unusual corners of the world, and share those experiences with all of you! Some of the destinations that top my list are Greenland, Kazakhstan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mongolia.

Nonetheless, I also want to share my unique perspective on popular destinations. I have recently returned from a 2-month backpacking trip around Asia, and it was incredible. There were bad times (because life isn’t Instagram-perfect… life is home sickness, traveler’s diarrhea, and audacious monkeys stealing Gatorades).

But my memories of the good times outshines the bad; these highlights include admiring the emerald waters of Ha Long Bay, taking the local’s advice of hikes outside of Osaka, and gazing at the beautiful color palettes of sunrise at Angkor Wat.

I know as a photographer, I should leave these muggles out of the frame, but I can’t help but love this picture… the sky, the colors, the moon. It was breathtaking.

The plan for my next trip: backpacking all of South America. Ideally, I’ll set forth in 13 months!

Fun Facts About Me

1. I am half-Japanese. I attribute part of my consuming wanderlust to the frequent trips I took to Japan as a child.
2. I’m studying behavioral neuroscience in school.
3. I love music, and play the piano, guitar, and trombone.
4. I’m a huge film fanatic, and I especially love the films by Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese.
5. I am extremely shy, and have been called “anti-social” by several teachers. I’m in a constant dilemma about it; I wish to push myself out of my comfort zone and meet new people, but I also want to completely accept myself, taciturn disposition and all.
6. Antarctica became one of my bucket-list destinations after watching AVP (Alien vs. Predator) as a child.
7. When I was 6, I wanted to be a pirate (because of Pirates of the Caribbean, of course).
8. I don’t watch much TV, probably because they’re too much of a commitment for me. However, some of my favorite shows are Sherlock, How I Met Your Mother, and Friends.
9. I’ve always considered myself to be an editor, rather than a writer. My approach to writing papers is to brain vomit, then edit a million and one times until the paper is decent… And, surprisingly, this works for me.
10. I absolutely adore animals. I have 2 pets: a dog (Floyd) and a cat (Momo). I’m not lying when I say the hardest part of traveling is not getting to cuddle with them everyday.

My babies.

What to Expect from my Blog

So, for everyone who made it this far, you might be wondering why you should continue reading my blog. What am I going to give back to you?

Well, other than some awkward excerpts from my “anti-social” encounters on the road, I’ll provide inspiration, resources, and ideas for your own hikes and travels.

I want to show you the reality of travel: the immense crowds, the tourist-traps, the difficult commutes… But also the breathtaking scenery, the excitement of new experiences, and the wonderful diversity of cultures.

I want to show you the best way to walk around the world, whether it be through a forest, up mountains, or around a new city.

So why don’t you take some time to walk a while with me 😉

Thanks for reading the article! If you have any questions, feel free to comment down below, and if you want to see more travel and hike-related content, make sure to check out my other articles, available weekly.

Cheers,

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