A 24-hour train journey through Thailand and Malaysia, running from a ferry and through the streets of Penang to join Hindu devouts for their annual pilgrimage of Thaipusam. Today I am a travel writer, or at least pretending to be. With my blog in the running for “Wanderlust Blog of the Year” I have forced myself to make the effort.
The Travel Bloggers from Bangor Northern Ireland
Arriving at my hotel in the evening I find a Newspaper article in my email inbox. A feature on myself and two hometown chums as we scrap it out for the same prestigious award. Myself, Jonny Blair (dontstopliving.net) and Justin Egli (Ikimasho) make up the trio from Bangor, Northern Ireland. My recent blogs of arts and crafts, fizzy pop and the cinema are far from clinching the crown. Today’s body skewering and mutilation should liven things up.
Live Less Ordinary
The Live-Less-Ordinary blog is written by myself Allan using local knowledge of my better half Fanfan. It is not a travel blog. More of a lifestyle blog. A lifestyle blog documenting my life in Southeast Asia and the goings-on around me. It veers off on whatever tangent of interest I have at the time. Much is no more than holiday snaps or dear diaries with slight gearing towards informative writing to keep Google happy. My lifestyle includes living in Bangkok, life and travel in Southeast Asia and eating food. It documents personal learnings and experiences. This is a lifestyle I have enjoyed since long before blogging. I wrote my first ever blog less than a year ago. I started the Live Less Ordinary website less than 4 months ago. This blog won Wanderlust’s “Blog of the Week” less than 3 months ago. I am a newborn in the world of blogging.
Why Live Less Ordinary?
Because it is extremely hard to find decent dot com domains. My blog is about choosing to live the life you want to lead and to not live like everyone else. To Live Less Ordinary. Ten years ago I made this decision. I chose to turn my back on ordinary living and focused on making my dream life a reality. I now live this life. Living the dream life in Southeast Asia.
If I win Wanderlust Blog of the Year it would probably make this dream life even better. I’d get to brag a lot. Change my Facebook name to Allan “Blog of the Year” Wilson. Become uber annoying. Other than this nothing would change. My blog wont’ change, my goals won’t change, my life won’t change.
Living my dream life means I have no desire for change. Things are how I want them. The only ambition of my blog is to influence others and hopefully promote new tourism, boutique travel and travel by interest. A push away from the traveller and backpacker stereotypes and trails. I like to encourage people to live less ordinary, to take their own route and to follow their own dreams. Too many just follow the paths of others.
Love it Allan! Keep up the good work! This is what I call healthy competition. As a Bangor man would say “keep er lit!” or if it’s over a beer “get it down ye!”
Down the pipes 😉
Down the pipes 😉
Congratulations!! I love your plan to change your facebook name…has it now been changed?! Keep inspiring us by leaving the life you choose – life is too short not to!
ha maybe not a name change. I wrote that not expecting to win. will obviously keep bragging a bit 😉