Interview with Adam and Amanda from Tropical Nomads

1. Can you start by giving us a little bit of background about yourself and your blog. How did you start traveling? When did you start blogging, and what did you expect readers to get out of it?

I come from a small town on the west coast of Ireland and started travelling as soon as I finished school and went to Spain for a few months when I was 18. I worked in an Irish bar for a few months and then went to Germany for a brief spell on a farm. During college I went away for the summers to Spain one year and New York the next and as soon as I graduated I left for Spain again. Then New York and Australia, New Zealand and now Thailand.

I started blogging in February of 2013 as I wanted a way to share my stories and travel experiences. I have always been a research freak and spent hours marking out routes and itineraries in Lonely Planet guides when I was in Ireland. My friends usually ask me for travel advice and tips for so I thought I would start a blog. I hope my readers get good information travel, life as a digital nomad and building an online business.

2. Let’s talk experiences – what has been the best experience you’ve had on the road? The worst? The most dangerous?

There have been lots of great experiences like getting a Bamboo Tattoo in Thailand, snorkelling in Koh Tao, snowboarding in New Zealand and diving in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

My worst travel experience would probably be when I crashed my scooter in Thailand. Many days of road-rash, cleaning wounds, couldn’t train Muay Thai (which was why I was in Thailand)…

The most dangerous would probably when someone pulled a knife on my in Malaga, but it could have gone very wrong on Phi Phi island in Thailand one day when I was there I had a run in with the Thai Mafia.

3. What do you miss most about Ireland? Any plans to go back anytime soon?

Ireland is great when the weather is good and I actually missed a heatwave there this summer. My family and friends obviously top the list and good Irish food, but my plans are to keep travelling around the world as home will always be there..

4. You’ve worked in several different countries. What has been your best/worst experience?

Best experiences would be the random people you meet. I’ve worked with guys who have never left there home town and travellers who have all around the globe. It’s the people you meet that make it.

Worst experience would be working on drill rigs in the Australia. I hated that job a with a passion and did it for far longer than I should have.

5. You’ve spent a significant amount of time living in Australia and now New Zealand and while language is not a barrier have you noticed other cultural differences that could making moving there difficult?

Honestly, I would have to say no. Australia and New Zealand is populated by people who are mostly of Irish, English and Scottish descendants. The lifestyle of the Australians is as varied as any country. If you live in a big city like Sydney or Melbourne, it is big city life. Concrete jungle, rush rush, expensive rent. Just like London and New York.

 

I spent the best part of two years in Fremantle on the west coast and this was a very different story. I could drive for 20 minutes up the coast and have a whole beach to myself with white sand, turquoise water and no doubt a few sneaky sharks as well.

The East coast beachside is backpacker central and full of tourists. Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Bondi.. These places all have great weather and beaches but the people there were quite pretentious and its all Hollywood, flashy flashy, money money.

6. How difficult was it to get a working holiday visa for New Zealand? Is there any opportunity to renew it after it expires?

I got my New Zealand working holiday visa within 48 hours. It was an easy online process and once granted, you have one year to enter the country. I am Irish and therefor only get one year with possibility to extend by 3 months if I work on a farm or in horticulture for 3 months. I actually left after 7 months to move to Thailand so my working holiday is still running!

If you are English and part of the Commonwealth, you get an automatic 23 month working holiday visa. I don’t think you can extend but finding sponsorship in New Zealand is very easy. There were guys at the Hilton who were sponsored as kitchen porters and room attendants. It costs $500 and sponsorship is renewed yearly.

 

7. How did you meet your girlfriend? How did she feel about the move to New Zealand from Australia?

I met Amanda while living and working in Spain in 2009. We were both working for an Irish Bar in Salou and hit it off. She was happy to move to New Zealand with me after Australia. My job would have seen us move to more isolated places and she was not too keen on that! It’s all about the experiences and different places. We have just moved to Chiang Mai to focus on blogging and online pursuits.

8. Please tell us more about the Dynamite Circle group that you are part of. What are some of the businesses the entrepreneurs run? How will you be getting involved when you move to Thailand?

The Dynamite Circle is a private group for online business entrepreneurs. The variety of high profile business people there is phenomenal. You have the Empire Flippers, Sean Ogle, Chris Ducker – Virtual Staff Finder, Lifestyle Business Podcast, Elisa Doucette and to many others to name.

The idea is to create Mastermind groups, share knowledge and business advice. There is also some great forums and threads to read through. The big yearly meet-up is in Bangkok in October and will be my first proper networking event with the DC. There is one in Berlin in April also.

 

The community of DC’ers in Thailand is big. Most reside in Chiang Mai or Bangkok. I plan to have meet-ups, coffee chats, create mastermind groups and just get involved with other online business owners. You are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Make them successful people.

9. What are some of your interests outside of traveling?

I spend crazy amounts of time online and with my head buried in a laptop. This accounts for the majority of my life at the moment. I dabble with Niche websites, travel websites, CPA and all forms of internet hustles. When I do get away from my Mac I like to play guitar and gym it up. I plan to get back training Muay Thai also now that I am back in Thailand. Fire Poi is another random one..

10. What are your upcoming plans, both travel and non travel?

We have just moved to Chiang Mai and plan to spend at least three months here. Most likely 6-9 months. Ideally we could visit Mynamar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam while here and would also like to get to India in the near future. Living in Northern Thailand is a good base to get to all of these places. But it is hard to say when you are doing what we do. An opportunity might appear in Europe and we will be on the first plane to Spain. I try not to plan to far ahead and am very spontaneous about travel If it feels right, go.

Adam and Amanda are the authors of Tropical Nomad and CloudPeopleAdventures where they share their tips for world travel and trials and tribulations while building an online business. We have been travelling for over two years together and currently live in Thailand.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Instagram and Google+.