Who is the Travel Fugitive?

Born in Belfast,
Made everywhere else

Been there seen it, done it, lost the T-shirt!
I left home when I was 18, and I started an adventure, that still hasn’t ended.

About Me

Follow my adventures, and you too can find out how to travel the world, meet new people, in strange new places and party with them. Without having to give up a 6 figure job, sell your house, your blood or do anything you’d be ashamed to tell your mum about (well maybe just a little).

I grew up as a 90s child with a normal family, (well I thought they were normal) in a small Village in Northern Ireland. I had a wanderlust and a sense of adventure at an early age; all I needed was a passport. But back then a trip to the next village was an adventure, never mind the next continent.

When I turned 18, the inevitable happened, I left the country and moved to Glasgow to study at university. Here I learned the ways of the natives and how to survive on jaeger bombs and raw pot noodles. Since then, things have changed, well, I no longer eat pot noodles.

Adventure Traveller70%

70%

Foodie100%

100%

Sports70%

70%

Fitness70%

70%

Photography60%

60%

Adrenaline Junkie90%

90%

Initiative90%

90%

Patience20%

20%

Dogs100%

100%

Countries Visited 141/22962%

62%

Writing Style

I’m no Shakespeare as my old English teacher will tell you (I would agree) and I’m the last person he thought would end up having a blog. But like Shakespeare, I have a story to tell or rather, thousands of anecdotes from every place I’ve visited from epic trains rides in Sri Lanka to getting held at gunpoint in Austin!

What it lacks in grammar and punctuation, it makes up for in colorful language (I crossed a lot of oceans, so it’s natural that I curse like a sailor).

GOING TO THE PLACES YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE BUT NEVER WANTED TO VISIT.

No Shit

I’m unapologetically myself; I’m no influencer and wont be selling anything purely for my financial gain, the only influencing I want to do is to inspire you to go travelling. That and maybe shock you just a little, some of the things I’ve been up to could make a bald guy’s hairs stand on end. But above all, I want to make you part of my journey.

No sponsors, no conforming, no filter and no bullsh*t! If I show a photo of me drinking iced mojitos under a palm tree, I’m not trying to sell palms, cocktails or a new pair of shorts, just showing you how sweet life can be, heck, after the places I’ve been I probably deserve it!

None of my content is written for financial gain, my reviews are honest, and if you watch my Instagram, you’ll know nobody would pay money to get slammed like that.

Travel Style

I want to gain something worthwhile in each country I visit. Food, Culture and hanging out with locals are my 3 favorite things when visiting a new country. I’ve been to over 140 and although that’s a lot I’ve only seen small fraction of the world! I want to immerse myself, have some local food, have conversations with real locals or learn something. For me that’s the criteria. If a country is particularly dangerous by all means don’t put your life in danger but I thrive for those trips and want the crazy stories I can tell my friends at home who still wonder how I’m still alive!.

MY LIFE ISN’T A HOLIDAY, IT JUST LOOKS LIKE IT.

My love for travel, The Travel Bug

Everybody loves to travel, chill out in the sun and drink an exotic cocktail. Me too but I like to vary my sunbathing from the top of a Tibetan mountain to a lost beach in South America.

I started my backpacking odyssey drinking my way around Canada and the U.S. in 2008 and just kept going! That trip was the catalyst for me in this quest of visiting every country in the world.

From there it was onto Oz and Bali in 2011, then a few years later a 6 month trip through South East Asia turned into 2 years around the world where I decided, why not see everything? So I took the leap to visit some of the less visited countries for the first time. Travelling to these remote places was a way to escape my comfort zone and certainly made a change to shotgunning beers in Banff!

But most importantly, I wasn’t just visiting places; I was visiting people. What’s a special moment when you have no one to share it with? I have made friends and memories on every corner of this globe; throw a dart at a map, and I’ve probably been there, danced with locals or had an encounter with the authorities and have the photos to prove it! It’s not such a big or scary place when you have friends.

FAQs

Yes, there has been a few edgy situations and people are always surprised to hear that America is usually the culprit. My buddy John and I got into a confrontation in Austin, Texas and it was probably the closest to death I’ve been. Unfortunately John bared the brunt of the attack and has two nice scars along the side of his head to show for it. A few others include being questioned by Police in Peru and having guns drawn at us by American police, not an ideal situation.

The more countries I visit the more I ask myself this question and although every year the number gets less, with visas and other issues it just seems to get more difficult. If it takes me until I’m 70 or 80, then so be it. Its all about the journey, not the destination.

Solo yes, alone, no. Sure you leave on a jet plane on your own but with the options to meet fellow travelers and locals you always have plenty of company. Smartphones and social media are a great way to stay in contact with friends and family at home or even to help meet people at your next destination. But staying at hostels and going on their trips are the best way of making a new circle of friends. See my tips on this here.

Firstly I’ll let out a huge sigh of relief! Then I’ll go back to all my favorite countries! What is more satisfying than going to the best countries in the world as by then I’ll have visited them all. Everyone always asks what’s the best country in the world, well by then I might actually know all while continuing to work on my ever expanding bucket list!

After all my travelling I still don’t have a second language and know enough Spanish just to get by, ola, gracias and una cerveza mas por favor. I tend to find that where there’s a will there’s a way and just because we don’t speak the same language doesn’t mean we can’t convey a message. Also I’m pretty fortunate that English is the most common language across the world, so a lot of the time it’s pretty easy.

Stick Around

Whether it be during a coffee, your commute to work or on the toilet there’s an article for every occasion. You’ll be guaranteed honesty, swearing and a lot of laughs. In the unlikely event, you don’t like what you see, or you just don’t like me, hang around anyway, you might get to read about my shocking, but amusing demise in one of the most dangerous places on the Earth.

I just hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

In the meantime drop me a line if you happen to live in some of the places I plan on visiting, I’d be keen to meet for a coffee/beer.

Safe Travels DS x