Y Crazy Mind

Colby Lee Burke is a sought-after freelance travel writer. Based in both Portland, Oregon and Charleston, South Carolina, he has a fresh and unique outlook on American travel. Burke also travels around the world, with recent trips taking him to Scotland, Italy, and Switzerland. Burke grew up in Portland and attended the University of Oregon in Eugene. He majored in English. While he was studying abroad in Florence, he began writing travel pieces for his college newspaper. A mentor encouraged him to begin a career as a travel writer. Burke worked as a copy editor for a major Northwest newspaper for several years before he was able to make travel writing his full-time job. When Burke explores a new city for the first time, he is careful to leave enough time in his itinerary to discover new things. He believes that every traveler should search off the beaten path for the best possible experience. He uses his language skills to communicate with the locals wherever he goes, and th...

Stephen Andrew Stepaniuk is a passionate travel blogger and professional photographer based in Boston, MA. He mostly blogs and documents stories about entertainment, food and culture. The majority of people who frequent his blog are students and travel industry professionals. Stepaniuk is a go getter who has set his sights on enhancing his profile as an influential travel blogger and budding professional photographer. His efforts have seen several corporate sponsors and media syndicates come aboard. Stephen Andrew Stepaniuk was raised up in Connecticut and attended Northeastern University in the neighboring state of Massachusetts. He majored in English and holds a Degree in the same. He is adept at communication and creative writing. The interest in linguistics emboldened Stephen Stepaniuk to study French, Polish and German. He is currently learning Esperanto, an auxiliary language spoken by nearly 2 million people around the world. Stepaniuk has visited several countries in Euro...

Richard Batka is a Czech born Australian, having lived and worked in 6 countries across 3 continents. He started his career in Management Consulting and working with organisations across a number of industries at the time predominantly banking, tourism and government. In the 90's he moved into industry as the HR Director for a large international hotel followed by HR Director for the premier corporate law firm in Australia. As the IT industry started to grow he moved back to consulting and assist organisations work through their evaluation and selection of ERP systems, ultimately spending 15 years in the industry working in and with both large IT vendors and small start ups. After moving to HK and then Singapore, with his business partners they started Wise Traveller , which has been their passion now for almost 6 years. What made you start "Wise Traveller"? What is your key motivation? The Wise Traveller started as a result of advisory work for a number o...

Ruth discovered the Maldives 15 years ago, visiting as a scuba diver in search of mantas and whale sharks. She was fortunate to find a reasonably priced resort that allowed her to stay and indulge in her hobby but then came along development and her well-loved resort went luxury and beyond her price range. So she moved to diving from a boat and this also in later years enabled her to gain an understanding of local island life. Ruth’s love and appreciation of the Maldives, its people, its culture and traditions was almost immediate and resulted in her visiting the archipelago on over 30 occasions in the years since. In 2012 the opportunity to relocate arose, so with the support of a local business man, they formed Secret Paradise . Their mission is to introduce the Real Maldives to guests and support local communities. How many days of travel would you recommend for visiting the local islands? If you are planning on basing yourself on one island then 4-5 days would be in my o...

Boutique Beach is designed, built and run by Romney Drury, a British diver, who loved this area so much, she gave up her job in the UK to be able to offer divers a wonderful experience for a much more economical price than previously possible in resort diving. The hotel is located on Dhigurah which is in the famous whale shark area in the South Ari Atoll. The hotel is located just 2 minutes from the beach of Dhigurah. It’s a marine protected area from the government, where WHALE SHARK & MANTA RAYs are seen every day. Dhigurah has been awarded the "Top island award 2016" at Guesthouse conference. What new opportunities does it bring for diving enthusiasts for Dhigurah to be awarded the "top island award 2016"?  There are many new guest houses opening on Dhigurah opening up an affordable way for divers to experience probably the best diving area in Maldives. All year round whale shark and manta sightings together with amazing thila dives make this area ...

Cameron Farmer is a background actor, fiction writer, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from Los Angeles. He came up with a travel show concept called " Kingspirit Travels: RV Pinay In The USA " based on his fiancee's experiences traveling around America. We have conducted an interview with Cameron. How much hard work did you put into achieving your goal? Too much, actually, and it's always ongoing since I haven't really reached my goal yet on some things. I do, however, have to add that while I got an RV for the travel show, RV Pinay In The USA, I promptly lost it to local law enforcement because I still didn't have the proper paperwork to update the registration and now have to somehow raise up to $500 to get "Jasmine" back. It's been a constant struggle to deal with issues regarding the minutiae of getting things legal and the seller of the 1977 Dodge Mobile Traveler has been balking on sending me the 'pink slip' for mo...

Valeriy V. Sirotyuk is the founder and CEO of EuroDelays . He is an aviation and space attorney and leads a team of professional attorneys striving to protect air passengers flight rights. At the moment they are completely internet-based, but the main group is based in Chicago, U.S. The regulations -- both U.S. and international -- regulate a diverse set of aviation industry aspects and, among this legislation, is a broad field of customer protection laws. We have conducted an interview with Valeriy. Which is/are the most commonly violated basic passengers' flight rights? The most frequently violated air passenger right is the right for reimbursement and compensation. There is a great Latin phrase: “ ignorantia legis neminem excusat, ” which basically means that ignorance of the law excuses no one. For air passengers, this phrase means that even when one doesn’t know or use his or her rights, it doesn’t mean that one doesn’t have or cannot use those rights. As a matter...

While travelling to beautiful places, Karen loves to illustrate her trip and makes her journey like a fairytale. She sketches travel experiences and pictures with different cultures of each city through visuals and amazing art journal. As a self-taught artist who comes from the East, Hong Kong, Karen draws beautiful sceneries with creative ideas. She has an art brand “ Karen Aruba Art ” illustrating amazing artwork with products in travel & cultural themes. Which are the new destinations in Canada that you've chosen for your 'Art Journal Travel'? In last December, it was my first time to embark on a challenge with an art journey to Japan. Recently this summer in May, I continued the art journey to Vancouver, Whistler and Toronto in Canada with another style of drawing. How did your art journal inspire (both others and also yourself)? If a picture is worth a thousand words, an art journal shows travel lovers thousands of words of an amazing trip in a...

Today our guest is Dilhan Suraweera, a professional tour guide, and owner of Dilhan's Awesome Adventures . He is a licensed and registered guide within all Provinces of Sri Lanka, and he has been in the Tourism profession for 14 years. We have conducted an interview with him. Which are the top 3 attractions that are the most unique in Sri Lanka that you think travellers should not miss? The top 3 would be difficult to choose. It depends on what you like to do and how long you have to spend in Sri Lanka. Many people come to visit our 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, ancient cities, and civilizations, such as Sigiriya, Kandy, Polonnurawu, Anuradhapura, Dambulla, and Galle. Others come to visit our natural wildlife preservation areas such as Horton Plains in the Central Highlands, Sinharaja Forest Reserve, or take a Safari in Yala or Udawalawe National Park. I would say the others come to relax. Ride the train from Nuwara Eliya to Ella, or enjoy our spectacular, pristine beac...

Tonight our guest is Marquita, the person behind Kita the Explorer , living in the Atlanta, GA area. She is an accountant by day but her passion is Kita the Explorer initiative. We have conducted an interview with Marquita. Why do you want to run your initiative and having the focus about "Vlogging, Planning, and the Environment”? I originally started this initiative as vlog to document my adventures and stories while traveling the world based on encouragement from friends as I had amazing pictures, tips, stories, and had been to several places (14 countries and counting). Vlogging allows for my viewers to see what they can do in a country while learning my personality while providing them tips on how to make their travels better. I quickly realized I enjoy planning and preparing for upcoming trips whether that is putting an itinerary together or creating a travel budget. So I took that joy to help my viewers or fellow Explorers save time and plan their next trip. I...

Valdelicio Silva is an adventure traveler who has a passion for hiking, camping, road trips and multiculturalism. His blog, Travelling With Me reflects the obstacles and restrictions that LGBT people may face in certain countries or regions of a country. The ultimate goal of his initiative is to show that although it should not be the case in the 21st century, there are still places where LGBT people are not accepted or welcomed. We have conducted an interview with Valdelicio. What do you include in your writing to highlight the historic aspects of a location? I include highlights of a historic place that motivates the reader to search for more information. I pick one aspect or element in the history of a place to focus on. It is not only impossible to write the entire history and facts about a place, but it is also not my intention to reveal everything about a place. It is like telling someone line by line of a movie; it takes away the surprise element. I write enough ab...