Comments for Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

Comment on Hiking the Tongariro by waitinginthedark

waitinginthedark — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:01:33 +0000

Lovely video, Matt. I love nature, wilderness and hiking thus NZ is on the top of my wish list! The real issue is how far it is from Europe…

Comment on Hiking the Tongariro by Sofia - As We Travel

Sofia - As We Travel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:19:28 +0000

cool video, thanks for sharing hope to see more of these in the future!

Comment on The Downside to Long Term Travel by Chris

Chris — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:25:58 +0000

The solution is pretty simple… slow down!

Comment on The Downside to Long Term Travel by carla moreno

carla moreno — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:55:16 +0000

Matt-
I loooove to travel, but I looooove to come home. and I don’t mean the home in the materialistic sense, but home to my roots, my place of rest, my place of true reflection, my place of true relationships. And I’ve been in relationships with people who love to travel, but there’s something different. I’ve met plenty of people, plenty, who are as you say, “trying to escape something.” And they’re too stubborn to face it and DEAL with it. They just run away. For me, it’s always about relationships. Whether romantically or in friendships. It does get lonely and it does get tiring to meet such wonderful people only to never, ever, hear or see from them again, except through the pages of my travel journal. This is a great article. Thanks for being real and confronting the issue as is…

Comment on Hiking the Tongariro by Matt

Matt — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:42:18 +0000

Nice video Matt. I’m heading back to the North Island again next month. Hopefully the weather cooperates this time so I can give the crossing a go!

Comment on The Saturday City: Sydney by Polly

Polly — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:38:44 +0000

I loved Sydney. I did not climb up the Harbor Bridge, but it is an impressive site. Attended a performance of “The Magic Flute” at the Sydney Opera House. It was an excellent production.

We took a harbor cruise where there is a stop at the Tangara Zoo. It’s a nice zoo, and it’s up on a hill so you get a wonderful view of the Sydney skyline. It was the only place I got to see koala bears. They’re hard to see in the wild in that part of Australia.

I didn’t get to spend as much time there as I would have liked to. It’s definitely on my list of places I want to return to.

Comment on The Downside to Long Term Travel by Ashalah

Ashalah — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:10:28 +0000

Excellent, thought provoking piece, Matt. I’ve been reading you since I got back from my recent three months abroad, but have yet to comment. I know exactly what you mean about the endless hellos and goodbyes. It started to wear on me after a while and when I started traveling with someone and saw them for more than just a few days, I realized how nice that was. My last week, I wound up in Paris where I had a few friends, both from home and from my travels, and I loved that. I’ve always thought about doing an even longer trip like what you’re doing, but I’m not sure how I could handle all the goodbyes. All the new faces. Telling your story over and over and over again…

Comment on The Downside to Long Term Travel by Gray

Gray — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:09:18 +0000

This makes all the sense in the world to me. It’s like the difference between being a sprint runner or a marathon runner. I’m a sprinter. I have long admired the stamina of those of you who travel round the world for months or years at a time, but I am not envious of you. I couldn’t travel like that. I’d miss my home and my circle of friends too much. And as much as I love to get away to new places, there can be something comforting about coming back to my routine, too–sleeping in my own bed, taking a shower in my own bathroom, cooking in my own kitchen, etc.

Comment on The Downside to Long Term Travel by Ana

Ana — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:49:39 +0000

I can really relate to the article. It’s very true. I haven’t traveled as much as I’d like to but I have moved a lot; I’ve lived in several cities in the US, and it does get old. Right now, I am ready to travel more, but I know from experience that there will come a time that I will want to have a little apartment somewhere and settle down for a bit. I think the most difficult thing to do is to find a balance between the two. As far as relationships go, being a wildland firefighter makes it nearly impossible to have a long-term relationship as well. I think life is all about finding the balance in things, and figuring out what one really wants. Loved this article.

Comment on Is This Really Travel? by Sara

Sara — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:03:51 +0000

I know it’s late in the game, but I wanted to reply to this.

It’s funny, for me, as somebody who has really only been able to travel internationally in my late 20’s, I feel that it’s a once in a lifetime experience and that I should soak up as much as I can while I’m in a certain part of the world. I can party any night of the week back home. At home I have plenty of time to be hung over, or to waste time bumming around or be lazy or whatever. When I’m traveling, I’ve worked damn hard to get there and I want to have experiences I could only have in that part of the world.

Meeting backpackers with a similar outlook to those Matt describes while I was in India, I felt that this was missing in them – the sense of REALLY WANTING to travel to a certain place and to experience certain things. A lot of them seemed to behave kind of like the 18 year olds who go on spring break to Cancun from the USA — not traveling to experience, but tagging along somewhere because it’s just what you do. I also wondered if it’s because they’re so young – not so much about being inexperienced, but having been under The Adults’ thumbs so recently that the freedom to piss away time in a backpacker bar seems like a reason to go to Fiji in the first place.