Florence and Sebastian (France and Chile) @ Larnaca, Cyprus, January 29, 2019
On one of my last days in Cyprus, I had to pleasure to be invited for a dinner with these experienced travelers from France and Chile. More than the attention-grabbing title, ‘cross cross-continental hitchhikers’, I was curious about their unique life stories such as what led you to start this, and what keeps you going. The ‘why are you doing this?’ question is one that I get asked almost every other day from people I meet, but I also ask the same question to other travelers with...
Last dinner in Lebanon, with Dareen’s family @ Beirut, Lebanon, January 17, 2019
Last dinner in Lebanon I’ve already stayed for two weeks in Lebanon and my experience has not always been ‘smooth’ here. For one, I had some amount of bad luck. I was sick the first few days, my laptop finally died giving the concern that I might lose some of the interview footages, and the country experienced very unusual stormy weather for almost two weeks. For another, the interaction with people was not too easy. The driving style here is one of the most aggressive I’ve...
the power of hooking up people @ Aeropark, Barcelona, Spain, January 2, 2019
While I’ll be gone and backpacking from Lebanon to Egypt, my car will rest in a parking lot in Barcelona. In fact, it started having its vacation from a month ago, when I flew to Korea. Today I dropped by the parking lot to swap some contents in my backpack and to do some car maintenance work. Understandably, I found the battery totally discharged, but my portable jumpstart battery could not start the car either. The battery was not too young anyways, so I started to...
‘Staying in touch’ @ Costanera, Asuncion, Paraguay, June 17, 2018
“Staying in touch” In 2007, I was starting a new life in a small town called San Ignacio in Paraguy as a biology/chemistry teacher at a highschool. Because my house was far from the city center, when I was doing grocery shopping, I used to buy a large quantity of my staple food just to reduce the number trips. And I got to know Roberto (right) at my favorite butcher shop. He struck me as a young guy whose small talks were not too small –...
Hector (Spain) @ Barcelona, Spain, October 28, 2018
Hector is one of my friends living in Barcelona, but he’s the only one who’s born and raised there – a native Catalan! When we met the last time in Washington D.C., I was the resident and he was the visitor, and this time it was the other way around. Recently I had been educating myself on the complex nature of the relationships among different communities in Spain, not to mention on the recent developments between Madrid and Catalonia. Hearing about a local’s perspective was both...
Valeria, Olga (Belarus) @Copenhagen, Denmark, September 16, 2018
I’ve met many travelers while staying at hostels but it has not been the case every single time. Often times, I don’t get to meet a single person in one of the busiest hostels. I assume many factors are involved: my mood at the time, other people’s moods, the dynamic of the room, and the hostel’s vibe, etc. But when I met these friends, it took us one second to start a conversation. Because the moment when I entered the room, Valeria, as she was coming...
Nat (USA) Amsterdam, the Netherlands, September 25, 2018
The first time I met Nat was in San Jose, Costa Rica. It was three years ago and I was a vacation tourist then. Nat says I asked him for directions but I actually do not remember. There was a street parade going on on the avenue so we watched it together for about 10 minutes then we said good-bye. About a year ago, I noticed on facebook that we’d become long-term travelers around the world and I thought it was an interesting coincidence. Recently, while...
Gadissa (Ethiopia) @Delft, Netherlands, September 22, 2018
At first, I was not excited about having to move from Rotterdam to Delft. Not only did I find the city charming, I just got used the surroundings there. But I realized that all the hostels had been booked for the weekend – I was slow. Still, I wanted to stay close to Rotterdam, because the container at the port could be made accessible any day. So outside of Rotterdam, Delft was the best option. But as I was approaching Delft, I was very glad that...
This website chronicles Leebong’s journey around the world for 2+ years, for the time being. To find out more, see The Travel & The Why.
To catch me, see Itinerary.
Impressions Series
