How it all began
Pia
As a social worker, Pia’s caring spirit is shown in the delicate design of her patients’ care. Her extensive healthcare training has also proven quite useful during many of Billy’s crazy antics. She could always be counted on for packing the first aid and other things a rushed packer like Billy would often overlook.
Just the same, Pia can always be counted on for capturing the moment. If not for her, we’d have next to no records of our adventures together. While memories are powerful, pictures are worth the proverbial thousand words.
With a healthy balance of knowing exactly what she wants, and leaving room for the unexpected, Pia has been the perfect adventure campanion.
Billy
An IT consultant by trade, Billy has always been driven by an insatiable curiosity about how things work. It’s this same drive that wills him to push his boundaries in food, culture and adventure.
As the more dangerous yang to Pia’s slightly more cautious yin, his philosophy is often that- if someone else was able to do it, so should we. Nothing like a little thrill to solidify a memory! Jumping, climbing, diving…just hold on tight and send it to the wind.
Billy credits his mother for his adventurous spirit, taking him on many adventures as a boy, sparking his inspiration for a more worldly perception and an appreciation for foods, cultures, and experiences that are not his own. The lessons of “tomorrow is never promised” is something he’ll always remember.
Our travel philosophy
We’re not millionaires by any stretch of the imagination. But, we’ve learned to recognize when a rare opportunity has presented itself. With that in mind, we try to make the most of our experiences with careful planning, making sure to identify the places and experiences where we can splurge a little.
After claiming a little time off on our calendars, we go straight to work trying to understand the geography, food, culture and experiences that our destination has to offer, trying to absorb as much as possible in a single trip, knowing it’s a possibility that we’ll never be back.
Most often, very little time is spent in our rooms. So, we try to choose our dwelling with enough amenities that we’ll have a comfortable stay, without spending a ton of money in the process. Sometimes that may mean a hotel, resort or short term rental.
As we’ve repeated a few times already, experiences and memories are the most valuable things that travel can deliver in our short lives. We try to live the lives of locals where possible, leaving our American perceptions behind. If that means spending a bit more money to do things the “right way”, we’re not afraid to open the wallets.
A proper food experience is one of those things that we like to sometimes splurge on occasionally. Because our travel schedules are usually packed with back to back activities, sometimes we buy from the local groceries, having breakfast and/or lunch on the road. Having saved some money by not eating out all the time, we can justify spending on a lavish lunch or dinner.
Our travels are a healthy mix of respect for regional culture, jumping into an exciting experience, eating some drool-worthy local food and trying to capture it all on camera!
...absorb as much as possible in a single trip, knowing it's a possibility that we'll never be back.
