This past year was an interesting one. We got to re-visit some places we had already been but more importantly we got to take in some of our dream destinations for the first time. We thought the best way to show you why we loved all the places we visited was through our favourite photos from each country. So sit back with a cup of coffee and come travel with us for a few moments.

Thailand:

Sea Canoeing in Thailand

Malaysia:

Thaipusam in Penang, Malaysia

New Zealand:

The stunning New Zealand Landscape

Jordan:

Petra at Night

Had to put this one in! the Bedouin girl in Jordan

London:

London Landmarks- The Tower Bridge

Brussels:

Prague:

The main Square in Prague

Russia:

The Astrakhan Kremlin in Russia

Kazakhstan:

The uncanny modern city of Astana in Kazakhstan

Mongolia:

Mongolian Traffic

Mexico:

The ruins of Tonina in Mexico

Jamaica:

Grabbing the Catamaran in Jamaica

Egypt:

Alexandria, Egypt

1. Travel Blogging is catching on in both the media and the tourism industry there is no denying it.  As the industry grows and develops, there are new rules and regulations coming out regularly.  At the TravelWritersExchange, Trisha talks about these changes in her informative post  FTC Site Compliance – Blogger Disclosure Guidelines

2. This will be our first forray into travel blogging full time during our travels to India.  We will be taking laptops and gadgets with us and the ArtofBackpacking explores whether or not this is a good or bad thing at this interesting post  5 Ways How Technology is Taking Over Packpacking by Teresa Gotay.

3. Being Adventure Lovers, we just loved this post at IBackpackCanada.  Top 5 Rivers for White Water Rafting in Canada Having only rafted on one of the 5 rivers mentioned, we can’t wait to get back to Canada and start an adventure across our own country in the next couple of years. Maybe we will finally get to meet Corbin, our great Canadian BackPacker when we do!

4. Very exciting news at Uncornered Market. They were interviewed by Frommers Radio at  U.S Radio Interview and Behind the Scenes in Bolivia You can also read about their trials and tribulations of trying to find a land line for the interview and get an insiders feel as to what travel bloggers go through regularly to keep up with their work load while traveling the world.

5. We are taking off for yet another extended travel next week and what better time for us to find a post at Sharing Travel Experiences by Alex Fayle.  Why You Can’t Afford Not to Take Travel is a post that I will have to send my non-travel friends to explain why I travel. Everyone travels differently, but no matter how you choose to do it, it is a rewarding and needed part of life.

6. It has been 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down and Andy at 501 Places talks about his trip there in 1987 when he took a train to East Berlin at  Looking Back: Berlin Before the Wall.  How times have changed and how quickly it passes.  It is an interesting post and the comments are a worth a read as well.

7. We missed a heated debate going on in the travel world last week.  Nellie at WildJunket brought it to our attention with her well written article Is Travel Blogging Becoming a Cheap Marketing Stunt?. She provides links and information for the reader to form their own opinion of Travel Blogging and free vacations and ethics of Travel Blogging.  Some of the comments are actually longer than her post.

8. Anthony at TheTravelTart has an excellent post at Travel Blogger For Hire – Pitfalls on Travel Writing from the Road. We will be in his shoes in a weeks time and know that it is going to be a challenge.  Last year in Africa it was very difficult to even find internet connections let alone upload photos and update our blog.  We want to keep this blog going daily, so it was good to read about Anthony’s experiences in Indonesia and how he handled them.

9. Amy at TheQFamilyAdventures has been posting the past few months about getting outdoors more with the family.  She has done and excellent job and this family seems to be doing one adventure after another.  If you have kids and want to get out and enjoy the great outdoors more with them, check out here post on 5 Tips for Family Hiking With Kids

10. We have been back and forth about whether or not we should bring an Iphone with us. We even went so far as to buy one, jailbreak it and then unlock it. Or at least we thought that we unlocked it.  Once we put a sim card in we found out that it couldn’t be unlocked due to some firmwear that we had in it. So we sold it and were going to buy another one.   After Reading FoxNomad’s post about The Advantages of Traveling Without an Iphone we have some food for thought whether or not we are going to go for it or not.  He has some good points and there are a lot of comments to help you decide as well.

We follow several other great travel Bloggers, and we will be sure to give you some more links to great websites before we go!