I'm Now Posting My Writing on Medium.com

I've stopped writing on here for now, as I'm now posting my travel writing as well as essays and other random stuff over on my Medium.com page. To view my page click here.

My Video of Karlovac, Croatia Was Featured on a Croatian News Website

I recently visited the small city of Karlovac, Croatia and explored the war damaged old town, called Zvijezda. Today a local Croatian news website wrote an article about the video. You can read the article here. It's in Croatian, but you should be able to translate the page with Google. And below is the full video.

Best Travel Channels on Youtube to Binge Watch

I was recently included on a list of some of the best travel channels on Youtube, as voted by Thrill List. You can check it out by clicking here and get some more ideas for other travelers to follow. 

Writing Articles on Medium.com

I've created a new account on Medium.com, which is kind of like the Youtube for writers. I'll be posting most of my future writing over there. I'm tackling a wide variety of subjects, from the coronavirus to the moon landings, the flat Earth, Bill Gates, 5G cell phone towers, vaccines and of course travel stories and tips. You can visit my page by clicking here.

Is It Safe To Travel With The Coronavirus Spreading?

For anyone who doesn't known who I am, I'm a world traveler, travel blogger and digital nomad with a Youtube channel, Gabriel Traveler. I've been traveling around the world for the past thirty years, visiting seventy-two countries so far.

I recently completed a seven-month trip around the world. After traveling for so long I was ready for a break and went back home to California in January. This coincidentally happened to be right as news of the coronavirus (COVID-19) began to make headlines around the world. I was visiting family in northern California at the time and following developments daily as the virus continued to spread and captured the world's attention.

But after a month of staying with family, I was ready for a change of scene. About ten days ago, on March 7th, I flew from San Francisco, California to Guadalajara, Mexico. The SFO airport was eerily quiet. Once I arrived in Mexico things were perfectly normal. There were only five reported cases of the coronavirus at the time. (The number has now risen to 93 confirmed cases in Mexico as of today, March 18th. To see a live count of coronavirus cases around the world click here.)

This Is Not The End Of The World

A few things to keep in mind as we go into a very confusing and unknown phase of human civilization:

1. This is not the end of the world or of humanity. Humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years and we'll get through this one, whatever happens.

2. Our modern society is way out of balance with the natural world. Perhaps this is exactly what is needed to kick us in the pants and give us the motivation to make necessary changes in how we interact with our home planet.

3. Even if you get the virus, it's not a death sentence. It's similar to the flu (but can be severe for some). Viruses have been around for thousands of years and are always circulating around the planet. This is by no means the deadliest disease we've ever faced.

Update on Paul in Cambodia (One Month Later)

Another update (after the article below was written): Great news! Paul was flown out of Cambodia by the British embassy and arrived back in the United Kingdom just in time for Christmas, so he's finally free. It's another long story which I will save for another time. Perhaps I'll get the chance to do an interview with Paul at some point, so that he can tell his story in his own words. If so I will try to record the discussion and post it on Youtube.

It's been more than a month since I wrote a piece explaining the situation with Paul from the UK, a friend I know through Facebook, who got stuck in Cambodia in a tough situation due to a series of unfortunate circumstances. If you don't know the story already you can read my previous article here.

But here's the short version: Paul was traveling from Vietnam to Thailand to work at a hostel and crossed through Cambodia on his way to Thailand. When he arrived at the Cambodia border and tried to enter Thailand, they discovered that someone else had previously visited Thailand using his name and birth date, who also looked like him. This person had overstayed his visa and then been deported, to Germany apparently. The Thai authorities accused Paul of being this other person, fined him $1,000 for the previous overstay, wouldn't allow him to enter Thailand and kicked him back to Cambodia. The amount they fined him was almost all the money he had at the time. He couldn't afford to buy a new Cambodia visa, so instead walked into the country and has now been stuck there for more than two months illegally.

Update on Paul Who is Stuck in Cambodia

A few days ago I posted a video telling the story of Paul, a British citizen and someone I've known on facebook for a couple years, who was traveling in southeast Asia when he got stuck in a bad situation in Cambodia. He was traveling from Vietnam to Thailand to work at a hostel there and passed through Cambodia. When he arrived at the border between Cambodia and Thailand and tried to enter Thailand, the immigration officials told him they thought he had been in Thailand the previous year and overstayed his visa by four months. It turned out someone had stolen his identity, entered Thailand in 2018 under his name and birth date somehow, overstayed his visa by four months and then been discovered and deported. Paul hadn't been in Thailand during that time and showed that to be the case in his passport. But they accused him of trying to re-enter with a different passport, fined him $1,000, which was all the money he had on him at the time and they kicked him back to Cambodia. He had only $15 left to his name and the visa to go back into Cambodia was $30. Somehow he managed to get past immigration and go back into Cambodia without a visa.

Why I Left Panama

A few days ago I left Panama City, the capital of Panama and flew to Montreal, Canada, the largest city in the French-speaking province of Quebec. I only spent five days in Panama, after spending a couple weeks on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.

I'm sure some people will be curious why I didn't explore around Panama and Central America more, considering there's so much to see in that area. I've followed some other travel bloggers who went to Panama and posted photos and videos of amazing beaches, jungles and waterfalls. When I flew there I was considering doing some exploring around the country, but ultimately decided it wasn't the right time.

My First Two Days in Willemstad, Curacao

An interesting past couple days. I flew the day before yesterday from the Caribbean island of Aruba to the neighboring island of Curacao. What a huge change, even though they're both part of the Dutch Caribbean/Kingdom of the Netherlands. Aruba is very Americanized and kind of sterile, though it has beautiful beaches, some interesting local neighborhoods and rugged desert landscapes in the interior.

Arriving on Curacao was like, BOOM, I'm now really in the Caribbean, culturally speaking. It's a crazy mix of indigenous Caribbean, African, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch. It has a pretty rough feeling to it, but the main town of Willemstad is also a lot more interesting and vibrant than Oranjestad, the main town on Aruba.

Voted #1 Solo Male Travel Vlogger

I was recently give the top spot in a list of 40 solo male Youtube travelers, including some pretty big names. Check it out!
https://blog.feedspot.com/solo_male_travel_youtube_channels/

My First Evening on Samos, Greece

I arrived on Samos today, my 21st Greek island. I spent last night on Mykonos, only because I had to change ferries there coming from Santorini. I visited Mykonos once before, in February purposefully to avoid the crazy crowds. Every Greek island has its appeal it seems, but the real fun of exploring them is experiencing how different and unique each one is. What a relief to leave behind the tourist traps of Santorini and Mykonos (even though they're both gorgeous) and arrive somewhere that feels so much more authentic.

I'm in the port town of Karlovasi, which is a bit scruffy and deserted and I think other villages on the island will be prettier, and probably have more tourists as well. I haven't seen hardly anyone this evening that stood out as being a tourist. Not many people around in general. Two days ago I was in Ia, Santorini struggling to get through the crowds gathering for the sunset and getting turned away from a restaurant that had tables because I just wanted a juice.

Interesting Day on Santorini, Greece

Another interesting day as a solo traveler here on Santorini. I went on a day tour, something I don't do often. But I wanted to go on a boat trip into the volcanic crater in the middle of Santorini, which is part of the sea now. Only 35 euros for an all-day tour. Not a bad deal, especially considering how much it included. Some highlights and lowlights:

The bus broke down while driving to the port, leaving a group of us waiting around for fifteen minutes or so for another bus to come, while wondering if we might miss our boat.

Made it to the boat and we sailed into the beautiful blue Aegean, to a small island in the middle of the crater of Santorini called Nea Kameni, which formed in 1707 as a result of volcanic activity under the sea. We went hiking across the island of jumbled volcanic rocks, devoid of any life (other than tourists). Totally amazing. The views in every direction of the sea and the islands against the clear blue sky were stunning.

Flying Back to Europe

It was a relatively short two-week trip back in the US this time. I'm now on a bus headed to the San Francisco airport to catch a flight to Brussels, Belgium. This will be my second time to Belgium, technically. But the first time didn't really count. That was on my first trip to Europe when I was 18. At the end of my trip my backpack was stolen while sleeping on a bridge over the Seine river in Paris. Luckily I was left with my day pack which had in it my passport, flight ticket (which was crucial since this was before the internet, so flight tickets were almost like cash), the little bit of money I had left, my camera and a few other essentials.

Northern California Road Trip

I just completed an awesome three-day road trip around northern California. Started in Ukiah (where I'm staying at my mom's for a little while), drove over to interstate 5 and north up to Lassen national park where I camped for the night in a campground with a lot of snow around because spring comes late up there. Went on a hike up the road because the road was gated, although free of snow, and got a great view of bubbling sulfur pits and Mt. Lassen, a volcano.

Greyhound Bus Cancelled, So I Hitchhiked

Interesting past 36 hours. Yesterday morning I was at my brother's in eastern Oregon, where I'd been visiting him, his wife and son the previous few days. I had a long travel day ahead of me. I had a Greyhound bus booked from La Grande that would take six hours to get me to Portland and (if it was on time) arrive at 4:20 pm. I then had a flight from Portland at 7 pm to San Francisco, where I had a hostel reserved for the night. The next morning I would catch a city bus up to Santa Rosa where I would meet up with my aunt and we would then drive up to my mom's an hour north of there in Ukiah.

Strange Day in Romania

Interesting day. Went by train from Bucharest to Brasov here in Romania in a snowstorm. Absolutely beautiful scenery of small mountain towns and villages, forests and rural homes all covered in snow.

My phone has been acting up lately, and it started to do it again on the train ride. Hard to explain but it kind of takes on a mind of its own and starts selecting things randomly, doesn't do what you tell it to do, etc. Major problem. So after searching around online a bit I decided to do a hard reset on it. But I didn't do my research thoroughly enough because I thought that meant it would erase me photos and apps I downloaded and revert it back to the default settings when I bought it. I did the reset only to realize that erases basically everything, wipes your phone completely clean. 

The Challenge of Internet While Traveling

Wi-fi can be so random. As a traveler I have obviously seen the full range of wi-fi. Fast, slow, weird. Connections that go in and out constantly, drop randomly, speed up and slow down considerably, especially when it comes to uploading videos.

When I was working in Alaska a few months ago the wi-fi at the employee housing was ridiculously slow. It would take 10 hours or more to upload a video, depending on the file size obviously (length of the video, basically). Once though, I was on the computer and I noticed the upload had picked up speed. It had hours and hours to go, but then suddenly it started zooming and the video uploaded in ten minutes. That never happened again on that connection. A strange blip of internet turbo power. 

It's always a real crapshoot when picking hotels as far as how good the wi-fi is going to be. It matters a lot for me because super slow wi-fi can slow down my whole operation of posting videos and really hold things up, leaving me with finished videos lined up that I can't get posted. People might write reviews about a hotel saying the wi-fi is great, but they most likely mean for browsing the internet, which can be completely different from trying to upload or download stuff.

How Do I Afford to Travel So Much?? Interview with Gabriel Traveler

There's a new article on the website of Nora Dunn, The Professional Hobo, in which she interviewed me about how I manage to travel the world full-time. Very in-depth and informative with lots of tips about how to make money while traveling the world. You can check it out here.

Muscat, Oman

Currently in Muscat, the capital of Oman, which borders the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. But despite its more rambunctious and/or glitzy neighbors, Oman is probably one of the most peaceful, chilled out and humble countries in the world. It's very clean, organized, feels super safe, people are ridiculously friendly but not pushy, almost everyone speaks English and they're more than happy to help with directions, etc. In fact, there aren't really that many people around at all. The streets feel quite empty, especially compared to India (I just spent six weeks there). But even compared to the U.S. it feels like everyone has left town on vacation (maybe they did?). Oman is like a forgotten corner of the Middle East (it is a corner, literally, if you look at the map) that defies all the stereotypes of what the Middle East is like.

The one problem: it's expensive. Pretty much the same as Europe and the U.S., except there are no hostels in the entire country, so I'll have to pay for hotel rooms the whole time I'm here (which I prefer anyway, but not when they're $60 and up). All considering, I'm looking forward to seeing some more of the country, but may not explore as long as I'd thought I would. I might just stay another week or so and then head for Jordan, which is much cheaper and also the home of Petra, one of the most incredible historical sites in the world, by the looks of it. After that quite possibly Israel. That's the plan for now, and I may or may not stick to it.