Cooking On The Road With Almost Fearless Backpackers

In their early twenties, Canadian couple Ashley and Chris are still trying to figure out how to join their two passions and start cooking on the road. But, you know what? meanwhile they are having so much fun!

Did I say that, apart from being from one of the coolest countries on earth, they have recently road-tripped our beloved Galicia?

Get to know their travel tales about exotic locations and dream beaches in our new On the Road Interview.

• Tell us a bit about yourself and how you started to travel. Do you remember your 1^st travel experience? Why are you (if that’s so…) passionate about traveling?

We had gone on many family travel adventures for a week here and a weekend there. Chris had completed his first Europe trip by himself, where he travelled for 3 months and unfortunately Ashley was stuck at home studying. The following year, we both headed off to Europe for our first trip together. Our trip lasted 5 and 1/2 months and we would say that it was that trip that really encouraged us to keep going and to see more of the world. We had learned so much from everyone we met on our first trip that we were eager to start our next one. We believe that you could learn more traveling than you can in school. Yeah sure, school teaches you all the facts, but traveling gives you experience. It can only benefit one’s life to travel.

Both on the beach in Grand Bend, Canada, while Chris is eating coleslaw

• Now that we know where do you come from… could you tell us where are you heading to? Which are your plans for the future in terms of traveling?

Currently we are in Bangkok and off to Koh Tao tonight. From there we are traveling around Thailand and then were off to Laos, where we will be staying in each country for about a month. After that, unfortunately we are headed home. However our travels will not end there, we are going to Florida in December, a few weekend trips here and there and we are currently planning our destination wedding.

• What do you think of traveling with a purpose or meaning in mind? What do you look for when traveling long-term?

We always like to travel with a purpose, you could say our purpose is all about learning and experiencing. We believe that the valuable lessons we learn while traveling abroad can make a life changing impact on us.then from there we can take what we’ve learnt and teach it to others. We actually wrote a blog a while back about traveling long-term and what we hope to learn from it. You can read it here.

• How do you fund your travels? Have you found a job or income source that allows you to be on the road fulltime? Tell us what you do for a living.

Well, to be honest, we probably fund our travels different from most. We are basically broke throughout the majority of our trip. As of now, with 2 months left of our trip we have already ran out of money. the way it works for us is that we leave with very little cash, just a few thousand dollars, and then once that runs out we start racking up the credit cards. Yes it’s probably not the best way to go, but now if we want to continue traveling credit card is our only option.

Chris in a cooking class at Blue Elephant Cooking School in Bangkok

At home Chris works as a Chef and Ashley work as a counsellor for abused women and children. We have not found a job or income source that allows us to be on the road full-time, however we have taken part in HelpX opportunities that will pay for extra hours. Also we own and run a backpacker’s blog, that helps us pay for some things – especially when traveling.

• Did your job, studies, volunteering experiences or other projects help you to travel the world? Where have you been thanks to those? If so, tell us a bit about those experiences.

For Chris, his job and his passion for cooking really pushed him to want to travel more. He is looking to further his career by learning, tasting and experiencing new and different food cultures in every way he can. Not saying too much, but one day he wants to open a restaurant that is very closely related to cuisines from around the world.

Chris also took part in a volunteer experience in Letovnik, Bulgaria.He was helping a hippy build and renovate a hostel called the Happy Hippy Hostel. It wasn’t only the type of work that made the experience, it was all the people he met while he was there. It was because of these people and the experience that he had that Bulgaria is his favorite country and still is to this date.

Almost Fearless backpackers in Galicia, Spain on a road trip

• What would you recommend to someone who wants to follow your steps? Which kind of training or studies is necessary? Would an investment be needed in the first place? Please, give 3 pieces of advice (you wish to have known before starting) of what to do and what to avoid in order to succeed.

Go for it. Blogging is not a simple as some might think it is, it’s a lot of hard work. But it definitely has its perks. We are not full-time bloggers like some others and we don’t make big bucks from it either. We like to blog for the joy of it, to keep our friends and family up-to-date, and also for the free tours. These tours come in handy because we our budget for the day is minimal and one tour will eat up the whole days budget. As for traveling and learning about food, like Chris is doing, that too is a lot of fun. We’re always taking cooking classes and asking locals about food and cooking tools & strategies. We recommend to any chef to take the time to travel and learn about different cuisines right in the country in which it originated from.

• What does a perfect day in your life looks like? Do you follow any particular routine?

No we don’t have much of a routine. We like to let things come as they do. We book our accommodations and some tours in advance but most days we leave open – free to do whatever we please. A perfect day for us is a day where we can fit in some sightseeing, some cultural experiences while taking it at a relaxed pace. We like to get from point A to point B at a speedy pace but we don’t like to feel pressured or overwhelmed with things to do. Keeping it simple and enough time to enjoy what you’re doing is a good day by us. And we must not forget about eating some delicious food throughout the day.

Ashley on a skywalk in Bangkok

• Where do you come from originally and where you call home now? Can you give us some local tips we cannot find in a guidebook but you highly recommend about your hometown?

We are from Toronto and Brampton, Ontario. Now living in Toronto. One good tip I can suggest is that if you want to see what multi-culture we have in Canada, you need to go all throughout the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). The GTA is one of the most ethnically diverse urban populations in the world. Each surrounding city of Toronto has their vast population of specific cultures. For example, Brampton is known for being little India, Markham is known for its large Italian and Portuguese populations and Richmond Hill for Chinese and Japanese populations.

• Do you read, write, draw, listen to music, sing, watch movies or do something else while traveling? How do you interact with technology these days and which gadgets you definitely take with you everywhere? What is your favorite book? And movie?

Our smart phone is a must while traveling abroad. It has come in handy too many times to count. It is our currency exchange checker, calendar, watch, GPS, music player etc. You could say it’s our travel buddy. We watch movies, work on our website, use Skype and much more on our tablet. We also bring our camera everywhere we go, we document nearly everything we see. Ashley reads books while traveling, mostly on trains, busses and planes. Currently she is on book 3 of the millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who played with Fire & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest). Chris reads cookbooks, all the time.

• Do you keep a bucket list? Which are your craziest dreams? Where are your favorite destinations on earth? (feel free to add any other information you would like to share with our readers here)

We have a bucket list, but there is much more that needs to be added. You can see it on our website but keep in mind, there is a need for an updated list, as we have completed some and want to add others.

Ashley and Chris at Neon Splash in Amsterdam

As for favorite destination, we don’t have one. Every country has something different to offer, there’s no way we could just pick one or even two.

Follow their steps on twitter.