HELLO THIS IS ME

Behind the Travellife Chaser is me, Nienke Bouw, an 28 year travel addict who is not owning much more than a backpack, a bicycle and some boards. It is simplicity that gives me energy in life. Nothing beats hanging out in hostels and heading after healthy local food. The ultimate feeling of freedom for me is roaming on my bare feet with nothing ahead of me or chasing the wind on a board.

Got my roots in the Netherlands but often heading for what is behind the horizon. Somehow I am passionately curious for what I cannot see. It seems that I am prone to the travel virus. This brought me to awesome places in the world that I can’t keep for myself and therefore love to share on this blog.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

At the age of sixteen I managed to chase my parents for weeks until they got me on a plane to Gambia to help at a social project. That was the start of a lifetime addiction and I wasn’t planning on getting it out off my system soon. After that I bought a backpack and headed towards Asia to explore Malaysia, Borneo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines.

This backpack eventually got replaced for books when I started to study within the tourism field. Well not completely replaced as the adventures continued on fields trips (Sevilla, Granada, Prague, Krakow, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam) and internships abroad (Greece, Austria, Costa Rica). Despite all the travel distractions, I managed to graduate by writing a thesis report about tourism development on the island São Tomé and Príncipe.

DARE TO GET OFF THE CENTRAL LINE

So why this blog?

For me its impossible to imagine a life without movements. The entire world is based on it. It is what drives all of us all but don’t you agree that we are taking the our life circle it bit too literally nowadays?

Charlie Chaplin said the greatest speech ever made: ‘We have develop speed, but shut ourselves in. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity.  

Somehow I also got locked up in the feeling that I had  to follow the ordinary and the predefined lines until I realized that there is no do over time.

With this blog I want to motivate you all to get OFF,  what I define as the central line , and go after what makes you feel alive. Whether it is traveling or something else, it is your story to make! Don’t let it be you who is looking back on a life that you can’t define yourself with.

I am about to chase whatever dream picked me. To be completely honest, I don’t know where my journey will end. Let’s just embrace what life is having ahead for me. Are you with me?

– Follow the sun and which way the wind blows –
Xavier Rudd