I’m very excited to announce that I have been nominated for the Liebster award! The Liebster award is an award for bloggers, nominated by other bloggers. I’d like to give a big thanks to Brian at Hawaiian Brian (http://www.hawaiianbrian.com) who runs an excellent blog full of travel tips and resources.

The Liebster Award Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and post a link to their site.
2. Display an image of the award and write a post about your nomination on your blog.
3. Answer the 10 questions your nominee has asked in their blog post.
4. Nominate 5-10 other deserving new bloggers for the award and ask them 10 questions of your choice.
5. List the rules of the award in your blog post.

10 Questions From Hawaiian Brian

1.Tell Us About Yourself

As of now, I’ve been living in China for ten years (well, one in South Korea too), training martial arts and traveling. I’m a student of Zhou Zhen Dong, one of the top masters of Praying Mantis Kung Fu, however I have also been lucky to train with other great masters of styles such as Xinyi Liuhe Quan, Korean Taekkyon, as well as some Wing Chun, Taiji Quan and Bagua Zhang.

2.How Did You Get Started Traveling? What Inspired Your Wanderlust?

I first came to Asia at 18, for a six month trip backpacking through China, Hong Kong, Tibet, Nepal and India. I always had a fascination for the Far East, mostly due to my martial arts training. This first trip fueled my passion, and exposed me to so much new stuff it just blew my mind. When the trip was over, I returned to my old life a changed person, and new I just had to go back.

3.How Many Countries Have you Been To? How Many Continents?

I have currently been to China (the mainland, plus Hong Kong and Tibet), South Korea, Nepal, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, The Phillipines and Dubai & Abu Dhabi: that covers Asia so far. Then I went to the USA as a kid, Australia fairly recently, and for Europe I’ve been to: The UK (my own country), France, Monaco, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Greece. I also went to Kenya when I was very young.

4.What Is Your Favourite Travel Experience?

There’s been so many its hard to choose. The first part of my first ever trip was some volunteer work in Xi’an, China. While the volunteer work itself was kind of disappointing (I’ll eventually write an article about that), this was my first time in China, and on top of that it was the ancient capital! It was just so different to anything I’d experienced before, and I spent almost all my free time just exploring the city soaking up the culture. Towards the end of that same trip, I trekked in the Himalayas in India, and learnt meditation at a retreat there. It wasn’t one of those intense places where you can’t eat or talk etc, it was more just rest and recover from the hard trekking for a few days, and we did meditation early in the morning.

5. Where Is Your Favourite Travel Destination and Why?

I would probably have to say Malaysia. The tropical weather, amazing food, diverse culture and incredibly friendly people made it as a great experience. As a multicultural country, you have Muslim Malay people, native Orang Asli in the jungle as well as large Chinese and Tamil Indian communities in the cities. Penang was an amazing city, something like an Asian Cuba: all the old faded colonial buildings. The most special event though was when I proposed to my now-wife on the beach in Langkawi on our last night!

6.When Did You Start Writing About Your Travels?

In 2007 when I made that first big trip, I set up a very amateur blog at usefulnessisinemptiness.blogspot.com/, and after a few years I started focusing on learning how to really run a website when I created monkeystealspeach.co.uk which I ran for several years, and now I’ve finally moved to my current site.

7.What Is Your Favourite Post You Have Written?

Maybe my interview with Seven Star Mantis teacher, Brendan Tunks, or world champion boxer Michele Aboro.

8. What Are Your Upcoming Plans For Your Blog?

I think I answered this in a recent interview on Superstarblogging.

9. Where Are You Traveling To Next?

A trip around Italy, France and Switzerland with my wife and her parents. It will be their first time in Europe, so should be an interesting experience.

10. What Is The Best Place You Have Ever Eaten?

There has been so many. Although I live in China, I’m not the biggest fan of Chinese food, probably been over-saturated by it. I prefer Mediterranean, Japanese and South-East Asian. Shanghai has an excellent dining scene if you are willing to spend money. For cheap food, I’d say Malaysia, as the street food is top quality, and you can enjoy Malay, Indian and Chinese all at the same time!

I Nominate The Following Bloggers For the Liebster Award:

A Couple For The Road http://www.acouplefortheroad.com/

Maggie and Tsvetin at https://magickervan.com/

Sivan at http://www.backpackingpanda.com/

David Kelly at http://www.studymartialarts.org

Eemma at http://www.alwaysagringa.com/

My Questions For The Nominees Are:

1. Tell us a bit about yourself
2. What was your first trip and how did it change you
3. What’s the biggest thing you’ve gained from travel
4. What kind of a traveler are you (backpacker/luxury/solo/group etc)
5. What’s your favourite destination so far
6. What’s your most memorable experience
7. What’s your worst/most disappointing experience
8. Where do you plan to go next
9. How did you get into blogging
10. What are your plans for your blog this year