Jusz Travel is putting the spotlight on Sebastien and Stefan from Nomadic Boys as Travel Bloggers of the Month! I love these two because I find the photos on their blog to be hilarious and their articles not only helpful but also entertaining.
S and S is a gay couple from Europe who found themselves adventuring in Asia.
“We quit our jobs and London life in June 2014 to eat our way through Asia and plan to make travelling a long-term lifestyle,” said Stefan Arestis. “We started Nomadic Boys in November 2013 as a platform to record our travel experiences and make fun of ourselves as we ate our way around Asia. Nomadic Boys has since translated into a brand that has grown exponentially over the past year, particularly among the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.”
The Nomadic Boys has earned the trust of their readers due to their consistent hard work in providing travel articles with a “touch of humour”.
“We write destination guides, food and adventure stories always with a touch of humour. We have a strong relationship with our followers who trust our opinion and follow our travels to find inspiration for their future journeys,” said Arestis. “The main two things we both love are picking up recipes from each country we visit and trying to meet local gays and gain their point of view of the gay scene.”
For the full interview with Sebastien and Stefan from Nomadic Boys, continue reading below.
1. Tell us something about yourself not many people know about you?
We are gay couple, Stefan and Sebastien. We quit our jobs and London life in June 2014 to eat our way through Asia and plan to make travelling a long-term lifestyle.
Stefan, 33 is a former lawyer, of Greek Cypriot origin, born and raised in London. Sebastien, 33, is an IT geek, originally from France but moved to London to work in the finance industry. London is where we met.
2. What is your blog called and what sets it apart from other travel blogs?
Our blog is Nomadic Boys. We started Nomadic Boys in November 2013 as a platform to record our travel experiences and make fun of ourselves as we ate our way around Asia.
Nomadic Boys has since translated into a brand that has grown exponentially over the past year, particularly among the LGBT community.
3. Why should people check out your travel blog?
We write destination guides, food and adventure stories, always with a touch of humour.
We have a strong relationship with our followers who trust our opinion and follow our travels to find inspiration for their future journeys.
4. How long have you been blogging?
Since November 2013.
5. Why did you decide you want to be a travel blogger?
Travelling and cooking were the two things we had in common from the outset. Sebastien was on the verge of leaving London and Stefan had hit a lull in his legal career and was looking for something new. We talked about moving to new places long term and earning money along the way to fund this and to make long-term travelling a new lifestyle/career.
In around 2012, we agreed to go for it and start by eating our way through Asia. So, we started planning and saving up and set 2014 as the year we would be financially ready to leave London.
We set up the blog before we left London in June 2014 and has become our baby.
6. What is the hardest part about being a travel blogger?
We learnt that you can’t just keep travelling as you need time to stop and work on the blog. This is actually a good thing. We have to travel slowly, factoring many “admin days” to just work on the blog and planning ahead. The blog has been a welcome weight on our shoulders through our travels that keeps us on our toes, just like our baby, it’s our project, our baby, but constantly needs to be mothered.
7. And what is the best part about being a travel blogger?
The blog has been an excellent way to keep a record of our travels. It’s great because it forces us to be more involved with our travels, such as what we are eating, when and why was a particular building built and making a strong effort to meet locals.
The main two things we both love are picking up recipes from each country we visit and trying to meet local gays and gain their point of view of the gay scene.
8. What are the top three things you always bring with you in your travels?
The nature of travelling has really changed over the past decade. In Stefan’s first backpacking trip to South America in 2005, there was no blog, digital camera, smart phone, etc… Now however:
– Laptop: in this day and age you can’t be a successful travel blogger without a decent laptop to work on. Stefan adores his MacBook Air and Apple-hating Seb gets anything non apple.
– Smart phone: this goes hand in hand with the nature of travel blogging and needing to keep social media active and engaged. Apps like Instagram only work on smart phones. Googlemaps has also been a god send in our travels. Stefan’s an Apple geek, Seb on the other hand hates everything about Apple and get whatever Samsung releases.
– Camera: a decent camera to take high quality photos and videos is a must for our blog posts and any sponsored projects we undertake. We swear by our Panasonic TZ60. This is the only piece of technology we agree on and is our other baby.
9. What is the craziest thing you’ve done while traveling?
We did the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, which was a two-week trek around the Annapurna Himalaya mountain range, culminating at Thorong La Pass at 5,416 metres high.
This trek really tested our limits, particularly the effect of the high altitudes where breathing problems and headaches started to kick in. Not to mention the freezing cold. Absolutely loved it though and remains one of the highlights of our trip to Asia.
Oh and trying balut in the Philippines. Not that was really testing our limits!!
10. Do you have another travel blogger you get inspiration from? Who is it and what is the name of their blog? (include link) How does this person inspire you?
When we first hatched the idea to make travel a long term lifestyle, Stefan Google searched what other former lawyers did with themselves and stumbled upon Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads.
At the time, she happened to be in London and we met up with her. My god she was extremely inspiring and to this day we see her as the Mama of our travel blogging experience. We were delighted to meet her again recently at TBEX Asia in Bangkok. She’s huge of course, very popular blogger with a massive reputation, yet despite this, she remains so humble and still the endearing sweet person we met in London all those years ago.
11. Share to us your favourite travel hack?
Instead of booking a hotel via Booking.com or Agoda, contact the hotel directly and offer to book with them instead of the third parties. They will usually give you a discount because this will save them paying out the commission they will have to pay, which is passed on to the customer.
12. Where was your last travel destination? Tell us all about it!
We spent 17 months eating our way around Asia and now we’re back home for Christmas in cold Europe, my god do we miss it! Nepal and Mongolia were our highlights for scenery, Sri Lanka and Borneo for wildlife and the Philippines and Indonesia had the best beaches.
Our heart is still in Thailand, which has it all. Bangkok is an excellent base for gay travelers, affordable, a huge gay scene around Silom Soi 4 and 6 and some of the best food in the world.
13. Where are you going next? What are you most looking forward to on this trip?
We plan to visit Latin America in 2016 and possibly North America. We’re still working on the planning but this is what we’re aiming for. Unlike Asia, the Americas are far more developed with regards to their gay laws, so will have a lot more to offer for the gay traveler.
The Nomadic Boys are all over the internet! You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Pinterest!
All photos in this post are provided by the Nomadic Boys.
