Jeremy

Jeremy founded Living the Dream in 2008 to chronicle his long-term trip around Asia. Since then he has been on two long-term trips, visited 69 countries, and is just getting started. He is now on a Lifestyle Design quest to build businesses to pursue a life of travel.

Don’t Miss the Kolukkumalai Tea Plantation in Munnar

Gorgeous Tea in Munnar, IndiaThe Kolukkumalai Tea Estate outside of Munnar, India is the highest organic tea plantation in the world. 

With plants growing at elevations of over 8,000 feet, it should be no surprise when we say it is not the easiest of places to visit.

After a rather lackluster government run tour in Munnar the day before, we decided to hire a private Jeep to take us to this incredibly remote facility as the views were supposed to be some of the best. 

Even with the poorly run tour, we already knew that the region topped the Boh Tea Plantation in the Cameron Highlands, and going even higher for more beauty was something we couldn’t begin to comprehend.

With blue skies above and none of Munnar’s famous view-impeding mists in sight, our journey put us on the path to vistas we never thought possible.

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Loving Geometric Indian Patterns – A Massive Photo Collection

Geometric Indian PatternsOne of my favorite things about visiting the forts, palaces, and temples in India is discovering the geometric patterns that are found in every corner.   No matter where you go, these patterns appear and are a beautiful reminder of an age long since past.

The best part about these geometric patterns?  They all seem to be different!   It has been an exciting journey discovering these gems, and we went on a quest to take photos of some of the best.  Since we have dozens of these, we cannot help but share a large collection of our favorites here!

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…and Then PNC Changed the Foreign ATM Withdrawal Rules

The issues that go along with spending upwards of $75,000 on a vacation is not something most travelers ever have to consider.  But for our 18 month trip around the world, we were faced with some new challenges for this same reason. 

While the argument for how much a journey like this should cost is best served for other articles, one of the biggest struggles long-term travelers have to face are the bank fees that are associated with such a large amount of spending.

After many years of paying comically high fees without any other recourse, banks are finally starting to understand the fact that people do not want to pay foreign transaction fees to access their money. We thought we found a great policy with our bank, PNC, but the honeymoon was soon over just 6 months into our journey as the terms were recently changed back to the archaic fee structure we were trying to get away from. 

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How to Travel Chitwan to Varanasi in the Same Day


To have your concept of a slow travel day be completely redefined, take a vacation to Nepal. Where traveling a 200 km distance at home would take a little under 2 hours, that same distance between Kathmandu and Pokhara will take around 7.  No matter the route, a long and bumpy ride is in your future when traveling in the country, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

So when the time came for us to depart Nepal for neighboring India, we got very excited. Not so much for all the things worth seeing in India, those go without saying, but rather due to the fact that we can get back to using trains as our primary mode of transit.  They are just as slow as anything else, but being able to walk around or stretch out on a bed can make a considerable difference during a travel day that seems like it will never end.

But before we could get back to our favorite mode of travel, we had one large hurdle to cross. One long day that I have always considered to be my most dreaded of this 18-month trip: traveling from Chitwan National Park, Nepal to Varanasi, India.

That day had arrived, and we were mentally prepared for a long and tiring journey going to a city that is, quite frankly, not that far away.

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