The GRRRL TRAVELER CHALLENGE #2 CONTEST:
It’s a 3-day contest, so hurry- it will end soon!

As a Producer-Shooter for reality TV- it’s often been my job to produce what I think would be entertaining challenges for a show. So this contest is to see what you think would make a cool GRRRL TRAVELER travel blog or v-log episode. Seeing as my GRRRL TRAVELER Challenge #2 is to live and move abroad   and my destination country is South Korea–

What do you think would be the coolest, craziest or greatest GRRRL TRAVELER Challenge for me to try while living in South Korea?

List your thoughts– you can list more than one– in the Comments section below or email them to me. I will select the one I like best and in the future, you just never know…

Deadline: Wednesday, Dec 10th, 12P EST.

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The gamble we take in following dreams is that we are never certain of the outcome; yet, a staid and sensible path can be just as uncertain.

Finding the GRRR to embark upon bold new adventures, which remove us from trusted and worn paths, can feel both terrifying and exhilarating. Terrifying, because we must call upon our self-belief to guide us through “the unpredictable and unknown”. Exhilarating, as we are released from our own self-created prisons and given freedom to grow towards our passions, experience new challenges or changes within ourselves and to create a lifestyle that is potentially more meaningful and extraordinary.

When our country’s recession created a drag in my career as Shooter-Producer of reality TV shows, I (more…)

Back from my GRRRL TRAVELER beginner solo trip with lots of cool experiences to share from Thailand and what I’ve learned about being on the solo road! Everything from mastering squat toilets and cold showers while trekking in the mountains, eating bugs, drinking tiger penis soaked whiskey in Laos, smoking with Buddhist monks, practicing circle 8′s with a guesthouse owner’s motorbike so I could rent a scooter, getting lost virtually …everywhere and more. I have the promise of upcoming tips and advice for beginning GRRRL soloists like myself, the leak of a  GRRRL TRAVELER contest and challenge#2, and much much more…

Firstly, a shout out of warm Mahalos to all the friends following my fun updates on Facebook (sorry Twitterverse- you got gyped some…). Special Mahalos to those who super-caring and supportive of my first solo-solo and who went of their way to make (more…)

*REvised version*
by Christine Ka’aloa

Boo! It’s Halloween and the perfect time to talk about the SCARY of planning my itinerary for my entirely solo trip to Thailand.

My Pre-flight Jitters
I leave for Thailand in a day and my solo fears are now starting to sink in!  I’m filled with all sorts mixed emotions and self-doubts that aim to sabotage my confidence. When friends ask me whether I’m excited about my trip, I feel numb. Frankly, I wish I did not have so much time to think about it, but I do.

Planning  Woes for the Soloist

When I said earlier that my friend, Regina, does not use guidebooks when she travels, I’ll let you in on a little secret… I haven’t really either. I buy them for the “in case” I want to open them. But only until last year when I was (more…)

by Christine Ka’aloa

From a Dark Dwellings photo series that I shot when I was lost one night working in Ashland, Ohio

There are two crucial saboteurs to my GRRRL TRAVELER challenge of becoming a first time female solo traveler. And these saboteurs- my fears- poke their rebelliously fear-full heads out before I can even book my flight. Unless I find a way to deal with them, my plans are stillborn and I will not clear my challenge hurdle.

Here’s some steps I’ve taken as an attempt to deal with them: (more…)

by Christine Ka’aloa

The saying,  “A stone’s throw in a pond creates a ripple effect…” feels true of the moment. As of recent I have been juggling a lot of weighty decisions about travel, making it more of a lifestyle and what happens when you have no travel partner.

My GRRRL Traveler Challenge #1 : Become a  female solo traveler of developing countries.
My GRRRL traveling dreams and the courage required to embark upon them don’t magically create themselves, without some effort on my part to rub two stones together! I rub and I rub and ask myself- Why would I want to travel alone? That little voice inside says- “…because you love to travel…You love to explore new cultures and have adventures . Why WAIT on someone else to allow you to do that? Go for it -or – regret not trying ! And there you have it.

For me, solo travel is an opportunity to continue my travels, without being :
a) at the mercy of friends’ work-vacation schedules or luxury budgets
b) searching for travel buddies to match my wish list of developing countries
c) dealing with others’ fickleness

While twiddling my thumbs waiting, often I feel like I’m standing out in the rain, praying for lightning to strike (more…)