You guys are my heroes! I've been following you all over Asia.

Tiffany, you are such a gifted writer and a pleasure to read. Sometimes I'm put off by travel writing--somehow the author is trying too hard, or the piece reads like an itinerary. Not only that, I'll feel jealous of the writer b/c she's there and I'm not! But you've struck a really good balance with the scope of your pieces, your individual voice, and great subject matter. I feel like I'm there with you! No jealousy.

I hope you continue to blog or publish your writing after you get back home.

I'm curious about the process of blogging--do you write at leisure, and upload your pieces when you can get to an Internet connection? Do you know what you're going to write about or how you're going to approach the topic before you sit down to actually compose it? How long would you say you spend on a given piece? And how do you juggle traveling, eating, getting lost, meeting people, sightseeing, etc. with blogging? (I'm thinking a lot about writing these days so forgive me for asking these "boring" questions.)

Hi Tammy!

Thank you for your lovely comments - it was very heartening to log on and read your words :)

As to process (something I am very interested in too, and have been thinking a lot about of late) - here's the deal:

The work of travel blogging seems to vary quite a lot. I can't pin down an exact routine that I follow to produce the words for this site, as it is greatly affected by mood, availability of technology, and other factors.

I usually make at least a 'note to self' either mentally or in my PDA (oh the yuppiness!!) when a new 'blog idea' occurs to me. That note will typically just be the kernel of the idea for that particular piece - I won't write it up at that stage. I can tell from the idea itself whether the piece will be long and rambly, or medium-sized, or very short and random-comment-like: those things tend to determine the tone that the written piece will take on.

The other way that a post might start out is that I see or experience something which is so odd or funny or emotionally affecting that I'm compelled to write down some of the things that occur to me about it then and there. This frantic, hyped-up excitement always seems to hit me most strongly when I arrive in a new place - I find that I'm much more receptive and kid-like and excited then than I am after twenty-four hours in a place. So that first taxi-ride (if we are so lucky as to be splurging on one) can be a real gold-mine of scribbled down first impressions. That's actually the reason I got the PDA - to use the voice-recorder function and the memo function to take down first impressions in situations (like the back seat pitch-black cabs) where I was full of ideas but couldn't write longhand in my journal 'cause it wasn't feasible.

Once I have my one line 'kernel' or my scattered first-impressions notes, then I will either write an entry on our laptop, transfer it to a USB memory key, and take it into an internet cafe to upload *OR* I will just take the notes along with me to the internet cafe and write the entry direct to the web. I work best with a certain amount of pressure, and can handle noise, distraction and company when I write, so writing the entries from scratch in an internet cafe can actually work out very well.

The most difficult situations for getting work done are those where friends are involved - I think it it's tacky to keep saying, 'I can't spend time with you as I have to blog ...', so often when we've met up with friends on the road I notice my output falls quite a bit. I think that's as it should be, though - after all, the travelling should stand on its own merits regardless of the blog. I don't want the blog to become so dominant in my travel consciousness that it strips away the pleasure and significance of travel-for-travel's-sake.

Other juggling is necessary too - as you point out, the day-to-day of travel routine (looking for edible food, searching out accommodation, getting lost, meeting new people etc etc) all takes time. I think I just squeeze the blog in to my general internet time as best I can, and then try to get on with the rest of the trip. I do find that I'm often turning ideas over in my head during downtime at airports, walking down the street, or on public transport.

The worst aspect of the time-jugging dilemma is that small breaks quickly snowball to become huge swathes of time (at least in one's own mind!) where you haven't blogged. Say you feel sick one night after a dodgy set of dumplings, then you have to move accommodation the next morning, then you have to get to the airport the following day, then you take a longish flight arriving late, and then you're in a new city with no idea what to eat, where to stay or where cheap, reliable internet might be found. Those situations crop up with alarming regularity, and the rigours of travel REALLY put the blog in its place, telling it, 'just hold on there. YOU are not the priority here - and no matter what else happens you're NOT going to get written up anytime soon!'