A Tour of the World

I'm going to start taking you on a little tour of the world, methinks. 

Why? Because the world is awesome, and you should get to explore it, if even just from the paragraphs of this fine website. 

I shall make it a mixed bag of goodies for you - some facts, some figures, some history, some culture, some anecdotes and stories, adventures and misadventures from the places I've been to personally and can report back on firsthand, some useful or compelling or interesting information I find from places that are on my radar and Bucket Map and just want to share, and some stories that are relayed to me by my worldly friends who are out and about themselves, exploring and reporting in real time as well.

Just today I have one friend, an Aussie from Canberra that I met on our 3-month ski bum season in Japan, who held a panda bear in Chengdu, China, today, and an American pal who I came to know in an altogether bizarre sort of way later on, who is preparing to disappear into the mighty Andes in Peru to climb to the mystical Machu Picchu, and two more, Canadians, who are on SAFARI in AFRICA right now, and just posted pictures of their first lions this morning! (I love watching my Facebook news feed.) 

There are endless adventures to be had out there, and some truly amazing places to do it. Whether you are an armchair traveler (and contentedly so, thankyouverymuch) or a soul just stoking your wanderlust, or maybe planning your first or next trip, with this new series of stories, we at the Simpleton hope to bring you plenty of stoke, ideas, inspiration, or just plain old appreciation of the world you are living in. 

To get you started, here is a quickie intro selection of a couple of good blogs and websites from some of the aforementioned people who are out there doing awesome things in awesome places (unfortunately the Aussie is too busy - or distractable - to keep a blog so far, but maybe sooner than later):

1. Dave and Deb from The PlanetD 

"Canada's Adventure Couple", they are the ones on safari in Africa right now. Deb is one of the sweetest folks around, and Dave is an excellent photographer. Their explorations are fun to read, and their great personalities make experiencing and following the adventure with them truly a pleasure.

2. Chris Healy from Follow Chris

I'll tell the story about how I came to know of Chris - and meet him in person - later on. But for now, suffice it to say, he is not only one fantastic dude and now a friend, he's an inspiration as a traveler and a person. This is the American who is on his way to Machu Picchu tomorrow morning, and who has done much in this past year of his solo journey around the world. 

3. Joel from ???

Lacking his own blog, I may help him out with telling his stories until he sorts out his own platform, because they are stories which really must be told, and maybe it will galvanize him to start telling them before I steal them all. Because you really should hear about that time he was in Chiang Mai, and there was this moat, and he had this brand new camera....

So check those out, and buckle up, settle in, and get ready for a Simpleton-style tour of this sweet world of ours.