Meet Janaline

Hallo Moscow!!!
Hallo Moscow!!!

I am a South-African girl who is addicted to travelling and seeing the world. I was born with the travel bug.  You could say it’s a curse, because the adventure of travel is all I ever think about. 

I love exploring and travelling around the world and am having lots of fun sharing my travel stories and pictures so that you can see why I love it so much. I have been travelling and working my way around the world for more than a decade now and have had some amazing experiences along the way.

When you live in a country you get to experience it from a different view than that of the ordinary tourist, I think it’s the people of the country and the little crazy everyday things that keep it interesting.

One of the biggest misconceptions about travel is that you have to have a stash of cash to be able to take big trips.  It’s simply not true.  You don’t have to be wealthy, or even make an above average salary.  You just have to choose travel over “stuff”. 

I got to have a Cormorant on my arm!!!
I got to have a Cormorant on my arm!!!

Here is a taster of my travels up until now as I still need to type up and blog about a lot of these adventures:

My first job abroad was in the Bahamas and Caribbean on a cruise ship. I swam with stingrays at Sting-ray City and drove down the Mexican coast of Cozumel on a moped. Loved New York and Charleston– would go back any time. Moved to England for a while where I stayed all over the place. Bath was the best place to live but ended up in Cambridge.

Backpacked through Spain and Portugal, even made a pit stop on the island of Majorca. Fell in love with Barcelona, the art, people and definitely the seafood paella. Grenada took my breath away and had too much port in Porto.

Had a snowball fight next to the Eiffel tower in Paris and stuffed myself with chocolate crepes. Had a break in Egypt where I saw the sun come up over the Valley of Kings and Queens in a hot air balloon. Duck and dived the traffic with my bright yellow Honda cup motorbike and enjoyed the sunshine in Vietnam for a while. Got lost while exploring Angor Wat in Cambodia while drinking cafe sau da.

On my way to Japan I made a pit stop in South Korea to taste kim chi. Stalked the geisha in Kyoto, Japan before heading to Hiroshima for a sad memorial service. Lived in the desert of the UAE for a while, even rode on a camel! Had my full of baklava in Turkey and walked along the Via Dalarosa in Jerusalem during Christmas.

Me in front of the East Glorius Gates we just walked through to enter the Forbidden City.
Me in front of the East Glorius Gates we just walked through to enter the Forbidden City.

I lived in Russia for 2 years and learned to appreciate good Russian vodka. I walked the streets of St Petersburg during “White Nights” and mastered walking on snow and ice during the cold winter. I walked along the Great Wall of China after cruising down the Yangtze River during my China Odyssey. My next adventure took me to South America. I lived and worked in the street art filled Santiago, Chile for a couple of weeks where I got to stand knee deep in snow on the Andes Mountains.

I moved back to South Africa where I worked at Pentravel, a Leisure travel company in Cape Town as a Travel Agent before returning to teaching English! I lived in Shanghai, China for 3 years before moving to Vancouver, Canada for 2 years to become a certified Art Therapist. I am excited to see where my journey will take me next.

Chinese Calligraphy artist at work
My name written in beautiful caligraphy art
 My challenge to you:  Choose one place that you want to go, and pick a date in the next nine months to go there.  Buy your plane tickets immediately.   Once you do that, you are committed!  Get excited and make a promise to yourself to do this every year. 
Winter Cycling through the streets of Shanghai
Winter Cycling through the streets of Shanghai on a shared bike

©Janaline Smalman  – All rights reserved,

All material contained within this blog, whether photographic or written is subject to copyright. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without prior approval and permission granted by the author, is strictly prohibited.  Excerpts and links to photography may be used, provided that © Janaline Smalman is credited, such that it directly refers to and reflects the original source and material content.

612 comments

  1. Hi Janaline,

    Thanks for sharing your experiences as you live and travel through the world. Saw you wanted to throw a coin in the Trevi fountain. 🙂 Hope you get to do that. Having been there a couple of times and never having thrown a coin in, you can be rest assured that is a myth busted! 🙂
    Wishing you safe travels!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Wish I could emulate you…a regular job and too less leaves spoil everything for me 😦
    Not to forget the monetary worry!
    Wish you all the luck with your trips. I shall travel the world through doers like you 🙂
    Cheers to travel!!

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. Good to know about you and your blog, keep travelling and exploring – thats the best one can experience. Thanks for following my blog and stay connected, loved your blog and your posts.

    Liked by 1 person

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  14. Awesome site Janaline. You hit the nail on the head about choices… stuff over travel. We like the travel much more. We are glad to have discovered each other and the interest in travel should be an exciting way to share our worlds.

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. Hi there

    Thanks for the follow! How have you been and how’s your blog doing?
    I created a blogger tips group to connect with all my long last WordPress blogger friends, and to help all of us to learn from each other. I would love for you to share your knowledge in the group and connect with other bloggers. Here’s the link:
    Blogger Tips Group

    Finally, here’s a blog I thought you may find interesting:
    The Ripple Effect of Blogging

    Best regards,
    Greta
    Founder of Healthy Living
    http://www.healthyliving894.com

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  20. Hello and thank you so much for stopping by and liking my post! I’m Alex and I’m kinda new to this kind of blogging. I’m just about to start my adventure after dreaming about it for years!! It’s about time now and I’m really glad you found me so I could find you and your very inspiring blog 🙂 What an adventure! Looking forward to read more about it.

    All the best from Sweden! Alex

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  23. Hello, Jana. 🙂 I’m glad you found my blog..

    I’m going through some of your travel posts, and they’re super!!!! I hope you’d consider visiting Philippines one day, too. 🙂

    Keep in touch!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  26. I’m so amazed with your adventures…commitment indeed! I like your style of travelling. I also did solo backpacking and it was so much fun. Keep sharing your stories. Thank you for liking my recent post, by the way! Cheers to life and happy travels! 😉

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  27. I couldn’t agree with you more! Life is about making decisions and then following through on them. We made the decision many years ago that we would rather invest in memories by travelling and doing new things, rather than collecting *stuff*. I’ve never regretted it and it sounds like you haven’t either 🙂
    Happy travels!!

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  30. It would be so enjoyable to travel through your blog 🙂 Thank you for sharing with us and also Thank you for visiting my blog. You are amazing. I loved your style, photography and your energy and smiling face… Blessing and Happiness, Love, nia

    Liked by 1 person

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  35. Thanks so much for following Oh, the Places We See. It’s been a pleasure to follow you through many travels, but I especially like seeing pictures of South Africa. We may never get back, so you’re just extending the journey for us. Best wishes for happy travels always.

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  36. such an honor to be followed by a master traveler like you Ms. Janine. Hoping that our mutual love for traveling will lead us to greater heights. 😍

    Liked by 1 person

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  37. I found your blog interesting. Just one thing that bothers me; for a seasoned world traveler, I was disappointed that you still did what many did. I found you listed Bali and Indonesia separately. Bali is one little island in Indonesia. I was born from a Balinese mother, and it irked me to no end when I read that Bali was separated from Indonesia in many travelers’ blogs.

    Liked by 1 person

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  39. Wow you have quite a travel diary !!! Loved the spirit and the fun pics! Hope someday I’d have as many travel tales to share as you ! Till then happy travelling !!

    Liked by 1 person

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  43. Hi Janaline: I was in Cape Town over the Xmas/New Years on vacation. I was standing outside the Craft Market at the V&A shopping center and I saw someone that looked vaguely familiar. Then I figured out that it might be you? It felt too odd to say anything as the odds would be against that and I might have sounded really creepy! Now I’m back in Kathmandu, I checked your website and saw you are South African, which I didn’t even know before. Could that have been you? How weird is that?! Caroline

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Hi there Caroline. Chances are it was me as I was exploring cape Town over Christmas and New Years with my family who came to visit. You should have come over and said hi, would have been lovely to meet a fellow traveler and blogger…next time we cross paths we have to say hi!!

      Liked by 1 person

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