There are some gray whiskers popping up on foXnoMad (figuratively and literally) as this travel site turns 5 years old today. It’s been quite a journey thus far for a blog created originally to help 6 friends keep in touch – eventually morphing into travel blog, funding my travels for the past 2 years to over 40 countries.
Sometime within the past year I decided to formalize a general travel goal, setting my sights on seeing every country in the world. (The United Nations sets that at 193, while the Montevideo Convention’s more interesting list is 201 – so I’ll go with that.) There’s still lots of world to see, write about, and share with you.
Evolving Styles Over Year 4
Currently I’m in Valencia, Spain courtesy Tour Spain and Valencia Tourism, where I’m enjoying the city where paella was created in the late 19th century. Over the past 4th year of foXnoMad I’ve been focusing mainly on the Middle East, visiting (and getting lost) in countries like Oman, Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq while trying to give my posts a more personal touch. A sharper focus on the visual element is on the way, as well as some major travel projects coming up toward the end of the year.
The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers 50% Off Today Only
For foXnoMad’s birthday, today only The Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers is 50% off – but still includes 6 months of free personal travel tech support for yours truly. Need help setting up an online backup system before heading to India or find out your hard drive is going to crash…before it does? I’ll walk you through step-by-step each process, or anything else you learn in the ebook, to help make your laptop the most powerful thing in your backpack.
- You can get the 50% off by typing the discount code ‘birthday’ here.
Also before the end of the year I’ll have another contest with a prize you can test your remote Facebooking and new found hacking skills on – a Macbook Air.
Thank You – Yes, You Right There
I really cannot express my appreciation and thanks enough to all of you who have and continue to support me. For everything – from reading my posts to giving me tours of your hometown to exceptionally helpful travel comments – it is you, sitting right there, who inspires me. Thank you for that – I only hope I can do the same for you and help you travel smarter. Though I’m a bit slower these days on email (now well over 120 a day), my inbox is always open if you ever need anything. Enjoy some digital birthday cake on me, wherever you are in the world 🙂
My sincere thanks,
-Anil
[photo by: JohanBerglund (red fox)]
Congrats and well done Anil yours in one of the few blogs I always enjoy reading. Here’s to the next 5 years.
Thanks for the wonderful compliment and birthday wishes 🙂
5 years is pretty impressive! Happy blog birthday…wonder what will happen over the next 5 years?! 🙂 We’ll just take ourselves off to the pastane for a banana-filled (why?) sponge cream cake and blow some candles out for you.
Julia
It will be interesting to see, I’ve wondered the same myself today 🙂 I hope the banana sponge cream cake was good; I’m now declaring bananas blog birthday’s official food.
Congrats on five years!!
Digital high five back at you!
Happy birthday! I am literally celebrating with you (mine was yesterday) 😉
Well then, happy blog birthday to you too! Guess I’ll have to eat a banana now that I’ve declared it the official snack of blog celebrations everywhere 🙂
Congratulations. And well done. You’re a blogging pioneer 🙂
Thanks Sophie 🙂 I guess 5 years is ancient in the blogging world!
Congratulations on five years of informative and entertaining travel writing! Looking forward to keeping up with your upcoming travels too. Cheers!
Thanks Gillian…still don’t know how I missed you at TBEX. Kicking myself I am…
Happy birfday!
How many years do you think it will take to visit all 201?
I calculated if I spend 2 weeks in the remaining ones without breaks, one at a time, it will take a little over 7 years. Just a rough estimate though as some trips might be faster while others longer.
congratulations Anil and wishing you more blogging years and more travel adventures to come 🙂
forever a fan of foxnomad
-flip
Flip, I appreciate your support throughout. Cheers to you as well.
Congratulations – I know that your next five years will be even better than these five years! You’ve done a stupendous job!!
My sincere thanks for the birthday wishes and all of your support. Hopefully we’ll cross paths one of these days to chat in person as well 🙂
Congratulations! Hope we’ll celebrate foxnomad’s 10th birthday with cake and balloons..
Fingers crossed!
Happy birthday, my friend. Here’s wishing you many, many more years of successful traveling and blogging.
Thanks Barbara!
Happy Birthday to Fox Nomad!!
Tesekkur ederim Natalie!
Congrats on blogging for 5 years. That’s a milestone to be very proud of. You’re doing a superb job and I think your ebook is a real winner- I should be selling it as an affiliate because I think it’s so good.
May you have many more years ahead of you blogging & so sorry I missed you at TBEX.
I appreciate it Leigh – and the affiliate program is always open to you 🙂
How did we miss each other at TBEX, seems like lots of that happened this year. So many of us and so little time I suppose. Are you planning on attending next year in Keystone?
Happy birthday! keep up the good work 🙂
Thanks Dan, hope all is well 🙂
Yay! Congratulations Anil – that’s a HUGE achievement. 🙂
Thanks Akila – when I first started I never thought 5 years later I’d still be blogging but so glad I am 🙂
Blast, I’m a little late. Is there any cake left?
Happy blog birthday.
There’s always plenty of digital cake, I’ll send you some. Chocolate, vanilla, or something more interesting.
Happy belated blog birthday!
Thank you Susan, how have you been?
What great timing to read this, after having met you in person. A birthday couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, so congrats. When someone asked what top 5 blogs I read, you were one of the answers. Your posts always ooze the love you have for exploration and your tech posts always make me pause and think how I’m doing things.
You rock, look forward to traveling with you this September!
Thank you so much Jeannie, was really great to hang out with you in TBEX. Looking forward to train challenging with you as well; going to be one crazy month!
Happy birthday to FoXnoMad – if slightly belated! Congratulations on another successful year and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s on the horizon.
Thanks very much – whereabouts are you guys now?
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!
Cheers Matt, and a belated happy birthday to you as well 🙂
Belated Happy Birthday Anil and congrats. did you take that picture of the Fox? It is exquisite!
Thanks so much for the birthday wishes 🙂 Unfortunately that fox photo isn’t mine (here’s the photographer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanberglund/). Ironically enough I’ve only ever come across a single fox in my travels when I was with camera – and only caught the last bit of tail as it moved out of view.
Congrats Anil for achieving this milestone! Ever since I found your blog in fall 08, it has always been a pleasure to read it. It’s one thing to blog for all those years, but it’s a whole different philosophy to make the blog a part of your identity. And despite all those emails per day, it’s commendable that you take the time to write personal replies, and even respond promptly to the comments on each post. Bravo!
Thank you very much Priyank, I appreciate that. I remember many years without comments and to have the pleasure of so many to correspond with (and the people behind them of course) is a great gift. And wonderful to meet you along the way – thanks for all the support!