Cruises

One of the places we’ve always wanted to visit are the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, one of the most pristine and diverse ecosystems on the planet. This is bound to be a very exciting adventure and we would love to share it with you… We’ve teamed up with LGBT specialists Ishpingo Tours to offer an exclusive gay cruise to these enchanted islands between 13-22 October 2016. Spaces are limited aboard the luxurious M/Y Passion yacht, so make sure you book your tour with us ASAP and do not forget to use the promo code NOMADIC5 to receive a 5% discount. Sign up here – five spots left: http://ishpingotours.com/tours/nomadic-boys-luxury-galapagos-cruise/ Now, on to the interview! Hello PR boys. We are gay couple, Stefan and Sebastien. We quit our jobs and London life in early 2014 to eat our way through Asia and have since made travelling a long-term lifestyle. Stefan, 33 is a former lawyer, of Greek Cypriot origin, born and raised in London. Sebastien, 34, is an IT geek, originally from France but moved to London to work in the finance industry. London is where we met. Purple Roofs: How did you guys first meet? Nomadic Boys: We first set eyes on each other on Tuesday 24th February 2009 at the GAY bar in Soho, London. Sebastien was meeting friends to talk about moving to Spain to start a new life and Stefan was meeting a work colleague about a possible career move. We were too shy to speak to one another and it was Stefan’s friend who helped break the ice. The rest is history. We have been together for over 6 years. After 2 years, we bought our flat together, renovated it and enjoyed a happy life in London. We figured if we can survive that, then surely we can survive travelling together long term. PR: What gave you the idea to start Nomadic Boys? NB: Sebastien was on the verge of leaving London and Stefan had hit a lull in his legal career and was looking for something new. We talked about moving to new places long term and earning money along the way to fund this and to make long-term travelling a new lifestyle/career. In around 2012, we agreed to go for it and start in Asia. So, we started planning and saving up and set 2014 as the year we would be financially ready to leave London. We set up the blog before we left London in June 2014. It was a mutual decision and has become our baby. The blog has been an excellent way to keep a record of our travels. It’s great because it forces us to be more involved with our travels, such as what we are eating, when and why was a particular building built and making a strong effort to meet locals. The main 2 things we both love are picking up recipes from each country we visit (http://nomadicboys.com/category/world-recipes) and trying to meet local gays and gain their point of view of the gay scene: http://nomadicboys.com/category/gay-stories PR:  When did you know it was going to work? NB: Since we set up the blog, it has grown exponentially in terms of traffic and followers, particularly amongst the LGBT community. We have recently started to be contacted by hotels, tour companies and other tourist related businesses offering sponsorship and advertising. PR:  Has the concept changed over time, or is this pretty much what you planned all along? NB: It started as a way of recording our travels as our big trip in Asia was something we’d never done before and we therefore wanted a place online to record our discoveries, show off our photos etc As the blog has grown, we’ve become more organised with the type of articles we do and when. Comparing our latest blog post to our first one makes us cringe, but a great benchmark to see how far we’ve evolved. PR:  What was the most amazing thing that has happened to you guys so far? NB: We have loved Mongolia, Nepal and Cambodia the most. But overall, we’d both agree on the Philippines because about a year into our travels, this was also the same time the blog really started to take off. In London, we have many Filipino friends and heard a great about the country from them. We therefore arrived in the Philippines with extremely high expectations. These were not only exceeded but also left us with a craving to return. We have fallen in love with it, particularly the Filipinos who we have a massive soft spot for: their faces just exude this a genuine friendliness and warmth. PR:  The scariest? NB: The scariest will always be the Trans Siberian. Stefan is more up for roughing it and has travelled alone extensively before, particularly in Latin America. For Sebastien however, this was his first big trip outside of Europe and from home comforts. Stefan’s goal was to “break” Sebastien into the world of backpacking by throwing him on the deep end and start with the famous week long train journey. That’s 1 week of no washing and roughing it on a train. It’s awesome, but those tantrums from the Frenchman throughout the experience were the scariest thing we’ve encountered so far on our travels PR:  The most surprising? NB: We were invited to speak on the morning show of a government owned radio station in Malaysia. Malaysia is not the most gay friendly country when it comes to its laws – it’s illegal! But as long as you don’t say the word gay out loud, you see a whole different experience then what you would imagine is the reality. The radio DJ was as camp as Christmas, extremely hilarious with some delicious tongue in cheek lines, but as long as we avoided THAT word [gay] it was absolutely fine! http://nomadicboys.com/that-time-we-were-interviewed-on-malaysian-national-radio-traxx-fm/ PR:  What are the biggest challenges to being a travel writer/blogger? The biggest rewards? NB: At the end of the day, it is a small business you are trying to build and like any new business, it needs a lot of time investment to get anywhere, particularly in the first year. We spend more hours behind the computer then we ever did before in our former jobs. But this is our baby, and watching it evolve has been the most rewarding thing we have achieved together. PR:  How long do you plan to do this – is it a life-long passion? NB: Our dream is to be able to continue travelling using income from our blog (and other jobs we do along the way to compliment this) once our savings run out. It is extremely hard work keeping on top of it along with travel plans but heck we are not complaining and it has been extremely rewarding. PR:  I noticed you guys seem to have left Asia behind, for now. What’s coming up next? NB: We are back home in Europe to spend quality time with family and then head over to Latin America from July. Follow our Latin discoveries on our gay travel blog. Find the Nomadic Boys on social media: http://facebook.com/nomadicboys http://instagram.com/nomadicboys http://twitter.com/nomadicboys https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC99ODSH8UaA1JAIrQmxXTig ]]>