Erin McVey

Home: Charleston, South Carolina

Expat Home: Koh Tao, Thailand

Age: 29

Job: Divemaster

Longest trip: "8 months (although, if you want to get technical, I did go to Japan and ended up staying/working there for four years)."

Places visited: Europe: Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain. Americas: Belize, Canada, USA. Asia: Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Tibet, China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau.

Favorite place and/or country to visit: "In Europe, it was Italy --Florence and Venice have to have been built just to be unforgettable. The way that sunlight comes so completely into its own on the streets of Florence or reflected off the canals of Venice — it makes you think perhaps there is a God after all. In Asia, it would have to be Laos — the people were incredible — so friendly (which was achange after China), plus the baguettes and Lao coffee were divine."

Inspiration for travel: "My sister spent her junior year abroad and that made me want to try it out. My mom encouraged me when I was accepted to study abroad, so I took off to Europe for that year and pretty much never got the travel bug out of my system after that."

Memorable adventure: "Driving from Kathmandu to Lhasa during the rainy season, dodging landslides, getting stuck in the mudat 5000 meters in a hail storm for 6 hours while hanging out with nomadic tibetan yak herders. It was pretty wild."

Biggest challenge on the road: "Trying to balance my desire to go everywhere on earth and see everything, with the realization that by doing so, I may be contributing to the tourism beast which often ends up destroying the natural environment as well as jading the people it touches."

Biggest sacrifice of the vagabonding lifestyle: "Not seeing my family regularly."

Biggest reward of the vagabonding lifestyle: "Meeting people from all over the world and finding out there are about 20 different ways to do the same task."

Travel advice: "Talk to everyone you know who has been to your destination and read up on the people/history of the countries you want to visit so you have some idea of the local ideas and attitudes. As for health, take your vitamins and listen to your body. More often than not, your body will let you know when you need to slow down and rest. Listen to it, and take the day off... read a book and sleep late — you want to enjoy the traveling, not make it a job. Also, when traveling, chuck out the guidebook as often as possible and just get lost on the backroads of the country you're in. Keep your map around so you can get back, of course, but just wandering is sometimes the best travel activity there is."