The Diary Of A Travel Blogger From Laos To New Zealand

Jay Donnell became a traveller at 24. Embarking on a post-graduate jaunt through Western Europe at 26, he has now travelled through 55 countries in six continents, capturing many of his experiences on film and at justheletterj. Here in our travel blogger series, he tells us more about his travels that have taken him outside his home of the United States, and where he has left on his journey of discovery.

Name: Jay Donnell
Current Location: Newport Beach, CA
Occupation: Teacher and Tutor for the LSAT

The best place you’ve been to this year: This winter I tore off back to Asia, this time for a 90-day adventure with no plans but for a one-way ticket to Bangkok and a loose deadline for returning home. The highlight absolutely had to be Nepal. In the winter of 2014, I met a new friend at a hostel bar in Kuala Lumpur, and proceeded to develop one of those intense connections that only traveling can bring. After spending a month or so roving around Thailand and Vietnam together, we stayed in touch over long distance, and when I was back in Asia this year he invited me to join him and his girlfriend on a trek to Nepal. Considering my gear for the trip I had planned consisted of primarily board shorts and flip flops, I was a bit hesitant at first. After some convincing, which frankly for me never takes too long, I acquiesced and began a whirlwind of discount gear shopping in KL’s Chinatown. In the first minutes of being on the ground in Kathmandu, I knew I had absolutely made the right call. We spent some days in my new favourite city in the world, then flew to Pokhara to begin our four-day trek into the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. I left after my ten days in Nepal with nothing but the absolute best of impressions of the people and the landscape, and proceeded to urge everyone I knew to visit the mythical land I had always dreamed of seeing. Then, less than two weeks after I left, disaster struck. The tragedy of the Nepalese earthquakes felt so much more real to me than the foreign disasters that happen around the world but never seem close to home. I have tried to stay active in donating and supporting relief efforts, and my experience in Nepal will forever be that much further engraved on my brain.

The best cold place you’ve been to: Since I’ve already mentioned the Himalayas, I’ll have to throw this one to the South Island of New Zealand, more specifically the Franz Josef Glacier. Gearing up with crampons and ice picks and hiking/climbing up a massive glacier was definitely one for the memory bank. Then, later that day, I hit some extra cold weather – about 14,000 feet above sea level! Skydiving from near the peak of the glacier and landing all the way down on the idyllic farmland at sea level was one of the more special jumps I’ve ever done.

The best beach you’ve laid on: This one is tough, and is basically like asking Mother Theresa which of her hundreds of “children” she loved most! I’ve been fortunate to see amazing beaches and islands in places like Panama, Cuba, South Africa, Greece, Indonesia, Mexico, The Philippines – you name it, I’ve probably set up a hammock there, and probably not too far from a chopped-up pineapple soaked in rum. But if I had to pick the best beach experience, I can think of none better than The Beach, aka Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh in Thailand’s Andaman Sea. The location for the film The Beach, this was always the talisman of my vagabonding experience. Seeing the beach now would probably amount to little more than a letdown filled with tourist boats and selfie sticks, but the nights I spent sleeping on that beach in 2009 and again in 2010 were the best of my life. Even back then, during the day the island was an absolute nightmare of crowds and noise, but there was a loophole. One tour company had a government contract to allow 25 lucky souls to camp on that beach every night. We showed up before sunset right as the boats and crowds left, and proceeded to have heaven on earth all to ourselves. It was a toss up as to which was brighter: the milky way above or the aquatic phosphorescence in the warm waters beneath. We drank, ate, danced and then slept on the pure white sand under that blanket of stars, and left after breakfast, but before the ruckus of the next day’s cavalcade of tourists. I returned back to Thailand a year after my first experience for a repeat of the same, but the second time had already escalated to having the same 25 head count overnight limit, but the staff on the island were fire dancing and selling buckets. Easy to see the untenable progress and the damaging effects it would inevitably have on the purest piece of paradise I had ever laid eyes on, it seems the package was shut down not too long after. Which I suppose for me, only serves to make that memory more special.

The most dangerous place you’ve been to: Again, this is a toss up. From favela parties late night in Rio, going “shopping” in La Paz and Medellin, and unadvised ventures around town in Johannesburg, I’ve been extremely fortunate to have never had too gnarly of an experience abroad. That includes swimming with Great Whites in South Africa, bull sharks in Mexico, and 13-foot caimans in the Bolivian Amazon – not to mention the world’s three highest bungee jumps (sorry mom!). But the most dangerous place I’ve been is just about equal to the favourite place I’ve ever been. Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos used to be the best party on Earth. A few hundred scantily clad hedonists slamming Lao Lao – basically whiskey infused with amphetamines, and usually served in large bottles stuffed with snakes, scorpions, spiders or wasps – and hurling themselves off of zip lines, trapeze jumps, jumping ledges, and the infamous slide which shoots you out about 30 feet over a river that at times was only inches deep. Obviously, judgment wasn’t always at its pinnacle. After years of killing a rumoured  20+ tourists a year, the Laotian government finally succumbed to international pressure and took down the Tom Sawyer-esque deathtraps, and began to monitor the late night “happy menus” more closely. From what I hear, the tubing portion is alive and well, but without the acrobatic elements that made the place so dangerous, but for me, so much damn fun!

A place you’re yet to discover: Antarctica is my great white whale. The last of the seven continents to see, Antarctica is probably the highest mark left on my otherwise absurdly complete bucket list, so it’s high priority to knock that off in the next few years. The other childhood dream I’ve yet to fulfill is to gallop a horse full-speed through the canyons of Petra in Jordan, to most explicitly live out the Indiana Jones fantasy that has fuelled me this far.

Follow Jay at justtheletterj and keep up with us on Instagram at bbmlivesocial