The i-to-i Chalkboard online travel community - Meet. Share. Travel with Purpose

One amazing thing that I am part of and that has definietly changed my life is www.couchsurfing.org

Couchsurfing enables you to meet, stay and host with people that are living in the area that you are going or to host people that are in your area! It is truely awesome. Check it out!

Books of late:

The Secret' by Rhonda Byron- Law  of attraction.
'The Alchemist' Paulo Coelho
'What I didn't learn at school but wish i had' Jamie McIntyre
'How would Love respond' Kurek Ashley.

Will definitely give couchsurfing a try.  Love the book list Hickey, half of those mentioned are also on my bookcase too!  I just love anything to do with Positive Psychology, Spirituality, Self Development etc.

I'm just going to make one book recommendation for now - Vagabonding by Rolf Potts.  I'm halfway through it and its an inspirational read, it also has loads of references to travelling websites and resources.  The whole point of the book is to show you how ethical travel needn't cost the earth to do, that the best way to travel is to really get off the beaten track and fully experience the culture you're visiting.  Happy reading.

Theres a few that I know I should list but not coming to mind at the moment. I'll just start with 'Yes Man' by Danny Wallace. I always travel with it as my feel good, just go out and do things book! :)

I think this is a great idea and look forward to finding some new books/websites. I seem to drown myself in travel books of late - Lets Go, Lonely Planet etc as I plan my trip to the UK and Europe. Same goes for websites - Trip Advisor, Next Stop, etc

Books that have inspired me include "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and "April Fools Day by Bryce Courtney, The Diary of Anne Frank and "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm sure there are plenty more but these are just off the top of my head.

I'm never without a book - always reading much to the amusement of some and annoyance of others!!!!

Thats great Jane! You will love Couchsurfing! let me know how you go please! :) Awesome your into Self development and all as well! I love it!

Vagabonding-what a book! superb recommendation Jane!

If your into vagabonding the guy I got the recommendation off is one of my big mentors Tim Ferris- http://www.fourhourworkweek.com

Great blog and book for all sorts of reasons and a great mentality I think!

Just read- 'Born to Run'- Chris Mcdougall- great read about running if your into that kind of thing.

About to start- 'The pilgrimage' by Paulo Coelho- Been meaning to read it for ages!

Look forward to more of your recommednations! Happy reading! :)

Hi Leon- How good is Yes man! haha. Terrific! Had a whole day of saying yes while in Melbourne, was an adventure and a half thats for sure and did cost a lot of money though worth every penny! haha. Great travel book I can believe! Anymore come to mind Leon?...

Hi Katie, Where in the Uk and Europe are you heading? Make sure you check out couchsurfing if you want to meet some great people, experiences and free accomodation! Cheers for the recommendations......April Fools and Eat, pray, love I am going to check out on amazon!

Random recomendation of the top of my head- 'A new Earth' by Eckhart tolle author of also 'the power of now'.

Keep them coming people and hope your all epic! say yes more! ;)

Haha Hickey, I tried to do it in Sydney but stopped at the $400 mark.

Jupiter Travels by Ted Simon is a brilliant book. In the 70's he spent 4 years and 63,000 miles travelling the world on a Triumph Tiger 500. He did it again starting in 2001 at the age of 70 something to see how the world has changed in 20-30 years (and released the book called Dreaming of Jupiter) - Would recommend them both.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is seriously AMAZING. He escaped an Australian prison (midday, over front wall no less), goes to Mumbai and does everything from setting up a heathcare clinic to disguising a bear to joining the mafia to fighting in Afghanistan, and what's more - it's a true story and you'll never read about a guy with more will power.

I find the radio 4 travel program Excess Baggage very entertaining as well as inspirational (it's podcasted too), so I'd recommend that... otherwise, I know it's not travel related (unless mental time travel counts?) but I always go back to Pride and Prejudice for some comfort reading.

haha, great effort mate! yeah it got stupidly.....whats the word....worth it! ;) haha. We did a second one with two American couchsurfing guys staying with us and set a budget which was better as the 'yes' was trying to get the boat to Tazmania! haha. That sounds awesome by Ted Simon! wrote it down in my diary for another one along with the rest!

Hi Claire! Have not checked out any of those! thanks for the sharing! Greg roberts experience sounds like an inspiring read! P and P, classic!

Talking of podcasts....recomendation for any of you trying to learn a new language!....I learnt Spanish on my own from 'coffeebreakspanish.com which can be found in podcasts in the itunes store! they also have french and a few others now, they give you for free 70 lessons or so! highly recommended!

How is the TEFL experience going for everyone? doing it at the moment? going to do it? any good stories or tips? hope your all great!

Clare I REALLY enjoyed Shantaram, a fellow backpacker gave it to me before they moved on and I didn't put it down for a week (the thing is friggin huge!) - It's a shame that even though it's written as it was his personal experience a lot of it is fictional and/or based on other peoples lives. More details can be found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantaram_(novel)#Fact-based_elements

For languages I found http://www.smart.fm to be one of the best for Japanese resources. There are other languages listed and created on there but Japanese seems the majority. I'm just checking out Chinesepod.com at the moment for Mandarin lessons due to being signed up to the Chinese Internship come August but can't give you an opinion on it yet (it's paid which is a downer but lots of people have recommended it).

For my next outing (see blog) I've been living off sites like http://www.seat61.com (World by train) - http://www.realrussia.co.uk (trains, visa, excellent forums for travel in Russia and Mongolia) - lots more just not coming to mind at the moment!

Hey Hickey, Paulo Coehlo . . . love his books, have you read the Witch of Portobello?  I'll definitely have to check out the fourhourworking week website - I've been working 13hr days, six days a week for the last 7 years and am still skint - think I'm doing it wrong!  And as to the running - boo hoo, I used to be a runner but injured myself 2 weeks before my first half marathon.  After a 6 month recovery, I went out on a gentle 5km jog and damaged myself again - so no more running for me.

Clare - will definitely check out the Excess Baggage podcasts.  And as to Pride & Prejudice, got to be my favourite book of all time and the BBC Adaptation with the lovely Mr Firth . . . . hmmmmm!!!

Maybe those of us on the China Internship should set up a book club.  So when we finish reading a book, we swap it with someone else.  That way we can share the luuuuurrrrve!

ooops sorry . . . the image of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in the wet shirt & jodpurs distracted me at the critical moment.  What I came in here to say was . . .

On the train into London today, I re-visited a book I bought 3 years ago - Gap Years for Grown Ups.  Full of loads of useful tips, websites and resources.  But its only for us oldies . . .  you youngsters have probable got something far more funky to read. ;o)

So many choices now! Shame for the next 3-4 months the only books and podcasts I'll be reading/listening to are either English Grammar, Chinese basics, Russian pleasantries or Japanese vocab.

I'm generally not a fan of the Lonely Planet books (not sure why, just don't get on with them) but just ordered a copy of the China one to flick through. Won't take it with me to China but will give me some ideas before we go.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/

is a brilliant website for Motorcycle travel. Might not be everyone's thing but some of the stories are very inspirational. It's also got a lot of resources and information for if you want to really go off the beaten track or want to get around the world without using planes.

Leon... DAMN! ... clearly I am too trusting for my own good. I really thought he did all the stuff, and now I feel like a wally. Also, seat61 is great.

Jane - book club! what a great idea!

Hickey - have you read a book by Rosie Swale-Pope called 'just a little run around the world' if you like running stories? She spent 5 years running around the world (inc something like 2years spent crossing Russia) to raise awareness of the cancer that her husband died of.

I'm re-reading something I picked up on holiday a couple of years ago - it's UTTER rubbish but really entertaining; marine archaelogist/superhunk Jack Howard and his buddy Costas (spongefisherman turned MIT geek) "prove" Vikings got to Mexico having looted the Menorah from Constantinople after the fall of the roman empire. They even get TRAPPED IN AN ICEBERG! It's called Crusader Gold by David Gibbins if anyone's interested (also, they find Atlantis and foil international terrorism in the one before and "discover" Jesus' lost gospel in the 3rd one by this guy. GENIUS.)

Ive just finished "kafka on the shore' by Haurai Murakami, I love his books! Have also read "The wind up bird man cronicle', 'Norweigeen Wood' and "Hard boiled Wonderland and the end of the world', all of which are great page turners...Jack Keurocs "On the road' is also a good travel book.

Couchsurfing is brilliant I did it in Spain last year and meet some really cool people! Would recommend it to anyone!

HI Jane, yeah I read Witch of Portabello, just recently actually! awesome, loved it! Yeah definitely recommend 4HWW, he is my biggest mentor as love the whole idea of making a better lifestyle for yourself!

Unfortunate about the running, there is lots of other ways to keep fit so all good! Good idea about China book club!

Leon: Good website mate! liked that! cheers!

Clare: I have not read just a little run around the world though I have just bought it! along with another one I have forgotton the name of. That book sounds entertaining as!

Gazsha! Cheers for the recommendations! will have a gander at them! Glad you recommend CS as well! awesome isn't it! :)

One of my favorite books of all time is "A Thousand Days in Venice" by Marlena de Blasi; she has a series of different memoirs-- she is an American married to a Venetian man and it's about their stories/days in Venice and around Italy. It's amazing and she's a wonderful writer; she also includes unique recipes.