About Me

Dave, Koh Rong

Who Am I?

I’m Dave Dean. I’ve spent much of the last decade living and working from the road, but the travel addiction started long before that.

Being born and raised in small-town New Zealand provided me with the perfect beginnings for a life of travel. If there’s one thing guaranteed to make you want to get out and see the world, growing up in a little town in a little country at the bottom of the world is it.

After finishing university and somehow falling into a technology career, I started my wanderings in the same way that many Antipodeans do: packing a few things into a backpack and heading for London.

Starting was easy, but stopping has been much harder. Several times I tried to settle down, buying houses, cars, pets, and all of the trappings of a more traditional life. Try as I might, though, that never quite worked for me, and after a year or two I’d find myself back on the road once again.

After thirteen years of juggling a corporate career and a backpack, I eventually figured out what I probably should have known all along: this wasn’t something I could keep doing forever. One or other of those things was going to have to give.

The career it was.

I’m inspired by the freedom to travel like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. I needed to build a life around it.

Sayulita beach sunset

Where Have I Been?

Finally deciding to make travel a permanent part of my life, I left my job in late 2011, offloaded my stuff, and flew several thousand miles to follow my heart.

Since then I’ve travelled and lived for months at a time throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, North and Central America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Dave running in Chiang Mai

How Do I Pay For It All?

Although my IT career gave me some useful skills for running websites, it wasn’t something I could easily take on the road with me. To make this lifestyle work, I needed to reinvent myself as a blogger, writer, and small business owner.

I now work online from anywhere with a good view and an Internet connection, spending more time than I should in front of a laptop and doing several different things to make sure the bills get paid.

Initially I made a small income from advertising on this site. Shortly after starting this journey I founded a second site, which brings in money from commissions and advertising. To round things off, I also wrote about travel and technology on a freelance basis for other publications for a few years.

There’s always a new idea in the back of my mind and a new project to work on. Earning a living like this is often a hassle and always a hustle, but although it’s not easy, being my own boss is infinitely more rewarding than any corporate job ever was.

Resort, Hoi An

Why Am I Doing This?

When I hit my mid-thirties, I decided that the rest of my life was not going to consist of sitting in an office for 60 hours a week and desperately counting down to the weekend.

I didn’t care about the latest home theatre system, reality television, or football results. I wasn’t interested in following the same path as everybody else, and knew that for me at least, there had to be a better option.

Living a life filled with passion and purpose needed to be more than a quote on somebody’s Facebook wall. It had to be something built into my day to day existence. A mortgage I couldn’t afford, a job I didn’t care about, and three weeks of vacation each year wasn’t going to provide me with that.

Putting everything off for a day that might never come was a risk that was just too big to take. Right now I have the health, ability, and burning desire to live a life I love, to follow my dreams wherever they may lead. This will not always be the case.

I get one shot at this life, and I’m doing everything I can to make that the most fulfilling shot I possibly can. It’s not always easy and it’s not always perfect, but it’s always something that I’m fiercely proud of.

Long may that last.

Stay In Touch

If you’d like to talk about anything to do with life on the road, please drop me a line and I’ll help if I can.

You can also receive an email whenever I post something new just by filling out the form below, and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for a better glimpse of what I’m up to right now.

Square TMA logo

Finally, if you’re interested in the tech side of travel, be sure to head on over to my other site, Too Many Adapters, to see what’s happening there.

Thanks for reading!