Miss Brightside begins her post,

“Writing from the (dis)comfort of Bangkok airport’s waiting area, it all seems so unreal that I’m actually going home.”

Her adventure began back in February when she departed the busy hub of Heathrow and her time away, she admits, has led to cliché fulfillment – yup, life lessons learnt on the road!

Her post is made up of five things she learnt and suitable advice for anyone thinking of following in her footsteps. In the advice she tells it like it is,

“…if you are thinking about going away but are scared, pull your bloody socks up and just do it! Never again will you be as young, fit and free as you are now. So try and dissolve those fears by going to STA Travel or ringing Trailfinders and book a trip.”

It is as simple as that I guess, and of course it’s always nice to get a mention.

Right now might be the best time to take a sabbatical, a topic that Fleur Britten has investigated for the Travel section of The Times.

Currently there is a growing sense that workers all over the UK are sat in glum offices with the burden of the recession resting heavy across their pasty white shoulders. It is this situation that has led to existence of the mutually beneficial ’sabbat-packer’ explains Fleur,

“This new breed, recently identified by Lonely Planet, is using the economic downturn to its advantage by taking unpaid leave and going off to do something more thrilling instead.

It’s a good move for employers too — by stepping aboard what’s being touted as the flexible working revolution and allowing employees to opt out temporarily for little or no pay, companies slash their costs when business is slow.”

The entire article is here and well worth a read.

The desire to categorise is a strong one and is something Nomadic Matt is well aware of. Recognising this and having witnessed many species of the backpacker he has asked the important question – what type of backpacker are you?

He’s split the double strapped, self burdened globe trotter into eight clearly identifiable types – Spiritual, Hippie, Gap Yearer, Partier, The Couple, The Better Traveller, ‘Remember When’ and finally the Flashpacker. Now obviously, the trick is to pick out which one you are… here at STA Travelbuzz, I’d suggest Col is definitely The Hippie,

“Not wanting to be held down by the man, the hippie can be found wearing fisherman pants, dreadlocks, lots of necklaces with a distinct “I haven’t showered in two days” smell.”

As for myself, although it pains me to admit it,

“Flashpackers have set out to see the world on budget but have no plans to eat pasta in hostels or sleep in 20 bed dorms.”

Anyway, click through to Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site and find out where you fit into to the spectrum. And in case you were wondering, like many commenter’s on his article, where Matt fits in,

“To answer everyone’s question: I’m a proud flashpacker.”

We’re a friendly bunch at STA Travelbuzz and the latest peep to feel our love is Anthony, better known across the world-wide-web as the Travel Tart.

Specialising in the offbeat his site is a plethora of the funny, odd and bizarre in the travel sphere, something he explains in his mission statement,

“I, the Travel Tart, shall devote my life to endlessly finding dubious ways (i.e. providing dodgy and funny Travel tips) to finance my ever worsening travel addiction, to experience as much culture, fun and people’s hospitality as possible before I leave this planet. Oh, and I might pass on these silly offbeat funny travel tips to others in the process.”

As far as I can tell, he’s standing by this resolutely with recent posts on the elephant seals of Macquarie Island being almost as big as elephants and the best ambient lighting in Botswana. Don’t be fooled though, amongst the humour is much information worth taking away should you be the travelling type. So why not pop over and say hello or at least follow him on Twitter… we are!

If you want to find out what people are really saying about travel online, then you need to get yourself embedded into some forums. They’re pure, they’re open and they carry conversation like a blog can only dream of!

For example, have a look at this thread on ‘Gap Year Style Travel’ over on the UK Yankee forum. There’s plenty of food for thought for anyone thinking of getting away from it all (and of course, a neat mention of STA in there too!)

Not only that, but the £10 POM offer has found its way onto Money Saving Expert, giving frugal followers a taste of what STA have to offer.

Let us know if there are any other discussions taking place that you think we’d be interested in…

Our newest STA Explorer, Dylan – or as we like to call him, the Ramblin’ Rucksack Man – has put together a plan.

He mentioned that before leaving Auckland for Fiji he was going to take in some of the local surroundings in full discovery mode. Well, he’s decided where and is looking to take in some spots

“[…] where tourism has hardly left a trace.”

These are Davenport – a beautiful town on the North Shore, Takapuna – where he’ll find fossil-trees (sounds intriguing) and finally the volcanic island of Rangitoto. And all this before he sets off proper. Good work Dyl, we’re beginning to think our name might be more apt than we originally thought.

To drop the Ramblin’ Rucksack Man a message and stay up-to-date with his Auckland forays click through to Dylan Goes Walkabout.

The last we heard from George, our Australian Adventurer, she was heading off to Dublin for festive fun. This was in the wake of returning from Australia where over nine weeks she didn’t take one step back,

“There was no tour missed, no bus missed, no party missed and no rock unturned. We explored every avenue we could and we did it our way. The two girls from London have officially backpacked up the East Coast of Australia and honestly had the time of our entire lives.”

Well, it’s about to begin again! We may need a STA Explorer renaming ceremony because George is descending on Ibiza and things are a little up in the air,

“We have no real plan. We have flights booked. We’ve begged a random distant relative to collect us from the airport. We have a hostel booked for our first week but we have no Euros to pay with. [...] Our families have said if we don’t have jobs within the first few days we’re on the next flight home. Sod that! I’d rather lose all my belongings and sleep with the stray dogs on the beach.”

With this no fear attitude and willingness to commit to the experience you’re going to want to stay tuned for the Australian Adventurer’s latest tour…