Who's site is this, anyways?

Written by Tyler Cole | 28 December 2009

Why do I have a site about traveling? Well, I want to share useful tips and knowledge that I have gathered while traveling as well as my experiences. Why do I like traveling? I think Pico Iyer says it best:

The person susceptible to 'wanderlust' is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.

After finishing undergrad at the University of Michigan, I hit the road for a long term trip on my own terms. Although I'd dipped my feet in independent travel, that months-long trip without set obligations had evaded me.

With a one-way ticket Jan 2010 to Peru—a country I previously visited and to which I became a bit enamored—I stayed in the southern altiplano (plateau) region for a while before heading north. Over the next four and a half months, I made my way north by bus, boat, hitchhiking and whatever means of transport was possible and was within my budget. I eventually returned to Michigan after going through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Central America, and hitchhiking from Southern Mexico back home. You can find the details of the hitching trip here.

Since returning to Michigan, I've been navigating the series of hoops otherwise known as applying for medical school (update: I'll be going to Stanford) and working to save a bit for another trip. Now, starting in the Winter of 2011, I'm undertaking a new trip to begin in Shanghai that I hope will take me through North(east)ern China, Mongolia, Siberian Russia, Kazakhstan, and...well, after that I'm going to have to figure it out. You can find a rough idea of where I plan to travel here.

If personal details tickle your fancy, I was born in Atlanta and raised outside the metro Detroit area. I graduated with a degree in microbiology and worked a few jobs in college for extra money, including temp hospital employment, teaching, research, and hot-oil erotic massage (okay, one of those isn't true). When people ask about my research, I typically respond that it will lull them into sleep, but digitally I can point you here and here and here and here, and then you can actually fall asleep.

Oh right, and my name is Tyler Cole. That's about all I am going to share now, so if you really want to know more I'm sure you can cuddle up with Google and find my blood type, GPA, sperm count, and social security number in a few minutes.

If you're curious about how I pack, you can check out my post How to pack for a trip with no set return date.

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