Drink Tea & Travel Turns 6 Months Old

This past weekend Drink Tea & Travel hit a pretty big milestone. On Saturday, this little piece of the internet, known as my travel blog, turned 6 months old.

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I can’t believe it’s been 6 months. On one hand, It doesn’t feel like it has been that long at all. I still feel like a blind kitten, feeling my way through the world of travel blogging, falling down on a weekly basis, then having to scrape myself off the floor to keep going. Other times, I can’t believe that it’s ONLY been 6 months. I remember when the idea of Drink Tea & Travel first emerged in my head. I was in Sri Lanka, enjoying a cup of tea at a homestay in Ella. I had just finished telling a story about my life in China to our host. He was fascinated and I- inspired.

Rolling hills of tea plantations in Hill Country, Sri Lanka
Rolling hills of tea plantations in Hill Country, Sri Lanka
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“I should start a blog”, I said to Max. “You know, document our travels, share the stories”
“Don’t you already have that Tumblr blog?”, he asked confused
“Well yeah” (I technically started the Tumblr version of Drink Tea & Travel in 2011, but other than a few Instagram pictures and some short posts about what I was up to in Thailand, I hadn’t written much.) “But I want to do it properly this time. I want to update it regularly and make it look nice. Plus it will give me something to do. A way to keep myself thinking about travel when we are not traveling”
“Yeah, why not?”

And so I did. Shortly after we returned from Sri Lanka, I sat down in front of my computer and innocently typed into Google “How to start a travel blog”. Hundreds of search results came my way, each one more overwhelming than other. I read them all and bookmarked them, learning more and more with every passing day. Then one day, I created a free account with wordpress.com and the rest is history. I spent months learning about blog design, tinkering around with fonts, spaces, and other silly design things. And then I wrote… a lot. I wrote travel guides for countries I knew well, and other posts that would “fill” my site with information useful to others.

Khao San Road, Bangkok, Thailand
Khoa San Road in Bangakok, Thailand. The start of my solo SEA backpacking trip that served as the basis for some of the earlier posts on the blog

Then on May 1st, I finally pushed it live. It was terrifying and I really had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I kind of thought, well I’ll just start writing stuff and people will start reading it, and then it’ll get big and I’ll be like the Adventurous Kate. Haha! What a joke!

Today, 6 months later, I finally understand the realities of being a travel blogger. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon, a journey and it’s a lot harder than it may seem.  But despite some things that still keep me up at night, Drink Tea & Travel is still one of the best things that happened to me this year. Second only to getting engaged to my best friend, who happens to be one damn good looking man, that not only shares my passion for travel, but always pushes me outside my comfort zone! He’s also been an amazing editor, supporter, digital guru and many other things behind the scenes at Drink Tea & Travel.

Max and I are exploring Australia together
Travel, this guys and tea are my favourite things of all!

To date Drink Tea & Travel has had some amazing accomplishments, so here is a recap of the last 6 months in numbers.

Number of posts: 80+ (including my ever growing Cultural Close-Up Series)
Visitors since launch: 24,000 +
Page views since launch: 46,000+
Geo Location split: US (33%), Canada (10%), UK (10%), Australia (9%), India (7%), Rest of the World (31%)
Countries with 1 or more visitor: 165 (I still can’t wrap my head around this figure! There are countries/territories on this list I have never even heard of, like Anguilla (British overseas territory in the Carribean), or Lesotho (a landlocked country surrounded by South Africa)
Facebook Followers: 1,460+ (Join me on Facebook)
Twitter Followers: 2,200+ (Follow me on Twitter)
Instagram Followers: 320+ (Follow me on Instagram)
Newsletter Subscribers: 80+ (Subscribe to the Newsletter)
(+ indicates that the numbers are changing as I write this post, so they have been rounded for convenience)

And in case you missed it, here are the top 10 most popular posts on the blog so far:

Dont quit your job to travel

1. Why You Don’t Have to Quit Your Job to Travel
2. Brazil travel tips: 5 Things You Need to Know Before Traveling to Brazil
3. 5500 Steps Along the Pilgrimage Climb to Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka
4. How a Pair of Long Pants Helped us Get to Brazil
5. Moving to Australia: Debunking Myths and Misconceptions
6. 10 Lessons from 3 Years of Living and Travel Abroad
7. My 5 Favourite Places in the World
8. 10 Steps to Falling in Love with Copenhagen
9. How to Find Cheap Flights
10. Guide to Visiting Barossa Valley in South Australia

But what excites me the most about today is not everything that Drink Tea & Travel has been able to achieve so far, but what’s yet to come! I have a million and one ideas for this blog. Things that you’ll learn as the time goes by: new sections of the blog, new post series, new stories, and much more! There will be more travels throughout Australia and beyond, more reflections, which I know you all really love, and more recaps of the untold stories from my adventures.

Where will my travels take me next? Stick around to find out!
Where will my travels take me next? Stick around to find out!

Some of my plans will shock you. Others will have you say, “It’s about time!”. Some will remain a mystery for a while, others I’ll share with you shortly…

But for now, I want to leave you with a few promises…

1. I will continue to introduce you to the world around us, inspiring you to travel more, to travel more often, and to travel for longer
2. I will continue to take you off the beaten path, introducing you to cultural travel experiences and pushing you to go beyond the major sights and tourist attractions
3. I will continue to learn to be a better writer, a better story tellers, and a better photographer
4. I will continue to bring you the most interesting and inspiring travel stories from around the web
5. I will continue to be available to help you plan your own trips, answer your questions, and reply to your comments. Just ask.

Before I wrap up, there is one thing that I would like to ask of you. Can you please take a minute and comment on this post in the section below? Tell me what you like/dislike about Drink Tea & Travel and what you would like to see more of in the future. I would love to hear from you, so I could make this site more engaging and more useful for all of you out there!

THANK YOU from the bottom of my hear for continuing to read my ramblings, for liking my posts, and for sharing them with your friends and family!

Here is to another great 6 months…

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