BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME - FILIPE VENTURA

Long time, no see this Series I enjoy so much. Today I bring you a friend of mine from Portugal, those rare portuguese who save all money to travel and oh Filipe travels A LOT for a person who works full time and has 21 days vacation per year. 

This is a different post because instead of typing Filipe's story I scanned page to page and you can read from his hand writing :) It was Filipe's idea and I had to agree... this year I want to focus on writing letters, postcards and my journal. 

BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME :: VIKTOR WAEWELL

One day I was in Romania, doing groceries in the local supermarket for Transylvania Calling Festival, we were about to arrive to Wonderland, a Festival is the high green mountains of Transylvania, wwooooww!

I was passing thru the wine section in the supermarket when I heard something like "This wine looks good" in portuguese language with a brazilian accent. This is how I met Fabi and Viktor from Brazil. The guys who love festivals as much as I do!

We shared a taxi and went to the festival. Needless to say they join our camping and we spent great and fun moments with this lovely couple who were doing a Round the World trip for a year. Can't wait to see them again, I guess is gonna be sooner than we all thought :)

Thanks a lot Viktor to spend some of your time writting for Shanti Free Bird blog. Obrigada irmão, até jah! 

BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME - JOANNE COLLINS

Hello mates! (As a real ozzie) Today I have the testemonial of Jo, my cousin's Becky friend, who I met in the Rainbow Serpent Festival in Australia and easily loved her for being so funny with a good humor. 

Jo went to Nepal and explored Annapurna, that area with high mountains, tons of small villages (where many locals never seen a city before), yaks, fresh air... I been there 2 years ago, so I wanna thank Jo for these beautiful text and images, they brought me good memories to life. 

::BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME :: ALEX WIRTH ::

I'm excited to introduce you to my teenager time boyfriend Aless. We had a cool relationship when we were around 16. He was the grafitti dude, I was a stylish hiphopper, but so many things changed back then. I never thought one day we would share this passion for travels until 5 years ago.

Aless opened up his heart and decided to accept to write a text for this blog. He trully inspire me with his life story, the way he travels, that he still works in the way and that finally he found the peace of mind. Love you dude!

BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME :: MARIE WALKER

My dear friend Marie is from California but our paths didn't cross this time. Her target is a bike tour from USA until Argentina, exploring the whole America. It's been 2 years... A tour with ups and downs, a rollercoaster of emotions.

I'm not even hiding that I'm her big fan (remember when I first blogged about Marie?) , I can barely cycle 20 km and I'm already done ahah But her stories and pics are so inspiring that now I'm even considering one day to get a bike and GO. 

Today she will share thoughts, points of views, feelings, advices, happiness and inspiration with all Shanti Free Bird readers. Marie also explains that not having money doesn't stop her to go on with her dream. There's always a way to get the money we need, believe it or not. 

Thanks for sharing your wisdom :) Keep rockin' grrrrl!!!

BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME :: ANTOINE VALENZA ::

Some of you might be wondering where did you hear this name Antoine before from me. Yes, you are right, he's the french guy who travelled a bit with me in India. Antoine wanted to travel 2 years, from France to Antarctica hitch hiking WITH NO MONEY AT ALL. Believe me, it's possible!

Today he will tell us one of his thousand of interesting stories while travelling. In the future I hope he comes back to the blog to teach us  good tips on how to survive in this Planet without Money when travelling. We love you, Antoine!!

BEAUTIFUL SOULS WHO INSPIRE ME :: WILL HATTON ::

Hello dear readers, some time ago I had this idea of contacting few friends I met along the way to write about their experiences to share in my personal blog. This are trully respectful and beautiful human beings who I shared happy few minutes, hours, days or even weeks.

I met Will Hatton via CouchSurfing, both of us were in North India at the same time so we decided to attend the Camel Fair in Pushkar together and afterwords we attended a indian wedding with 30 more couchsurfers. One day I will tell you about this interesting website ;) Now back to Will, the english cowboy :D

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The Jungles of Myanmar

With only a month to spend in Myanmar we quickly decide to leave the glitz of Yangon and head to the rural heart of the country. Kayin state is located in the south of Myanmar and is home to the Karen National Union (KNU) who has the dubious honour of forming the world’s longest running resistance. For many years the area was completely closed to foreigners and the few journalists who braved the war zone emerged with horror stories of massacres and mass rapes. Today parts of Kayin are finally beginning to open and although there is still a significant military presence the violence appears to have abated. With this in mind we pile into the back of a pick-up truck and leave the bright lights of Yangon behind us. Local men wearing checkered green lungis zip past us on battered motorbikes whilst their wives and children wave enthusiastically. All of the women and children have thanakha smeared across their faces; this milky green paste is produced by grinding sandalwood and is used as sun block and moisturiser seemingly non-stop by the Burmese people. Local villagers pause from chewing their beetle-nut to flash us horrific black and red toothed smiles as we bump along potholed roads and over dilapidated bridges.