World Travellers: Stephen and Jess from Flying the Nest

My latest World Travellers interview is with another couple, Jess and Stephen from Flying the Nest. Read all about their adventures on their main site, but in the meantime, they answer my questions.

Who are you?
We are Stephen and Jess, a young Australian couple who run a website called Flying the Nest which is a personal blog about adventure travel, photography and video logs.

Where are you from?
Stephen is originally from Johannesburg South Africa and Jess is from Sydney Australia but we both grew up in Perth, Australia.

Where have you been?
Our travels together span across 13 countries including The Maldives, Middle East, The Caribbean, most of Asia, North America and of course our home country Australia.

Where are you now?
We are both still currently located in Perth, however early next year we will be packing up home, leaving our jobs and moving away to Canada where we will begin our full time travel journey.

What are the top 3 places you’ve visited?
#1 The Maldives – Those amazing tropical photos you see online are real places and the Maldives contains plenty of those photographic opportunities.
#2 Dubai – We think it’s the new New York – one of the most diverse cities we have been to, plenty to do and see.
#3 New York – It’s weird visiting a new city and feeling like you have already been there due to movies and TV shows.

What is the best travel experience you’ve had?
The absolute best would have to be the time we sky dived in Dubai. The view over the Palm was spectacular and is one experience every adrenaline junkie should add to their bucket list. Jess is terrified of heights but we slowly worked our way up from parasailing to paragliding until she finally had the courage to jump out of a plane, it was exhilarating.

What is the worst travel experience you’ve had?
If we are talking about an experience it honestly would be the time we had a layover in the LCCT in Malaysia. Luckily Stephen had originally been to Malaysia and reassured Jess that the city was not as horrific as the terminal, it can almost put you off going into the country and something that should be fixed. No one likes waiting 8 hours in a terminal with an overly loud intercom, food poisoning from local vendors and no clean toilets.

What is the funniest travel experience you’ve had?
It would have to be the time we were in Monkey Forest in Ubud, Bali. A cheeky little monkey snuck up on an unsuspecting Jess to try and take her water bottle. The scream that roared through the quiet temple when the monkeys little hand touched hers was quite funny.

How do you fund your travels?
All of our travels are self funded from our day jobs. Jess is currently a primary school teacher and Stephen does freelance online marketing, photography and videography.

What 3 tips would you give a new traveller before they set off on their adventure?
Do more, see more and share more.

What are your future travel plans?
For the first time in a very long time we will not be working in retail and hospitality so we will have time off at Christmas. To celebrate we are going on a cruise around Fiji and Vanuatu followed by a few days in Sydney. As mentioned above in February we will be moving off to Canada but we will be having a quick holiday in Hawaii and Western USA.

Biography: Flying the Nest is a personal blog run by a young Australian couple. Stephen and Jess enjoy capturing the world and going on adventures whilst sharing stories of our travels. We would love for you to join our journey.

Website: www.flyingthenest.tv
Twitter: www.twitter.com/flyingthenest
Facebook: www.facebook.com/flyingthenest
Jess Instagram: www.instagram.com/heyitsjessvalentine
Stephen Instagram: www.instagram.com/sparrystake

Stephen Instagram: www.instagram.com/sparrystake

Thanks to Stephen and Jess for being the latest in my series of World Travellers! If you travel the world and run a travel blog or are a travel writer, please get in touch, you can be featured (there’s a HUGE waiting list at present), either e-mail jonny (at) dontstopliving (dot) net or head to my contacts page and get connected! You can also subscribe to Don’t Stop Living by filling in the form below! Safe travels!