Traveling for Fun, Knowledge & Freedom
Welcome to THE CANDY TRAIL - enjoying a minimalist nomadic life of backpacking around the world along with van life + just hanging out.

Onsite you'll find raw and real travels as an old school backpacker - meaning: zero blogger BS - no ads, no affiliate links, no sponsors, no tours, no social media, no crass commercialization.
Travel for the pure love of traveling...
THE CANDY TRAIL comprises my pictures and words, covering the 'why' of travel - not the how, focusing on history, culture and the journey.
If you're wondering, I support myself with temporary work and own very little, rejecting societal conventions and consumerism; simply drifting the world, belonging nowhere but enjoying everywhere.
ABOUT

Michael Robert Powell in Turkey, 1989, age 23.
Hi.
I'm Michael - call me MRP - from Aotearoa / New Zealand, offering travel stories and inspiration from 30+ years across 120+ countries & territories.
Backstory
confessions of a travel addict
I'd never dreamed of a nomadic life; I just stumbled into it by accident.
You see, back in 1988 at age 21—I was a bit of a hippy with a punk-rock outlook who’d just completed an aimless arts degree and now had no further goals or ambitions.
Except, to leave NZ for the UK to enjoy the Indie music scene.
Some months of edgy living and dull jobs in Edinburgh and London soon gave way to a dice toss, which ignited a backpacking trip to the Middle East (for 5 months, including Syria and Iraq).
This journey aroused a drug-like desire to see the world.
Suddenly everywhere was on the map and decades of travel addiction began...

MRP in Luxor, Egypt, in 1995.
Living out of a backpack.
Years of overland travel across Africa, Asia and Latin America, interspersed with long-stays on beaches or in cities.
Life was always nomadic, moving fast or slow.
Then, in late 2014, I edged closer to 'normality' when I met my future wife in China.
Luckily, she also enjoys a simple travel life.
So we backpacked India, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, to name a few, and in 2019, we began van life around China.
In 2023, we're backpacking again.
MRP at the Aral Sea, Uzbekistan, 2011.
Wild Travels
Arrested in Saddam's Iraq by the military; accused of being "a spy" (1989)
Drugged, abducted, robbed + ditched in Siberia, Russia (2005)
Hitch-hiking the Sahara Desert, from Algeria to Nigeria (1991)
Enjoying Carnaval; later mugged at knifepoint in Rio, Brazil (2003)
Traveling overland from England to India, via Iran, where I was caught in a deadly bus accident (1990)
Amid a cyclone that killed 138,000 people - Bangladesh (1991)
Trans-Siberian route, Beijing to London - overland (2005)
Caught in a war-zone around Angkor in civil-war Cambodia (1994)
Antarctica by ship - 14 land excursions; whisky + iceberg on New Year's Eve (2003)
Robbed by hotel staff, while suffering dysentery in Pakistan (1990)
Swimming with seals in Galapagos Islands (2003)
Amid riots in Israel (1990), India (1990) + Indonesia (1999)
Horse trekking in mountains of Colombia - thru FARC guerrilla territory (2003)
Flash-flood close call in Morocco (1991)
Skydiving in Argentina (2002) and solo parachuting in New Zealand (1992)
Slow boat down the Niger River to Timbuktu, Mali (2007)
Hitching the Himalayas, across Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal (1994)
Escaping from Indonesia by fishing boat, hitching in an Australian Army Blackhawk to be the "first tourist" in new East Timor, on 14 Jan. 2000
Actively taking part in a Voodoo ceremony in Togo (2007)
Stuck in quarantine while van-camping in coronavirus-hit - China (2020)
AND MORE...
Traveling for Fun, Knowledge & Freedom
Welcome to THE CANDY TRAIL - enjoying a minimalist nomadic life of backpacking around the world along with van life + just hanging out.
Here you'll find raw and real travels by an old school backpacker - meaning: zero blogger BS - no ads, no affiliate links, no sponsors, no tours, no social media, no crass commercialization.
Travel for the pure love of traveling
THE CANDY TRAIL comprises my pictures and words, covering the 'why' of travel - not the how; focusing on history, culture and the journey.
If you're wondering, I support myself with temporary work and own very little, rejecting societal conventions and consumerism; simply drifting the world, belonging nowhere but enjoying everywhere.
ABOUT

A younger self: Michael Robert Powell at Nemrut Dagi in Turkey - 1989, age 23.
Hi.
I'm Michael - call me MRP - from Aotearoa / New Zealand, offering travel stories and inspiration from 30+ years across 120+ countries & territories.
Backstory
confessions of a travel addict
I'd never dreamed of a nomadic life; I just stumbled into it by accident.
You see, back in 1988 at age 21 – I was a bit of a hippy with a punk-rock outlook who’d just finished an aimless arts degree and now had no further goals or ambitions.
Except, to leave NZ for the UK to enjoy the Indie music scene.
Some months of edgy living and dull jobs in Edinburgh and London soon gave way to a dice toss, which ignited a backpacking trip to the Middle East (for 5 months, including Syria and Iraq).
This journey aroused a drug-like desire to see the world.
Suddenly everywhere was on the map and decades of travel addiction began...

MRP in Luxor, Egypt, in 1995.
Living out of a backpack.
Traveling overland in Africa, Asia and Latin America, interspersed with long-stays on beaches or amid cities.
Life was always nomadic, moving fast or slow.
Then, in late 2014, I edged closer to 'normality' when I met my future wife in China.
Luckily, she also enjoys a simple travel life.
So we backpacked India, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, to name a few, and in 2019, we began van life around China.
In 2023, we're backpacking again.
MRP at the Aral Sea, Uzbekistan, 2011.
Wild Travels
Arrested in Saddam's Iraq by the military; accused of being "a spy" (1989)
Drugged, abducted, robbed + ditched in Siberia, Russia (2005)
Hitch-hiking the Sahara Desert, from Algeria to Nigeria (1991)
Enjoying Carnaval; later mugged at knifepoint in Rio, Brazil (2003)
Traveling overland from England to India, via Iran, where I was caught in a deadly bus accident (1990)
Amid a cyclone that killed 138,000 people - Bangladesh (1991)
Trans-Siberian route, Beijing to London - overland (2005)
Caught in a war-zone around Angkor in civil-war Cambodia (1994)
Antarctica by ship - 14 land excursions; whisky + iceberg on New Year's Eve (2003)
Robbed by hotel staff, while suffering dysentery in Pakistan (1990)
Swimming with seals in Galapagos Islands (2003)
Amid riots in Israel (1990), India (1990) + Indonesia (1999)
Horse trekking in mountains of Colombia - thru FARC guerrilla territory (2003)
Flash-flood close call in Morocco (1991)
Skydiving in Argentina (2002) and solo parachuting in New Zealand (1992)
Slow boat down the Niger River to Timbuktu, Mali (2007)
Hitching the Himalayas, across Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal (1994)
Escaping from Indonesia by fishing boat, hitching in an Australian Army Blackhawk to be the "first tourist" in new East Timor, on 14 Jan. 2000
Actively taking part in a Voodoo ceremony in Togo (2007)
Stuck in quarantine while van-camping in coronavirus-hit - China (2020)
AND MORE...