Traveling for Fun, Knowledge & Freedom
Hi. Welcome to my minimalist nomadic life - global backpacking, hanging-out, and van travels.
Here you'll find raw and real travels by an old school backpacker - meaning: zero BS - no ads, no affiliate links, no sponsors, no tours, no social media, no crass commercialization.
This is travel for the pure love of traveling ...
THE CANDY TRAIL is my collection of pictures and words from a lifetime of independent travel, 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, and often - "lying flat", with a bottle in hand and vista before me.
ABOUT
Michael Robert Powell in Turkey, 1989, age 23.
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 and traveling a world of vast geography, wonderous cultures, and enjoying a carefree simplicity.
Years of journeys across 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. In 2019, we began years of van life around China.
But come 2023, we'll be backpacking the world, 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
Hi.
Welcome to my minimalist nomadic life - global backpacking, hanging-out, and van travels.
Here you'll find raw and real travels by an old school backpacker - meaning: zero BS - no ads, no affiliate links, no sponsors, no tours, no social media, no crass commercialization.
This is travel for the pure love of traveling ...
THE CANDY TRAIL is my collection of pictures and words from a lifetime of independent travel, 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, and often - "lying flat", with a bottle in hand and vista before me.
ABOUT
A younger self: Michael Robert Powell at Nemrut Dagi in Turkey - 1989, age 23.
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 and traveling a world of vast geography, wondrous cultures, and enjoying a carefree simplicity.
Years of journeys across 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. In 2019, we began years of van life around China.
But come 2023, we'll be backpacking the world, 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...
