Featured Travel Blogger: Hippie In Heels

Next up in my Featured Travel Blogger series is Rachel aka Hippie in Heels, an Ohio native who is currently living in India with her lovely British boy. Check out her answers and find out how she likes to travel.

HI, CAN YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF?

1. Name: Rachel

2. Age: 24

3. Travel Blog: Hippie In Heels

4. Twitter: @Hippie_InHeels

5. Home Town: Lexington, Ohio

6. Current Location: Goa, India

7. Tell us a bit about where you are at the moment and what you’re doing there:

I was backpacking in India 1.5 years ago, met a cute British boy in Goa, and decided to live here with me! I mean, he had some say in it too…

Girl boy goa travel india — Rachel & Bf in Goa

TRAVEL TIDBITS

8. First ever travel experience:

Every summer my family and I (The WHOLE gang) would go to Gulf Shore, Alabama to a lake house near the beach. We were definitely a country group. We spent the days fishing and catching crabs and our nights we stayed in ate what we caught!

9. Where’s next in your travel plans?:

For the first time in a year, I’m going home to Ohio for a whole month. My best friend, also called Rachel, is getting married and I’m so excited to see everyone and eat Chipotle!

10. Give me the top 3 places you’ve visited and why:

1. Goa. Goa has become my home. I have my first “real” boyfriend, a dog, Huckleberry Finn, and it’s a great travel hub.

2. Uganda. I loved my time volunteering in the hospital, meeting these 3 orphans girls who are now my “sisters” and changed my life., not to mention white water rafting grade 5’s on the Nile River!

3. Udaipur, India. This is the “Venice of India”, the most romantic place I’ve been, and sadly it was while I was single. It’s wonderful because it’s very local and everything from painting, dance, and cooking class, to the people and food is authentic.

11. What 5 countries do you want to visit that you haven’t yet been to?:

Botswana
Philippines
Iran
South Africa
Ecuador

12. If you could avoid going anywhere where would it be and why?

Ahh I hate to say it, but I would avoid going to the popular Thai islands during “season time”. It was so crowded and was truly my scene about 2 years ago. I think I’m getting old. Although, if someone just bought me a plane ticket to Ko Phi Phi I would forget everything I just told you and go right on over 😉

13. What are your top 5 travelling items?

Sarong/silk kimono
Cotton little black dress
Clinique moisture surge lotion… I die without it. I shrivel up and die.
My iPhone mainly because of my Fave’s Playlist that I love, but my boyfriend wants to delete from existence.
Sleeping bag liner. It’s so small and it’s great in India for train rides that are filthy dirty or beds that I just can’t seem to get past the stray hairs and climb into

14. Best bit of advice you’ve ever been given:

Whatever your dream is of what you “want to be when you grow up”, it’s not too late. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t go to school for it. It matters who you meet, who can help you, and how hard you can push yourself.

15. Worst advice?

Stay at your job, you should show them some loyalty and save for retirement.

16. What do you miss most when you’re travelling?

My family and American FOOD. At least my family I can talk to on Skype. Food and I just have drifted so far apart… I could cry.

NOW FOR THE RANDOM QUESTIONS

17. Hostel, Hotel or other:

I’m getting all high-class here and saying hotel. 5 star to be exact. I’m not saying this is my typical travels, but it’s how I travel in my dreams and hopefully in the future.

18. Favourite food from another country:

I LOVE cevapi in Bosnia. It’s a pita with sausage fingers, some white cheese (feta?), and raw onion. Sounds gross, tastes like heaven.

19. Favourite mode of transport (plane, train, bus, tuk tuk etc):

Sleeper trains beat flying any day. It might take a little longer, but it’s so nice to stretch out and see the scenery. Doesn’t hurt that it’ll always save me a boatload of money too.

20. Guilty pleasure?

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I literally typed that with no hesitation, so maybe I’m not feeling as guilty as I really, really should.

21. Best travel app?

PDF reader to download books and lonely planet to my mini tab. I don’t have to carry books OR a kindle.

22. Favourite travelling soundtrack/What are you listening to at the moment?

I mentioned my ‘Fave’s playlist’ above. Lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) for you, I made a list on my hippie in heels blog. It’ll blow your mind.

23. Favourite travel movie?

Everyone says this, but “Into the Wild”. It reminds me of my brother, who has taken similar adventures. Some one the quotes in the movie really stick with me over time.

24. Favourite travel book?

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. I re-read it regularly. He writes these fables, that you can tell what’s going to happen at the end, but the way he writes makes even the quickest of readers stop for a moment and re-read the lines he says. His book made me realize a lot about my life and how I felt about my now-boyfriend. Too deep? 😉 sorry!

Sunset with friends Goa — Sunset with friends in Goa

PROMOTE YOURSELF

25. Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions. Now please take a few lines to tell everyone about your website…

Have you ever heard the quote “Travel is only Glamorous in Retrospect?” I used to agree. I even put it on my IG once. But then I realized this last year traveling through India, it is glamorous all the time. Just add some red lipstick and a smile, maybe some high heels at night, and completely change from being a beat-up backpacker to a chic world traveler. I’m all about glamorous travel on a backpacking budget and I love to travel in places that the US warns us not to- I like to share with girls not only beauty of the world with designers I meet and sunsets, but the peace of the world that is hidden behind every bad news story, like the bad press India gets.