Legend of Solo Travel, Jessica Korteman

Introducing Jessica Korteman, Legend of Solo Travel. Jessica Korteman is an Australian travel writer, formerly based in Tokyo, Japan, now residing in Melbourne, Australia. She’s travelled to more than 50 countries, about half of them solo, and circumnavigated the globe three times – once by plane, once by ship and the other mostly overland.

***We talk about child loss in this show. So please take extra special care when you are listening***

In this podcast we talk about:

Her upbringing in the countryside and experiencing the cycles of life through animals and playing out in the neighbourhood
How she got interested in travel as a child - where those childhood hunches and interests lead and how she followed them
The humanities and her strong draw to International Studies
Speaking Indonesian and the presence of Indonesian culture in her life through the years
Following her instincts and intuition and making unusual and bold choices
What she learned form working in the Lady’s shoe department and Tech departments of a department Store in both her home town and Melbourne
Getting a job translating Indonesian during university
Quitting that job traveling the world - expect Indonesia lol
The seeds of their love for and living in Japan
The special story of the Empire State Building during her University gap year hen finishing and getting married
Their move to Japan and decision to take extended time away from each other while Jess went to Peaceboat
Return from Peaceboat and volunteering in Tohoku after the 2011 North East Japan Earthquake
How Indonesia cycled back into her life and she finally visited!
Her marriage and how they are rooted in deep deep respect for one another and baked-in freedom
How her Blog (story telling platform) blossomed and grew and how excited she was telling those stories
The exponential growth of the Social Media and the business and how they created so much content and became top 50 travel Blogger in the world (Quick fire - what are her most popular posts and how many views they have - you can read them here, here, here & here.
Dedication
Starting a family and losing her first baby in Taiwan (My Miscarriage Story: What Nobody Tells you About Miscarriage & Our daughter's birth story)
Leaving Japan and the heartbreaking loss people feel when they leave Japan
Return to Melbourne and starting a new life
COVID!
What’s going on now and pivoting the business and following their sense of possibility as Melbourne comes out of strict lockdown and reinventing
Ancestry and her husbands journey as a refugee from Vietnam
Follow your inner voice and those little breadcrumbs to find what kind of information or helloing - believe in magic and Let it be huge - let those little things be sustenance - find out more about your self and more about who you are and don’t worry about what society says you should be doing - buck those trees