About

Welcome to The Blond Travels, where you will find the most useful and practical information about travelling and living in Thailand and Portugal.

My name is Joanna and I’m the expert on travelling around Thailand as well as Portugal. These are my top two countries and I focus primarily on them. My mission is to show you both countries from a completely different perspective. Yes, I write about more known places, but what I really want to show you are the less-frequented destinations, the culture and traditions. My goal is to make Portugal and Thailand more accessible to you and make you understand them better.

A woman sitting, maroccan interior in Lisbon — Hi, I’m Joanna. The expert on Thailand and Portugal.

I was raised in a coastal town in northern Poland before moving to London. I lived and worked in the UK for over ten years and finally became a British citizen in 2012.

A short vacation in Thailand sparked my interest in Southeast Asia and made me want to travel more so I made plans to get time off from work and make my dream come true. After long discussions with my ex-husband, my family and my boss, it was finally time to embark on a new journey.

South-East Asia is my favorite place in the world!

I and my sister packed our bags and got ready for the first, big vacation of my life: A three month long tour around Southeast Asia. We visited Burma, Laos, Vietnam and – again – Thailand, the country where I got bitten by the travel bug in the first place.

When I came back to Great Britain, my husband told me that he wanted to end our marriage. I was devastated at first but soon realized that this opened up a whole new world for me. During my last trip, I met multiple people who were teaching English in Southeast Asia and now – with nothing keeping me in London anymore – I was ready for something new and exciting. I had some savings in my bank account and knew they would last me for a while in Thailand so I decided to quit my job in London and try to become a teacher in Thailand instead.

I lived in Thailand for a couple of years and I had the best time there.

I stayed in Chiang Mai for a couple of years. When I finally started teaching online and opened my own school OK English, there was nothing to stop me. I moved to Vietnam, went back to Poland, lived for a few months in Germany and now I’m residing in Portugal, in sunny Lisbon. I am not planning my long distance future. I like things to unfold themselves before me.

Joanna - expert on Portugal and Thailand. — I teach English online and I love my job!

There was a time when I considered myself a digital nomad and I really wanted to travel and work in different countries. After trying that lifestyle for a bit, I know now that it’s not entirely for me. I still travel a lot and I enjoy my life abroad. I am calling myself a digital expat 🙂

On this blog I try to give people the most useful advice when it comes to travelling and living in Thailand and Portugal. I have been through quite a lot of great adventures and some setbacks when moving from country to country and I think I have a lot to share with you.

If you’re going to Thailand or Portugal and looking for some useful tips, you will find the best advice here. Everything I am writing about here comes from my personal experience, so you can be sure that you’ll get the best possible information.

Let’s see what’s up next. Follow me on my journey!