Two years on and

we're thrilled to still be around.

I hope the tone of surprise doesn't make us seem less serious about Travels That Make Us, but after an overwhelmingly busy year on both personal and professional fronts, we feel just so fortunate to have continued the blog as initially envisioned - publishing one post every fortnight and alternating between a story written by either me, ShNaajh or Rakesh, and another shared by a fellow traveller.

Here is how the second year of our existence went:

Our Posts

Since April 2024, Travels That Make Us has published 25 posts about destinations in 17 countries: Italy, Australia, Latvia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, China, Finland, India, Armenia, Switzerland, Singapore, Estonia, Greece, Malaysia, Poland, Lithuania and Hong Kong.

Our five most viewed posts from the year are:

• The Roads and Rickshaws of Dhaka: 413 views

• A Whirlwind Visit to Neora Valley: 348 views

• Devilbend: Enjoy the Magic: 330 views

• Regaling Tales of Riga: 309 views

• When War Came to Calcutta: 295 views

The following posts have had the most reader engagement in terms of comments:

• 24 comments: The Roads and Rickshaws of Dhaka

• 18 comments: Hypnotised by Hong Kong

• 11 comments: A City Imbued with Stories: Day 2

• 10 comments each: Devilbend: Enjoy the Magic, Porvoo: A Must-Visit, Mastic-Masticating My Way through Chios and Miss Potato Heart
  

Our Writers

Eight new writers collaborated with Travels That Make Us in the past year and three shared a second or third story.

We are always looking for new travellers and storytellers of all ages to join the Travels That Make Us community. If you are reading this and have a story to share - I'm sure you do - please get in touch with us.

Our Readers

Travels That Make Us has welcomed 1,802 unique visitors in the past year, taking the total site sessions to 5,235. The blog has now crossed the lands and waters and skies of 23 new countries:

In an age where Instagrammers and Tik Tokers have millions of followers, our readership might be small, but it is mighty. We are especially indebted to the regular visitors for making us a part of their weekend reading every fortnight.

Here's how we did compared with other travel experience sites in Australia over the past month:

What's ahead?

Despite the past year being quite frantic, we managed to travel both locally and internationally, had the honour of publishing more stories from friends and family, and gained 44 more subscribers.

What we didn't manage to do was introduce any merchandise. We did order some customised emerald green cups from Ireland, but as misfortune (read unreliable courier) would have it, they were returned to the sender after two allegedly failed deliveries! We really liked the colour, and I wasn't one to give up on the cups.

Following the advice of a dear friend, who has also written for Travels That Make Us, I contacted the online marketplace I had ordered the cups through, and as fortune (read good customer service) would have it, the cups were redelivered to us in five days. The colour, however, didn't quite match the emerald green we had seen on the screen; ours was several shades darker, making it almost black!

...so watch this space while we source some merchandise in our preferred earthy colours!

We are considering allowing (hopefully travel-related) advertisements on the website to support the work involved in publishing the stories, but we do need a deeper understanding of Google AdSense before we add it.

Now who can tell where this photo was taken?

But much higher on our wishlist is to host an anniversary event in the next couple of months. Another space worth watching!

For this year (and beyond), we hope to continue traveling, making more memories and sharing more stories.

There will probably soon be a time when our friends will stop telling us they're travelling. Please don't! We're hungry for stories much like the Old God of Akhaten, but your stories don't have to be interstellar - we'll be content with the tales of our planet, we promise!

Thank you for the love!