Expert's Advice: Curious Travelling Interview with Daniel Noll & Audrey Scott

Meet our first travel experts this year, Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott, the creators of Uncornered Market. They are adventurous professional full-time travellers and storytellers, who left their secure jobs to live their true passions: creativity, personal development and, of course, lifelong travelling. Their approach to life is to live deliberately and not to look back one day and wonder "What if?". We've asked Dan and Audrey to share their insight on respectful and curious way of travelling.

Guys, your website seems to stand out having its own serious purpose. Please, tell us about your principles and the way they formed.

Serious, or perhaps meaningful or mindful. Since the beginning, that’s been our approach at Uncornered Market. Only recently, did we fully explain and elaborate the history on The Art of Traveling the World for Good on our blog. The most important principles are curiosity, and respect for others.

Why did your choose Czech Republic as your first big trip destination?

We first moved from San Francisco to Prague in 2001 because we felt it offered opportunity, but also quality of life. It was developed enough and offer job opportunities and also a bit of adventure since it was still developing at the time.

What is your way of getting used to a new country?

From the standpoint of food, culture and people, the best way to orient ourselves to a new country or a new destination: by visiting the market, in particular fresh markets where we can see, feel and taste the fruits and vegetables local people eat.

What is the best part of travelling to less known and popular destinations?

Lesser known and lesser travelled destinations tend to exhibit a sense of what I would call “innocence”. Once tourism becomes a local business behaviors of locals can sometimes change.

Whose idea was it to run your own website and how did it all started?

We both set off to do this, but initially our website was less about a business and more about a creative outlet and portfolio for our writing and photography. It was something we planned in Prague, before setting off. Then we completed and launched it during our first few months on the road in Southeast Asia.

One of your principles is respectful travelling that brings positive global changes. You must have a couple of good examples by now, right?

The best example are in the stories in our video on Youtube: What Is Your What If? I think we change the world one interaction at a time, and we influence the world one traveller at a time as our stories are absorbed and acted on by our audience.

What is the greatest change travelling brought to your life?

The greatest challenge travel brings is to continually break down prejudices you didn’t know you had, the first of which is the one tricks you into occasionally thinking you’ve seen it all.

What is the most important advice you would give to other travellers?

I would suggest reading our 7 Habits of Highly Effective Travelers on our blog.

Another of your principles says: ‘Follow your curiosity’. Do you both have the same points of interest or is it another way you choose it together?

We do have similar points of interest, especially when it comes to what energizes us about travel. Because of this, we tend to make decisions together, just as we write and edit together. Balancing the needs of two people is always more difficult than one, but we’d like to think the final product is all the better for it.

Please, share the best lessons each of you have learned on the road.

As I look back on it, some of the earliest, simplest lessons, are the best. This list, for example, includes references to something as simple as earplugs to something as profound as the commonality of experience: Two Years On, What Have We Learned?

Given the fact you travel to various remote and at times unsafe places, what are your safety rules?

Food safety is high on the list, as least based on our website traffic and questions. Our article, entitled How to Travel Without Hugging the Bowl, covers this topic.As for safety, these Unconventional Travel Safety Tips are worth a look.

In the end, what is the motto that motivates you the most?

“Driven by curiosity, guided by respect.”

We thank Daniel and Audrey for sharing their travel experience and some great travel tips with us and we wish them to continue discovering more incredible places and cultures while further creating a movement of respectful travellers from around the world.

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