As promised, we will be chatting with some of our favorite travel experts on the Sosauce blog about how they celebrate the saucy side of travel. You’ll get insight on their favorite destinations, how to turn your passion of travel into a profession, and suggestions for documenting your travel experiences.

First up we want to introduce you to funny guy and Twitter sensation, Mike Barish. A fellow New Yorker with plenty of crazy stories to share, he is a well-known travel writer most commonly seen writing humorous reviews on Gadling as well as his own blog, Mike Barish.com. His beard is equally popular. Read our interview with Mike below to find out how he got started in travel media, what makes him tick, and where he wants to trek next.

Mike Barish in Fox Glacier, NZ

How is 2010 treating you so far? What’s on your agenda for this New Year?
If the first week or so is any indication, 2010 will be a good year. I’m heading to the Catskills for a weekend of cabin living, snowtubing and UNO playing over MLK weekend (which also happens to be my birthday weekend). I’ll be heading to New Brunswick and Newfoundland, Canada in February for some ice fishing, snow machining and seal flipper pie eating. After that, hoping to explore some of our very own National Parks this year and pay more attention to domestic travel than I have been recently. I feel like I’ve been cheating on America. I need to try to make this work. For the kids’ sake.

You’re a fan favorite in the travel world. How and when did you first start traveling, and what made you put “pen to paper?”
I’m honored to be called a “fan favorite.” I’ll be sure to tell my grandmother that. I’ve been traveling since I was a kid, though that was mostly to EPCOT Center. My adult travels have taught me that the Morocco that I saw in Orlando may not have been 100% accurate (though the churros were delicious). I really started traveling in my twenties as I found friends with whom I traveled well. We were like-minded in how we wanted to see things, so it made traveling a lot easier. I’ve only been travel writing since 2008, but before that I was dabbling in comedy and humor writing. Combining my sense of humor with travel just seemed to make sense. To me at least. I still have to explain my jokes to my grandmother.

Check out Mike’s comedy routines over at Vimeo!

Can you count up how many footprints you have?
I can but I won’t. I think some people put too much emphasis on acquiring passport stamps and checking off items on a list. I’ve seen some magnificent places, have plenty that I hope to see and have brought back an amusing number of refrigerator magnets for my mother. I’ll leave it at that.

Mike on fishing trip in the Kimberley, Western Australia

Sidenote: If you do want to keep track of your own footprints, check out our Sosauce application, My Footprints, to do just that! It’s a neat way to pin destinations on your trips and log how many places you’ve been to around the world. Click here for an example.

You’re a New York based writer; can you see yourself living anywhere else in the world?
I’d like to live overseas. I toyed with the idea of spending a year in India back in 2007 and still harbor a secret desire to do it (I’m also really bad at keeping secrets). I could also probably handle living in New Zealand or Australia, countries in which I spent a fair bit of time in 2009. A nice seaside bungalow in Byron Bay, Australia would be lovely. I’d consider living in Osaka, Japan only because I like catching eels with salad tongs.

Eel fishing in Osaka, Japan

As a seasoned travel writer, what advice could you give others who are starting to turn their passion of travel writing into a profitable profession?
Thank you for noticing my seasoning. I sprinkled cumin all over myself this morning. My biggest piece of advice would be to know the difference between a traveler and a travel writer. Just because you travel frequently or took a round-the-world trip does not automatically make you qualified to be a travel writer. It just makes you a person with some potentially interesting anecdotes at a cocktail party. To be a writer in any genre you need to give people a reason to invest not only the time it takes to read your article/blog post/book, but also the emotional connection that they truly hope to make with an author and a story.

Sure, if you make a name for yourself, people will want to read your work simply because of who you are. But before you reach that stage (and very few people do), you need to make your content the main draw. So, save your personal anecdotes for the cocktail parties and make your written work something that reflects the personality of the place you are describing. I’ll only care about you if you make me connect with your work. Can you help me down from this soapbox now?

When did you begin your travel blog series: SkyRest Tests, Travel Tips, Crash & Learn? What made you want to share those humorous and informative tidbits?
I started those last year. I have been writing about SkyMall for Gadling since 2008 and the SkyRest Travel Pillow is one of the most popular products with readers. This past fall, I got my hands on the SkyRest and reviewed it on a flight. Then I was left with this giant travel pillow and endless possibilities. I started taking it places and testing it out and people seemed to love it. Thus, SkyRest Tests were born. I get requests to bring it with me to events. Half the time I think people would be happy if the pillow was there and I wasn’t. Travel Tips seemed like a fun way to share my views on travel without being overly preachy or affirmational. Crash & Learn just gave me something to do with all of the airline safety cards that I steal. Sorry, airlines!

If you were a Sosaucer, what would your “I Might Say” read?
I’m going to have to quote my friend and fellow travel writer Robert Reid for this one: “Travel isn’t a contest.” Rather than elaborate, I’ll just suggest that you read his blog.

Got a travel-inspired quote to share? Join the Travel Geeks and write up your own “I Might Say” here.

What’s the craziest SkyRest Test you’ve done?
I guess most people would say it was the SkyRest Shower Test or the SkyRest Toilet Test. But I like the SkyRest Wood Chopping Test with World Hum’s Eva Holland in the Yukon.

Whitehorse, YT, Canada

What is your favorite way to document travel experiences?
Pictures of seemingly innocuous moments. Odd signs, people going about their days, food, etc. I’ll never be able to take the best picture of the Taj Mahal. But I can show you what it’s like to be a portly Japanese man hosing off the sidewalk.

sidewalk watering is from Tokyo, Japan

Browse the Sosauce Photo page for a stream of favorite travel pictures and learn how to create your own travel photography portfolio.

And lastly, what do you think a Travel Geek is and would you consider yourself one?
I think a travel geek is someone who revolves his entire life around travel. He talks, tweets, blogs and generally obsesses with travel and nothing else. I like to consider myself a geek of all trades. No need to limit myself just to travel. Sometimes I like to be a geek at home.

Thanks to Mike Barish for chatting with us at Sosauce. Be sure to follow his travels on his blog and see what he’s up to on Twitter.

We want to put the spotlight on more expert travelers! So if you have great advice and amazing tales to share, shoot me an email at alisha @ sosauce . com for a chance to be interviewed here on the Sosauce blog.

First up we want to introduce you to funny guy and Twitter sensation, Mike Barish. A fellow New Yorker with plenty of crazy stories to share, he is a well-known travel writer most commonly seen writing humorous reviews on Gadling as well as his own blog, Mike Barish.com. His beard is equally popular. Read our interview with Mike below to find out how he got started in travel media, what makes him tick, and where he wants to trek next.

Mike Barish in Fox Glacier, NZ

How is 2010 treating you so far? What’s on your agenda for this New Year?
If the first week or so is any indication, 2010 will be a good year. I’m heading to the Catskills for a weekend of cabin living, snowtubing and UNO playing over MLK weekend (which also happens to be my birthday weekend). I’ll be heading to New Brunswick and Newfoundland, Canada in February for some ice fishing, snow machining and seal flipper pie eating. After that, hoping to explore some of our very own National Parks this year and pay more attention to domestic travel than I have been recently. I feel like I’ve been cheating on America. I need to try to make this work. For the kids’ sake.

You’re a fan favorite in the travel world. How and when did you first start traveling, and what made you put “pen to paper?”
I’m honored to be called a “fan favorite.” I’ll be sure to tell my grandmother that. I’ve been traveling since I was a kid, though that was mostly to EPCOT Center. My adult travels have taught me that the Morocco that I saw in Orlando may not have been 100% accurate (though the churros were delicious). I really started traveling in my twenties as I found friends with whom I traveled well. We were like-minded in how we wanted to see things, so it made traveling a lot easier. I’ve only been travel writing since 2008, but before that I was dabbling in comedy and humor writing. Combining my sense of humor with travel just seemed to make sense. To me at least. I still have to explain my jokes to my grandmother.

Check out Mike’s comedy routines over at Vimeo!

Can you count up how many footprints you have?
I can but I won’t. I think some people put too much emphasis on acquiring passport stamps and checking off items on a list. I’ve seen some magnificent places, have plenty that I hope to see and have brought back an amusing number of refrigerator magnets for my mother. I’ll leave it at that.

Mike on fishing trip in the Kimberley, Western Australia

Sidenote: If you do want to keep track of your own footprints, check out our Sosauce application, My Footprints, to do just that! It’s a neat way to pin destinations on your trips and log how many places you’ve been to around the world. Click here for an example.

You’re a New York based writer; can you see yourself living anywhere else in the world?
I’d like to live overseas. I toyed with the idea of spending a year in India back in 2007 and still harbor a secret desire to do it (I’m also really bad at keeping secrets). I could also probably handle living in New Zealand or Australia, countries in which I spent a fair bit of time in 2009. A nice seaside bungalow in Byron Bay, Australia would be lovely. I’d consider living in Osaka, Japan only because I like catching eels with salad tongs.

Eel fishing in Osaka, Japan

As a seasoned travel writer, what advice could you give others who are starting to turn their passion of travel writing into a profitable profession?
Thank you for noticing my seasoning. I sprinkled cumin all over myself this morning. My biggest piece of advice would be to know the difference between a traveler and a travel writer. Just because you travel frequently or took a round-the-world trip does not automatically make you qualified to be a travel writer. It just makes you a person with some potentially interesting anecdotes at a cocktail party. To be a writer in any genre you need to give people a reason to invest not only the time it takes to read your article/blog post/book, but also the emotional connection that they truly hope to make with an author and a story.

Sure, if you make a name for yourself, people will want to read your work simply because of who you are. But before you reach that stage (and very few people do), you need to make your content the main draw. So, save your personal anecdotes for the cocktail parties and make your written work something that reflects the personality of the place you are describing. I’ll only care about you if you make me connect with your work. Can you help me down from this soapbox now?

When did you begin your travel blog series: SkyRest Tests, Travel Tips, Crash & Learn? What made you want to share those humorous and informative tidbits?
I started those last year. I have been writing about SkyMall for Gadling since 2008 and the SkyRest Travel Pillow is one of the most popular products with readers. This past fall, I got my hands on the SkyRest and reviewed it on a flight. Then I was left with this giant travel pillow and endless possibilities. I started taking it places and testing it out and people seemed to love it. Thus, SkyRest Tests were born. I get requests to bring it with me to events. Half the time I think people would be happy if the pillow was there and I wasn’t. Travel Tips seemed like a fun way to share my views on travel without being overly preachy or affirmational. Crash & Learn just gave me something to do with all of the airline safety cards that I steal. Sorry, airlines!

If you were a Sosaucer, what would your “I Might Say” read?
I’m going to have to quote my friend and fellow travel writer Robert Reid for this one: “Travel isn’t a contest.” Rather than elaborate, I’ll just suggest that you read his blog.

Got a travel-inspired quote to share? Join the Travel Geeks and write up your own “I Might Say” here.

What’s the craziest SkyRest Test you’ve done?
I guess most people would say it was the SkyRest Shower Test or the SkyRest Toilet Test. But I like the SkyRest Wood Chopping Test with World Hum’s Eva Holland in the Yukon.

Whitehorse, YT, Canada

What is your favorite way to document travel experiences?
Pictures of seemingly innocuous moments. Odd signs, people going about their days, food, etc. I’ll never be able to take the best picture of the Taj Mahal. But I can show you what it’s like to be a portly Japanese man hosing off the sidewalk.

sidewalk watering is from Tokyo, Japan

Browse the Sosauce Photo page for a stream of favorite travel pictures and learn how to create your own travel photography portfolio.

And lastly, what do you think a Travel Geek is and would you consider yourself one?
I think a travel geek is someone who revolves his entire life around travel. He talks, tweets, blogs and generally obsesses with travel and nothing else. I like to consider myself a geek of all trades. No need to limit myself just to travel. Sometimes I like to be a geek at home.

Thanks to Mike Barish for chatting with us at Sosauce. Be sure to follow his travels on his blog and see what he’s up to on Twitter.

We want to put the spotlight on more expert travelers! So if you have great advice and amazing tales to share, shoot me an email at alisha @ sosauce . com for a chance to be interviewed here on the Sosauce blog.

Read more posts by Alisha

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 2:30 PM and is filed under Spotlight, Traveler. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.