Married in Bali and Traveling in a Van with The NYC Couple

About This Episode

In this episode, we are joined by Amanda and Mark of The NYC Couple. They are an American travel couple who met in New York City, fell in love, and embarked on a journey of a lifetime together. They document their adventures through amazing videos online, wonderful Instagram posts, and through their website. We talk with them about how they balance all of that, how they traveled in a bus together, and their incredible travel experiences from around the world.

Introduction:

Amanda is originally from Southern California and moved to New York City when she was 25 where she moved into the same building as Mark. Mark is from Northern New York and moved to New York City to pursue his doctorate. They just got married in October 2018 in Bali. They had never planned to get married in Bali, but after visiting and finding the perfect spot they decided that is where they would get married.

Part One: Travel

For Mark, he travels for adventure. To try new sights, new people, new culture, and new experiences. The same thing is true for Amanda who feels she has been able to do things that she had never thought she would have the opportunity to do. The last place they were was in Bali, currently they are in New York City, and a couple of hours from the time of this interview they had to get to the airport to get to Paris for a marathon.

For Amanda, the most rewarding experience came with one of their first trips in Puerto Rico when they went for eight days when they had such an amazing time exploring the area and meet some incredible people. For Mark, the experience came when they spent about five months living in a van, two months in New Zealand and three months in Australia. It really put things into perspective about how much space and things that they need to live and enjoy life.

Their hilarious travel experience came when they were road tripping through New Zealand and, after watching tsunami videos on YouTube, they were worried that a tsunami warning went off in the middle of the night. Cars started to move in every direction around them making it extremely hectic. It turns out it was just a fire alarm. Another time came when they were with another couple and they went to get a very awkward massage.

With travel comes some bad experiences, and Mark shares an experience with us about when they were in Australia. They had to drive a large van from one location to another, but he hit a tree and ruined the top of the van which cost some money to repair.

Part Two: Relationships

To Amanda, travel can only make your relationship stronger. There will be some lows on your travels, but all of these experiences that you can get through together as a couple will make your relationship that much stronger.

For a while they traveled together in a van. The most difficult part of traveling together in a van was directions as it can be difficult to get around in a country you are not familiar with. Another difficult part of it was that their van did not have any a toilet in it so whenever they needed to go they had to find a place which can be difficult during the night. Safety is also another concern when you are sleeping somewhere in the van.

They tend to travel fairly spontaneously where they do not plan a tight schedule just in case something comes up that they would like to do while they are there. For Mark, Philippines is on the top of their list to return to as he has family still there and there is just so much to explore and something for every traveler.

Their final advice for couples in terms of their relationship and travel is to move past things. Things will happen while traveling, but the moments will pass so it is important to live in the moments and take in the experience. Being flexible is also very important especially if both people have different ideas about how they should travel.

Part Three: Making Travel a Lifestyle

The name The NYC Couple developed from an early YouTube channel which changed a couple of times. To them the name means more than just New York City, but also opportunity and the place that they first met each other.

When it comes to dividing up the responsibilities that come with the online channels, Amanda handles most of the Instagram responsibilities whereas Mark takes care of the photography and videos. The most difficult thing is when you are traveling or working full time and coming home to do more work on your online channel is extremely difficult. They prefer to edit and do all of the post-processing work after their travels in order to make the most of their moments when traveling.

Mark’s final advice for a couple pursuing this online content creation and travel lifestyle is to fully commit. Make a plan and schedule, what kind of content you want to create, and stick to it. They did not do this and it just seemed to happen, whereas if they were a bit more direct with their intentions they feel it would have helped them a lot more. Also, you should be engaged in the community in order to show some love to get some love. Showing off your personality to the community and your followers and they will fall in love with what you are doing.

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