About Modern Gonzo

In 2004, an unassuming driver failed to look both ways before hitting the gas, and drove directly intoa Spanish-hybrid scooter on its way to the office. The car sustained a dent, the scooter however, was later recycled as a wine opener. Instead of walking into work that day, I was stretchered into an ambulance with a broken kneecap, the result of an imperfect swan dive over my handlebars. This was, by far, the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Months later, suitably healed, I was awarded a $20,000 insurance settlement. Should I buy a car? Should I put the money away for a rainy day (in Vancouver, where I live, that could describe every day). After much thought, I decided it was time to quit making excuses, take a deep breath, and follow my dream. I bought a solo round-the-world plane ticket and took off to backpack the planet, opening myself to whatever experiences I’d find along the way in such off-the-wall destinations like Laos, Albania, Brazil and New Caledonia.But what fun would that be if I couldn’t share my adventures? So I built this website, Modern Gonzo, as a means of distributing weekly reports and photos to family and friends. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to my global adventure….

Modern Gonzo was picked up as a column by the Vancouver Sun, and I realized that the more I travelled, the more I liked to write about it. I began pitching other papers, and slowly my “gonzo” experiences began to appear in travel sections around the world, from Hong Kong to Sydney, Chicago to Cape Town. With 1000 people on my mailing list, I felt I owed it to everyone to keep going, and so I did…eating noodles and sleeping on couches so I could afford to grab whatever opportunities came my way. Two years and plenty more outrageous travel later, enough people told me my life should be a TV show that I started to believe them.

My tiny Modern Gonzo has now become a horde of inspiration from my journeys to over 50 countries (and counting) on 6 continents. There are entertaining reports (enjoyed best when printed), beautiful photo galleries, travel tips, video clips, activity, hostel and restaurant reviews, and Finish the Sentence, which features everyone I’ve met on my journey. I built and maintain the site myself, for I’m certain that within its pages lies a spark that can help others fire up their dreams too.

Things appear to happen for a reason after all. You hear about these dream stories, and then one day, you wake up and find yourself living one.

About Robin Esrock

Continuing a long line ofglobe-trekking es-rockers, I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. After graduating in journalism from Rhodes University, I briefly started a band called, The US Government Is Harbouring Extra-Terrestrials. It’s true you know. Anyway, I thought we rocked, but it’s quite possible we sucked, so I started producing websites before websites were websites for Times Media Limited, now Johnnic. My Sunday Times Everest Expedition site,supporting the Nelson Mandela’s Children Fund was South Africa’s most trafficked website for three months, and I was also busy writing articles for some national travel and lifestyle magazines. Sailing to Cool Britannia (it was, briefly) in the late 1990’s, I contracted in London for News Corporation, the BBC, Reuters, Razorfish, Channel 4 and FilmFour. Two years later I immigrated to Vancouver, Canada (short answer: it’s gorgeous), where I co-founded a music dotcom that worked closely with Napster when it was still Napster. I then joined SL Feldman & Associates, Canada’s largest full-service talent agency,coordinating new media, artist development, marketing and publicity for a roster that included Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell, Dido, Sarah MacLachlan, Diana Krall and Coldplay. Next I dipped my toes into the frigid waters of digital distribution and digital rights management, but got out before I became a bloodsucking zombie with a soul-crushing job. I served as Director of the Greater Vancouver Media Association, threw charity events in aid of UNICEF, the David Suzuki and Make-a-Wish Foundations, programmed music for bars and restaurants(oh iPod, I love you so) before deciding to escape responsibility on my 30th birthday with Modern Gonzo.

What was supposed to be a 12-month escape has somehow turned itself into the most unlikely career:I’ve now written about my adventures for several major newspapers worldwide, including the Vancouver Sun, Chicago Tribune, South China Morning Post, Sydney Morning Herald, Dallas Morning News, Dubai Gulf News, Toronto Star and Cape Town Argus. I’ve been interviewed on CBC, CTV, City TV, Urban Rush, CKNW, the National Post, and Metro nationwide, with Maclean’s Magazine, Canada’s leading newsweekly, profiling Modern Gonzo in their “Recommended” page. They called it “Fear and Loathing Scooter Style”, but I’m not too sure what that means. Travel Cuts, Canada’s biggest budget travel agency, sponsored a cross-Canada national speaking tour, and I was featured on the cover of their Student Traveller magazine. Lately, I’m writing for Sympatico, Outpost Magazine, Chill Magazine, and holy moly hosting a 39-part travel show for OLN CityTV and National Geographic Adventure called Word Travels. In the end, it’s no joke when I tell people I fell into the fantasyland of travel writing by, ahem, accident.

93 countries, and despite antibiotics, there’s no killing a travel bug. If you want to contact me about sponsorships, interviews, talks, advice, press trips, etc, try robin@moderngonzo.com.