HELLO! I'm a travel writer for Nat Geo making my STEEM debut

My name's Robert Reid and I've been a travel writer/videographer for 20 years. I've covered a lot of places: Siberia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Burma, Colombia, the Oklahoma Panhandle. One time I tried out at Mountie boot camp in Saskatchewan. That was interesting.

A lot of people think of a travel writer as a dream job. And it is. But it's not exactly "going on holiday" either. When I covered the Yucatan for a Lonely Planet guidebook, for instance, I spent 15 minutes in the sea over two trips. This isn't a complaint!

I think more people should travel like a travel writer does. Basically we're on the road on some sort of quest -- to find the answers to something for an article, video or book. That means not going to India to see the Taj Mahal necessarily, but to learn how to use an abacus -- or something.

Once I used a Monopoly board as a guide to Atlantic City. The point wasn't seeing the boardwalk or casinos, but just seeing the namesake locations for that game. Locals will always help someone trying to accomplish something, I find.

Doing so gets you far deeper into a place than you can be from the top of a double-decker bus tour.

I have written and made videos for Lonely Planet, the New York Times, CNN, ESPN, BBC and others. These days I work mostly with National Geographic Traveler. This year I hosted five videos for Nat Geo/Star Alliance. Did another video that included having beer in a field with a couple Manitobans (above), and wrote articles on Baja California and Chiapas in my favorite destination, Mexico.

My most recent trip for Nat Geo was to the United Arab Emirates. The desert landscape and sci-fi skyscrapers were fun to see, but it's the people met I'll remember most. Surprisingly, about 88% of the locals are from somewhere else. I met camel traders from Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ate food at a Yemeni place, met Lebanese and Indians.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I'll do with STEEM yet. Likely I'll post some travel photos, video and tips as I go, along with videos and ramblings about music. This year I started a series of videos I called, on a whim, ROBERT'S RECORD CORNER. Basically I listen to a record or two and talk about it.

Maybe a Mini Freddie Mercury from Russia knows...

Hope to see you around STEEMland!