Welcome to another GO! Interview. This week we are proud to feature the talented travel writer Sarah Lipman of She's In Love With The World. Sarah just returned from a six month journey to Asia and the Middle East and is already looking for her next opportunity to go abroad. We were delighted when Sarah agreed to share her travel philosophies with us, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the interview!

GO!: Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. Shall we start with a brief introduction?

Sarah: To start, I’m Sarah Lipman and for the last six or so months, the world’s been my home. A 20-something originally from the New York-area, I decided I would travel after being laid off in the flailing journalism industry. It’s something I always wanted and knew I would one day do, and after losing my job, I figured now was a good a time as any. I write a weekly travel column for a newspaper in Stamford, Conn. and also maintain my personal travel blog, She’s in Love with the World.

GO!: Where has this adventure taken you so far?

Sarah: Currently I’m located in Jerusalem, Israel, though my trip has taken me mainly around Southeast Asia. Since January I’ve traveled through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and then back to Thailand for a 2-month stay in Bangkok. It’s hard to name a favorite destination, as each has brought incredible and unexpected experiences over the last five months — from riding a motorbike down the coast of Vietnam, to living and volunteering at an orphanage in Cambodia, to settling and living alongside Thailand’s recent political unrest.

GO!: How did you plan and decide where to go?

Sarah: The planning for my “trip of a lifetime” was incredibly lackadaisical. Prior to my departure it really just consisted of three odd jobs to make and save money, a couple of guidebooks and one massive world map to plan out a tentative route. Probably the best thing I’ve learned though, is that no matter how much you plan, nothing ever goes according to it. Initially, I never anticipated moving to Bangkok for two months and by now expected to be deep into my European travels. I don’t regret a second.

GO!: Is this a once in a lifetime adventure, or do you see yourself doing similar trips in the future?

Sarah: Everyone assumes that once I come home I’ll be ready to join the rank and file of the 9-5 job. I just don’t see that happening. Ideally, I’ll return home at the end of the summer and begin to work and prepare for my next big adventure. Travel is engrained in my system and if anything, this has given me more fervor to continue to see what else is out there. I’d like to go to South America or Africa next.

GO!: How did your blog, She's In Love With The World, come about and what have been your goals for the project?

Sarah: When I first made the decision to travel, very few people close to me understood where I was going and why I had such a desire to make the leap. They thought I was running away from reality or was out to prove something to myself or to them. SILWTW is my outlet to “show, not tell” (as my old university journalism professors would say) why I’m doing what I am. From pictures and prose alone, I think more and more friends and family from back home now not only understand why I’m traveling and how happy it’s made me, but support it.

Sarah in Cambodia

GO!: A quick internet search reveals hundreds of popular travel blogs in every possible niche. Why do you think this form of blogging has become so popular?

Sarah: It makes sense that travel blogs are some of the most popular websites on the Internet. Travel lends itself to storytelling and what better way to document those stories —whether for yourself or others — through a blog? My website is far from the most popular out there (see Gary Arndt: Everything Everywhere), but I enjoy writing about what I’m doing and I hope that comes across in my posts enough to continue to draw new readers in. The travel community has been, though competitive, an incredibly welcoming and a tight-knit group, many of whom I can now call friends. I’ve found Twitter (follow me at @sarahmlipman) to be an indispensible resource in hooking up with other travelers, getting recommendations on locations and promoting my posts.

GO!: What impact, if any, has this adventure had on your relationships with your friends and family?

Sarah: Travel certainly takes its toll on relationships back at home. Prior to leaving the United States, it did place a strain on my relationships with my parents, [now ex-] boyfriend and some friends. As more time passes though, many of those back home read how happy I am, the amazing things I have had the opportunity to see and hear the excitement in my voice, that I think it becomes harder for them not to see the value it has added to my life.

GO!: If you could travel with anyone, alive, dead, or fictional, who would it be and why?

Sarah in Thailand

Sarah: In 1966, Robert Kennedy offered up this sage advice to young people in South Africa on their Day of Affirmation: “The answer is to rely on youth — not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.” A major part of my journey has been to seek out various opportunities to give back to the countries I visit. Travel is a double-edged sword that lends itself to turning a blind eye to the darker sides of a country. For me, however, it’s been of equal importance to aid those in need as it has to visit the heavily traversed backpacker’s trail. Bobby Kennedy understands the value in a good adventure and how it lends itself to adding inspiration and aid to others.

GO!: What does the future hold for you?

Sarah: For the next few weeks, I’ll keeping hanging out in Israel. On my first trip to the Holy Land in 2009, I didn’t have the chance to spend much time in the south. I have tentative plans to get a PADI Open Water Diving Certification in Eilat and then will probably cross the border over into Jordan to visit Amman and Petra. From there, I’ll head over to Sinai and Cairo in Egypt to see the Great Pyramids of Giza. Plans for Europe may be postponed to return back to the United States for a while to find a job and start saving up for the next adventure. But as I said, no plan has ever remained constant on this amazing expedition and I’m just letting the journey take me as it pleases.

GO!: Any last words?

Sarah: Ah, the famous last words. I don’t have as grand a quote to offer as my travel buddy Bobby Kennedy does, but what I can offer is encouragement to anyone thinking of taking the leap into world travel and blogging. It’s a life-changing, awe-inspiring and humbling journey that I wouldn’t trade for the world…OK, well, maybe the world. I am in love with it, you know.