About

KateGypsy is an online resource for all of you who are dreaming about hitting the road and becoming a modern nomad with location independence.

Maybe you –

are dreaming about hitting the road for an indefinite period of time
are dreaming about seeing exotic destinations up close and personal
have done some traveling and want to share your experiences
just enjoy reading about the ups and downs people go through while spending time overseas
know me and just want a little insight into how and why I've chosen to travel and live overseas
want to find a way to work on your own terms

Stick around to find out how you can make your dreams of location independence a reality.

Kate Benzin Traveling Forever Machu Picchu

At Machu Picchu when leading a tour in Peru and Bolivia

Kate Benzin, Chief Nomad

I’m Kate and I’m American, but have been living in Indonesia since 1983. During these 36 years, I taught English as a Foreign Language for 15 years and spent 18 years working as a tour director.

As a tour director, I traveled to many parts of our exotic planet and got paid to do it.

One of the great things about tour directing is that the work is seasonal, so tour directors have many months off every year to travel on their own. And I did just that.

During all my years, I’ve learned a lot – mostly through trial and error. But you don’t have to make the same mistakes that I did. Join with me on this site to get information about –

planning your travels
challenges you’ll need to overcome as you travel around the world
working abroad when you run out of funds
practical tips for your new lifestyle
examples of my own story, including highlights and lowlights

When I say highlights and lowlights, I really mean it. I won’t hold anything back – even if the story puts me in an unfavorable light.

Everything on this site, unless otherwise noted, is my own opinion, my experience, my interpretation. I don’t plan to quote scientific studies to back up my claims or theories. All the conclusions or theories in my posts come from the experiences I’ve had.

Many people I’ve met over the years have been envious of my lifestyle. But you might be surprised to know that I’ve been asked many, many times why I’d want to spend all my time traveling, often in developing countries, and even live in one.

If you’re wondering the same thing, keep coming back to this site to read about my adventures in Indonesia that started in 1983 and continue to the present day. And my tour directing adventures that started in 1996.

What's on This Site?

I’ll be doing most of the writing – at least to start. I hope other travelers will join in and do some guest posts. If they do, their posts will be clearly marked with a by-line so you’ll recognize when the opinions that are expressed are not mine.

To get the ball rolling, I’ll share many of the experiences I’ve had during my many years of traveling and the past 36 years as an American living and working in Indonesia.

As I mentioned, this will be a ‘tell all’ site when it comes to my experiences. Luckily, I’ve kept a journal on and off over the years. Those journal entries help me remember some of the good times – and even some that I’d rather forget.

Of course, I have a lot of friends who travel or live here in Indonesia. I plan to rope them into interviews so that you can read about the experiences others have had here as well.