Michael Carter

One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” — Henry Miller

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Michael Carter was born in Canada, in the small Ontario city of Stratford. Upon graduating high school, the seeds of wanderlust were sewn. Along with his girlfriend of the time, Michael hitch-hiked across Canada for about six months, getting his first taste of real education. They returned to Ontario and went their separate ways. Within the ensuing six months, Michael found himself backpacking around Europe solo. When he returned to Canada dead broke, he took on a series of mundane jobs. It was then that he realized if he wanted to work at something reasonably interesting, he would have to pursue further formal education to acquire some sort of certification. He enrolled in a journalism program at a college in Waterloo, Ontario.

While he enjoyed interviewing interesting people and doing some investigative reporting from time to time, he knew that settling down was not in his psyche. For years after, he wore many hats – taking on seasonal jobs whenever possible and escaping Canadian winters to parts unknown. Michael has traveled to about 70 countries thus far.

Michael eventually realized he didn’t want to continue to boomerang back to Canada every six months to work again, so he set up a plan where he could stay away longer and financially sustain himself. He took a course in Toronto to acquire teaching certification for ESL and headed off to Asia in January, 2000. Since then, Michael has taught and lived in Indonesia and Cambodia. He has been based in Cambodia since 2007. Michael has had a Cambodian partner for eleven years. They’ve had three children together. He currently juggles teaching work with his newest full-time career — fatherhood (not of the priestly kind). Michael continues to travel whenever he can.