Travel Tips

"Travel broadens the mind? World-trips explode it!"

The tale is a familiar one. Student walks down from the stage clutching his degree certificate slightly wiser about the subjects he studied but with no real idea about what the hell he wants to do with his life.

Apart from I knew one thing. I wanted to travel.

In March of 2002 I took off on the first leg of what would turn out to be a six-month circumnavigation of the globe. Okay, I was never going to threaten Phillias Fogg with my speed, direction or methods at times but I had easily the most incredible time of my life. From sunset over the Whitsunday Islands in Australia, Dolphins in Milford Sound, tokes on the beach in Fiji, Lava in Hawaii, Waterfalls in Canada to Big Sky in Montana... I really am at a loss to even begin to describe the raw onslaught of experience, incredible people and staggering sights I saw and the profound effect they had upon me. The best I can do is lift a paragraph from one of my concluding E-Mails I sent to be friends:

"Five Countries. 174 days. 12,756kms+. Contemplating such figures from the perspective of home is intriguing to say the least. My mind is still a slowly dissipating whirlwind of thoughts and contrasting emotions; from the initial euphoria of returning, to the looming spectre of (mild) depression as the realization dawns that it's over. The sensation of looking around at one's local area with the same eyes but a different mindset is wonderfully unique, something that you can only perhaps experience having transplanted yourself globally for a length of time..."

I know. You've thought about doing the same maybe and have ended up making a list why you can't. Don't. Make a list why you should. If you're here then you probably know by now that travel broadens the mind. Trust me, a world-trip will explode it.

My advice is merely two-fold. If you're willing to backpack use hostels, it needn't cost the earth. Also, don't let the possibility of lone travel scare you if no-one else has the balls to break out of their mundane life and come with you. Head for hostels, talk to people, keep an open mind and I guarantee you're rarely be without anyone to share some awesome experiences with. I have some awesome global friends and had a mindblowing long distance relationship for some three years following. In a sense my trip never ended.

And I haven't let it stop there, and when you return neither should you. Nineteen countries in this lifetime and counting...