There's no place like home. Or so they say. The thing is: my family moved around a bit while I was a kid, and with that, I never really developed the concept of home being that one place, that one house, or that one region. Home can be everywhere. Home can be multiple places. On one hand I sometimes envy people a bit when I see their strong bond to a specific place, on … [Read more...]
My travel ABCs
A travel meme has been sweeping the travel blogging world recently, where travel bloggers are posed 26 (!) questions about their travelling life. I was nominated to take part by Sophie of Sophie’s World. It’s a bit of fun, and you might learn some things about me you didn’t know already. Without further ado: A: Age of first international trip: I was whisked from the … [Read more...]
Travel: my selfish pursuit
Travel is a rather selfish activity. By that, I don’t mean that travel is turning me into a people hating world destroying recluse. No, what I mean is that travel is something that really focuses on being of benefit to the individual doing the travel, in this case me, and no-one else. Allow me to explain myself. I am just coasting over the hill of thirty, having spent a … [Read more...]
Encountering racism on the road
The thing about travel is the wealth of experiences that accompany it. We meet new people, see new sights… and are exposed to all manner of different world views. Some of these world views don’t quite gel with our own. Some jar. And some are just plain wrong. This was the case when travelling around Australia. Don’t get me wrong. I met incredible people. I … [Read more...]
Reasons not to travel
I’ve been travelling since 2009, but it took me a while to get round to getting started on the long term travelling jaunt - there were always good reasons not to travel. It was always something I wanted to do, but at a point in the future when the time seemed “right”. So I would put it off. The issue with this approach is that the time may never actually seem right, and … [Read more...]
The awesome problem
I have a problem. Well, it’s not really a problem. Ok, it’s a bit of a problem. The thing is, I’ve been travelling for a while. But even when I started travelling, the problem raised its ugly head. Allow me to explain. I was in Australia, with my travelling buddy at the time. We had spent a few weeks on the road. We had seen some pretty amazing things. We were … [Read more...]
Why you should travel with the WHV
Let’s face it, travelling can be expensive. Travel in developed countries even more so. Once you’ve added up the transport, the insurance, the food, the accommodation – well, the number at the end can be pretty scary. Even when travelling on a serious budget, if you want to see everything, you’re still going to end up spending a fair bit. As my recent … [Read more...]
The “authentic” travel myth
Today, I’m going to tackle the idea of “authentic” travel. The forms that this take vary, from attempting to see things that no-one else has, to getting some kind of cultural insight, to braving hardships in the name of a more “real” experience. And I’m going to explain why I don’t think it exists. This is because I believe, for … [Read more...]