Embrace Your Fellow Traveller...

 Noodles with my Travel Friends for the Day!

As you might expect, being on the road as a solo traveller can be a lonely affair.  It doesn't have to be and it is up to you to decide what you want from your trips.  Personally, I enjoy meeting people on my travels.  As I have mentioned before, I have been lucky enough to make (what I consider) some lifelong friends from my backpacking trips.  It is a great aspect of travel that enables you to get an insight into the life of someone else from another country but to also allow you to put your own life in context and, ultimately, better understand yourself and the role your country has to play in our global village.

Schmaltzy stuff aside and looking at this in a more practical way.  Making friends on the road means that you've got someone to watch your bag while you use the toilet.  You have someone to share the costs of accommodation, transport and food with.  You have some one to beat at cards, drink local moonshine and share stories with; as well as someone to revel in the peculiarities and extraordinary moments you are bound to encounter as you both travel from place to place.  Don't get me wrong, with a positive open minded approach you'll have an amazing time on your travels if you do it solo.  But, with a friend you've got someone with which to share those special moments as well as those, lets say, hairy times we all tend to encounter on our journeys.

I've made friends in the hostel, on the free tour and from a cafe that for a number of reasons have simply been companions for the day.  The random encounter I had on a boat in Bangkok with a lovely Japanese girl, led to her and an amusing French guy (whom I have no recollection of ever being introduced to) both joining me on my explorations of the many bead and plastic carrier bag shops of the China Town area of the city.  Bizarre, but great fun; especially when we broke bread (well noodles) together at one of Bangkok's famous street stalls!  Just one look at the 20p toothpaste squeezer I bought that day instantly brings back floods of memories and laughter from four years ago.

So, my message to you, is embrace the people you meet on your journeys.  Some may become firm friends, others friends for a day, but, all will provide you with a host of memories and experiences that will almost certainly make your travels much more enjoyable.

Get Out There...Explore!

Some postcards made by my class during the 'Tourism' topic!

I am a Geography teacher in a secondary school, here in the UK.  I mention my travels, and the experiences I have had on them, a fair bit in my lessons, whenever it is relevant to do so.  Occasionally a student will suggest I am "always going on about my holidays"; bragging about my trips to other countries, cultures and environments.  As I aim to do in my posts on this blog, I am very conscious that I do not tell my students these travel stories as a way of showing off either a) my wealth (which for any prospective golddiggers out there, is pretty small, by the way) or b) to somehow seem to beat someone else's equally exciting travel experiences into submission with my heavily stamped passport.  I tell the students my money does not go on attending expensive Premiership Football matches, buying Playstation and XBox games, boozing every weekend in Leeds city centre or a fast car.  I save my hard-earned pennies to spend on travel.  As previous readers are well aware, I hunt down the cheapest flight possible within a time I am free to travel to ensure that I get the best value for money from my journeys and take as many as possible within the holidays I have.  Like the readers here, I want to inspire the students I teach to travel when they are older.  To take themselves off on journeys that make them more rounded individuals; exposed to all the amazing sights and experiences this magnificent world has to offer, as well as a developing awareness of the world's problems and what impact we humans have on the planet and the environments in which we live.  My 'Henry Rollin's post' a few week's back highlights this.  To travel is not to just simply get a better understanding of the world, but I believe it is vital in helping you understand yourself better.  It is this that philosophy I am trying to get across to the students I teach.

As 'The Rough Guide to a Lonely Planet' reaches almost 1000 page views, I want to thank all the visitors to my rather self-indulgent travel blog, but hope that it has and will continue to prove to be a great source of help, advice and inspiration to all visitors.

Go Ed! Independent Travel with a Disability...

Ed on his travels (Source - GapYear.com)

I got an e-mail from www.gapyear.com yesterday evening.  A great website for hints and tips on travel and, as it says on the tin, the incredibly popular gap year trips.  To my surprise, I spotted a familiar face and name acting as one of the guest writers...a young man called Ed Rex.  I recognise Ed from my previous work with Deaf and Hearing Impaired students in secondary schools here in the UK.  He was a pupil at a school I worked at.

Having an older brother who is profoundly Deaf, I often forget that for him to take a trip in the UK, let alone abroad, can pose some serious problems; not least one of confidence.  Thankfully, my brother and Ed seem to share a fantastic sense of adventure, are possessed with great confidence and are keen to see the world.  As I write, my brother and his wife are currently enjoying city life in Singapore after a week in the Balinese resort of Ubud.  It is great to see that Ed has taken an extended backpacking trip, but to think a profoundly deaf person is travelling independently in countries he is not familiar with is amazing.  'Go Ed' is what I say!  Most hearing people would not dare to take this trip alone, but Ed has proven he has the determination and desire to explore the World and is making the most of the fact that he is having the time of his life!

The link below is a brilliant insight into Ed's life travelling independently as a profoundly deaf person.  It makes me think how lucky I am that the minor travel difficulties I face are nothing to the tannoy, accent and planning troubles a deaf person doing a similar trip might encounter.

Ed Rex - Travelling with a Disability

Here is Ed's own travel blog too - http://rexyedventures.com/

Absolutely Phenomenal!

Gunter and his wife, Christine, with their trusty steed 'Otto'! (Source - newsday.co.tt)

Check out the link below to see the 23 years travel (and he's still going) of Gunther Holtorf (and his late wife) in their Mercedes 4x4.  Truly inspiring!

Gunter Holtorf's Worldwide Travel Expedition!