We're Slammin'!

Tim Tams - Food of the Gods!

I fell in love on my first solo trip to Australia and New Zealand.  I encountered a love that held no boundaries, a love that came in a number of tempting flavours and, most importantly of all, a love that gave me an immense amount of pleasure!  That love came in the form of the chocolate covered biscuity goodness of Arnott's Tim Tams.  Being a vain, self-obsessed health freak, I try not to indulge too often, but for me it is not the taste of the product itself that amazes me these days, but the fantastic memories that they bring flooding back that makes me want to eat these Aussie delights.  That bite of the chocolate coating to the biscuit, cream-filled centre takes me back to munching these on the beach at Byron Bay where the sea kayaking tour guide showed us how to perform the 'Tim Tam Slam'.  They remind me of the snacking I did on the long bus journeys between my stopping points on the Australian east coast and how sharing my Tim Tams with newly made friends, over freshly opened bottles of Tooheys and VB, brought our group all that bit closer on Fraser Island.

It is funny how foods you have tasted on your holidays can act as a powerfully vivid reminder of a place you have visited, a kind of sensory time machine to events and experiences that occurred many years previously.  And, ultimately, a reminder that makes you smile and look back with great fondness.  It is not just the Aussies that elicit this reaction; as I could easily say the same about the Dutch stroopwaffel or the par Thai cooked on the street stalls of the Khao San Road in Bangkok.  One taste of these foods and I am back there - the smells, sounds and sights come rushing back.

Now I have new associations to these glorious biscuits, though.  This particular packet (pictured above) came to me as a birthday gift, from my awesome Aussie friend, Erin, who I have mentioned before at TRGTALP.  I met her in a hostel in the summer of 2010 in Dubrovnik.  We hit it off and have kept in touch ever since.  I think it is just great that an Aussie woman I met in Croatia has sent me something I discovered back in 2005, when I was roaming around her country.  I just need to save up that money to invest in a return trip to Australia to hand deliver some British treats Erin misses from her time living here in the UK.  I will keep quiet about my real reason for visiting.  I will just say that the spare case I have with me is for all the Sydney Opera House magnets, cuddly koala toys and kangaroo key rings I want to buy as gifts for people back home (and not the hundreds of packets of TimTams I will be aiming to smuggle out of the country)!  Keep schtum and I might let you have one of them...

Inspiration - That Photo...

When I'm deciding on where I want to travel, I take a lot of inspiration from photos I have seen in newspapers, magazines and on the Internet; via my day-dreaming browsing on Google and friends' Facebook photos of their travels. What grabs me is 'that photo'...the one picture where you look in awe at a place or scene that looks so magical, so unreal that you feel that you have to see it for yourself to confirm it exists. Spotting a photo of Lake Bled, in Slovenia, via Facebook, was one of the driving forces for my trip to Slovenia this year. Seeing the place for myself and swimming in the warm waters of the lake was just phenomenal.

My photo from the Ozujsko viewpoint at Lake Bled

These places are often, for me, the stand out element of any trip. So, below (as a departure from my usual ramblings) are a few of my photographs of my favourite amazing places that I hope inspire you. Please feel free to suggest some of your favourites in the comment box below.


The tiled rooftops of Dubrovnik, Croatia


Trakai, Lithuania


The beautiful Chrysler Building, New York


Budapest, Hungary

The view across to Rangitoto in Auckland, New Zealand


Dusk at Milford Sound, New Zealand
The sun setting on The Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, Australia


The Reichstag in Berlin, Germany


The soft sands and clear blue waters of Makriamos Beach, near Thassos Town, Greece


Angkor Wat, Cambodia


The incredible Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Australia


Le Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris, France.

Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya, Thailand

Top Tips for Solo Travel...

MikeW going solo in Vilnius, Lithuania

Solo travel can be daunting.  I read comments on forums laced with panic from people who are about to venture on trips to South East Asia and South America all on their lonesome.  I was like that...and, to some extent can feel like that now when I travel solo (see my previous post 'Butterflies...').  I want to calm nerves, the soothing balm on your upcoming travel adventure; whether that be a week touring Eastern Europe or a year round the world.  To help me out, I canvassed the opinion of the very knowledgeable travellers who use the excellent Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forum on this issue and along with some of my own experiences of solo travel, I have pulled together five hints and tips to make your solo trip not only an enjoyable one, but a very memorable one too.


1. Throw Yourself Into the Mix!
One of the scariest elements of solo travel is just that, you are solo, on your own in a place where not a single soul knows who you are.  The arrival into the hostel can be a scary thing...you are faced with a group of strangers, who have probably already bonded over the local speciality window cleaner flavoured liquor and who tell tales of wonderful things they have seen that day.  See this as an opportunity.  Be proactive and get stuck in!  Thrust your hand out, say 'Hello!  I'm [insert your name here]!' and take it from there.  I have ALWAYS had positive experiences from doing this while travelling.  Besides, the solo traveller has an advantage thanks to the fact that you are more approachable than a pair or group of travellers; most of whom will comment on how brave you are at venturing off alone.


2. Oh, So Lonely!
First, the bad news...there are going to be lonely moments when you travel.  There is no escaping it, I am afraid.  You are going to be looking out over a beach in Thailand and your thoughts will suddenly turn to home, family, friends, your pet rabbit Fluffykins and wish you were back on home soil or that all your loved ones were with you, sharing your Pad Thai.  You should be congratulated for having taken the big leap to travel alone, but to avoid bouts of loneliness you are going to need to muster up some more courage and more of that proactivity I mentioned above.  To make it easier, I highly recommend you follow the established backpacker routes for your first trip.  My first solo trip (detailed in my post 'My First Time') took in the well-trodden backpacker trails of the Australian East Coast (from Sydney to Cairns) and both the North and South Islands of New Zealand.  I met so many people, it verged on the ridiculous!  Some of the people I met on this trip have become firm friends...and provided me with great weekends away in sunny foreign climes such as Ireland and the Netherlands after I returned from my travels!  Look at your loneliness as an advantage - a moment of solitude, peace and harmony in what will be a trip where your interaction with people will almost certainly come and go as you progress through your journey.  Savour the times you have with the new friends and acquaintances you meet on the road, but also savour those times you get to reflect on the great time you are having travelling.

"You're on top tonight, Ingrid?!" (Photo - TravelPod.com)

3. Hitting the Sack...
Choose your bed for the night carefully, solo traveller!  I agree with the views of the Thorn Tree folk on this aspect of solo travel, stay in hostels.  They offer the easiest way to meet people and allow you to tailor your travel to your backpacker needs and budget.  If you are a party animal, definitely book yourself into one of the many party hostels out there.  If there is a lairy, drunken, lobster tan Brit in the picture on the hostel's website or Hostelworld/Hostelbooker's page, it is a party hostel.  If they recycle the rainwater for showers, knit the yoghurt and offer muesli (aka 'sawdust') for breakfast, you are booking yourself into a more laidback kind of place, that for someone of my age and liver capacity will, I think, provide the solo traveller with a good place to stay and the chance to meet other like-minded folk; unless, of course, your kind of like-minded folk are necking back eleven vodka Red Bulls with a Jagermeister chaser in their luridly painted hostel in quick succession!  One other thing...I loved this (very accurate) tip from one poster on the Thorn Tree, "be nice to everyone you meet in hostels as there is a good chance you will bump into them later on."  You will be surprised how many people you meet and then see again...and again...and again as you venture on your journey.


4. Embrace the Weird!
Another cast iron guarantee...you are going to meet some seriously 'interesting' people on your travels.  Do not be afraid...most do not bite and offer you a whole host of fantastic stories for your new hostel friends and at your welcome home parties back in your motherland!  Just make sure you have an exit strategy if it looks to be getting dangerous or emotionally trying.  For the latter, I can recommend, "I need the toilet!" - a place you can hide and update your Twitter and Facebook statuses with your scary/weird experience and make your friends back home howl at your travel capers.  My Aussie weirdo experiences are to be detailed in a future post...watch this space!


5. Enjoy the Flexibility...
You are a solo traveller.  This is a brilliant thing.  If you choose to, you do not have to discuss your itinerary for the day with anyone.  You can do whatever you please (with reason) and go wherever you want (within reason).  That fork in the road...it is up to you!  That ice cream or piece of cake...it is up to you...why not have both; after all you are Master/Mistress of your own travelling destiny!  Enjoy this positive aspect of your trip!


Overall, rather than see travelling solo as a negative, I always tend to view it in a more positive slant.  I figure, that I am here, albeit alone...but I am going to make the most of it.  Of course, it would be great to be here with a loved one or friends, but most of all it is important you have a fulfilling travel experience without feeling wracked by loneliness or the feeling that you cannot enjoy what the world lays before you without having someone to share it with.


I'll leave you with one final tip a colleague gave me when I left a job a few years back.  It might help you in a hostel situation - "don't sweat the petty things and certainly don't pet the sweaty things!"


Safe travels and Enjoy!

My First Time...

Day one of my first solo trip!  What a place to start my travels!

Back in 2005, I had just secured what I thought was going to be the job of a lifetime.  This was my first graduate position, after many applications, and was to my mind a job where I could forge a long-term career.  My initial reaction was one of joy at getting the job, but then came the mild panic.  My problem?  I hadn't travelled to the places I wanted to travel to; the places where I had wanted to spend a significant amount of time exploring and sauntering through.  Seeing this as my last big chance before being tied down to a 9-5 routine along with all the financial committments that come with a new life, I looked round at my friends and thought, "Crap!  If I'm going to do this, I'm going to have to go alone!"  As all my friends had other things going on, I faced a choice: stay in the UK before starting my job or fly solo to my chosen destinations, Australia and New Zealand.  I took the latter option and haven't looked back since.

Having taken the first big step, booking my flights; I thought to myself, "What the hell am I doing?!"  This was reinforced when I waved my family off at the airport to embark on my 10 week trip.  As I stepped off the plane in Sydney to be sniffed out by an Aussie Customs dog for the possible 'fruit traces' in my bag, helped a drunken women off the floor at the baggage carousel, after she had tried to lift her bag in a heavily inebriated state, before being dragged along the conveyor belt, as well as maintain my constant 'spider watch', in case I should be suddenly be pounced upon by a funnel web or a huntsman; I knew then that the trip would bring me lots of experiences.

Back in Blighty, I had consciously booked myself into a large dorm room, at the hostel in Sydney, with the hope of throwing myself into the mix as soon as possible and stave off any of the loneliness of solo travel.  It worked a treat!  Within 10 minutes of being in the room, I bravely began a converstaion with the lads across the room who were planning to go for some beers in the bar downstairs and got an invite to share a few VBs with them.  And, from then on and throughout the whole trip, I met some absolutely amazing people.  Some were fleeting encounters, where friendships were formed only for a night or two, but others were much more long lasting.  The Dutch friend I made on a sailing trip in Australia and the Irish trio of girls I met in Wellington are people I consider to be very close friends who I have visited often in Amsterdam and Cork, as well as welcomed here.  What surprised me most was the fact that I ended up fending off some of the friendships I encountered on the road off...I got bored of the constant interaction with people and craved some time alone every now and then.  The fact that this happened in my first port of call, Sydney, worried me a bit.  A weird feeling especially considering my fears at the beginning of this solo trip about being a sad, lonely Billly-no-mates with a massive backpack strapped to my back.

My thanks must go to Louise.  A friend who I met temping in an office.  Her tales of her year long trip round Asia and Australia got me excited and keen to see and do all the things she had on her travels.  Her encouragement gave me that push needed to take this memorable trip.

If you have taken a long solo trip, you'll know what I mean when I write here.  If you haven't I hope I can inspire you with my blog posts, much like Louise did during our achingly dull days as temp workers to get out there, even if it does mean by yourself.  I hope you feel brave enough to act on that urge to travel.  There will be ups and there will be downs...but, I promise you one thing, you won't regret it!