Where would you fancy going and what would you like to experience?
Hands up those who dislike February? I personally dread it every year.
It’s the one month of winter where we’ve all had enough of dark mornings, early nights, snow, rain, hail and not enough sunshine.
Christmas seems a distant memory, March and spring seem to be taking their time arriving and, even though the shortest month, February seems to drag on forever. Bit of a shame really as my birthday is in February and even that doesn’t cheer me up much.
I made a promise to myself as I lay recovering, unable to speak very much, that I wouldn’t waste my second chance at life. I would be open to new experiences and stop letting fear or conformity prevent me from doing the things I wanted to.
One of those ‘things’ was to travel more. My sub-promise to my profound promise is to visit as many different countries as I can before I have to face my death again.
Pre-covid I used to make sure that I was away for most of February each year. I’m also lucky in that my career takes me overseas and I can plan an extended trip if it’s a new place. I try to always plan my solo trip for 3-4 weeks to a, preferably, warm country to ease my joint pain and to discover as much as I can about what the country is really like. I always seem to end up on some adventure or other and insist on hiring locals to show me around so I can get under the skin of the place I am visiting.
Meeting some amazing people along the way I have managed to get to some quite varied places so far. Russia (OK not so warm but it was fascinating), Tahiti, New Zealand, Egypt, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka (my favourite thus far), South Africa and the last before lockdown Vietnam. (there’s more but a long list is too boring.)
Always planning routes that allow me to travel around inside the countries, when in a non-English speaking place using university students as my guides (they get to practice their English, I get to see what local life is like as I invariably get invited to meet their family) and eating all the local cuisine I can as well as attending at least 1 cooking class so I can learn how to re-create some dishes. The history that this world is filled with as well as the mixture of topography, cultures, beliefs and customs is truly extraordinary.
I have bathed elephants whilst being watched hungrily by a saltwater crocodile on the opposite bank, I have ridden a horse through the surf at the base of Bora Bora volcano, clambered inside hot and stuffy pyramids (got offered 12 camels if I agreed to marry!), flown down the Kaikoura mountain range in a glass bubble helicopter, been walking with lions, and sat down for an afternoon with a Bhante to find out more about Buddhism.
Each and every visit and time I have spent in these various countries has opened my eyes, heart and views on life ever wider and for that I thank them. I have been awed, inspired, and enthused and always returned to the UK literally bubbling with new perspectives and ideas.
And now that the world is returning to some form of normality, I am feeling the urge to take this habit back up as a much needed antidote to some of the silliness that seems to be all around us. I had been planning Costa Rica before the pandemic and perhaps it’s time to dust off the itinerary and start planning.
Where would you fancy going and what would you like to experience?
I'm always excited to travel somewhere new but also nervous as i step into the unknown.(the same as speaking but on a bigger scale)
