Advice and tips for round the world travel!

On a bridge in Prague

In a club in Liverpool 

On Tower Bridge London

In Venice

Overlooking Palermo, Sicily

In Barcelona in front of Sagrada Familia

Trying Guiness even though I hate beer

With my friend in Dublin

An amazing house near Blarney Castle in Ireland

On Koh Phi Phi with some friends and girlfriend

With my girlfriend in Thailand

With a Thai fighter in Chang Mai

With some Cambodian kids near the killing fields

Angkor Watt

In a Cambodian hotel basement with staff 

In Laos

How I looked after an eye infection from tubing in Laos

While I was working in a bank in Perth

Down town Hanoi

On August 12th I returned to New Zealand after 370 days travelling overseas.

August 5th last year I departed Christchurch to Thailand on the first leg of my multi-continent journey. I was unsure of the next stage for my career or study and in the meantime, travel seemed like the best option.

It was the longest I'd been away from my family and friends and it was incredible.

My trip was 20 countries in Oceania, South East Asia and Europe.

Here are some simple tips that I have drawn from my trip that could help you next time you are on the road.


Travel doesn't have to be expensive:


In my year travelling by far the highest expense was flights. Aside from that, travelling was cheaper than my every day life in New Zealand. I didn't have to pay regular rent (I got cheap accomodation a lot of the time and couchsurfed), I didn't have to pay car maintenance and food was generally cheaper than in NZ too.

Have a practical bag and pack light.

 If you are in a developing country and want to have a ride on the back of a scooter, a giant suitcase will be a massive pain in the arse. A comfortable and sturdy backpack is ideal. Along the journey you will inevitably collect souveineers so best plan is to leave half to three quarters empty.


Write down details of where you are going who you are meeting and try to have a map in advance.

If you're melting in the sun carrying your backpack from the airport or train station you just wanna get to your accomodation pronto. The simple step of writing down a meeting point and putting details on your phone plus carrying a map prevents needless waiting, searching and feeling pissed off.


Have a place sorted in a city before you stay

 I don't mean booking well in advance. Sometimes you can book on the very day you travel. It will make you feel better going to a city and knowing that you have a room sorted to stay. Just turning up to a hostel will often mean paying extra because the staff know you probably can't be bothered finding somewhere else. Hostelfinder and hostelworld are easy sites for booking accomodation and the advice from other backpackers is a good guide for whether a place is a shithole or not. 

Couchsurf!

I'm going to write a separate post about this later but off the bat I can honestly say that joining couchsurfing.org is one of the best things I've ever done..

 You can meet amazing people from all around the globe, you get a cultural experience from a local and free accomodation. I couldn't have stayed in Europe for so long if it wasn't for my great couchsurfing hosts. I got places in the centre of Paris, Siciliy, Brussels, Berlin etc etc.


Put your money in multiple places and carry a credit card.

When going out I tend to only take as much as I think I'll spend and leave the rest in a safe place at my residence. Having a credit card can come in handy for booking or emergency purchases. Don't put all your eggs in one basket cause if you lose your money and passport together, you will be underneath a shit volcano just as it errupts.

Dress sensibly and for the climate

There are times in the trip when I didn't have the right clothes for the environment and paid dearly. If you wear too much when it's hot you will be repelling potential friends with your body odour and feeling dredful. Flip flops are pretty good but not for climbing a hill and not on slippery rocks. A quality pair of all purpose shoes are a must.

Be respectful of the local culture

 Westerners have a bad reputation in parts of Asia because we are viewed as being loose and disrespectful. I went to Vang Vieng last year and had a blast but I can completely understand the perspective of some of the locals in Laos when I read this article:

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/international/5372627/Laos-tubing-craze-destroying-town

 It's fine to enjoy yourself but think about the image you convey if you are in a conservative country wearing next to nothing, especially when visiting a temple or a religious site. Determine the social norms of a country to establish whether strolling round in a group of friends staggeringly drunk is accepted or not.


Sleeping aids are your friend:

If you are crashing in noisy hostels after a long journey on a train or bus you want a good night's kip. Some earplugs and face mask will aid you especially when people in your dorm are getting up at 5am to catch their flights. A good neck pillow will come in handy many times as well so keep one on you.


Try travelling alone:

 You are never really alone while travelling because you will literally always meet people. It's much easier to make friends when you are by yourself because other travellers feel more at ease approaching you. I've had locals take me to a Vietnamese movie in Vietnam, people buy me dinner or drinks and all sorts of cool experiences which would not have happened had I been with a friend. If you suddenly have an urge to go with a new friend to a different place than you originally intended you don't have to consult another party to see if they are up for it.  Try it out, at least once..


Don't look like a tramp at customs:


Customs staff the world over are notorious fucking assholes. It's in the nature of their job to be suspicious of everyone but there's no need to wave a flag that says "I look like I'm a drug mule". If you want to be searched and delayed and the airport then don't shave for a few months and dress in your most shabby clothes.


Bring entertainment for long journey

Get as many small books crammed into your carry bag as possible, charge your Mp3 player and bring some cards or games if you've got them. 18 hours on a train through Vietnam or a 16 hour boat trip in Laos will gradually make you lose the will to live. Great scenery will only keep you entertained for so long.



Agree on a price first:

This is very important. Write the price down if the person doesn't speak English and make sure they agree to it. One of the most common things you hear travellers tell you about is "that bastard taxi driver who charged me 20 dollars when the trip usually costs 5.."


To save money:


Buy your lunches at supermarkets

If there is a water cooler at your place, fill your portable bottle.

Have a daily budget, and try hard to stick at it, unless you are loaded you can't travel long if you are shredding through 50 bucks a night on alcohol.


Know the local exchanged rate and have a rough idea of the typical price of things

In some countries, people don't look at you as a person as much as a walking, talking ATM. Be clued up on money or you will get shafted


Go to museums or shopping malls to use toilets:

Sometimes you will spend an hour looking for a loo and in some countries the restaurants wont let you use the bathroom if you don't buy something.


Try street food but be careful:

If there are flies on the food displayed, go elsewhere. If they fry the food in front of you, you should be okay.

Bring some medication and toilet paper in your carry bag because you never know when your body will say "get this crap out of me!" I had a horrible moment on a plane shortly after having food poison in Jakarta. I was talking to a nice American girl and had the sudden feeling I would explode.. Fortunately I didn't.

Living in Jakarta: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The city at night - makes the pollution less noticeable

In 2010/11  I spent five months in Jakarta, predominantly studying Indonesian language. I left Indonesia directly after my graduation ceremony and since then I've spent two weeks in Vietnam then returned to NZ.

Jakarta is a developing city in a developing country. It has about 10 million people and many issues that you would expect from a place that only emerged from brutal dictatorship in 1998. The following is my experience of Jakarta:

It's extremely important to make the point that I believe all the problems I've outlined are solvable. I won't claim to have the answers but I think solving the issues is a question of national priorities. If a big portion of Indonesia's population are struggling through life, worrying whether they will have enough food to eat then they are probably not going to be as focused on stopping corruption or rally the government to introduce tough environmental standards.

Some lovely kids I met in a poor area

THE GOOD:

FRIENDLY PEOPLE

Off the top of my head the best thing about Jakarta is the people.. If it weren't for so many kind, humble and friendly people it would have been difficult to stick around for so long. Partly by virtue of being a Westerner, most Indonesian are curious about you. I've often been able to sit down with guards, street vendors and average Indonesian and have pretty decent conversations. They love to ask about what religion you are and are often surprised to hear I'm an atheist.

A DYNAMIC, INTERESTING AND BUSY CITY

Jakarta is a big, bustling place in a country that has very strong economic growth year on year. In addition, you can pretty much walk on the street anywhere, anytime and find people eating or selling something. There are many good pubs, clubs, restaurants, street vendors and malls.  Getting to these places without mind-numbing hours of traffic is a problem.

THE FOOD:

Indonesian food is pretty damn delicious. Favourites for me are gado-gado which is a salady dish with tempe, rice, egg and a delicious peanut sauce. For sweetness, you can't go past martabak. I've probably got diabetes from the few times I've eaten this delicious deep fried chocolaty, spongy desert but it is ridiculously good.

Indo food is heavily rice and noodle orientated and spice and sugar are the overwhelming taste in a lot of dishes. When I order food there I have to specifically ask for no spice because my tongue is not so fond of the sensation of being on fire.

LOW PRICES

You can buy DVD's for about One dollar

A typical meal goes for between 80 cents and 3 dollars including drink

You can get an hour long massage for about 10 bucks

I got a month long gym membership at a decent gym for just 11USD.

Tidung Island near Jakarta.. Still a bit dirty

Prices are geared for the locals and a humble Western income can allow you a comparatively luxurious lifestyle in Indo. 

LACK OF REGULATION:

In developing countries there is often a sense of the untamed. There's usually less regulation or regulations that are very loosely enforced. You see hilarious/incredibly dangerous behaviour that you people couldn't get away with in Western countries. Examples are people carrying enormous beams of wood on their motorcycle, children as young as eight driving scooters with no helmets etc etc. I know a lot of Indonesians who have no form of driver's license but they've been driving on the road for years. I don't advocate dangerous behavior but at least Indonesia is not incredibly controlling like Singapore

THE BAD:

TOO MUCH TRAFFIC COMBINED WITH NO DECENT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Jakarta has recently been ranked the second worst city in the world to work.

For anyone who has ever been here, you would quickly know why this tops my list as the worst part of Jaks. Sitting in a car, waiting to get to where you want to go and rotting away is not my idea of a good time. Sometimes journeys of just a couple of kilometers can take OVER AN HOUR!!! 

It's at these moments of extreme frustration and boredom that I want to scream obscenities at no one in particular, leave Jakarta and never return. You can't escape traffic by making a u-turn cause most of the roads have a concrete divide. The lack of public transport makes getting anywhere take a long time. If you want to take the bus way, it is fairly comfortable and decent but you have to switch buses many times and the location for the stops are limited. They need an MRT and I hope they get one built soon.

Some paper boys on my campus

NOT BEING ABLE TO BLEND IN:

Being young and white in Jakarta means a lot of attention. It is rare that I would go to an area in Jakarta and not have people whispering "bule" (basically means white person) as I walk by. There's outright staring, laughing, flattering comments, not so flattering comments. Part of it comes from the comparative lack of Westerners in Jakarta, particularly young Westerner's so you are a bit of a novelty. Most of the attention is positive but you can't feel like you really fit in a place when people so obviously treat you differently. If an Indonesian walked through the streets of most of New Zealand, I doubt kiwis would be whispering "Indo, Indo" and laughing as they walked past.

The grotty waters on North Jakarta where many people fish

PERILOUS FOOTPATHS AND SMELLY SEWERS

Trying to walk on the footpaths in a lot of parts of Jakarta is risky business. They are narrow or non-existent, have a lot of bumps, uneven ground and are packed with stalls selling stuff. Sewers are smelly by definition but generally they are hidden deep underground. In Jakarta you will inevitably walk by spots with open sewers and get a revolting waft of turd.

Needless to say, not many people walk long distances in Jaks.

An impoverished kitten that wondered round my campus

THE UGLY:

LACK OF CARE TOWARDS SOME ANIMALS:

Indonesia has an active illegal wildlife trade, particularly with exotic birds and animals that are used in Chinese medicine. I think a lot of Indonesians do care for animals but perhaps animal treatment standards aren't at the top of the country's priority list.

Reasonably often you can see performing monkeys known as "topeng monyet" (monkey with mask) on the street. Monkeys are a naturally dominant species so in order for them to perform tricks, the tamer will pull on a chain around the monkeys neck continuously so the monkey rides a bike or some other grotesque act.

 There are a lot of stray cats around the place and they are often sickly thin. People will feed them but they breed at such a rate (because very few of them are spayed or neutered). Most cats have short or broken tails. According to my friends, there is a belief that a cat with a long tail will behave naughtily.

Dogs are quite rare because most people in Jakarta are Muslim and dogs are a haram (unclean) thing in the Qur'an.

At my course graduation with some Korean classmates

POLLUTION/HEAT:

Jakarta is hot..This is true for a lot of South East Asia though. Jakarta is even more hot and humid than it should be because of the thick coating of smog surrounding the city traps heat inside. On a sunny day it is usually difficult to see the horizon and if you are outside you will almost certainly be perspiring and getting those nice cheap clothes you brought wet from sweat. I saw a statistic that shows that from 2000-2011,Jakarta went from over 30 percent of the city being Green space to just 9 percent. The main reason for the destruction of green space was for the creation of malls.

MALLS:

A two headed coin; people love to shop and some of the malls are pretty swanky and have a nice atmosphere, there's just so bloody many of them!

They create traffic because most of them are next to highways, a guy from New York told me that Jakarta has way more malls than the big apple and the population of New York is nearly double (19million) Jakarta's 10 mill.

RIDICULOUS DISPARITY BETWEEN RICH AND POOR

While there are wealth gaps between all countries, it's so frigging obvious in Jakarta. You can literally have a street full of rich people's houses and have people who sleep on that same street next to the wagon they sell drinks from. There are child beggars all over the place, some of them are part of an organised group, others are just hungry.

Indo fitness god Ade Rai

LACK OF REGULATION/ LAWLESSNESS

A downside of countries that don't strictly enforce laws is safety is not always a priority. Things that are very mundane in the West such as builders wearing safety helmets are just not followed sometimes. You see them standing atop enormous tile roofs with no harness and just a pair of sandals. In huge buildings there are sometimes just one fire exit, a sure-as-hell death-trap if one ever happens within these structures. People still die here from things that are easily preventable. The road toll is atrocious.

CORRUPTION:

Thankfully New Zealand is low on the list of corrupt countries in the world.In Indonesia on the other hand, nearly anyone you talk to is aware of how rampant corruption is. I've heard first-hand accounts from people in government about the misappropriation of funds for personal benefit. There are so many problems in Jakarta that need money to assist in fixing them people who steal so they can buy themselves a new car or holiday are particularly big scumbags. Until corruption is properly dealt with the rest of the above problems will be very difficult to rectify.

All and all, I still enjoyed a lot of Jakarta and I may spend more time living there, not long-term though!

Aku mau feedback dari orang Indonesia jadi tolong menulis kalau Anda mau!

Life in Indonesia: Taking a big spoonful of guilt...

I am most definitely someone who is prone to thinking about the future and things I would like to achieve. The general gist of my thoughts are: What countries will I go to in the future? Where will I live? What job do I want to do? Will I buy a house? So it goes.. 

Quite a few years ago, I had a realisation that these type of thoughts were the privilege of a tiny majority of the world; namely, people with disposable income. Living in Indonesian only rams home this point.

It's easy for me; I guess for all of us, to get wrapped up in our own problems without considering how very lucky we are. We can also neglect the bigger issues of the world.

Indonesia has an incredible wrap-list of problems which I will write about in a different post. These issues aren't at the top of the priority list for many Indonesians and this becomes easier to understand when you consider one of the most fundamental needs for human beings: food.

Napoleon is famously supposed to have said: "An army marches on its stomach." I feel the same holds true for a populace. Indonesia is a developing country. How can someone put energy into saving the environment and stopping corruption when they are worried about putting food in their stomach?

Recently one of Jakarta's major daily newspapers had the headline: "117 Juta Orang Indonesia, Sangat Miskin" (117 Million Indonesians Very Poor).. It takes about five seconds walking a typical street in Jakarta to confirm how commonplace poverty is.

The very poor of Indonesia come in many different forms. There are those who sit on street corners with their hands out including children carrying babies, old people with no teeth and amputees.
There are those who sell drinks and other goods at small stalls and people who collect rubbish for a pittance. What they all have in common is they make between 10,000 and 30,000 Indonesian Rupiah a day (between $1.20 and $3.50 USD).

On my campus at the University of Indonesia there is a group of about 10 boys aged between 8-15 who sell newspapers. All of them have left school already and they sell the newspapers for about 25 cents each. They want to make money and be independent but without an education, they will probably be destined to a life of menial labour. It is common for them to work six days a week, 12 hours a day.

The problems of who to give to, how much to give, and how to make a difference can at times be overwhelming. Directly across the street from my apartment is a narrow alleyway that leads to my University. There is a boy aged around 12 who always wears a black T-shirt and camo-coloured shorts.

The first time I saw him he was crying his eyes out, wailing.  It was a distressing sight. I asked him what was wrong.. "Aku lapparr" (I'm hungry) he said. I asked him where his parents were: "Nggak ada" (I don't have any) he murmured. I told him that if he had any family members I would call them for him. He just kept crying so I just gave him a bit of money and was on my way. Since then I've seen him a bunch of times and sometimes give him a bit of food or small change. He is just one of millions.

I found out that there is a bit of an organised crime element to the beggars, much like what you see in Slum Dog Millionaire. I watched as a very impoverished looking beggar who I'm used to seeing as he was handing over a small wad of notes (probably just a few dollars) to a guy who I can assume was the boss of the area.
As for stealing for a living: people who rob here and are caught are usually seriously beaten or killed by the people (seemingly anyone) who catch them, so it's not a safe option for people who are starving.

Some of the poorest people I've ever met are warm, humble and friendly. They have a very tough life though.

It's incredibly cliched' to be young and idealistic but I at least hope in my life I can do something that makes a meaningful difference to some people.  Giving some poor Indonesians a bit of money isn't going to lift them out of poverty but I'm sure some of them will use the money to buy food and that, at least, makes me feel a little better.

Questions and comments welcome

Getting Deep in to Thailand's Sex Culture

One of the main streets in Patong

I spent three weeks in Thailand in September last year during my round the world trip. For a traveller, the country is paradisiacal. It's cheap, the food is delicious, the people are friendly, there are many beautiful tourist spots and the weather is great. It's got everything you could want from a travel destination including... sex.

I don't wish to adorn a moral superiority hat but a theme that dominated my trip to Thailand was the sexual culture that is everywhere you go. I should say that I think prostitution should be legal but it's not for me.

  First of all - the stunningly obvious: many, many men come to South East Asia and particularly Thailand for sex.

My first couple of days were spent in perhaps one of the sleaziest places on earth: Patong Beach, Phuket.
I'm told that only Pattaya in Northern Thailand rivals Patong for lady boys, prostituion and general in-your-face sleaze.

To give you a picture of an average night on the streets of Patong beach; strolling down a road packed with neon-lit bars and restaurants.There are extremely confident lady boys strutting their stuff up and down the road. Sometimes it's completely obvious they are packing a dong under their skirts, other times you're not so sure which is a bit disconcerting. You are approached by dozens of Thai's thursting leaflets with lurid photos and telling you "Want to see a ping pong show Mister?"

I didn't have any desire to attend nor did my girlfriend but I was told by a German guy that it was pretty disgusting. The girl on stage (who didn't look to be enjoying herself, said the German) will use live fish, birds and cigarettes in her nether regions for the presumed entertainment of the crowd.

You see stuff like this all the time

Patong is a 24 hour party destination so people  from age 18 up to 70 are strolling the streets, often dressed in costume, with painted faces and often utterly pissed.

It's not that I overtly dissaprove of a bit of debauchery - I'm pretty liberal when it comes to people doing what they want.

I guess what I didn't like was the sense of entitlement that a lot of Westerners who travel to South East Asia have. It's like "I have money so I can do whatever the hell I want."

Some Western men will brag to you about how easily they can land girls and most times I would be thinking: 'Well it's not for your looks or personality, buddy.'

I spoke to a British guy who ran a bar in Patong and he said that recently a number of drunk Irishman had entered his bar. One of them started groping his bar staff without hesitation and said to his mates: "This ones only got small tits." (The bar owner also told me that American sailors and Italians had an unusually strong liking for lady boys).

On the train to Chang Mai I got speaking to an old Texan who had been in Thailand for ten years. He still had a distinct drawl and said that he can find women in his home town of Pai "like that" (with a click of his fingers)..

I went to Tiger Bar with a group of people and there would have been five prostitutes to every one guy. I was with my girlfriend but still mobbed by girls asking did I want a good time.There was a grotty old Spanish guy, around 65 with his belly hanging out of his shirt and a very young Thai girl on one of his arms.

Patong also offers beaches like this, but it's not the primary pull for tourists

Somebody tried to explain the way things work in Thailand: "You have to look at the way things are as a mutually beneficial arrangement.. the girls get paid good money and the guys have a good time. It works out for everyone."

My girlfriend and I stayed with a cool Mexican guy who had been running his own business in Patong Beach for a couple of years.. He had really enjoyed the lifestyle and a cousin of his who was staying with Jose at the same time as us said: "Jose wouldn't have stayed in Thailand for as long as he has if he wasn't fucking his dick off with so many different women"..

Jose told us that he preferred to go with Thai girls who had Western boyfriend over in Europe. "They are less jealous than other Thai girls" he told us. "They don't get crazy when I sleep with other girls".

Patong Beach

One of his short flings had ended with him nearly getting stabbed by a woman and her friend. They turned up at his house in a howling rage and brandishing a sizable knife.. Jose and his cousin had to manhandle the women from the property and barricade the door.

Among many Thai people, there seemed to be an attitude that prostitution has always been, and will always be, a part of the social fabric of Thailand. It's officially illegal but in practice it's nearly everywhere you look.


I guess I took the view that the power dynamic is so stacked in favour of Westerners who visit Thailand. By virtue of being born in a Western Country, we have more money that the average Thai and a life of prostitution is an easy choice for a lot of Thai woman. The woman who enter the trade seem to know what it involves and it's not my place to say they shouldn't be doing that. I don't like to see people as commodities but the same can't be said for a lot of travelers that frequent that part of the world. If you can buy cheap food, why not have a cheap lay on the side? Prostitution is much the same in every country - it's never a very glamorous business.

I had a chat with one Thai "party girl" who said that some of the time she enjoyed her work. Just the previous night she had been partying with an Australian couple in their mid thirties. She had showered with the wife while the husband watched and said of the experience: "It was a bit weird"..

Lady boys - kind of disturbing huh?

Thailand has a different atmosphere to Indonesia (which also has sex tourism). I think a big part of that comes from Thailand being a Buddhist rather than a Muslim country. It's not that Muslims are any less sexual, it's that the religion constrains the impulsues to a large extent. The sexual culture of Indonesia is a bit more hidden. Plus plus massages are big here but you don't have people handing you flyers and encouraging you to get there.

If people want to party and have a good time, I totally encourage them to do so. I just think that there should be a bit more respect in the whole dynamic between SEA and Western countries so that countries like Thailand don't serve as a sort of country-wide sexual maid service to satisfy the sexual cravings of Westerners.

A question I have is would so many woman be working in the sex industry if there were plenty of good paying jobs available in fields like hospitality or retail?  I'm not so sure..
Rates of prostitution are certainly lower in New Zealand and Australia than in Thailand or Cambodia. 

For the moment - Thailand is serving as a fantastic place for tourists and a favorite spot for hedonists the world over.

A very interesting guy I met while travelling Europe!

It's difficult to categorise people in order of most to least interesting: you don't want to appear dismissive of someone because they didn't come out with some incredible story or demostrate an incredible ability.

On my trips around South East Asia and Europe I did encounter a bunch of people that I would unlikely have met had I stayed in New Zealand.

One guy in particular did stick out though.. our meeting was brief, just six hours. And even though he's done some incredible stuff in his life, you've probably never heard of him: he's been to nearly every country in the world, by running!

Jamel Bahli
So it was quite a weird little encounter with Jamel. I was going from Paris to Lyon and used a French car sharing website to organise the ride. He collected me in a humble white station wagon and appeared to be a rather typical French man.
He was wearing a beret, dressed in a black and white striped shirt, was smoking and had several loaves of french bread beneat one arm.. His accent was nearly incomprehensible (oh no wait, that's a my French stereotype).

In truth, he had short curly hair, wore glasses and was a rather terrifying driver. His gear changes were clumsy (I suspect he usually drove automatic) and a few times when we were on the highway going 130kmph he was looking at his cellphone and driving with his knees.. I asked him to please concentrate on the road and he said that New Zealand (one of the few countries in the world he hasn't visited) must be a strict place.

It was only about an hour into our six hour drive that we started talking about travel.
Turns out this guy is the most worldy fellow I've ever met. He has travelled to all but about 30 countries on earth. And what's more: he ran across them.
America, Australia, China, Africa.. you pretty much name it and he's been there. Just him, a small backpack and his running shoes.
I asked the very obvious question: "So you're a bit like Forrest Gump?" He sighed - "No, Forrest Gump is not real and in the movie he ran for no reason and for five minutes. I run in real life, I run for a reason."

These days Jamel gives talks to audiences around France and other places about his travels.. A bit of an inspirational speaker type thing.. He also works as a photographer and journalist and spends about 9 days a month in a new country. He had just returned from Egypt where he had photographed the revolution but said it was already difficult to find buyers for the photos.."News moves fast", he said.
He told me that he could still have a lot of time for travel despite his young family because his wife knew that it was part of his life when they met. "Family doesn't have to be a prison", he said.

He spends at least half of every month in his home town in  Northern France with his wife and children.

Although Jamel is now used to being behind the lens of a camera, when I tried to snap a pic of him for posterity, he wouldn't allow it.
He said that people had a perception of him as a runner and it wasn't in keeping with his image to have an imagine of him driving a small car, wearing glasses (heaven forbid!) when people were more used to seeing his figure eloping across a desert or atop the great wall of China..

 Running was initially an answer to Jamel's question of how to escape society (something I can certainly relate to). He continued running because he found it was a great way to discover different countries.

His favourite running surface is tarmac and on his journeys he would usually run next to highways  (he's got free running shoes from Nike for the rest of his life) highways. Although he sometimes runs 120 km in a single day and he spent about 20 years on his treks, he's never been injured.

He said his least favourite country where he travelled was China (because people were very unfriendly to him) and his most favourite place in the whole world was Istanbul.. He awoke a deep craving for me to visit Turkey and it's now at the top of my list for my next trip to Europe in 2013.

Surprisingly this guy isn't very famous but that's because he says he's never really sought fame. He has had an Audience with the last pope and is known in the Ultra Marathon Running scene and in France.

For a guy now in his early fourties he's in incredible shape. We stopped at a supermarket to pick up some snacks (cheese and coffee) and he bounded up and down the aisles. He speaks with passion and was quite inspiring in general. He dropped me off in Lyon and that was that.

I was a bit awestruck afterwards because he's already been to so many places I wanna go and he did it in an original way.  I hope I can find a way of incorporating my travels into my job or even better, making money from travelling.

I did met some other very interesting people on the road, not to leave them out. Jamel just happened to stick out in my mind.

Who is an interesting person you've met while travelling?

Reflecting on a year since I quit my job = good decision!

I'm trying to beat the laziness monster and at least write something every now and then. It's a little bit of catharsis.

One year ago, I had just quit an internship at a big media outlet after just two months employed with them. It was a big decision but one that now sits comfortably with me.

Since then I've met a whole bunch of young people in similar boats to me. Those who found themselves annoyed and frustrated in their new jobs and quit. 

I guess my heart wasn't really in the job from the start. Once I got into the role and found a whole mountain of negativity and burnt out workers I felt like quitting was a sensible option. I already had some savings in the bank and I started to think: "why am I here?" It wasn't as if the pay was fantastic. I made considerably more in a temporary job in Australia in a job that required no qualifications and two weeks training.

My main desire after finishing my degree was to travel. In my journal when I was 18 I wrote that my main ambition was to be traveling when I finished and four years later, that's what I was doing.

The amount of things that I've done in this last year that I wouldn't' have otherwise done is incredible.. This is not meant to be a braggathon but here's a quick summary:

I travelled around New Zealand, spent a few months back in my home town catching up with my family. Went to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia and revisited Jakarta. I worked three months in Perth and saved money for my European trip.

In January I lived in Italy for a month, got to see Rome and Venice and live with my girlfriend and some cool flatmates. Then I went to Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Britain, Italy again, Spain, Ireland and have just returned to Jakarta for language studies. I encountered many languages, cultures, museums, bars, people(I will write about the most interesting of them very soon), landmarks, climates, political situations and foods. I tanked up an enormous travel bill and have a much bigger carbon footprint than I'm comfortable with.

You can't really capture everything that happens in a year in just a few paragraphs..
It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops. Some days it was a grind and I certainly could have done with more sleep on the trip.

There were times when I was worried that I had made a mistake quitting so quickly, right at the start of my career. Did I throw away a great opportunity?

When I was in Europe I met heaps of people in their mid twenties still studying and still not sure what they were doing with their lives.. That, at least made me feel like I've still got time to make the most of my youth and see a bit of the world.

I've been very fortunate to be in a position where I can afford to travel..

I still wonder whether I would return to a journalism job.. I haven't applied for a single journalism job in the time since I quit and you start to worry. "Will I be able to get something this long out of the game?" My journalism lecturer did warn me that the longer I left it, the more graduates I would be competing with for jobs. He also said I had to prove my "hunger" for the job and I don't know if I've done that.

I would hope that someone can appreciate a bit of worldliness but that will remain to be seen. If I'm unlucky in that venture then it's back to Uni for a masters and I wan to do that anyway..

I've learned that it's best to make the most of your youth cause I remember and older journalist telling me that once the ball got rolling on her career, ten years passed by and she never travelled and had children.. Having a family isn't a prison and neither is a job but four weeks annual holiday on average makes long travels quite difficult.

 My path wouldn't be right for everyone. There's a lot to be said for building contacts, getting a rep and getting experience. It would certainly make some people more employable. We're all dying someday though right? So - for me at least, it was liberating to just be free from Uni, from a job for 10 of the last 13 months.

There's no point in reflecting on other roads I might have taken cause this is it. I'm happier than I was this time last year and my eyes are that little bit more open than they were before.

If you hate your job, and you have some other options on the table, quit.. Life passes by too fast to be dissatisfied and as idealistic and cliched as it sounds, there is so much out there in the world to explore, new perspectives to be gained and different insights to be garnered.

I'm still not sure what job I'll pursue but I just hope it's something I like. Perhaps I'll start my own business? Still plenty of time, right?

On being stuck next to nuts and eccentrics on public transport..

Here is a groundbreaking blog to mark my 23rd birthday, dedicated to Wimmy

 A recent encounter with a harmless but equally brainless English lad aboard a bus to Coventry made me ponder the issue of weirdos on on public transport.

I am sure that many, many people will have come across the same thing at one time. If you use busses or trains regularly you are eventually guaranteed to encounter someone who is very hard to sit beside.

One of my earliest such experiences was taking a bus home from school when I was about 13. My parent´s home is quite near a psychiatric hospitality and some patients are given day release because they are reasonably stable.

A young, attractive woman across the aisle from me sat quietly and showed no immediate signs of lunacy. Looking at her, I could never have predicted what would happen next..

She put a sock (ordinary sock, not a puppet) on her hand, pointed it at herself and started saying in a loud, aggressive voice, "You're ugly, you're useless, you're pathetic" over and over again

I can only guess this lady was heading back for dinner at the hospital.

Why are encounters with strange people a hazard on public transport? Because most of the time you are in close proximity to these people and there's no escape until you arrive at your destination.

When I was in Perth catching a ferry back from work, a young woman with the beginnings of a mono brow, a trashy track-suit ensemble and a cap came and sat right next to me, in spite of a litany of empty seats throughout the ferry. Almost immediately she launched into a tirade about men. In her nasal, ocker accent she said; "You know my boyfriend just left me and..."

Approximately what the girl looked like

 After about a minute I said. "Excuse me, it's very strange to just sit next to someone and randomly bombard them with your problems."

She seemed a bit taken a back, mumbled an apology and moved away for about 47 seconds before boomeranging back.

"I think you´re Irish? You have blue eyes.. Irish have blue eyes. I met an Irish guy once..¨

I glanced across the ferry looking for a helpful face only to see a group of people who worked for the same company as me laughing and winking as if to say "She's your problem buddy"..

When we arrived at the port she ran to some unsuspecting guys sitting having coffee and started another breathless account of her life.

I'm going to assume this girl was off her nut. I didn't know how to handle her. I could have just said ¨Leave me alone! but that would have been harsh. Extremely un-receptive body language, it seems, does not deter your hardcore annoying bus commuter.

 The inspiration for this piece was aboard a bus from Bristol to Coventry.  He was about my age, wearing a smart looking suit, sporting a slick hair cut and looking fairly bored.



I think I´d slip into a coma if I was stuck next to Palin

From his attire I assumed he was a businessman of some sort. I offered my paper to him read, which he accepted and we started a conversation.

It took me all of thirty seconds to start to wonder.. ¨WTF?¨ 

He tried telling me what he did for a job but the way he went about ït was incomprehensible. He pulled words from the air at random. Mangling sentences, decapitating predicates and annihilating grammar. A bit like George Bush or Sarah Palin.

I ascertained that he was in some sort of government work program and I can only assume that he dropped out of school early.

His accent was understandable and the individual words were legible but what he was saying just didn't make sense:

"So, news is always happening, all the time, you know? It's just like crazy how stuff is always happening if you think about it.."

Words plopped from his mouth like dung from arse.

I'm pretty sure this guy wasn't drunk or high and he wasn't mentally ill so my conclusion is he might have been a few cans short of a six pack.

 I felt like I had to explain things to him like he was seven years old. I told him that the settlement of New Zealand and Australia were very different (he asked if the first settlers were convicts) and some of the first Europeans to arrive in New Zealand were missionaries.

"So they were on a mission then?" he said.

I abandoned conversation shortly after this with the old open your book routine.. But sometimes a book or music can´t save you.

 Usually headphones are a barrier to unwanted communication, right? Well not in this case.

Last year I was on a bus from Dunedin to Christchurch. It was quite empty and we were some way into the six hour journey. I was listening to Daft Punk and a woman who looked to be about 30 came over and asked if she could listen to my iPod.

Seriously, who the hell does that?

She was holding a bottle of budget cola in her hand which her and her boyfriend (who had a died red mullet and wore a sleeveless denim jacket) were swigging back the whole trip. By the calibre of their conversation, they were not the freshest french fries. No more than a few words would pass without an f bomb hurled in.

The woman had violated the basic "please leave me in peace" which wearing headphones implies. If someone needed help, sure, but this was just weird. So I let her listen to my music (frankly taken aback) and she starts bopping to the music and says ¨I love this song.¨

I did feel a bit sorry for her cause she seemed nicer than her boyfriend, who was clearly a bit of a bastard.

He called across the aisle "I hope he knows that you're with me".. I felt like yelling "As if I'd be interested" but thought it would be wasted breath. She returned to her seat and a massive domestic ensued.. He was calling her a fat whore, she argued back but started to cry and I promptly moved to the front of the bus. For the remainder of the trip they were arguing and the rest of the bus sat in quiet compliance.

Clearly this is not one of life's major issues but if this ever happens to you. You will try to think of a way to get away as quickly as possible. 

Would be curious if anyone has any crazy people stories to share?