This page will be all about travelling and you will get to read about some of my travels, I have travelled a fair bit over the past couple of years and have experienced and have come across many interesting and random people and I will be sharing some of these stories with you.

 To define the word traveller would mean some-one who moves from place to place and changes location regularly, while a holiday maker is more content with settling down in one place and travel to different places on  shorter periods of time. So what makes one travel? Why do some people want to see the world and in turn become known as travellers or globe-trotters?  What does it really take for someone to get up and leave everything around them? I’m not just talking about materialistic things, like a wardrobe full of clothes and some make up left behind or furniture stored somewhere in someone’s attic. I’m referring to their loved ones, family and friends and also giving up the comfort and reassurance of a stable job and regular income.

 One of the main reasons is because travelling becomes an addictive search  for new tastes, smells and feelings, there’s the excitement of  travelling from one country to another, some might see this as more of a chore, what with clothes squashed and always creased, always living out of  a suitcase or worse a back pack .There’s the hassle of having to adapt  to different customs in every country, then of course there are the countless problems when preparing to enter a new country, from visa requirements to making sure the right vaccinations have been taken. Once all that is sorted and the traveller goes through immigration then come the next set of challenges, mainly to do with money issues. Getting used to the new currency and losing money mainly due to the ‘foreign exchange loading fee’ on credit or debit card, banks charge you about 2.75% of the value of what you spend. A new environment also means not knowing were the best deals are from getting overpriced car insurance to getting ripped off in a taxi and although we all do our fair bit of research no book can really cover everything we need to know.

 So why do we still pack our bags and leave and I don’t mean on the occasional two week holiday, I’m talking about going away for months on end and it’s not just the twenty-something year- olds who are seeking and searching for some adventure. Many other individuals take off into the unknown because there is something rewarding and so unbelievably exciting about not knowing what tomorrow holds and not having any idea of what you will be doing or seeing the very next day or what sort of characters you might meet along the way. Of course as already mentioned many don’t like routine but I learnt that in life no matter how much you try routine and habits are inevitable and I do believe needed to keep your feet on the ground and keep you sane.

 So what is it then...Why do some feel the need to travel, is it just a way of life or does life for them become just the same routine day in day out which becomes unbearable until the person gets itchy feet and decides to leave. It is because travelling is about experiencing new cultures, familiarising and getting to know a different way of life to the one you know, were in most cases you will find it hard to understand and need to be open minded and appreciate everything around you, this is something which will always remain with you. Travelling also brings memories- there will be the most memorable ones which you will share through photos and by word of mouth with family and friends such as the first view of the harbour bridge as you arrive in Circular Quay in Sydney to the famous Waikiki beach in Oahu, Hawaii. These memories are shared over and over again and will never be forgotten but then there are those memories which are personal to you, and only yours to share with a few others. Small things that happened which brought a smile to your face and those who you were sharing this experience with. Moments like these don’t mean anything to most but loads to you, like spending a night in a small village in Borneo or running around the rainforest in the middle of the night. These are the experiences that cannot be understood by others unless they were there.

 Today, within twenty-four hours you can be anywhere in the world that interests you from white water rafting in Cairns, Australia to glacier walking in San Josef, New Zealand or just laying on a beach on one of the many islands Fiji has to offer. Instead of just day-dreaming about that trip you always wanted to go on or that activity you wanted to try, you could take that first step, everyone has a small amount of that wanting to escape normal life and according to travel trends, we are increasingly doing this so there’s a bit of a traveller in all of us.