Well, the love of travel all started for me (Kim) back in 2002 on a school history trip to Eastern Europe.
Prague, Warsaw, Krakow, Berlin… they sparked a little flame of excitement in me that my annual family caravan trips to France had failed to ignite.
The following summer, Interrail pass in hand, I spent five hectic weeks darting around Europe with my best mate, staying in every crummy hostel from Bratislava to Barcelona. We parted ways, me off to Glasgow to start university and she back to her home country of Australia, promising to see each other in Sydney a year later.
True to my word, I put my student loan to excellent use and purchased a flight to OZ the following summer, stopping off in India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia on the way. I met up with a school friend in India for 3 weeks, spent a week by myself in Sri Lanka and another 3 weeks travelling from Bangkok to Singapore overland on a small group tour.
I spent so long convincing my mum that I’d be fine that I didn’t even have time to consider whether or not I was shitting it about being 19 and flying off to India solo. Standing outside Mumbai airport in the suffocating heat, fending off pushy taxi drivers left, right and centre, surrounded by absolutely nothing familiar my only thought was, “I want a teleporter. Now.”
Am I high, or are these clogs just massive?
– Amsterdam 2003