Travel Diaries of a Nobody - Introduction

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http://www.lukegraves.co.uk/travelblog.html

Introduction
Why Travel?

Intro to Intro

Before we get cracking I just wanted to assure you that this is not a ‘What I did on my holidays’, repeat after me in a dull boring voice

“This is not a, what I did on my holidays”

There is no slide show.

I made enough of a prat of myself when I got back from travelling telling stories that no-one cared about. Where I laughed my way through ten minutes of the hilarious story about when Dave drove us around Sydney only to realise that they don’t know blind Dave.

While researching some of the things that I have written about, I realised that some places have change a lot and I’m getting old. A friend was left shocked when I told him that while travelling I didn’t have a digital camera and had to get my photos developed. Unfortunately this old school way of doing things lead to me losing all my photos of Thailand so I have raided Google image as best I could but I still find chapter one visually disappointing.

I hope that turning the book into bite size blogs does not make it to confusing; I may have missed bits where I refer to something from earlier on but... hey ho.

Why Travel?

Before I left to travel people asked why?

My answer was ‘I want to see all the places that I’ve read about’. Which was half true, I had bought a lot of books but rarely had I got through three pages without drifting off into my own world. I knew next to nothing about the places I was going. My travel experience to date was a week in sunny Malta and a camping trip to Wales which was so wet it was like a boating trip where I was the boat. I also have such an ability (almost super power) of getting lost, that my friends bought me a waterproof (up to 200 metres) compass; let’s just take a minute to think about that. That is a gift that says you are so useless that there is a chance that you might find yourself underwater somewhere considering that you have made a wrong turn to the town centre. With this in mind I went off travelling alone.

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I grew up in the seaside town of Hastings and left school as soon as they let me, at the age of twenty I was given a job at an independent bookshop. In between leaving school and starting at Bookstack at the age of twenty I... (Try doing this without taking a breath)

Worked in a factory on a five circuit machine making 1447 units a day, a computer course that went bankrupt, worked at a charity day centre that closed down because of rats, was a nursery teacher but for £30 a week, a cocktail barman but realised I knew nothing about cocktails, so became front of house in the bar realised that I knew nothing about front of house, became the world’s worst labourer, worked on a pheasant farm confirmed me a vegetarian, bar job and worked in a sports shop.

That’s the back story sorted.

Between sixteen and twenty I had twelve jobs, lived in eight homes in seven towns. At the time I decided to up and leave to go travelling I had spent three years settling in to Eastbourne, I was one of the managers of the bookshop, surrounded by good friends and a beautiful girlfriend. Then one day I was offered a promotion and pay rise, I say offered I was told. You will do this and get this, next year this and this. My girlfriend was going to university but we were to stay together because she loved me and she’d be back on this date and I would go to her then and... ‘Who the hell are these people to tell me what I was doing with my life?’ Although all offering me the things we are suppose to crave I was not in control and there is no better way of being in control of your own life then by going solo.

I turned down all offers and planned my escape. I set dates for my life changing experience, my year in South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand. The awakening, my rebirth, I would return with knowledge and experience. One year from now I would ride into Eastbourne on the back of a multi cultural unicorn with the meaning of life tattooed on my inner thigh. Then I stayed for a couple of months while I saved some money, which is basically like arguing, slamming the door but staying in the room, awkward.
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Why did I want to travel?

In the last seven months I have been mugged my wild monkeys in the grounds of a Thai Palace, had a one to one conversation with a Whale, jumped out of an aeroplane, won two football competitions, seen the Dalai Lama speak live, got over my fear of water with the help of two Brazilian ladies, visited the magical temples of Cambodia and also gut wrenching Killing Fields, kayaked shark infested waters, been crocodile hunting where no crocodiles live, camped in rainforests, been too close to big spiders and too far from the nearest shower. I have opened up to strangers and made best friends that I know I will never see again, I have hit lows but they are nothing to the happiness I’ve archived.
I have got lost in every major city I’ve set foot in and experienced people and cultures that I will never forget. This ended with less than happy memories and the last few days were tough but I still did it.

How does that compare to my back story for the first twenty three years?

My only regret is when I came home I never found anywhere to rent a multi cultural unicorn.

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