I set out an epic overland journey from London in October, and I’ve been on the road travelling through Europe for the past few months, living out of a back pack and heading vaguely East- towards Turkey and Asia.
I covered more miles than I ever imagined possible, visited more cities and towns than I knew existed and drank far too much Rakija along the way. In December I made a detour to Ukraine, and then I planned on carrying on the journey, all the way to Lhasa. But then circumstances took me back home to England for Christmas. I got to meet my newly born niece for the first time, and rather than being in Turkey for Christmas, I got to eat a whole load of Turkey instead.
For the whole trip I’ve had my girlfriend and travel buddy alongside me, but we’ve decided to go our separate ways. Back in cold, cold England, I was taunted relentlessly by my good friends to make the trip to see them in Bali. What better way to get over a breakup than in the sun with a cold beer? When would we all have the chance to be in such a crazy place at the same time again? And that seemed much more appealing than the cold winter of Europe. So on impulse I booked a flight on New Year’s Day and 2 days later arrived into Denpasar. Then my old friends surprised me at my hotel. You can even check out the video below from fellow travel blogger Life of Jord. They crossed islands and oceans to come and meet me.
I haven’t given up on my original plan to travel overland to Tibet. In fact, I’m very much determined to make it. I even have a flight booked to Istanbul, so I can carry on from where I left off, visiting countries that don’t exist and obscure places no one really even would want to visit.
I will continue to update this blog, I’ve still got a hundred adventures from the last few months to write about, so keep coming back each week to read more. I’ve only written as far as Kosovo, so there’s a lot more material still in the works.
The beauty of travel, especially modern travel, is that you can go where you want. You don’t need to be held back by plans and itineraries, so for now, I’m taking a break in Bali, and perhaps even a few days in Borneo. Then I’ll finish what I started. Not everything ends how you want it to, but travel can help you make the most of everything, especially when life doesn’t go to plan.
And don’t worry, I won’t just be drinking beer in the sun the whole time. There’s plenty of abandoned theme parks and more than enough shipwrecks to keep me occupied here for a month.
Richard Collett
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