Travelling Round Europe & BeyondBlog about travelling around Europe & the rest of the world

Out travel interview from Chris Walker of mytravellogs.co.uk

Tell us a bit about yourself

My name is Chris and during the day I work in online advertising and at night I like to blog and make websites. Oh and I am a huge TV series fan with Dexter being my favourite series so far. Never thought I would say I like a serial killer so much.

Next year (2012) I will be turning 30 and it will be exactly 10 years since I went travelling solo for the first time. As a young 20 year old I started out in Australia and then travelled through Southeast Asia and India before returning home after 14 months on the road.

How did you get into travelling?

Since a young boy I had always enjoyed nature programmes and I too wanted to go find the 10 deadliest animals in Australia like I saw on TV. Unlike most people my age I started work when I was 16 and gave further education a miss and worked for my dad. I think seeing him working so hard in his business made me consider my future. At that time I didn’t wish to be working so hard like my dad all my life without doing anything else. So I quit my job, bought a one way ticket and headed down under.

Did you find the 10 deadliest animals?

I am not sure if they are the deadliest but I am happy with the animals I saw. I saw a 6 meter croc in the Adelaide River near Darwin, I saw Tiger sharks thrashing about off the Coast of Fraser Island, I also came across a brown snake, and a few spiders including the Huntsmen, a Funnel Web and a Red Back. All of which I believe can be dangerous. Amongst these I am also happy to say I saw many other animals that are native to Australia which are just cute. You can’t really call a Koala or a Wombat dangerous can you?

What have been some of your most memorable experiences?

This is a tough question as I seem to have a story for every occasion. Oddly enough it is some of the most enduring experiences that have proven to be my most memorable. The two days I spent travelling to Laos by boat and getting considerably sick and losing bowel control is probably one story I won’t forget, and neither will the guy I shared a room with.

However for me I think at 20 years old I had a lot of growing up to do and travelling was more about the people I met rather than the destinations I visited. So mostly I remember the people I met along the way and a great turning point for me was when I shared a hostel for 3 months with a group of Asian people, mainly Japanese. They taught me a lot about my own culture through learning about theirs. It was a real eye opener getting to know them and I will always cherish them dearly.

Lastly I have to mention the 3 months I spent living and travelling inside my camper van driving around Australia. I have many fond memories and anecdotal stories to tell about this time such as; washing in rivers and sneaking into hostels to get a shower; fishing for food and catching turtles instead of fish; and being ravaged by mosquitoes as I forgot to put nets on the van windows.

What are you doing now?

Currently I am living back in the UK working in online advertising and saving money for my next adventure. I am determined to learn another language before I die so I would like to return to Thailand and live there for a while longer until I am happy to say I have a firm grasp of the Thai language.

What websites do you run?

I run a few other travel sites but my personal site www.mytravellogs.co.uk is where I plan to publish more stories and information about my travel experiences and is where you can visit and read more about my memorable and sometimes embarrassing experiences