No Place To Be

Random Traveller #14

Posted on 09. Jul, 2010 by Kirsty in Meet A Random Traveller

Welcome to round 14 of ‘Meet a Random Traveller’. Once we hit the road this section will be dedicated to the people we meet along the way but, until then, we shall meet some of the guys and gals who have beat us to it and are already out their doing their thing.

Random Traveller #14

Who are you?
I am Susan Atherton, a single twentysomething and former fluff journalist from the north of England, and I am on a never ending search for free wifi and cold beer. I write about my varying successes in finding both of these things on my Travelpod blog, here: www.travelpod.com/members/suzloua. That’s where I jot down anything and everything that comes into my head, from messages to the folks at home to my musings on race, religion, and civil war. There’s also an awful lot of bits where I fall over or get lost or get enticed into tequila drinking contests, so it’s not quite as highbrow as I’m trying to make it sound. My Twitter feed (@suzloua) is sort of similar, except shorter, and I swear more.

With the king penguins at St Andrew's Bay, South Georgia

Don’t you have a home to go to?
I do, and as luck would have it, I have one of my best friends and a former world-traveller herself as a housesitter. Not only does she look after my paperwork, but she offers handy tips and reminisces from her own time darting about the globe. My home is in sunny Manchester, and as much as I miss any of my nearest and dearest, I miss my city. But Manchester is just one place amongst many, and I’m loving seeing some of the others that are out there. I don’t really have an end date on my travels, either, so I’m always vaguely on the lookout for somewhere to set up camp for a few months if I like it. Initially travelling was just one of many ways I chose to better myself; back in 2003 I was having a tough time emotionally, feeling very unhappy and unsatisfied with my life. So I sat down and wrote a list of everything I wanted to do to improve things, and I’ve spent the last seven years trying to make everything on that list happen. The most complicated one was to see the world, but it’s turning out to be by far the most interesting.

Where have you been?
I left the UK in 2008 to head for New Zealand, and although I’ve been back several times since, I’ve never really left that travel mindset. After New Zealand came Australia, Argentina, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Fiji, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Palau, Hawaii and an amazing three weeks in Cambodia.

Waya Island, Fiji

Where are you heading to?
I’m currently in the UK for a month, first to go to the Glastonbury Festival (which was wicked – every person there should go travelling, and everybody who travels should go there), and then to spend my 26^th birthday with my family, but I’ll soon be heading back out to South East Asia, starting in Vietnam and working my way through Laos and Thailand up into China and over to South Korea and Japan by the end of the year. In 2011, it’s on to the Americas: starting in Canada then working my way down through the US, where I plan to drink an appropriate beverage in every state (bourbon in Tennessee, a Cosmopolitan in New York and so on), and then through Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras into South America. Eventually, I plan to do Africa, western Asia, and Europe too – it just might take a few more years!

What’s your favorite place so far?
It’s hard to choose – Cambodia had the saddest history but the loveliest people; Singapore was the ultimate in high rise perfection; and Palau was home to the astonishing Jellyfish Lake, where you can swim with millions of jellyfish whose stinging cells are so devolved from lack of use that human skin is tough enough to resist any blemish. But if I had to pick just one of my adventures, it has to be the month long trip I did in November 2009, visiting the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the Antarctic Peninsula. The fact that I’ve been to all seven continents is something I’m extremely proud of, and the friends I made on that voyage will be friends for life. It’s hard to describe how beautiful it was, but I would recommend to anyone that they visit – it’s definitely worth the cost and the inconvenience.

In Jellyfish Lake Rock Islands Palau

What’s in your bag that you are yet to touch?
I always have it bouncing along on the outside of my pack just in case, but I’ve yet to find a place where I actually needed it; all the same, I’m still loathe to ditch my portable mosquito net. I’ve had every conceivable jab, and I still get plenty of bites because I inevitably miss a spot with the repellent (or more usually forget to put it on – oops). All the same, after a nasty experience with bedbugs and mozzies on a previous trip to Nimbin, Australia, I know as soon as I get rid of it, I’ll need it! Other than that I’m pretty good at culling unnecessary stuff – the girlie girl in me still loves to shop, but I try and restrain myself to just window shopping until I have actually worn holes in something, or I can find a souvenir that’s both small and lightweight. My current idea is that I’m buying a fridge magnet from every country I visit, making my fridge a mini-map of my travels, but even then, you’d be surprised how the weight of a few magnets adds up…

A big thanks to suzy for agreeing to take part in this. Check them out on Twitter at @suzloua

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