Before

Before this site, I was a Facilities Manager for a company in England.

Like most people times have been tough and we had to work harder to keep afloat.

Every year I would organise an annual work night out, where I would take all the staff and treat them to a meal and drinks. my way of saying thank you for all the hard work they did throughout the year.

We used to call it the Ozzies as I would give out awards and presents to the staff who did well.  There were also a few fun prizes as well just to make it entertaining.  Like who “Pissed the Boss off the most” and “Best email” it was part of my life. In fact, the staff who worked for me became like family.

However back in 2016, a few major things happened.

(as well a few minor ones)

Which got me to thinking how precious life is and how little time we have on this planet.

I took steps to look for other things that I was interested in and wanted to pursue.

One of these was travelling, throughout my life, I have always wanted to visit faraway places that you read in a book or see on a movie screen.

But like most, I figured one day I would retire and do it all then.

However, as I got older so did my dreams, I watched people older than me, fail to fulfill what they said was their lifelong ambition.

I began to wonder what if this happens to me?

So towards the end of Dec 2016, I booked a 4 week holiday to South East Asia thanks to a friend who has travelled around there and knew the best places to visit.

He spent over a week getting me the best deals, finding the right flights, transfers, discounts, and extras to make it a trip to remember. Thank you, Emmett, for giving me such a baptism in travel 🙂

Looking back at photos, I was going through a lot as I am clearly not looking healthy. Carrying too much weight, red-faced, and grey hair all adding to a look that possibly would have made my life a bit shorter had I carried on down that path.

The following year,  2017 I did it again, this time I booked everything, found some cheaper places, some different accommodations.

I tried a Hostel for the first time at 46 and loved it, it is a cheap but good, clean way of experiencing places if you are on a budget.

However, I still spent the usual amount of money as you would on a holiday, so I started thinking, what if I could still experience this travel adventure but on a smaller budget, which is more cost-effective and planned better?

“Hence this blog, I have read lots of travel tips from the blogging community, the guys and gals who have been doing this for years, and they all say it can be done, give you a few tips here and there, so I decided to try it and blog as I go.
It may work and be a success or an epic failure, but as all things in life, you have to actually do it to find out.”

Graham, August 2018