After a lifetime of study and exams, I couldn't face another three years straight away. So, like many of my classmates, I decided to take a year out and do some travelling. It took six months of working in a warehouse in Exeter and saving every penny I earned before I had enough money to set off. I bought a round-the-world ticket which let me stop at London, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Honolulu, San Francisco - and New York. I'd planned my route so that I would be travelling with friends for part of the way and alone the rest of the time.
Asia was probably the most memorable part of this trip - I travelled all over Taiwan, met some amazingly kind, generous and friendly people who invited me to their homes and let me see straight into their culture. Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore were amazing cities to stop off in and good places to run into other backpackers and get tips on the best places to visit. There were some downsides to Asia: eating rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner (with chopsticks - of course) in Taiwan, or only being able to afford to stay in a hell hole of a "guest house" in a tower block in overpriced Hong Kong. Here, you had to share a sweaty, smelly, windowless room with about 20 other people - generally ageing hippies who would tell you about the three years they had just spent walking barefoot across India on a daily budget of 50p.
In Australia, time and money meant that I spent most of my time in Melbourne and Sydney. It was difficult to meet many Aussies, as the hostels I stayed in were almost entirely full of Brits on a year out. It was a bit of an anticlimax after the culture shock of Asia. I got more involved with local life in New Zealand when I ended up staying with a Maori family. It was interesting to learn about this country from their viewpoint.
Hawaii would have been paradise on earth, with its deserted, unspoilt beaches, its delicious tropical food and its friendly locals, if it wasn't for the rampant US consumerism that managed to spoil it. San Francisco would have been fantastic too, if me and a friend hadn't been sitting on a bus next to someone who had a gun pulled on them. New York was just as I thought it would be, complete with yellow cabs, delis and diners. It was great just to spend a couple of weeks there getting to know the city, even if I did have to resort to staying in the grottiest hostel in town with stained mattresses on the floor and cockroaches in the bathroom.
Returning home to start university was like a reverse culture shock. It had been easy to head off on a trip round the world, it had been easy to meet people in different countries and adapt to new cultures. The hard bit was trying to readjust to life back in Britain, where there were no more flights waiting to whisk you off into the unknown.
