Gaelevanting around the globe

Hi

Thanks for coming over. For those who don’t know me, my name is Gaelen. It’s either Irish or Scottish Gaelic and I like to joke that my parents were inebriated when they named me. However, that would just bring me right back to being Scottish or Irish, right?

I have an incurable case of wanderlust.

It started a long time ago. Actually, I think I get my wanderlust from my dad. He often used to disappear without telling anyone where he was going, only to return two weeks later laden with gifts for us from Swaziland or some far off African land.
I remember the two of us pouring over maps, atlases, globes and even encyclopedias, imagining the smells and sounds of all these exotic places and making up stories about these strange looking and beautifully different people. I can still remember the smell of all his old books and Old Spice. Those smells make me happy.

To this day I can’t just leave a map alone, I follow routes with my fingers and imagine what I would find if I stopped there. Or there. Where would that road take me? I still have the craving for sounds, smells and tastes of far off places. I want to know who they pray to, and why? And how they make their food. And how they prepare for bed at night, and what they do first thing in the morning in preparation for their day ahead. I need to know!

I admit that I haven’t travelled nearly as much as I would have liked to by the age I am now. I’ve been to London, Auckland, Phuket, Phi Phi and a couple of places in Mozambique. I’m especially not proud to admit that I have only been to a small amount of places in South Africa, my home land. I need to remedy that immediately- starting this weekend in fact, when I go to Durban, KZN (fondly known as Durbs by the sea by South Africans) on my birthday weekend.

Other than that I will be writing about my memories of Phuket and Phi Phi in Thailand and Ponta d’Ouro and Inhaca Island in Mozambique. I hope you find my stories interesting, and share them with your friends (and well-heeled acquaintances in appropriately high places at travel magazines, hotels, B&Bs. lodges and well visited travel blogs).

All I ask in return is honest, constructive criticism and helpful advice. I want to turn this into a living albeit probably not a well-paid one. As long as I can sustain my journeys and fill my soul with the world, I am sure I’ll be more than happy!

Anyway, I plan to start my travel blog with stories about Koh Phi Phi Don (from what I can remember….) and I should have that done in a week.

I will probably also post bits and bobs about other things that tickle my fancy 🙂
See you then!

Happy dreams

G