The Good

Freedom from whatever you want freedom from, meeting pople from all walks of life; the nice ones, the shite ones and the "characters", new stuff to try; hiking, surfing, beach volleyball, rock climbing, snorkelling, cliff jumping, scuba diving, kayaking, new jobs to try that you know will end so you don't worry too much if they are spectacularly pants, traditional food and drink, the 100 Club, you name it!, gorgeous and majestic landscapes, warm lagoon sea, squeaky sand, a whole new country to figure out, a new culture to begin to understand, independence, lack of habits and routine, adventure wherever you care to look, away from the daily grind, stunningly sunny weather and spectacular storms, culture not out of a yoghurt pot, making friends for life (not just for Christmas or in that fact, just for travelling either!), drastic improvement of mathematical ability stemming from working in African bars with no till or calculator to speak of and moving around so much that the currency converter is the one you have adjusted automatically in your head and at the end of it all... letting the dream come true!
[Photo: A Very Good African Sunset! / Credit: Bomvu Paradise Backpackers]

.. the Bad

Missing my family, my friends, my house and all those material possessions that I'm supposed to be immune to when travelling, being ill with unknown foreign virus and/or bacteria and having no hope in hell of receiving medical care to the standard of home, spending 90% of travelling when meeting people with your right arm stuck out to shake hands with innumerable strangers and your general spiel at the ready; "hi, this is my name, this is where I'm from, this is where I've travelled, this is how long I've travelled for and this is where I'm going next and how are you??" and in the process on the receiving end of "well I've been here, here, here and here and had this great experience and this awful experience and I am a totally cool traveller and so much better than you until you prove your experiences to be at least as good as mine" usually by people who don't know their arse from their elbow and should really not have been let out of their home country in the first place (!), getting totally, totally ripped off by locals convinced that cos you are western you are therefore rolling in money (ha I wish!), wishing I'd done it all earlier, trying to go out somewhere random (usually in Asia) and failing to get either a decent meal or meals that arrive together, tummy bugs that are inescapable when travelling, other poeple that drive you nuts but you're stuck with them out of politeness or for nothing better available (I'm not really that horrible honest!!) and the boredom of waiting... for buses, planes, trains, automobiles or yer dinner!

...the Ugly

..the way some cultures treat their domestic pets, their disabled, their women and their environment, the drunken brawls between travellers, the way some women are truely intent on nicking your fella, sexpat middle aged fat old men, any sexpat for that matter, motorbike accidents in South East Asia, animosty directed at you just for being a "white, western" tourist and being threatened physically or verbally by mean nasty people!

... and the truely Bizarre!

..sitting in a minivan designed for 15 people in Mozambique with 34 crammed in (and yes I counted!) travelling behind a big local bus with one goat tethered to it's roof, wondering if a family of 5 was the maximum number of people that could be fitted on a motorbike in South East Asia and discovering that actually 6 is the maximum, being intent in taking a close up photo of some temple or other, and upon hearing an unfamiliar noise, whirling round to discover myself face to face with a rather large elephant - as you do...!

[Photo: A kindred spirit of the goat on the bus! / Credit: Bomvu Paradise Backpackers]