About Me - Much More Out There

Seemed like a good idea to start a travel blog in 2020.

I thought a preamble to this travel blog was needed given I started writing this at a time when travel all but ceased.

I decided at the beginning of 2020 that I would start a travel blog. I love and live to travel. It is what has taught me so much about not just the world but myself. When I first travelled half way around the world on my own, I thought I can do this and I can do other things too – it gave me confidence to be myself. I love going somewhere that makes me feel different, takes me away from my comfort zone and exposes me to a different world.

I mainly decided to start the blog as a creative outlet and to write about what I love to do. I thought there might some other people out there who would find my tips and stories interesting and useful. So I thought yes let’s do this.

And then of course our lives changed across every country in the world with COVID-19. Borders closed, international travel stopped and even borders closed between states in Australia, and travel beyond your suburbs wasn’t possible in many instances. Cities and countries went into lock-downs. In Melbourne where live going overseas, to another Australian city or even the CBD was a distant hope when you couldn’t go beyond 5 kilometres of where you lived. In some places just leaving your home wasn’t permitted.

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Travel companies, hotels, restaurants anything associated with travel was impacted and travel as we knew it might change forever

We were meant to travel to Japan and South Korea and attend the Olympics in 2020. It makes me feel so, so, so sad when. I think of what would have been the best Olympics ever and for Japan to have been so ready to host the games. I am in a very privileged position when the thing I hope for in this COVID-19 world is the ability to travel when so many other people have lost loved-ones and their livelihoods.

I am still forging ahead with the blog because as I said, it gives me such pleasure to write about one of the things that I love so much and that has had such a positive and wonderful impact on my life. I hope beyond hope that some day not too soon, we can travel the world again and meet people, have experiences, eat food and visit places that challenge us and provide a sense of wonder.

About Much More Out There

This website is written by someone who simply loves to travel – what it can show you, teach you, by taking you out of your comfort zone to make your appreciate life and how much more there is than in your own backyard.

The pieces are written about the destinations that have been travelled to, so the information is coming from direct personal experience.

There are general tips on travel, how to go about planning, good websites to use and tours, including day or city trips.

A big part of travel is the food, in fact not just a big part! Food is the window to the soul of a country – it tells you so much about the history, influences, lifestyle, and celebrations. Whether it’s a market, street food, or a restaurant it gives you the opportunity to be with locals. Don’t stay in your hotel and eat Italian if you are staying in Kuala Lumpur (overheard by someone who was eating at a Malaysian restaurant in Canberra and had just been in Malaysia)!!!

Travel can be confronting and that is partly what it’s about. The reality for most of us who have the privilege to travel is that even if we have to use a squat toilet, have no hot water or not have the comforts you are used to at home, we get to go home to our privileged life. A little slice of an experience of how other people live is a very healthy thing.

There is something wonderful about any place you visit, which is why I never quite understand questions like somewhere you didn’t enjoy travelling to. A town, city, country is also someone’s home that they love.

I hope people find the information here useful. Again it comes from a place of having learnt so much and grown as a person through travel and all its experiences – good and bad – and having a true love of travel. When people get asked where is a place you haven’t liked or wouldn’t go to, there is nowhere to say no to or dislike, just something different.