From Hell to Heli-pads

From monkeys climbing on my head to sleeping on train floors to cocktails on top of the world… Travelling gives you the greatest opportunities and the weirdest lessons, both teach you a lot about who you are (and what you can handle). One night it’s an overnight bus with jagged metal arm rests, A/C in your face and two Asians crammed on one seat watching you sleep and the next night you’re being taken for cocktails on a helicopter pad overlooking Kuala Lumpur.

12 hours can make a big difference.

One night we were sleeping in a floating bamboo shack on the River Kwai, no electricity and completely at peace with nature – until a cockroach crawled on my face at 4am with no light available to find it, so while my buddy Hannah is screaming I’m shooting the toilets “bum gun” blindly all around the room. The next morning and we are bathing an elephant called Wandii in the river, bliss! The Thai trainer asks me “Are you brave?” Daring me to ride Wandii (with her permission) and I decide I am brave, and I climb into the new situation as nervous and excited as the day I boarded the plane.

Take the bad with good, it pays off as memories last longer than scars.