 |
| © Our Seaside Baby |
I've written recently about how I've been lucky enough to have
travelled a lot in life. Being half-Indian, we spent many holidays in
India visiting family. In addition, we sometimes combined those trips with other destinations in Asia and also visited places in Europe, with Turkey being a favourite. I was lucky to travel with my degree, extensively with work and with friends. I also lived in Japan for a year teaching English and spent a few months in the West Bank, working in a Palestinian refugee camp just outside Bethlehem.
These early experiences of travel have been crucial in my understanding of the world, of people and of nature. I've experienced many different cultures and lived within religious communities. I would like to think I'm more open-minded and adaptable as a result of these experiences. I've seen some very sad things, witnessed abject poverty but with travel, I've also experienced some wonderful things: playing in the street with Indian children when I was a child, being part of a Hindu wedding, having my cousins dress me up in an Indian sari, working alongside people in local communities, becoming close friends with women in a Palestinian refugee camp, riding on a camel in the Sahara desert, swimming next to turtles, seeing the most amazing seaside sunsets, getting stuck in the monsoon rain, drinking from a real coconut on the beach, taking a ride in a tuk tuk, climbing up a Japanese mountain, meeting people all over the world who I'm still in touch with and creating memories I will never forget, the list goes on and on. I want my little boy to experience the same thing, be open-minded, to meet people his age from different cultures and to appreciate all walks of life.
