GOING to university? You’ll shortly meet the gap year student who learned obvious lessons on their travels. Julian Cook passes on life lessons:
We’re all, like, the same
Whether you’re a partner at my father’s law firm or like, a poor fisherman’s wife in Bali, we all want happiness. And whether that’s getting your Christmas bonus or not having your husband drown in a typhoon it’s all the same really.
Don’t have sex on a beach
I learned this the hard way on a beach in Bangkok. You know how after a trip to the seaside your car is always filled with sand for weeks, yeah? Same with your dick.
Locals are wonderful
There’s so much written about how awful foreigners are and how their cultures are worse than ours. Yet every local we met wore huge, beaming smiles while overcharging us for everything.
Leave your comfort zone
Opening yourself up to new experiences is so important. I’d never actually gone glamping before visiting this four-star resort in Cambodia, and suddenly I was living like Bear Grylls!
There’s a different pace of life
The rat race of the Western world is too fast-paced compared to the luxury hotels my dad paid for on my travels. We could learn a lot from their slower way of life.
Treasure experiences over possessions
Our consumerist culture makes us forget that it’s lived experiences that stay with us. That’s why I was totally, like, chill when a pickpocket stole my iPhone in Indonesia. I was due an upgrade so I bear that sack of shit no ill will.
Respect local customs
Having the opportunity to respect local traditions is deeply moving, like the Full Moon Party in Thailand where locals enjoy the sacred ritual of selling dodgy MDMA to stoned Brits.
Understand suffering
The hours I spent volunteering in a school in a Nairobi slum will stay with me forever. I really got to experience everything those impoverished children were going through.
Seize the day
You never know when you’ll next get chance to sky-dive with a drunk Australian you met on an all-nighter in Vientiane. Check your travel insurance hasn’t expired first.
Travel broadens your mind
Travelling offers you the opportunity to experience other ways of life. Like, did you know in Cambodia they eat spiders? Awful.
Struggle rewards
Climbing to the summit of Kilimanjaro to see the sunrise was a once-in-a-lifetime challenge, and I was thrilled to be able to share the moment with the locals carrying my bags.
Foreign prisons are no joke
If you buy a bag of white off an undercover cop, your father’s unlikely to know anyone in the My Doc place district to have a word with so you’ll spend a night in the cells. Would avoid.
There’s no place like home
There’s only so long you can spend living out of a rucksack before you pine for your parent’s apartment in Kensington. No wonder everyone is trying to come and live in the UK. My main takeaway is: we need stronger border controls.
