Interview with a globetrotter #11

Welcome as always Globetrotters as we enter our eleventh travel-file, where we bring the knowledge of the mobile world to your screen through the words and wisdom of our globetrotting elite. This week, in celebrating the inherent wanderlust in the Australian Psyche, we welcome Adam King to our GTG A-list.

Name: Adam King

Home area: Gippsland, Victoria, Australia

Age: 23

GTG: What is your most unresolved travel goal?

AK: To properly learn a second language, either Spanish or Bahasa Indonesia.

GTG: What is different about being an exchange student to other kinds of travel?

AK: You become further immersed in the culture, the different rules/restrictions for local and visiting students also becomes clear (even though as a visitor it’s best to uphold local protocol in public).

GTG: What is one of the most adventurous types of transport you have tried?

AK: Dog-sledding in the Swedish Arctic.

GTG: Is there anywhere you wouldn’t go back to?

AK: Sunway in Malaysia (just north of Kuala Lumpur). I love the country but Sunway is a strict, branded community owned by large-scale capitalists and surrounded by barbed-wire fences. The area is highly concreted and the pedestrian traffic is directed through a Starbucks on the way to the university, glad to have the experience, feel no need to go back.

GTG: What is the most expensive place you’ve spent time?

AK: Sweden or Australia.

GTG: What’s your number one piece of travel advice.

AK: -Be flexible with your itinerary, try and aim for quality rather than quantity when allocating your time as you go along

-Smile

– Challenge yourself and expand your mind

GTG: What’s one major learning curve you have experienced through travelling and how did you cope with it?

AK: I lost my wallet in Indonesia and I had to bribe to get any help and I lived off (and bartered with) Bananas and Oranges for a week. I also waited two months for my passport to arrive back in Malaysia and was hindered by the limited bus times amongst other things. I guess I taught myself how to be patient and to be comfortable with things being outside my control.

GTG: What have you been forced to change about yourself by travelling?

AK: To be more accepting and open minded toward the advice and opinions people give.

GTG: What’s the best drink you’ve ever had?

AK: Milo Ice in Malaysia.

GTG: What’s different travelling domestically from travelling internationally?

AK: When travelling domestically, you don’t use as many of your senses as you learn because it’s a more relaxed and familiar environment. You also have a more in-depth perspective as you go and prompt different reactions from people as a local.

GTG: What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had travelling?

AK: In Sumatra (Indonesia) I met an orphan who hadn’t been home to his jungle community in 5 years. He asked me to join him so we went by bus into the forest and when we arrived I could still see the infiltration of foreign culture from the high level of smoking and cigarette advertising. There was even a poster of Osama Bin Laden. The surprise was how little of the world seems to be untouched by globalization.

GTG: Where is the place you would most like to be stuck for a month?

AK: Uppsala (Sweden) during Valborg festival (a festival to welcome the spring).

Thanks again Adam and that brings us to the end of another GTG episode, week in week out, real people real stories (ahem). In all seriousness, please feel more than welcome to volunteer yourselves for future travel profiles, or to ask the hard questions you feel your guidebook has ignored… Until next week.