With graduation around the corner, Sri Lanka is only get closer and closer! I will be updating this blog periodically to update you on my preparations regarding visas, vaccinations, and packing in hopes of helping any future travelers to the country. So click the follow button and stay tuned!

I'm seriously considering doing a year's paid work in Australia with Real Gap. There's a lot to think about, like my car and medical stuff, but I'm very tempted. It would be amazing to get so far away from this town, my ex and even certain family members, plus it would look great on my CV when I get back home.

I was just checking Tumblr on my phone and came across a message from someone who wanted to know all about travelling alone, Real Gap and money issues. If you’re reading this, I wrote you a long reply then my phone decided to delete both it and your original message! I can’t remember what your Tumblr name was but I’m going to try to remember what I wrote, and hope you see this! First, don’t be scared to travel alone! It’s really not very scary. Going on organised trips/tours/projects I would say is a really good idea for someone travelling alone, especially for the first time. Lots of them pick you up from the airport and are there for you every single day until you leave, helping you with literally anything you may need such as transport, directions, language translation, etc. It saves so much organisation, worry and stress - especially if you are going somewhere with a huge language barrier eg. South East Asia. Real Gap and similar companies like Gap360 and i to i, I actually wouldn’t recommend. What they do is take other companies’ trips, wack on a load of extra money and sell them on to you without doing any extra work. If I had booked my elephant volunteering project directly through the company that run it - Starfish Volunteers - the 2 weeks would have cost me £600, booking it through Real Gap got me nothing extra whatsoever and cost me £799. So don’t make my mistake - find a project you like, then shop around - Google is your best friend! As for what places to go or things to do, I really can’t tell you that. Research until you can’t research any more, and just go with whatever takes your fancy! Instinct is a wonderful thing and there’s no better reason to do anything than “because I wanted to”. Also check out things like Trip Advisor if you want to see whether other people who have been on the trip before thought it was any good. Anonymous strangers on the internet have got to be the most scathingly honest people ever! In total my 6.5 months of travelling time has cost me around £8000. That includes flights, projects, in country transport and all other spending money and would have been a lot less had I not gone on organised projects because that’s a super expensive way to travel. Still though, I’d say you have 2 options: save a whole lot more money first, or work your way around. There are lots of countries where you can easily get a working holiday visa and then whenever money gets a bit tight just bag a job until your pockets are full again. Countries I can think of where you can do this are Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Canada, and I can tell you (because I’m there right now) that Australia is literally flooded with job vacancies so it’s super easy. You can also work for accomodation, on any kind of visa - no wages as such but a free bed for the night. Alternatively you could try couch surfing, although the idea may be a bit scary it’s another way to sleep in a free bed every night! Sorry this was so long but I hope I’ve answered most of your questions for now, I really hope you see this, and feel free to contact me again if there’s anything else! I’ll have a think about general travelling/ travelling alone tips and post some when I can.

For more photos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151230386937735.444940.642062734&type=3