I, Rebecca Herd, have the travel bug! There I said it. I love nothing more than jetting off to a new destination to explore the wonders it has waiting for me. Believe me, this is one of the first things I will be doing once we are able to travel again. I know a lot of you are in the same position. I find so much joy exploring a new town, city or country and learning about the traditions and cultures that originate from there. Over the next few blog posts, I will be writing about why these five holidays are up there on my favourite places I have been ... so far! (There is too much to write about each place and my experiences, so I will be splitting this blog into two parts).
Today you have Part 1, my trips to Egypt and India. These are by no means in order of my favourites, as every place I go has something new and exciting to see. I adore creating memories with people I love and can’t think of a better way to do this than exploring the world.
Egypt:
So let’s get cracking with my first ever major holiday … without the parents! I mean it was a school trip and I was 14/15 years old, so not one of those wild Ibiza holidays you are supposed to have without your parents.
We took off for Egypt, twenty or so school kids, all excited for ten days with our friends. I mean how cool is that, not many schools I know get to go to such an amazing place. I am incredibly lucky! It was a ten-day cruise, visiting some ‘out of this world’ attractions which I will never forget. Petra in Jordan being one of them. We walked for what seemed like forever in 30 degrees C+ temperatures, chatting away with friends and talking about who knows what, when suddenly around a corner, you are presented with … The ‘Ancient City’ carved into the sandstone. Everyone went silent – even the boys (now that’s saying something). It was spectacular and I still remember it as if it were yesterday.
Now I mean we were on a cruise, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing I can tell you. Not being a lover of boats and getting seasick, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of a cruise, but I was assured that because the boat so was big, I wouldn’t even know I was moving. Well, that was all true apart from one night! Now this was the one night that we dressed up for the Captain’s Dinner. All glammed up, well the most a 14-year-old can get ‘glammed up’, we made our way to dinner. All the food on the ship had been lovely, again apart from this night. I don’t know if they were trying to up their game for the Captain’s Dinner but let me assure you, I was not impressed. I got my plate of food, having signed up to a vegetarian meal plan … being presented with a pasta dish, I mean good start, can’t go wrong. It looked nice enough when suddenly I bit into something chewy … a tentacle of an octopus! It even had the sucker attached still. Absolutely NOT, no thank you. Safe to say I went hungry that night. I am not a fan of sea food. It was also the night we went round the corner of the continent and it was VERY rocky. I think I spent most of the night sat by the toilet, enough said I think.
When you’re that age, I don’t think you appreciate things as much, where you are or what you are experiencing. You tend to remember the funny moments with your friends, like being spat at by your camel, or your friend almost closing a deal with a local to sell me for three camels, (thankfully the teacher came along just at the right time). However, now I look back on that trip and think about how incredibly lucky I was to experience and create such incredible memories with people I am still very good friends with. Visiting the Pyramids, the museum where Tutankhamun’s golden mask is displayed and floating in the Dead Sea – these things I will never forget.
India:
This amazing country stole my heart, everything about it is so magical – I suppose everyone defines magical in different ways, but every experience I had in India was incredible. I made lifelong friends that I talk to and visit all over the world. We visited a city called Hyderabad for a friend’s wedding. This is one of the most spectacular weddings I have ever seen in my life, a completely different experience for me. They had a ‘SMALL’ wedding of 500 people, can you imagine! The day was filled with excitement, colour, lots of food and some very questionable dancing from myself and my brother. I think we may need to brush up on our Indian dance moves. It is one of my dreams to organize an Indian wedding so if anyone reading this needs a planner, please contact me! I would love to be involved in your day and the run up to your wedding.
The run up to the wedding was my favourite and something I will always treasure; it was a couple of weeks before Christmas and our friends and their families are Christians. Now those of you who know me, will know that my favourite time of year is Christmas and this was one to remember. As church goers, they visited the other members of their church late into the night to sing Christmas Carols together. Everyone we met was so welcoming, inviting us into their houses, offering food and just enjoying our company. I can imagine knocking on people’s doors in the UK at 3 a.m. in the morning …. I think they would chase you away with a crowbar, let alone let you in to sing with them.
Now another new experience for me was travelling in style … on the back of a motorbike in India! Now the roads are CRAZY in India, but I was in the safe hands of my friend who drove very sensibly as instructed to do so by my mum.
I also celebrated my 16th Birthday on boxing day with the family and friends we had met over the three weeks. In India they have a tradition that on your birthday, you get the number of your age, (so in my case 16), in wishes to use before midnight on your birthday. I had to make wishes like, ‘I wish to see you dance like a monkey for a whole minute’ or ‘I wish that you sing me a song’ and the person I had asked to do my wish could not say no. Believe it or not, all my wishes came true before midnight. It was so much fun and I remember the children getting really excited when I came up with a new wish for each of them to do. Thank you to everyone who made this trip so special to me and India, I will visit you again at some point in the future – guaranteed.
So that is a VERY short overview of the amazing memories and experience I had in these 2 countries. I hope you have enjoyed reading a bit about why these are in my top 5.
As you can probably tell, travelling to such amazing and exotic places is a passion of mine. I have met the most inspirational people along the way, who have all played their part in making me the person I am today. I work hard and have to save hard to fund my travels. I simply have a desire to visit as many places that this amazing world has to offer.
Stayed tuned for Part 2 coming on Saturday 13th February …
Stay Safe.
Until next time.
Becca X
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