Lauren is also the author of the travel blog Never Ending Footsteps, which I will admit I have not read and have only recently subscribed to.
I came across Lauren’s book and blog via her boyfriend Dave Dean, author of the travel blog What’s Dave Doing? and Too Many Adapters. In preparing for my current extended travel I sought out Dave’s help and advice for things tech related and he’s a super nice guy and ridiculously helpful.
Anyway, recently Dave posted about his girlfriend’s book which has recently been published: How Not To Travel The World. Having read the summary, I thought it sounded interesting and entertaining and it did not disappoint. I am however shocked and surprised at how anyone can be so unlucky!!!!
Fittingly I read the book while on my own adventure: lying in the sun by the river in Guatemala; on a bus journey crossing from Guatemala to Belize; and sunbathing by a cenote in Mexico. I love to travel and to read anything travel related so my opinion is biased. Nonetheless, I would recommend buying the book, it’s worth a read!
It was hitting rock bottom that convinced me to quit my job, sell everything I own, and travel the world alone. After a devastating breakup, I packed my life into a backpack and left for what I hoped would be an enriching journey of self-discovery. I’d spent years spent battling with debilitating anxiety, an eating disorder and a lack of common sense, and was determined to find and heal myself.
Instead, my travels were full of bad luck and near-death experiences. I was scammed, assaulted and robbed, lost teeth and swallowed a cockroach. Instead of finding myself, I lost a laptop, a camera, $1000 and a backpack. I fell into leech-infested rice paddies, had the brakes of my motorbike fail while riding down a mountain and a boat started to sink with me on board. I was caught up in a tsunami, sat beside a corpse and experienced a very unhappy ending during a massage in Thailand.
Though I didn’t realise it at the time, I was experiencing a transformation despite the terrible things that were happening to me. My frequent panic attacks faded away as I repeatedly forced myself to leave my narrow comfort zone. I overcame my eating issues, evolving from a person who had never eaten Asian food to one who wouldn’t think twice about trying fried crickets. I even found love along the way, meeting Dave, a handsome New Zealander who taught me not to be afraid of living.
How Not to Travel The World is about following your dreams, no matter how many curveballs life throws at you. It’s about learning to get out of your comfort zone, finding the humour in messed up situations and falling in love with life on the road.
