Who Am I?
Thank you for visiting. You might be wondering, 'Who is Ben In Wanderland?' Well, I'm Ben (a given, I guess), a 30-something guy - originally from Australia - who has been travelling the world semi-nomadically and living as an expatriate intermittently since 2003. I'm also the epicurean-aspiring, adventure-loving, culture-seeking writer, photographer and nurse who founded this travel blog-cum-website.
Prior to boarding a 747 Europe-bound at 18, months after finishing high school in a small bucolic Australian town, I'd led a relatively standard life, at the nucleus of a nuclear mixed-race family with a meagre income from a part-time job. But, I never aspired to live the life I should have wanted: university, car, family, home and mortgage. I wanted something different, unique, a little absurd and certainly not mainstream.
I simply wanted more ...
Travelling Commenced
I was never satisfied with the idea of settling down in Australia. The thought of said life made me feel trapped, claustrophobic, tangled in a mesh of mundane monotony. I was 18, fresh-faced and filled with enough curiosity, naive fervour and blind ambition to take a leap of faith and pave a diverse journey through life: one involving travel, overseas adventure and discovery.
After working part-time throughout high school, I'd saved enough money to start a new life: in the United Kingdom. I arrived in London in April 2003 and never looked back. Starting at a young age conditioned the person I would become, a sliding door of personal traits, abilities and characteristics. It gave me courage, strength and tenacity, a powerful fusion allowing me to reach for the stars and live the nomadic life of my dreams (at least to some extent).
Basing myself in London, I travelled through Western Europe (and spent three weeks in Morocco), visiting the cities and countries of my adolescent dreams. Meeting my mother's Austrian family tied me indefinitely to Europe, planting within me a magnet - of sorts - that has never been repelled.
I worked odd jobs in London but, sadly, learned that professional inexperience was to be my downfall. I eventually returned to Australia via the United States, worked casually and saved as quickly as possible, so I could continue the life I'd started living.
Travelling and Expatriate Living Continued
Before long, I was again living in the United Kingdom, not in London, but with friends in the Midlands, in a tiny bucolic town called Stourport-on-Severn. It gave me a taste of the 'real English life', lived by the English with few expatriates around.
It's here that I began my boomerang career in teaching, starting out as a learner support worker, assisting students identified as having learning difficulties. I also had the opportunity to explore the United Kingdom in greater detail (with access to a shared car) and continue expanding my travel horizons, with regular trips to new Western European frontiers as well as jaunts into the east.
En route to Australia in 2006, an English friend and I spent a few months in South America, Latin - and developing - vibes getting deep under my skin, planting a seed firmly in my mind. It was also one of the only occasions in my travel life in which I've not gone solo.
After some time in Australia, I refuelled my savings and repacked my backpack. India beckoned, so I dived, at 21, headfirst into the vibrancy and chaos of the world's second-most populous country.
Finding a Continental Home
London yet again distracted me. It’s easy to lose focus while enraptured by the rhythmic lure of its energised veneer. The pleasing sights of London’s ancient streets provided ample opportunity for me to become distracted from my original plan. I got trapped in cyclical monotony working in a dead-end administration role, with long weekends spent escaping to distant parts of continental Europe including Turkey, along with a three-week trip to China and Japan somewhere in the mix. I saw more and more of the beautiful continent, but I was not satisfied: I wanted to get out of London and join the lifeblood pulsing metrically through the primordial cobblestone streets of Italy’s southern cities.
So, in 2009, I packed up house, booked a one-way flight with Alitalia and started a new life, in Rome. It is perhaps the most courageous, rewarding and stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I arrived without a job, nowhere to stay, little economy, not knowing a soul and unable to speak Italian. I gave myself three weeks in which to find a job, a room in a shared apartment and new friends. It all happened on the final week of my fallible plan.
Teaching English while Learning Italian
So, I stayed, for nearly three years. Although travel has become the essence of who I am, sitting firmly at my core, those three years living in Italy are the most memorable of my adult life. I often return there in my dreams. I saw most of the country (including the islands of Sardegna and Sicilia), made lifelong friends, learned Italian, continued my teaching career and ate the best food conceivable. I was also able to continue jaunts to beautiful European destinations, mostly in the east.
With the onset of the global financial crisis, many of the private schools for whom I'd been teaching English went into receivership. Life in Rome became economically unmanageable so I made the difficult decision to return to Australia and study nursing.
Backpacking from Cairo to Cape Town
Before diving headfirst into a new and challenging scholarly chapter of my life, I wanted to explore one of earth's richest and most spellbinding natural destinations, Africa.
After a month in the Balkans, I flew to Cairo and began a mostly overland backpacking expedition from Egypt all the way to Cape Town. It challenged me to my limits and left me with some battle scars (mostly from typhoid). Yet, I am continually thankful for the opportunity I had to undertake the journey, for the friends I made and the lessons about life I learned. Africa is raw, wholly unique and littered with spellbinding travel encounters.
Although I'd been raised in Australia, I no longer felt a kinship to it. I was constantly unsettled and struggled to retrieve a sense of belonging. So, with the end of each university semester, I explored parts of the globe that were new to me. Over the three years of my Bachelor of Nursing, I covered most of Asia (except for the central parts) including much of the Middle East, some of the Pacific islands, the Maldives, and I returned to Europe to undertake a brief study exchange in Norway.
After three years of rewarding study, I graduated as a registered nurse and spent 12 months working in the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital. I learned more than I ever could have imagined and, again, was tested to my limits in new and unexpected ways. With said experience under my belt, I left Australia behind and travelled afresh to new horizons.
Nursing Around the World
Blessed to be equipped with skills required in many parts of the developing world, I set off for a few years to volunteer as a nurse. From Tanzania to Nepal and India, I was humbled to be able to work with some inspiring health professionals who daily change lives. The opportunity to see how healthcare is delivered differently with few to no resources was perspective-altering.
While volunteering, I travelled further afield, visiting parts of the Caribbean and Central America, new areas of Asia including Mongolia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Kuwait as well as returning to Europe. I also had the pleasure of returning to Italy recently, nine years after I originally left.
I never assume I can change the world. I don't even know if I have an impact. However, if I'm able to help improve the life of one individual - even marginally, then there's some value in continuing what I've started.
Maintaining the Passion
Although there are moments when I think 'that's enough, it's time to settle', it doesn't take long before I'm unsettled and my feet are again itchy to travel. I love travelling solo but it too presents certain challenges which become a little harder to bear the older I get. However, ultimately, travel is all I really know. It's at the core of the person I've become and I can't imagine living my life in any other way.
I'm continually researching new destinations, writing about past experiences and helping friends, colleagues and people I meet get inspired about the beautiful world in which we live. I don't always need to be on the open road to maintain my passion. Travel is a part of me and it's never going to go away. Despite being drugged, violated and robbed in 2017, I have an unwavering determination to continue travelling and ideally visit every country on earth.
What's Next?
While I continue to expand this blog-cum-website, I'm advancing my nursing career by teaching it to new nursing students, at university.
I'm keen to explore some of the world less travelled, so a trip to East Timor and Yemen will soon be on the cards.
I'm a gypsy at heart and I derive great joy from meeting new people and trying to understand their worldview. I don't travel simply to 'have fun' and 'see the sights'; it means more to me.
I hope you enjoy traipsing through this website as much as I've enjoyed putting it together. Here's also hoping you derive inspiration from some of the adventures I've had, enough to give you the impetus to live out some of your own travel fantasies.
I'd love to hear your stories so please get in touch.
Thank you for stopping by.
