Things you never forget about gap year travel and backpacking

Once you lose the travel guide, backpacker trips get much more fun! Here's a list of the 5 things I'll never forget about my travels so far.

On my trips round the world I've seen and heard strange things, experienced bizarre and amazing adventures, and sometimes wished I wasn't a backpacker!

However, you have to take the good with the bad - which is why my five things I'll never forget about gap year traveling aren't all bad, or all good! Think of it as travel advice for the mind, body and soul - at least you'll know what to expect on your adventure!

5 Good, Bad and Ugly things you'll never see in a travel guide

You'll only read the good stuff in the travel blogs!

This isn't for the faint of heart, easily offended or the under 18's.. If you were included in that list, please stop reading now!

Everyone else, lets carry on! My top 5 good, bad and downright disgusting travel stories.. (to be continued!)

1. Good!

The feeling when you get as you stumble out of a bus after 12 hours stuck in the same, 30 year old, flea-ridden seat - blinking your way in the sunlight, then realising that you're as far from home as you can possibly be, and you have one of the world's most perfect beaches in front of you.. All of the haggling, aches, pains and woes are forgotten for one, long blissful moment.

You spend as long as possible relaxing, soaking up the sun, sand and sea - and then drag yourself back to reality to tap out a short paragraph in your travel blog - then back to your own slice of heaven.

Good!

Finding out that Indian food is nothing like the stuff you've tried before.. I personally hated curry before I travelled in India. Being English, an Indian meal is something of an institution, I would often have to fend off friends who wanted to do a curry night... every night.

Now, I can't wait for curry! We cook it as often as we can, even if we're on the road traveling. It's turned from a culinary hate to a culinary delight!

Bad..

Squat toilets.

Now I know some people swear that the hole in the floor is more hygienic - but I just swear at it, and them.. In over a year of travel I had managed to avoid using said hole - especially the ones on the trains in India which are simply a hole in the bottom of the train!

When finally the time came that I had no choice, it was as bad as I imagined it.. Always remember the Imodium!

Ugly.

When you first decide to hit the road and go out into the big wide world - chances are you'll end up on the East Coast of Australia. Along with millions of other young travellers and gap year students.

You'll get blind drunk, sunburnt and things get ugly when your mate spots that '10' across the bar who was a 1 when you arrived, 10 snakebites earlier!
At some point later that evening, while you're trying to sleep in a dorm with 30 other snoring backpackers, you'll hear the sound of your mate and their romantic partner enjoying the cosy single bed together - if you're on the top bunk, beware the rocking!

As far as travel advice goes, trust me; this will be one thing you'll be trying forget for years!

Good!

Arriving in a country that is completely different to what you expected.

The first time I arrived into Nepal I walked across the border from India, it'd been a long and sweaty 5 weeks travel, and I needed a change. Nepal was perfect! The pace of life was so much more relaxed than India, the food was equally as good, and completely different.. and the mountains were huge.

Now I'd expected the mountains, I think anyone that reads a travel blog or guide would know that - but everything else was just so refreshing!

Now don't take my word for it - lets hear what you think?!