Everyday explorers recount their best travel memories to Elisabeth Easther
Rowena McInnes Patterson set off on her travels single and aged 21 - when she left London 15 years later, she was working in television and married with one child and one on the way.
Skin like a snake
Straight out of university I bought a one-way ticket to Singapore, with the intention of taking the Trans Siberian Express. I worked 80 hours a week to save enough money - at Bar Bodega six nights a week and, during the day, I was the tea lady at the DSIR, (now GNS Science). I served tea at 10am and 3pm, I answered the phones and typed up reports. Whenever there was an earthquake, heads would pop out of offices to announce their estimate of what it measured on the Richter scale.
From Singapore my friend and I caught a train to Kuala Lumpur, but we stayed a while and spent too much money so, instead of the Trans Siberian, we caught a train to Penang and explored the length of Thailand by rail.
Because I was 21, blonde and quite freckly, people would ask to have their picture taken with me. One man stroked my arm and said "you have skin like snake", because he hadn't seen freckles before. I sometimes wonder about all those people in South East Asia who have photos of me with my big bad perm and my skin like a snake.
The joys of travelling
Up in Chiang Mai, we hired a guide and the guide hired a driver, a young guy of about 12 with a four-wheel drive. We drove into the mountains, through villages where old ladies smoked opium pipes. On the way back, the young driver got the car stuck in a muddy ditch. As I was only the person with a driver's licence, it was up to me to chuck it in reverse and get us out. On the way back he also hit a cyclist. Even our guide agreed the kid was a terrible driver.
Former Contiki tour leader Rowena McInnes Patterson (right) in Thailand's mountain villages north of Chiang Mai. Photo / Supplied
Preparing for the worst
In London in 1995, I saw an ad in TNT for Contiki tour guides. After being accepted, I did the 55-day training trip. We learned all the history from huge ring binders full of notes - it was like cramming a university course into two months. They really push you to your limits and the whole way round they try to break you, because the next time you do the tour, you're responsible for 50 people.
My first trip was an 18-day camping tour with 35 people who thought I would put their tents up and cook their meals. But no, that's why it's so cheap, because you have to do that yourself. A lot of them weren't very independent. When you train, they take you through various worst-case scenarios and most of them happened on my first trip, including losing two passengers on my first night. They were two Israeli girls, they had no English, and the last time I saw them was up the Eiffel Tower, but if they're not on the bus, we still have to go to keep to the schedule.
When I worked for Contiki, I'd be the first person up and the last to bed. I started in March and came home in September and slept for a week.
Something for the pain
I went to Glastonbury in 2000 and bought these cool platform sneakers. I thought they'd keep me out of the mud but they didn't have great grip. As I took my first sip of beer, I slipped in the mud - I put my hand down to break my fall and it really hurt. I went to the medical centre where they suggested beer and spliff for pain relief. The next day I was taken to Shepton Mallet for x-rays and my wrist was broken so they put a massive cast on it. When I got back I was so starving I bought a baguette, thinking it would be easy to eat with one hand but it wasn't, so I put the baguette on a fence post and fed it into my face that way.
Former Contiki tour leader Rowena McInnes Patterson with her brother at Glastonbury in 2000. Photo / Supplied
Four legs good
In Egypt I went to Cairo and rode a camel round the pyramids. I also went down the Valley of the Kings on a donkey. They're just like hairy little bikes; step over it, sit on it and vroom, you're away.
We set off before dawn and waited on the side of a rock for the sun to rise over the Nile, green streaking through the desert. There was no one there, but as soon as it was light, all these people turned up to sell us trinkets.
The good old days
When I started travelling, there were no phones and no internet. We relied entirely on guidebooks. We'd just turn up in a town where touts with signs would be waiting at the bus or train station. You'd take a punt on which place looked good, and sometimes it turned out to be a concrete room with a fan, other times it was amazing - one of the lost joys of travelling in the olden days.
Former Contiki tour leader Rowena McInnes Patterson at the Bridge over the River Kwai. Photo / Supplied
Rowena McInnes Patterson is a former Contiki tour leader, now working in television production
