Graham's "8 Random Things"

Well, I have been tagged by Linda from "Linda and her surroundings" with this rather challenging meme.... to come up with 8 random things about myself.

Now the problem is, I could come up with a million random things about me.... the thing is to think of 8 facts that are remotely interesting. As this is a travel blog, I decided to base it on my travel experiences. So here goes......

Random Travel Fact 1.

When I was in the Amazon, I hurt my back on a speed boat and had to take pain killers. The pain killers reacted with the anti-Malaria tablets (lariam/mefloquine) that I was already taking at the time. The resulting affect was that during the night I had an attack of hallucinations. I can remember waking up in my hut in the middle of the night to find eight shaman in full head gear standing around my bed doing some weird form of dance, chanting and waving their spears above their heads. It was totally surreal. At first it scared the living daylights out of me, but somehow I was conscious enough to realise that I was experiencing a hallucination and closed my eyes. At that point, I could even feel their hands touching my face, arms and legs.... it was horrible. After some time it finally stopped, I opened my eyes and they were gone... but trust me, they were never forgotten.


Random Travel Fact 2.

During my visit to Brazil, I visited a nice restaurant. The trouble was that I was unable to speak Spanish or Portuguese, and the waiter was unable to speak English. What made it even worse was that the menu was also not in English. Luckily, the waiter had an amazing sense of humour and decided to help me out by miming the options as I pointed to them. I couldn't quite work out the different types of fish, but the crab and chicken were very easy to understand. Alas, the universal language of mime came to my rescue. Oh, by the way - I ended up with a bowl of delicious mussels for my starter, a large crab for my main course and Ice Cream for my sweet. I'll leave the mime of the ice-cream to your imagination....
The above library photo is of the legendary Mime Master, Marcel Marceau
(born in March 1923 and sadly left us in September 2007)



Random Travel Fact 3.

During my tour of Scotland, I jumped on a boat and sailed around Loch Ness. I was there with my camera in hand, ready to take 'that' photo that would prove the existance of the Loch Ness Monster....

The above photo is was taken by Marmaduke Wilson in 1934 (and was confirmed in 1994 to be a fake).

...did I see Nessy?.... ....did I heck!



Random Travel Fact 4.

I have been fortunate enough to ride camels on 3 different occasions, once in the Canary Islands, once in Morocco and once in Egypt.

...and trust me, it didn't get any easier!



Random Travel Fact 5.

I have only every been skiing once in my lifetime. It was when I was 18 yrs old, and I went with some friends to Meribel in the French Alps. The one thing that I can remember is that I spent more time on my butt than standing up. By the middle of the holiday, I can remember being black and blue all over. However, as per usual I took lots of photos to remember the experience. The unfortunate thing is that I got rather merry on the last evening and lost my camera - so I went through all of that pain and discomfort and had nothing to show for it apart from a few bruises.


Random Travel Fact 6.

Whilst on holiday in Island of Zakynthos a few years ago, I took a day trip to main land Greece to visit the famous ruins of Olympia. It was amazing to walk around the ruins, imagining that all those years ago the first olympic games took place there. I even had the opportunity to run along the track which held the first sprint race.


Random Travel Fact 7.

I have a passion for the game "Backgammon". One thing I love about the Turkish folk, is their admiration for the game too. Whilst walking around the streets of Taksim square late at night, I am always amazed at the number of bars that have small tables spotted about outside with people playing backgammon. Board games and card games are a great way of crossing the divide between different cultures.



Random Travel Fact 8.

When I was in Morrocco, I took up the opportunity to have a snake around my neck and also plucked up the courage to touch a cobra on the top of the head. The experience, albeit quite frightening, was amazing - a chance in a lifetime experience that I will never forget.

Okay, so that's 8 random facts from me.

As I only recently issued a meme, I will leave this meme open for anybody who would like to take up the challenge of writing 8 random facts about themselves. Please let me know if you do take it up, I would love to read your choices.

Ta ta for now,

Graham ;)