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World Adventures of a
Culinary Xenophile

Some of the best adventures start by accident!

As a food and travel lover recently separated from both husband and job in 1995, I decided to take the trip that I thought my husband would be taking with me in our 10th anniversary year: August in England, September in Greece. The plan was that simple -- no big adventure here.

I had heard that you could find very cheap travel deals in England, so I bought a cheap last minute one-way flight to Birmingham from Toronto, with the idea that I would hop around Britain and buy my ticket to Greece and back home from a 'bucket-shop' in London. My apartment lease was about to expire, so I put my belongings in storage, and told friends and family I'd see them in a few months.

Six months later (on my anniversary), having spent time in England, Ireland, Scotland, Spain and Greece, I worshipped the sunrise from an icing-sugary beach on Thailand's Ko Samet and thanked all the gods that had conspired to put me there: single, jobless and homeless, with a round-the-world ticket that would take me on from Thailand to Singapore, Bali, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and home as far as Canada's west coast over the next eighteen months.

I would travel through Southeast Asia, (with overland travel through many parts of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia), for a total of six months, Australia eight, New Zealand three, and then I'd 'take a rest' in Fiji for a month!

Once back in Canada, I worked for a couple of months in Vancouver before heading home to friends and family in Toronto, only to turn back two months later to relocate to Vancouver for the next five years.

This section of the Recipe for Travel is devoted to the complete World Adventures of the Culinary Xenophile. If you're intrigued with what you've seen here so far, read on and hop on and off each leg of the journey with me following the Articles from the Xenofiles.

If you prefer shorter jaunts and a more direct route to the practical travel planning tips I learned along the way and since that adventure, the Around the World Travel Guide is the place to start.

Throughout my travels, and this Recipe for Travel, food features large. Many people are a bit leery about how different food will effect them while traveling, and I offer some practical tips for enjoying adventures in food around the world in the World Food Companion.