Stamped: Mandy Watson – One woman, one motto, and a world of adventure

What do you get when you mix an empty nest, unstoppable curiosity, and a cheeky life motto to “spend the kids’ inheritance”? In this episode of Stamped, Mandy Watson joins Tracy to share the bold, breathtaking, and often hilarious stories behind her lifelong love of travel.

From being stranded in Hawaii with just $1 at 18, to summiting Kilimanjaro at 40, trekking the Inca Trail at 50, and planning Everest Base Camp at 60, Mandy proves that travel is not something you grow out of. It is something you grow into.

She recounts a heart-racing “Attenborough moment” in the Maasai Mara, reflects on places she is glad she has seen but does not need to return to, shares her dream of finally spotting the Northern Lights, and offers up a simple travel tip you will actually want to use.

With nearly 70 countries already ticked off and 26 more on the horizon, Mandy’s story will inspire you to revisit your own bucket list and maybe even expand it.

Guest - Mandy Watson from SpendingKidsInheritance
Show notes - Episode 68

🎧 Listen to next

• Episode #19 – Explore the World with Mandy: Travel Tales and Adventures from Across the Globe
• Episode #63 - Stamped: Amanda Kendle – How Thoughtful Travel Shapes a Life of Meaningful Adventures
• Episode #60 - Lost in Translation: Hilarious English Mix-Ups on Your Adventures Abroad

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Mandy Watson
• 3:10 First Travel Inspirations
• 5:52 Adventures at 18: Circle Pacific Trip
• 13:35 The Great Migration in Masai Mara
• 20:31 Destinations Worth Revisiting
• 25:24 Travel Tips and Future Adventures

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Stamped, our monthly series on the Global Travel Planning Podcast, where one traveller, 10 questions and a world of stories come together. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hi, I'm Tracey, and welcome to episode 68 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:39

Today's episode is part of Stamped, our special monthly series where we invite one traveller to answer 10 questions that reveal the stories, experiences and lessons behind their love of travel. This time, I'm joined by Mandy Watson, a returning guest and long-time friend of the podcast. You may recognise her from earlier episodes on both the UK and Global Travel Panel podcasts. She's also the writer behind the fabulous travel blog Spending Kids Inheritance, where she shares tales of adventure, midlife travel and making the most of every moment. I loved hearing your answers to the stamped questions, from first trips and unforgettable experience to what's still on her bucket list. So let's get started.

Speaker 2: 1:17

Right. Well, hey, my name is Mandy Watson and my husband, trevor, and I have been going gangbusters, travelling as much as we can in recent years. I started young, like I started when I was 18 or so, and then I guess family life gets in the way and you start breeding and being at home with the kids and stuff. But now that we're free pretty much empty nesters and it's our goal in life is just to keep travelling, keep finding new places to go and keep spending the kids inheritance, because it's not their money, yet it's ours. Hence I did start a? Um, my own website of traveling for, just for people to get inspired for, um, yeah, spendingkidsinheritancecom, that's me and uh, it's a cracker of a of a theme and, uh, we're doing our very best to live up to it.

Speaker 1: 2:06

You certainly are, I have to say, mandy, you certainly are. Every time I speak to you, I say where are you going off to next? Love it, and I know you're going away soon, so tell us where you're heading to next. Yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 2:17

In just over three weeks we leave. We're going to Alaska and Canada and a bit of the USA. We've got a few friends in the US to catch up with after our little Canada-Alaska sojourn, and my brother and his partner are joining us for the cruise and a bit of a land-based tour around Alaska, which will be great. Because he's older than me and it's the first time, I think, since we were children growing up, that I would have spent three weeks with him, and I can't wait. It's going to be fantastic.

Speaker 1: 2:49

He's got a worse sense of humor than me. Oh god, I hate to think I'll have to catch up with you afterwards. Honestly, we'll have to have a chat all about that trip. But yes, I'm so glad you you volunteered to come on to Stamped um. So this is kind of me interrogating you with 10 questions all about, uh, your travel life, because I'm sure you've got some fantastic stories and memories to tell. So shall we dive into the first question? Definitely Okay. So let's start at the beginning. Mandy, who lit the spark? Who or what inspired your love of travel?

Speaker 2: 3:15

Well, it was my softball coach when I was in my teens. He had traversed Africa from Cape Town to Cairo over overland in the 1970s and he even went hunting with the Pygmies of the Congo and his stories were just wild, you know, crazy border crossings. And he tried climbing Mount Kilimanjaro but altitude sickness all the capillaries in his face started to burst and he was sent down and from that moment I thought, bugger, that I'm going to do that, I'm going to climb Kilimanjaro. So it wasn't to my 40th year that I did Kilimanjaro and I summited and I took a part of him in my heart, although I don't know where he is anymore and no contact. But I always have thought of him and I just took him to the top with me and I thought I'll look at this view for you. So he really lit the spark and Kilimanjaro just became number one on my bucket list back in, you know, 2007. I did that and then just been cracking on ever since.

Speaker 1: 4:14

It's amazing, isn't it, how those kind of stories, those early things, with that spark, that kind of inspired our trouble. I mean, for me, I used to read all the books by Gerald Durrell and so I just wanted to go to Jersey Zoo, and I only just did that last year, age 57. So you know, that spark can be there, but that kind of ultimate destination, that kind of living in your case Kilimanjaro, it's just. It's such an amazing moment to actually achieve it, isn't it it?

Speaker 2: 4:42

was Like, when I got to the top, I just was so completely and utterly knackered with altitude sickness and one of our girls had collapsed and was raced down the mountain and she nearly died and it was really full-on and I just, I just broke down and sobbed. It was just, it was body-wracking sobs of relief and joy and uh, you know it was, it was incredible and you could see the curve of the earth up there. It was just remarkable.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Amazing. Okay, so let's talk about your passport journey. So where did it begin? What was the first country that you ever visited?

Speaker 2: 5:17

Right, well, first country was as a child I went to New Zealand with my mum because she was a Kiwi and went over to visit family. But back in the 70s you didn't even need a passport to travel between Australia and New Zealand. So that doesn't count as my first passport stamp, so it was more like a family trip. So I think my first major trip comes into the next question. I think Okay, okay.

Speaker 1: 5:41

So you didn't get a stamp, but we'll count New Zealand. We'll count it as your first country that you went to. So the next question, and that segues very neatly into this one so the first trip, that really felt like an adventure.

Speaker 2: 5:55

Right. Well, I was 18, and this is with my friend that had inspired me with his Africa and Kilimanjaro. He was a partnership in a travel agency. Then I decided to do a six-month trip halfway around the world at the age of 18. I'd left school, saved up buckets of money and headed off blindly. I got a Circle Pacific airfare that just sort of went around through Asia and then through the United States and home via Hawaii. But I got over to the east coast of America and realised back in those days it was only $200 to get a cheap flight to London. So I did that, bought a Contiki tour and did a Contiki tour of Great Britain, and then all hell broke loose after that because I had a maxed out credit card. I ran out of money something fierce and I remember my mum once said to me don't ever forget the Salvation Army dear. And I went oh, don't be ridiculous. And I'm thinking, oh, I think that's looking pretty good, the old Salvos.

Speaker 2: 6:57

I had all my airfares booked and paid for to come home, but I was in London sleeping on the floor of a friend's room, as you do when you're 18, and I got kicked out because they found out. And so I'm travelling, walking down to Earl's Cork because that's where I heard all the Aussies were at 10 o'clock at night with all my bags. Here I am 18, didn't know where I was going, no money. I found a hostel and in those days you could use your credit card. You know the old, you do the swipe across and if it didn't reach their limit you could do a purchase, right. So I made sure all my purchases were like under $60. So I sort of went into a bunk bed for the night and then I begged a travel agent to try to get my airfares changed to get home. So all they could do is change my airfare from Hawaii down.

Speaker 2: 7:43

I was flying in on a Saturday morning and I just wanted to stay at the airport and fly straight home. I had nothing left, absolutely nothing, and they said no, but we can get you on a midnight flight Sunday night, so you've got one night to spend in Hawaii. So, okay, I can do this. I had $25 left and I knew it was $5 to get into Waikiki.

Speaker 2: 8:06

So I'm travelling on the $5 bus to Waikiki and I started talking to a German girl and we ended up sharing a room and both just getting on the local bus and, you know, getting sailors to buy us a drink, and I think at the end of it I actually got back to the airport on the Sunday night. I had $1 left, $1, and the big bloke out the front helped me get my bags in. I mean, I had so much luggage because I bought so much stuff, which is why I ran out of money, and um, anyway, he carried my bags in as a good porter and then he stood there with his hand out expecting a tip and us Australians you know we were- not really into tipping back in those days and I didn't know and I had one dollar left and I was in tears I haven't got any money.

Speaker 2: 8:48

And he nearly took it all the way out. This is midnight and I was just so exhausted and he didn't. I thank god. So I've still got that dollar note. I still kept it. Yeah, and we I made it home. Just yeah, it was miraculous to get home. I think now you know kids don't move out till they're 30. And look what we do at 18, running around London with my bags at 10 o'clock at night, with not a quid to my name.

Speaker 1: 9:12

You know and we didn't, and we didn't have mobile phones.

Speaker 2: 9:15

We didn't have any.

Speaker 1: 9:16

No my mum never knew where I was. She never knew what continent I was on. It was hilarious. I'd phone her up and she'd be like where are you now? You know, and, and it really was an adventure, wasn't it? It it was. I mean, some was fun.

Speaker 2: 9:28

Some was devastatingly hard, but I think there was a few tears. I used to write a journal and I had just stopped because it was just too depressing, but I did make it home and definitely I was always been an independent kind of person. But that really put the big girl pants on me and from then I knew I could do anything alone, never be a problem, just just go so. And then you do, yeah, yeah, you do so. Trevor and I we met it when I was 21, so, and then we're off to America within a year or so traveling, so he loves it as well. So I've met my kindred spirit oh, and that's perfect.

Speaker 1: 10:05

You've been together a long time as well, so we have. Yeah, you know so, so in in those many decades I'm not gonna say how many you've been together 37 years we've been together. Wow, I mean, that's that is amazing. So congratulations on that. Doug and I are 20 something, I think, now. So you've been lots and lots and lots and lots of amazing places in the world, but can you describe one place or moment and I know this is a really hard question, but something that just completely blew you away?

Speaker 2: 10:34

Yes, this is something that I told you about and you wrote it down. You went, I'm going to do this was the great migration of the wildebeest and the Maasai Mara, so we did that in 2019. So we got that trip in prior to covid, which was good and it was just incredible. We did a fly-in, fly-out camp, uh, where, when you land in this little tiny 20 seater plane, um, they shoo away the animals on the dirt landing strip just so you can land, and it was just incredible. And the august, september, is just the best time, because that's when they migrate up from tanzania. And, uh, we were in a jeep one day, you know, in your four by four, just waiting for a crossing for a couple of days. You were just you. You know you're following the herd. They go to the river and there's, like bbc, uh, national geo cameras set up in various spots because they know where they cross, they film it all the time and you know you get a couple of false starts and so about.

Speaker 2: 11:35

On the second day of this one, our guide said they're going to cross, they're thirsty, they need, they need a drink and they're going to cross. And it was just so exciting because you get there and park and wait and they'll all come down. They're coming down with thousands of um, I mean wildebeest, but thousands of zebras as well and um, but in the water you've got hippos, you've got crocodiles, you've got lions on point, and then you've got the marabou stork and the vultures. It's just amazing. And then they'll turn around and go back and you oh, they haven't done it, someone, they just spook and they all run away. So we were just paused up, you know, probably about a kilometre away from the river, and then we saw this big plume of dust and our driver just said they're going to cross, they're crossing. So we hightailed it across the plain and we got onto the dirt track.

Speaker 2: 12:22

At the same time we marry up to where they were running in a stampede and we come up the side, because we had to be on the road and they are on the side next to us and we've got an open top jeep, so I'm standing up filming it. And we were in the cloud of dusk. We had their, their, their snorting and their, their hoof prints, you know, just their thundering hooves. And we were in the stampede for a minute and then we sort of veered off around the corner to get to our spot by the river and then watched them all come down and sort of put on the brakes and then they crossed and we saw zebra get taken by crocodiles.

Speaker 2: 12:55

As much as it breaks my heart because I'm a horse owner, it's the circle of life. You know, a month later they'd cross and the crocodiles wouldn't even touch them because they've got a full belly. But we watched probably just about 2,000 cross at that time and three were taken. So you know it's a good chance of making it across. So that was exciting, that was just a wow moment, just an Attenborough moment and I love those things. We just love nature over humans.

Speaker 1: 13:24

And I know when you talked to me about this last time, I had the same reaction. I get goosebumps because this is something that is so high on my want to do list and I hope to do it last year and didn't get a chance, and I'm not sure about next year.

Speaker 2: 13:35

What we'll do in august, september, but as soon as I can it is absolutely one that I, I desperately want to do and as long as you get there in august, you will see it. And if you're going to go to africa, go at that time, if you can, and see that if you go down to south africa you're not going to see it. You got to get up to kenya. It's just incredible exactly.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Well, hi, hi, hi on my list to do. I guess the next question is a bit of it's kind of the opposite is is rather the is there any place that you visited once but you haven't felt the need to return to?

Speaker 2: 14:10

you know, we're very glass not even half full, we're full overflowing. We love everything, but there'll be some times where things can be a little bit difficult. So in 2017, we took our kids, who were 21 and 18, to china and uh, that was an experience. It was great to go there. It was great to see the wall and you know the usual places that they take you there, because there's only usual places you're allowed to go there.

Speaker 2: 14:36

But the thing was that we had to sleep at the airport because of delayed flights and cancelled flights on the way over and on the way back. You know, the moment there's a drop of rain, they just cancel everything and it was just a nightmare. The airports were crap and the sleeping. Our kids just had to sleep international at an airport for the first time. It was their first big trip. It was like it was my. I've never done that. I've never had to sleep at an airport before, and it was just hard work and as much as we really enjoyed it and we really enjoyed the people over there.

Speaker 2: 15:06

It was a fascinating country. We've done it and there's plenty more to see. You know, people could say the same about Russia, but Russia was fascinating and I'd love to go back one day. I'm glad we got to see Russia, but that's not like, oh, I wouldn't go back there. I would spend a whole three days in the Hermitage Museum. Just incredible, absolutely incredible. But China I think we touched on it and that's probably just enough for us and it's not like a place that you can just go backpacking.

Speaker 1: 15:36

You know, you can't even get on Google.

Speaker 2: 15:37

You can't even. There's no social media. You can't Google anything. It's just so still behind an iron curtain in a way. But I'm glad we did it and I'm glad our kids saw it and um, but that's probably that's the only one.

Speaker 1: 15:50

Everywhere else has just been fantastic I think, yeah, you're right, you go with the same. You go with that kind of attitude of um, you know, let's embrace what we come across, because you don't know what you're going to find, do you? When you get someone you know, it's always uh funny.

Speaker 2: 16:04

I remember when we were in Peru, we were in the main square and we had a little tour to go quad biking in Cusco and we had to get to the office to pick up the little minivan to take us up there. So this guy in his little taxi had to get us to this office and his clutch broke and so we couldn't go anywhere. So he opens the bonnet of his car, gets a piece of string, ties it to something, threads it through to his hands and he could start in second gear. But when he pushed the clutch and he had to pull the, the, the string and change the gears with a string, and we're screaming in the back, going, yeah, every time he got it and we got stuck in traffic. Oh no, they, oh no, they're going to hate us because we had to start in second gear.

Speaker 2: 16:49

It was fantastic and we gave him a tip just to buy some more string. At the end of it, gave him some money and said you know, you don't need a jack in the car, you just need a, you know, a bale of twine. And it was just adorable. It was just adorable, it was really cute. You know, you couldn't have done that if you had a you know a nice Uber or something, but that's.

Speaker 2: 17:08

Peru you know crazy roads and crazy drivers. It was hilarious.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Well, I'll be getting to. I have not as yet been to South America, so I'm very much looking forward to that later on in the year. Now, I know you like going to lots. There's so many places in the world we can visit. We know that, and I'm a bit of the mind at the moment of wanting to go to new places as much as I can. But is there a destination that you would return to again and again or have returned to again?

Speaker 2: 17:37

and again, mandy, there's one that we want to go back and even just live for six months or a few seasons, and that's italy. We um, but there's so many other places that are just begging our attention. Before that, I always say that there's a new favorite just around the corner. We're never ones. Oh, let's just go back to that hotel in bali and just sit by the pool and do the ones. Oh, let's just go back to that hotel in Bali and just sit by the pool and do the same thing. No, no, just.

Speaker 2: 18:01

We want new things all the time and as much as Italy is just begging for us to come back, it just has to wait. It just has to wait. What a few more things to tick off, a few more wild adventures first. But we do want to go back there and just stay in an Airbnb or rent something for a few months and then just use it as a base and just head off to the different regions. I'm going to go all over, from top to bottom, you know, sardinia and Sicily and Puglia, and all the way up to the Dolomites, isn't?

Speaker 2: 18:33

it yeah and the lakes, and I just love it just love it.

Speaker 1: 18:38

I might join you on that one as well, because I have to say that I'd like to spend a reasonable amount of time in in italy. I think it. There's just so much to do and see, and the food oh my god, I just have to. I'd have to be doing a little bit more exercise than I do at the minute if I lived there.

Speaker 2: 18:52

I have to tell you, and then you get a restaurant and the nonna will just fill up your glass of wine to the absolute brim, oh bless. And then when I remember we were in pisa and, um, we had like a little bit of a education in a restaurant about different foods and wines. And they came along and poured a wine, said this is the wine we drink before lunch. And I looked at my husband, it was like mic drop. I went trev, this is my kind of country. This is the drink that we had before lunch. Oh, I love it.

Speaker 2: 19:20

I do this five o'clock in the afternoon, business, not in Italy it was great.

Speaker 1: 19:26

Love it. That's a great attitude. I love that as well. Now, what about, um? Because you've been you've been to a lot of places that other people necessarily haven't been to. You do go to some lesser kind of lesser known places. Where is somewhere that you would say is a lesser known, maybe a bit off the radar, that you would recommend people consider visiting?

Speaker 2: 19:47

I had a good think about that because I I started thinking about things that they can't miss. You know, you, everyone needs to see antarctica in their lifetime. I hope, um, but that's not a remote. It is remote but it's not a weird sort of place, so I would say like an off the beaten path one.

Speaker 2: 20:06

I went to Mosaic last year and I did a horse riding safari for eight days on the beaches and that was incredible and it was a friend of mine just had asked me a few years ago, can you come horse riding with me? And I went sure, and then it came up, you know, very close to another holiday I'm sorry I'm racking off. So I took Trev over to Africa and we did Kruger first together and then my friend and I went to Mozambique and Trevor went up to Normandy and did his World War II exploration while I was cantering along the beaches and it was beautiful and it's cheap. But we didn't really get involved with Mozambique per se. You know you're not out there with the locals.

Speaker 2: 20:46

We were sort of in a nice little hut, little house and taken care of by this family that had rescued these horses from Zimbabwe in the whole. You know, when they had to relocate everything, all the farms, and they saved 104 horses and brought them up to Mozambique. So they started a riding school and a riding holiday place. So that was sensational and that was the most incredible sunrises on the ocean and the tides would go out and you're just galloping along the hard sand. It was incredible. It was a pinch me moment and we went snorkelling on these beautiful white sandy beaches.

Speaker 2: 21:23

It was yeah it was lovely, so I would definitely. And then other parts of Mozambique. They have the whale sharks as well, so you go swimming with whale sharks. So worth an explore and worth the effort to get there, I think. And then it's only just next door to South Africa, it's easy peasy.

Speaker 1: 21:44

I would say I think the only other people that I know that have been to Mozambique are actually friends of mine who live in South Africa who will go because the beaches are nice that they go up to Mozambique, but otherwise, yeah, that's an interesting one you brought up, because even though I lived in Southern Africa for quite a few years, I've never been to Mozambique.

Speaker 2: 22:00

Yeah, so we're going again next year too oh, we're doing yeah, we're doing a cruise from Cape Town um all the way around Africa and up to Mozambique, up to Mumbai and then across down to Singapore. So it's a massive trip, but we do call into um Maputo, which is like, well, it's not exactly beaches, but it's still. Trevor gets to land his foot in another country, and so we can be even Stephen, with the amount of countries that we've been to now oh yeah, can I ask you how what the number is?

Speaker 2: 22:25

I think we're in the 70s by the end of next year. We'll be into the 70s, um. So we've got. We've got three big trips next year and 26 countries, and 13 of them are new, which is pretty cool, so it's very easy to do. You know different places, but still the same country.

Speaker 1: 22:43

So we're taking off.

Speaker 2: 22:45

We're doing the five stands and we're doing Turkey and, yeah, we're doing some just massive cruises too. It's going to be exciting.

Speaker 1: 22:53

Well, I might see you, and I'm hoping to get over to the five. Stands next, that's August, actually next year. Well, we might see you in, I'm hoping to get over to the Five.

Speaker 2: 22:58

Stands next. That's August actually next year. Well, we're going in August.

Speaker 1: 22:59

I know we might see each other. Oh, don't be a Shut the gate Now. Is there anywhere that you have been in all the time that you've been travelling, where you felt more like a local than a tourist?

Speaker 2: 23:13

You'll love this England.

Speaker 1: 23:16

Yeah, I knew you were going to say that.

Speaker 2: 23:18

Really? Yeah, definitely, when you're a Commonwealth nation, it's just, it's so familiar and so homely. And we love the Brits. Trevor and I always pick up new friends, new British friends for our family. I call them my travel family tree and they're just the best. They've got the great sense of humour and my husband just loves a Sunday roast. He loves Devonshire teas. He loves food that he can just eat with a fork, you know. Or he likes mushy food He'd eat with a spoon. He's a fish and chips and mushy peas.

Speaker 1: 23:48

Mushy peas yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:50

He's a Yorkshire pudding, just puts the hand on one cheek and then just eats with the fork, and they'd be great. He on one cheek and then just eats with the fork, and that'd be great. He loves and we love it. We do love England and we love the countryside and it always fascinates me how small England is. Of course you know when you're in Australia you drive for three days in Western Australia. You're still in the same state and over there there's still so much space. It always amazes me that places that are so heavily populated still have so much beautiful countryside. And if you don't mind the narrow roads and you've got a bit of uh clout with your driving, I wouldn't necessarily having a 28 foot motorhome down the cornish roads.

Speaker 2: 24:28

Oh no, that would become a one-way road, wouldn't it? You get stuck between the stone walls. But we loved it, I could. I could easily live there and safely live there, and beautiful, and I even love you. Know, I love London. I love the cities too, as well as the countryside. And then, of course, my maiden name is Crawford, so I've got Scottish blood red hair and Scottish blood.

Speaker 1: 24:51

I was literally about to say you have red hair. Yeah, so you know your heritage is way is way back. Yeah, absolutely, I found the ruins of crawford castle while we're there.

Speaker 2: 25:01

It was very, very poignant moment. And old and old gravestones too. It was really cool. That's cool. That's kind of stuff I like. I love going through cemeteries old, old cemeteries?

Speaker 1: 25:13

no, are they interesting? There's plenty of them in the uk as well to go and explore, that's for sure. Now, what about um? One destination that you haven't yet made it to, and I know you've got a lot of plans next year, so I'm guessing one of the destinations may feature next year. But what is the one place like? For me, it's churchill in canada. I really want to go to churchill in canada and see the polar bears, so that's kind of my kind of elusive world that I want to go to. What about?

Speaker 2: 25:40

you, my elusive thing is the northern lights. I'd have to say that's my elusive. So I'm really hoping, because we're going to be up there in Alaska in late September. Um, I'm hoping, just with what happens. It's just nature. Northern lights happen all year round, it's just whether it's dark enough to see it, and um, but I follow this aurora watch and I get pings all the time and I'm going bugger off. I can't, can't see it. I'm in australia, I'm in northern australia, so, um, but I really pray to the, to the weather gods, that I want to see the northern lights. That would be, so that that could be anywhere. We didn't see them in svalbard, we didn't see them in iceland, so that could be anywhere. We didn't see them in Svalbard, we didn't see them in Iceland. So we're hoping Alaska. Yeah, that's my goal, that's the last thing on my mind.

Speaker 2: 26:25

Sorry, I had five things when I wrote down Kilimanjaro as number one, so this was nearly 20 years ago. Kilimanjaro was number one, machu Picchu was number two, so I did Machu Picchu for my 40th. No, I did Machu Picchu for my 50th, I did Kilimanjaro for my 40th. So I'm doing Everest Base Camp for my 60th, so that's in two years. So my list was Kilimanjaro, machu Picchu, the Northern Lights, swimming with a Great White Shark, and I think it was Everest Base Camp. So I've just a couple more to go a couple more to go.

Speaker 1: 27:01

Oh well, you're getting there. You're doing really well on that, I have to say. Um, now, I know we we chatted briefly before we started recording and you're kind of famous for your many, many tips that you can provide for travelers. But but, um, what would be the number one tip that you would share?

Speaker 2: 27:18

and I know this is really hard, but is there one you have well done I have and we use it all the time is take a photo of your hotel, outside of your hotel, and take a photo of the document um, so you can show a taxi driver um where to get back to. So, and even if you take a photo of your documents, they might not be able to read English, you know, especially if you're in Asia, the languages are so different but they'll recognise the outside of the building. So when we were in Japan last year, we were staying in a building that's famous because it's got a huge Godzilla on the side of the building. So I didn't even bother taking the photo, because I just said to the cab driver Godzilla, he goes oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:06

Godzilla, godzilla, and we miss the rapport that goes back and forth. I'm not just not taking the mickey out of him, it was just Godzilla building. Yes, yes, got it. You know. Take a photo of that. It's like that's easy. Just Godzilla building. Yes, yes, got it. You know, take a photo of that, that's easy. Even if it's next to your hotel, you can get back. So, and likewise on a cruise ship, take a photo of the name of the port, take a photo of your ship at the port, so if you're taking a public bus, you can get directions to get back. So I think that's a really powerful tip Always, always screenshots, always photos on your phone.

Speaker 1: 28:38

Yeah, I love that. I don't do that and I will be doing that from now on.

Speaker 2: 28:41

Yay.

Speaker 1: 28:42

Thank you, Mandy.

Speaker 2: 28:43

There, you go.

Speaker 1: 28:44

Thank you so much for joining me for this episode. I always love talking travel. We can talk travel till the cows come home, can't we?

Speaker 2: 28:51

Yes, we can Over numerous cups of tea. Oh yeah, my cup of tea has gone cold. It was more important talking to you, trace.

Speaker 1: 28:57

So has mine, but we can always go and make another one. We can go to you, but yeah, we will put a link into your website because there's still. I know you've got lots to write up. I know I've got to write Greece.

Speaker 2: 29:08

I've got to write Switzerland, prague, kruger, mozambique, and then we've got the next ones coming up. I'm going to be behind, but you know, I gave my brain a rest at the end of last year and I had to have surgery, so I had to catch up on a few things, yeah, but these.

Speaker 1: 29:23

Well, we'll put the link into your website anyway, because you've got loads of information anyway from all the amazing places you've already visited.

Speaker 2: 29:31

So lots, and lots to read there yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 29:34

But yeah, thanks so much, mandy, for coming on. It's always, it's always so great to chat to you anyway all the time.

Speaker 2: 29:40

Thanks, tracy, it's been a joy.

Speaker 1: 29:42

Thank you very much and that's a wrap for this episode of stamped. A huge thank you to mandy for sharing her travel stories and for reminding us all that adventure doesn't have an age limit. Be sure to check out her blog at spendingkidsinheritancecom for more inspiration and real-life travel stories. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or leave us a message at SpeakPipe just to say hello or, you know, if you'd like to be in a future episode of Stamped, get in touch. We love to hear from you. You'll find the show notes and links to Mandy's previous episodes over at GlobalTravelPlanningcom. Forward slash episode 68. But that's it for this week. Until next time, happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you.