In 1927, at the age of 23, my grandmother boarded a boat to China following the man she loved to Shanghai.

The Inspiration Initiative
I’ve enjoyed reading other people’s recent posts about what inspires them to travel so I was delighted when both Suzanne from The Travel Bunny and Lucy from On the Luce nominated me to join in easyJet holidays’ Inspiration Initiative.

The idea is to write about ‘who, what, where and when’ has inspired you to travel and then nominate 5 other bloggers to do likewise. So here is just some of the things that have inspired me to travel.

Bubbling Well Road, Shanghai 1928 curtesy of Northampton Museum*

Who… Grannie
As a little girl I used to love listening to my grandmother tell me tales from her travels. Her fiancé had moved to Shanghai in 1925 to take up a teaching position. Two years later he sent for her to follow. I can’t imagine how my great grandparents must have felt about their daughter going off on such an adventure! The journey took weeks by boat rather than hours by plane as it would now and of course there were no mobiles, emails or skype to keep in touch with love ones.

They married in Hong Kong and then lived in Shanghai, where my father was born, in Bubbling Well Road now called West Nanjing Road.

Grannie’s stories about her life in China transported me to a world of haggling in the markets, holidays in Japan, visits to India and sailing on the Queen Mary. I remember laughing and squirming when she told me about her cook who had one really long finger nail; she was always telling him off because he used it to stir and taste his cooking! Last weekend I spoke to my father about what he remembers about growing up in China. I’ll share it with you in another post. It really is quite a tale.

What… Souvenirs and old films
The painted plates, vases and intricately carved furniture showing scenes of the orient that filled my Grandmother’s house in England fascinated me; pretty scenes of cherry trees in blossom, willow trees hanging over little bridges with figures in strange costumes. These and watching old films like Casablanca made me wonder what it would be like to go to far away, romantic sounding places like Timbuktu and Mandalay collecting exotic souvenirs as I went.

One of my photos of Kerala taken on my second trip to India with Annie. There are more photos on Flickr.

Where… India
Another person who was a big influence on me was Annie, one of the designers/photographers I worked with producing holiday brochures when I first started working in the travel industry. Every year we’d spend a few days together selecting images for the next seasons brochures. While there, Annie would also show me photographs of her big passion, India, telling me all about her travels. When she invited me on a trip to India I couldn’t resist. It is the most exciting country I have ever been to: the hustle and bustle of Jaipur, the calm serenity of the Kerala backwaters, luxury and poverty side by side, vivid colours and patterns everywhere. Over the next few years I found Annie an inspiration on many different levels and she encouraged me greatly with my own photography. I don’t think she has any idea just how much she influenced me, both professionally and personally. Thank you, Annie!

Here’s a link to another photo I posted from Kerala that had a few people hankering to pack their bags! Drifting along the backwaters of Kerala

Tanji fish market, a place I will take my friends to on their first visit to Africa

The Gambia
The company I work for now specialises in West Africa (amongst other destinations). I had only ever been to North Africa before so it has been wonderful to get to know another part of this great continent, in particular, The Gambia. Even though each trip is relatively short I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been and it has given me the chance to get to know a place in more depth. I now have many friends there and I’ve got involved with two Gambian schools. Back home I’ve founded a choir singing songs from around the world including many from Africa. We raise money to help the schools and some members of the choir now wish to visit The Gambia. So later this year we will be off. Most of them have never been to Africa before so it will be quite an adventure for them. I plan to make it one they will never forget!

One of my images of Corsica that I hope has inspired others to visit this beautiful island

Corsica
Another place I have returned to a number of times is the beautiful island of Corsica but I have yet to explore the interior. I’d love to take the train from Bastia to Ajaccio stopping off for a day or two here and there to enjoy the mountain villages and scenery. I’ve heard that the train ride itself is a real treat winding through the mountains, tunnels and gorges, at times hugging the cliff face, other times plunging into forests. At one point it traverses a valley via the enormous Vecchio viaduct, engineered by Gustave Eiffel. There is even a superb waterfall known as the bride’s veil which overhangs the railway before the train meanders through the lush green foothills to Ajaccio.

A few people have told me that my posts and photographs have inspired them to add Corsica to their ‘bucket list’ which is wonderful. I even heard today that my photos had inspired someone to buy a camera, which I was extremely pleased to hear!

When… Aged 10
My first journey abroad was at the age of 10, when my sister (aged 12) and I caught the ferry to France where we’d be staying with a French family for the week. It was very exciting being allowed to travel by ourselves on the ferry – not quite a “Slow boat to China” but an adventure non-the-less. It was a wonderful experience (apart from what looked like raw mince that they tried to feed me; I was somewhat less adventurous than I am now when it came to food!)

And now…
I’ve been blogging through ‘Travel with Kat’ since last September and I have really enjoyed receiving feed-back from fellow bloggers and reading their inspiring posts too. Suzanne from ‘The Travel Bunny’ has certainly got me hankering to visit Hoi An, Vietnam.

Lucy’s blog ‘On the Luce’ is another one of the many blogs I really enjoy following and I’ll be looking to her for some inspiration on my forthcoming weekend in Paris.

Recently I was lucky enough to meet and interview travel writer Frances Linzee Gordon. Her tales of travelling solo across countries such as Morocco, Ethiopia and Yemen are fascinating. She believes that you should never refuse an invitation while travelling. She goes by her instincts and uses her three-second rule of maintaining eye contact with a stranger to see if she thinks they are trustworthy. She is certainly a very inspiring lady! I have done some travelling on my own before but Frances has certainly spurred me on to step that little bit further out of my comfort zone. Perhaps I should now make the journey to Shanghai myself and walk down the street that was once called Bubbling Well Road. I wonder what my grandmother would make of today’s Shanghai. Yes, I really must go and have an oriental adventure of my own, walking in my grandmother’s footsteps!

My nominations…

Madhu, The Urge to Wander

David & Veronica, The Gypsy Nester

Sherry, Fabulous 50′s

Cynthia, Hapi Dayz

Jennifer, My Sardinian Life

Links

*Northampton Musem on Flickr

India photographs on Flickr

Gambia photographs on Flickr

Corsica photographs on Flickr

This week’s travel snap is an old photograph (taken on print film) at Dastkar, a women’s collective just outside the Ranthambore National Park in India. These wonderful ladies were busy making the most delightful clothes, tablecloths, napkins and wall hangings. I was keen to support them and couldn’t resist buying a beautiful green skirt and matching blouse, which was much admired by my fellow travellers.

We were visiting Ranthambore park looking for tigers but sadly all I saw of this illusive creature was a footprint. However, a Katherina Viridulus or ‘dappled green tourist’,  as it is more commonly known, could be spotted over the next few days frequenting a nearby hotel’s swimming pool.

I wore my new outfit just the once and it turned me green from head to toe for nearly a week!

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Many years ago I spent a wonderful couple of days floating along the backwaters of Kerala on a rice boat. For hours I sat and  just watched the world go by. As you can imagine I took many photos. Here’s one of my favourites.

In 2005 I visited India for the second time, not long after the horrendous Boxing Day Tsunami. I was travelling with a small group led by an amazing friend of mine, Annie. She is addicted to India and has a knack of finding the loveliest, sometimes quirkiest hotels and most interesting places to visit, some on the main stream tourist routes and others very much off the beaten track. By the end, I felt I had been on the adventure of a life time and I’ve many stories and photographs to share with you. India is a photographers dream and has featured twice already in ‘my travel snaps’. This week’s photograph is a reminder of a very special evening in a small village deep in jungle-covered hills of the Western Ghats.

Valentine’s day 2005, Thekkady, Kerala

After a lazy morning which involved a swim and some shopping (I’m not much into shopping in the UK but I turn into a shopaholic in India!) I meet up with the others from the small group I was travelling with for lunch. Some of them had gone for a walk in the jungle. They had been shown round a small village and we’d all been invited back  for dinner (I bet it was Annie’s idea – she could wrap anyone round her finger!).

That evening we clambered into the van and after a short drive we walked into the jungle. It was completely dark now and we had just a couple of small torches to light the way. I didn’t have a clue where we were going or what to expect when we got there but I had complete faith in our guide. Carol was getting a little nervous but I was excited!

I could see some lights in the distance ahead of us. A few paces further and I could make out some flickering flames. A small group greeted us as we entered the village and in the light of the flames of numerous torches they sang and danced for us wearing make-shift costumes and headdresses of leafs and anything else they could find. We were given a variety of cooked root vegetables on a banana leaf (some which were quite tasty and others a little hard to eat!) and the dancing continued.  The villagers said we would bring them great luck and seemed genuinely as excited as we were. They had never entertained westerns before like this. The only woman we saw was the chief’s wife peeping through a crack in the fence.

It was a really memorable evening and a wonderful contrast to a few nights before when I’d been dinning with the Raj of Thanjavur. I still can’t believe I spilt a bowl of soup over him… but that’s another story!

See previous travel snaps of the week Kat’s Travel Snaps

Over 1444 marble pillars, carved in exquisite detail, support this beautiful 15th century Jain temple at Ranakpur, Rajasthan, India (50 miles north of Udaipur). It is said that it is impossible to count the pillars and that no two pillars are the same. I hope this image goes some way to capturing the serenity of this stunning temple.

I’ve visited India a couple of times. It is the most exciting country I have ever been to and a photographers dream. On one occasion, while driving through Rajasthan, we saw a couple of herders with their camels by the side of the road. We asked our driver to pull over. A few photos later and exchanges of smiles and “thank you”s and we were on our way again. I was particularly pleased with this image of a young camel and one of the herders in his red turban, the traditional colour for shepherds.