GirlGI | Girl Gone International Issue 7 | Page 22

TRAVEL & ADVENTURE

TRAVELLING alone for a year completely changed

me as a person. I am more confident and have an
intense love for seeing new places and meeting
new people. Things that used to be important to
me, seem less significant after experiencing how
happy people are with just the basic necessities. I
don’t care about buying the latest phone or purse or
taking weekend vacations just to sit at the hotel
pool. I see ‘vacation’ as a month or two backpacking
around Asia, drinking tea and chatting with locals
in the street.

It’s not for everyone, but I’m so glad that
I found my passion – travelling the world with
optimism.

RTW TIPS FROM DANNI
1. Go with the flow

Flights get cancelled, trains are overbooked, shit
happens. Don’t waste your energy getting upset. Look at these situations as an adventure, and
an opportunity to discover something that you
wouldn’t have otherwise. My flight from North India
to South India was cancelled an hour before departure. I hopped in a tuktuk, went back to the hostel
and joined some new friends on an incredible 2
week trip through parts of Northern India instead.
I made lifelong friends and amazing memories!

2. Don’t make plans too far in advance
I booked my first RTW plane ticket from start to
finish before I even left the States. This meant I
had to backtrack to Africa a few months after I had
already been there to go on a camping trip through
Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. I thought it
would be safer to have my flights sorted but it
really limited my traveling. You will get invited to
travel with people, hear of new fantastic places that
you must see or fall in love and want to stay longer
in a certain place. Be flexible, book parts of your
trips one by one. You can’t even imagine the way
your journey will unfold for you.