About me

In December 2012, I left my job in a law firm in the City of London with a plane ticket to Bangkok, a backpack and a vague idea of travelling round the world. I planned to be away for three months, but three became four and four became six; and by the time I eventually got home, I realised I was not yet ready to go back to corporate life. So I didn’t. I went back on the road again.

I have travelled on all the inhabited continents, by bus, by train, by boat, by plane; and slept in the poky berths of sailing boats, shared dorms with snoring, farting  strangers, and cheap hotels with scuttling creatures, and camped in African national parks with lions roaring, baboons barking and hyenas laughing all around me.

I have mountain-biked down the World’s Most Dangerous Road, and quad biked through the Namib Desert. I was on Ko Pha Ngan for the Full Moon Party, and in Tokyo for the cherry blossoms. I have stroked tigers, held a koala and walked to within feet of wild rhino. I have been drenched by the spray at Victoria Falls and looked into the Grand Canyon from the edge of an outcrop. I have hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and seen Angkor Wat at sunrise.

I have eaten ceviche in Peru, pho in Vietnam, and mopane worms in Zimbabwe.

There have been frustrations and disappointments and worse on the way. I have been scammed, robbed and caught in two separate riots. But the highs outnumber the lows.

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Richard Senior

beatstheoffice@gmail.com

24 thoughts on “About me”

    • Thank you 🙂 I wouldn’t have been able to imagine doing it a few years ago; but doing all the things you’re supposed to do, being cautious, conscientious and thinking ahead just got me a job which ate up most of my time and managed to bore me and stress me at the same time, so I figured I would give living for the moment a go. From time to time, though, I panic and think oh my god what have i done; what’s going to happen in the future etc etc. But most of the time I think I did the right thing

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      • At the moment I am at school still, is there anything you would have done differently as a teenager to avoid doing a job you hated? I do agree though that you are doing the right thing because ultimately happiness is the most important thing, but as I said I’m probably not bold enough to ‘live in the moment’. Thanks

  7. That’s an interesting question. It’s hard to say for sure what I should have done without having done it, if that makes sense. Being a litigator in a big City firm seemed like a great thing to do before I actually did it. In any case, even if I could go back and advise myself, the 18 year old me wouldn’t take any notice. One thing I realised quite recently that I never did was to sit down and think about what was really important to me and what I could happily live without. I also – like most people, I guess – fell for the great myth that the more you earn, the happier and more fulfilled you will be. I know a lot of people who are “successful” but very unhappy. Also the thing I used to say to guys coming on work experience when I was a lawyer was not to rush into getting a “proper” job; try to get some time to live a bit first.

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    • I think I want to be a maternity doctor, because although it might seem a bit gross, i think if you did it everyday it would become normal, and because \i want a job that is rewarding and where \i can help people. Generally I find I am happy if others around me are happy and sad if others around me are sad. I written about this here http://shutupshopforgood.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/back-to-school-blues/ I would be really grateful for any comments and other stuff (I know this is really annoying, sorry!!). As I come up to making my GCSE choices though I am conscious that I will drop some subjects because i don’t really like them, and others because I have to and it sort of seems sad that I will have to potentially shut some doors in dropping these subjects. Although I want enough money to be able to live comfortably, I try not to focus on getting the most money I can. What do you think would really make you happy job-wise? i know you are having fun experiencing new things currently, but if one day you did do a ‘real job’ what type of thing would you want to do?

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      • My friend is a paediatric doctor and enjoys her job immensely. The politics, by the sound of it, are at least as bad as they are in the corporate world, but maybe that is true of any job. The money is good too – nothing like investment bankers get, but less stress and more security, a bit more than lawyers, a lot more than teachers. And in fact GP’s often are on banker money. I don’t know about medicine but for corporate jobs i don’t think the GCSEs and A levels you do are that critical so long as you do “serious” subjects and get good grades.

  9. Seems like you could be a contemporary Sir Richard Burton 🙂
    Glad to find the register of your travels, they show a person that travels with open heart and a reflexive mind, quite different to the traveler that just follows a staged program for vacations yours, imho, is the search for something inside you.. I’m sure they could shape a fascinating book.
    Suma waliki (very good! in aymara)

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    • I am back in the UK at the moment but planning my next trip (currently looking at China, Japan and South Korea). I admire people who stay away for years at a time but I need a break from travelling from time to time, strange it it might sound

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