Travel can teach us many things - about a destination, about other people and about ourselves.
JEREMY WADE
Travel has taught me to say "hello" in something like 30 languages. Bonjour, ola, namaste, ni hao, zdrastvooiytee, szia, mbote, marhaban, bula, sawubona, selamat pagi, dobryj den, molo, ra-reri. . . . It's effort that's always repaid.
On top of that, in places where the land is next to water, I've found that fishing is a universal language – a shared interest that opens doors. And when bad things happen (a plane crash, malaria, getting arrested for spying) I've learned to redeem them by writing about them, by turning experience into lessons and stories.
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Advertise with NZME.Lately, I've also learned to embrace a new bonus of remote travel: the mental detox that comes from being outside the range of phone signals and Wi-Fi.
And a small thing that's big: I've learned to take special care of my feet. Dealing promptly with scratches and wrinkling beats being immobilised by a tropical ulcer or trench foot.
Jeremy Wade's Dark Waters screens on Mondays from June 3, 9.30pm on Animal Planet, SKY GO and OnDemand. Jeremy's book How to Think Like a Fish is out now.
