On my first real trip into traveling the world, I went to New Zealand. On my first full night there, I ended up in a screening room to view the newest indoctrination, erm, introduction film of for prospective members of the Church of Scientology. I didn't look too closely, but I didn't think there was a door handle on the inside of the room. I was in a country half a world from home and I hadn't contacted anyone yet to let them know I had arrived safely.

Possibly, initially agreeing to the psychological assessment when I was approached by the man on the street was something not to do.

When I visited the Philippines three years ago, my Christmas present was to be drugged and robbed of a substantial sum of money from my bank account.

Possibly, I should have been more wary of the "nice people" I met in the park and I definitely should not have eaten the food they brought to me after having shown me around.

When I visited Thailand a couple of years ago, I paid a ridiculous amount of money (which amounted to only about 30 dollars) to take a river tour in Bangkok only to be left on a dock after visiting an ATM and have my tour guide disappear.

Possibly, I should have not followed the helpful fellow who approached me while I was walking and offered to show me a great place to take a river tour.

I don't like package tours. They are constricting and they are other people's ideas of what I want to see. Often it is not what I want to see, and when the tour passes something that I think I would like to see, it isn't on the itinerary. I prefer to make it up myself and see the things that I want to see. It probably takes more time to get around to where I want to go. There is probably more hassle involved. I definitely make lots of mistakes by doing it myself, and some of them are potentially dangerous.

But I find the rewards are tremendous. I have seen some amazing things and have learned a reliance on myself to sort things out. And I have learned a lot of what I am capable.

So while I hope to entertain with talk of what I have learned about what not to do, I hope I can also share the beauty of travel as well.