7 Life-defining travel moments

A couple of years ago, I learned that couscous is pasta. Not an ancient grain like quinoa or sorghum. If you know me, or have traveled with me, you’ll understand: I could not handle this revelation. I felt like I had been lied to my entire adult life. Everyone else moved on. I spiralled.

I went on a deep dive into what makes pasta… pasta. The different types. The origins. Gluten-free alternatives. For days. And while this story has nothing to do with travel, it reminded me of something I often say:

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Which brings me to this list. These are seven travel moments that completely couscoused me—times I was bamboozled by something so obvious, so transformational, I had to pause and question everything I thought I knew. These aren’t ranked, just listed in the order they happened.

These are the seven times I have been couscoused by my travels. In other words, my seven life-defining travel moments. And to be clear, I love these moments and I cannot wait to be couscoused again. This is listed in chronological order not in order of importance:

1. Mozambique (2009)

After a 36-hour transit from Australia to Mozambique, I arrived for 30 days of my dive master course. I will not get into some of the best scuba diving I have ever done here, but I will get into my fashion sense. Tofo was in its infancy of becoming a scuba diving mecca and hotspot in 2009 and I was happy to be amongst it. It was my first time in Africa and when I got to Mozambique I was really enthralled by their bright colours and textiles and how the men and women of this little beachside village threw an outfit together.

One of my big regrets was not bringing some African prints home. But I did bring home a sense of style. What I learned was that it was not so much what you wore but how you wore it. It wasn’t about brands or trends; it was about expression. That mindset changed how I saw clothing—and style—as a traveler and a person.

2. Cruising around French Polynesia (2014)

Living on a sailboat for 21 days taught me more about sustainability than any book or course ever could. You learn to measure energy by solar panels, water by rain, and waste by what you can carry.

That trip shaped the direction I wanted Chicken Feet Travels to go. I learned to read more, to sleep better, and to use less. We didn’t have a backup generator or a fancy system. We had wind and sun—and it worked.

Everyone should live on a boat at least once.

3. Diving in Wakatobi (2015)

A dive instructor friend called and said, “Come to Wakatobi. It’s three weeks. Bring peanut butter.” I said yes without questions. Mistake #1.

Food was…limited. I learned I never want to see eggplant again unless it’s miso-glazed and Japanese. Oreos and peanut butter became luxury rations.

But the coral reef? Magical. The students? Determined. The lessons? Endless. I returned years later, better prepared, but still awed by the life underwater and the stories above it.

I learned a lot about myself on that island. Mainly, as much as I eat to live and not the other way around, food is important to me. Secondly, daily showers are optional as long as you don’t pee your wetsuit. I forgot to mention that fresh water was also limited. And mostly, the good always outweighs the bad. I was there to instruct, so dive sites were limited. And even then, their house reef was spectacular. Wakatobi is so rich with life that when you go out for a sunrise dive, you can see the little glints of blue, like stars in the sky, which means phytoplankton everywhere, the bottom of the food chain feeding everything above.

4. Ho Chi Minh Highway, Vietnam (2016-2018)

I’ve motorbiked across Vietnam multiple times, but everything changed when I decided to travel with a local guide.

Traveling with a local guide on the HCM Highway brought the stories of Central Vietnam to life. I met people from ethnic minority tribes who generously shared their language, crafts, and perspectives.

I learned that the ethnic minority tribes, famously in the North, are also dotted all along the HCMH. There are 42 recognised ethnic minority groups, and more than half are found in Central Highlands, all speaking different languages with their own customs.

This was another moment that really taught me that I had evolved as a traveler once again. I was ready to learn more about my very very distant heritage, keep digging for more oral history and folktales and then try my best to conserve any of it.

Then along came Kon Tum and that’s a story for another day. It’s a good one.

I finally understood what it meant to travel with a place, not just through it.

5. Nam Et Phou Louey (2018)

A trek in one of Laos’ remote national park, Nam Et Phou Louey, taught me that even with all the research, there are still places untouched by the internet or guidebooks.

A porter casually shared that of his eight children, five had died—too far from hospitals to access treatment. That moment broke something open in me. I realised, viscerally, how travel—done right—can directly support healthcare access, education, and dignity.

This trek still fuels everything I do at ChickenFeet Travels.

The reason why Chickenfeet Travels stands apart from any other travel company is because despite all the research that you do, there are still local secrets hidden away from the Banana Pancake Trail. If you do not know what to put in Ecosia, how do you get the results that you did not know you needed.

6. Alor Island (2018)

A friend started a dive centre in Alor and I had to go out there to support them. And oh boyyy were my expectations blown out of the water. It was around this time that I truly fell in love with the diversity of culture in Southeast Asia. When I arrived, it was like I arrived in the South Pacific islands; I was surrounded by beautiful people with curly, wavey hair. I did not do any research about the place until I got there, and when I started to pull at that thread, I could not stop. There are over 1300 recognised ethnic groups in Indonesia. And then when I started to research more about the rest of Southeast Asia and their specific woven patterns and the very specific ways they shape their homes, it was like falling in love with travelling once again.

7. Traveling Alone in general (2008-present)

Solo travel shaped who I am. Bus, boat, motorbike, sailboat—I’ve done it all alone.

It taught me to ask the right questions. To be quiet when I didn’t know the words. To wait for people to come help me, show me around, and open their homes to someone who just wanted to see.

I’m still amazed by the stories I get to hear and the relationships I get to build. That’s the magic of being alone but open—what you lose in certainty, you gain in connection. I was lucky enough to have started before the smartphone boom, when we had to talk to strangers at bars and bus stops to get the best information. I learned how to be patient and wait for the right people to come help me and show me the best parts of their hometowns. It surprises people that after all these years, I only speak American (currently learning Bahasa Indonesia), but so much is said without words.

Travel teaches in ways you don’t expect. Looking back on these moments, I’m reminded that even now, I don’t want to stop being couscoused by the world. And for the record: if you are gluten-free, you cannot eat couscous; choosing a couscous salad to be “healthy” is not real; and lastly, to be super clear, couscous is literally tiny, tiny balls of pasta.