Beyond the Brochure: Unveiling Hidden Gems

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Journeybound. Stories from overseas travel representatives dive into the heart of travel. Immerse yourself in vibrant cultures and experience the world from an entirely new perspective. Each week, we bring you riveting stories, unscripted moments and the incredible highs and lows from the lives of those who represent us abroad. These are the tales of adventure, lessons learned, and the transformative power of travel. Guiding us on this voyage are seasoned travellers, a man and a woman with stories from every corner of the globe. Wesley Baker and Miranda Kilstrom. [00:01:01] Speaker B: Hello, I'm Wesley. I've got with me Miranda, and today we're going to be talking about beyond the brochure and unveiling the hidden gems. [00:01:08] Speaker C: And this will be really covering some. [00:01:11] Speaker B: Of the hidden excursions and things like that that we've done over the years and places that we found, and we can sort of express the excitement of finding these. [00:01:21] Speaker C: Are you ok about that, Miranda? [00:01:23] Speaker D: Oh, absolutely, yes. Getting off the beaten path, that's what I used to really enjoy about my. Know, the days off adventures. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Indeed. Shall I start with one that really. [00:01:35] Speaker C: Kind of took my heart away, actually, and has lived with me for a long time? [00:01:40] Speaker B: It's a very unique one. It was in the Sierra Nevada mountains, just behind the Costa del Sol, and. [00:01:50] Speaker C: We were planning excursions at that time. [00:01:53] Speaker B: There was the standard ones that you always get, the traditional ones, but we were looking for something different and I'd spoken to the excursion management company that we were using. [00:02:01] Speaker C: I said, look, I wanted to look at something really different. And we went up into the mountains. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Just me and him, actually, and we were driving around all the different options. [00:02:13] Speaker C: That we came across. [00:02:15] Speaker B: He said, I've got a great idea for you, Wes, and took me down. [00:02:18] Speaker C: To this beautiful little cafe restaurant by this little river. [00:02:23] Speaker B: Small river, nice. [00:02:25] Speaker C: I can't remember the name of it now. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Anyway, and we went in there and. [00:02:30] Speaker C: He said, come on, let's go in the water. [00:02:33] Speaker B: I said, why? [00:02:33] Speaker C: He says, we're going to tickle trout. [00:02:36] Speaker B: And we went in there and we. [00:02:38] Speaker C: Were tickling trout in the river and trying to. [00:02:43] Speaker B: You basically put your hands in the water and the fish eventually come near. [00:02:47] Speaker C: You and come underneath, go over the. [00:02:49] Speaker B: Top of you and then you just gently lift up your hands and you start tickling them when you do that. [00:02:54] Speaker C: They stay there and then you pick. [00:02:56] Speaker B: Them up and throw them out. [00:02:58] Speaker D: And then you've got your tea, you got your dinner. [00:03:04] Speaker B: It was a fantastic thing. We went and we went around. [00:03:07] Speaker C: I think we went up to Rhonda. [00:03:09] Speaker B: Afterwards and we looked at other things I love. Beautiful, but we were looking at all those type of things and it was exciting, but the thing I liked about that one was. [00:03:18] Speaker C: And we actually made that into an excursion where we went with all these. [00:03:24] Speaker B: Historical things through the countryside and everything else. And it was probably my most favorite. [00:03:30] Speaker C: One to sell, to go on and to encourage people to book wasn't the. [00:03:36] Speaker B: Cheapest because I thought it was a real spanish experience. Everything we did on that particular excursion was 100% spanish, not false in any way. We even stopped off at a huge. [00:03:50] Speaker C: Great Bodiga winery place and they had 200 barrels, I think, and no one had ever finished all the way around it. [00:04:01] Speaker B: A lot of coaches came to that particular place, but you'd go around it and I don't know whether they were. [00:04:07] Speaker C: Doing that in your time, when you're in Ibiza and everything, but they used to have these smaller, you could taste them. [00:04:15] Speaker B: So people would try to go round. [00:04:17] Speaker C: And do the whole lot and no. [00:04:19] Speaker B: One would ever make 100 and something because. And of course it all get on the bus. [00:04:24] Speaker C: Totally paralytic. [00:04:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:04:28] Speaker B: But it was a very good trip and I think it was stopped, actually, surprisingly, it was stopped after a few years. I remember finding out it stopped and I think that's because I'd moved on and people weren't selling it in some way. And maybe the young reps that come. [00:04:44] Speaker C: In and everything else didn't see the enjoyment of that. [00:04:48] Speaker B: It wasn't the medieval night or barbecue. Do you remember the barbecue? [00:04:55] Speaker D: Yes. Cabaret nights, medieval nights, we had caribbean nights, we had all sorts of nights going on in various different places. [00:05:03] Speaker B: You know, it's the first time I. [00:05:04] Speaker C: Ever got drunk in a barbecue night. [00:05:07] Speaker B: I was twelve years of age. Twelve years of age. And it was terrible. It was a fun experience for me. But what it was is we had this barbecue and it's got nothing to do with being a rep, but I'll just tell you, does it matter? Massive, great barbecue, the music going, everything else. And in those days it was a. [00:05:24] Speaker C: Lot different to what it is now. [00:05:25] Speaker B: But you used to just hold up. [00:05:27] Speaker C: The bottle and then replace the bottle. [00:05:30] Speaker B: So I was sitting. We were all eating with our hands as well. I was sitting. Or was. It might be knife and fault, I don't know, I can't remember. I was too young. [00:05:38] Speaker C: I was twelve. [00:05:38] Speaker B: So I was sitting in the middle of my mum to my right and. [00:05:42] Speaker C: My father to my left. [00:05:44] Speaker B: Well, my mum was giving me orange squash or orange juice and Coca Cola. [00:05:49] Speaker C: And my dad was topping me up with wine, but my mum didn't know. [00:05:53] Speaker B: My dad was doing that, so I was down in that. My dad was, like, very merry chatting. [00:05:56] Speaker C: Away and he was tipping me up. [00:05:59] Speaker B: And of course I was having that. [00:06:02] Speaker C: I didn't notice anything about that. [00:06:04] Speaker B: But then I went to walk to the bathroom. As I was walking to the toilet. [00:06:09] Speaker C: My legs were going all over the place. [00:06:11] Speaker B: And I remember standing in the mirror thinking, oh, this is a really strange feeling. [00:06:15] Speaker C: Well, it was a little bit later. [00:06:17] Speaker B: I felt sick and I went out and I was very unwell outside this place, but that's before it finished. And my mum had this just showed you the british mentality in the 80s. [00:06:28] Speaker C: So I'm outside of being sick. My mum's got her arm around me. [00:06:33] Speaker B: And. [00:06:35] Speaker C: My father's probably still coming out. [00:06:38] Speaker B: Or whatever, but people were coming out to go to their coaches from all these different. All the different travel companies and they were seeing my mum and they thought we were, like, begging and they were going, oh, here's some money. We made about 80 odd pound in potatoes, because that's what it was, potatoes, not euros. And they were just giving them my money. My mom could have said no, for the boy. [00:07:00] Speaker D: For the boy. [00:07:03] Speaker B: I had all this spending money for my holiday. It was amazing. Anyway, that had nothing to do with hidden gems, but it's a listen story. Yeah, exactly. [00:07:14] Speaker C: Stories. [00:07:16] Speaker B: So have you got anything you want to anyone you want to share? Go on, then. [00:07:21] Speaker D: Absolutely. I always remember my welcome meetings in Ibiza, because I was in Ibiza in its heyday in the 90s when it was a lot of families, but there was also the big clubs. We have many mission and all sorts of things going on. But I remember in my welcome meeting saying to people, what did your friends say when you told them he was coming to Ibiza? Because we've got these families. And Carha was one of my biggest sellers because it's a nice, small island. But what I used to say to them is, don't follow a map, just get yourself out there, find the places. It's a small place and Ibiza's got over 100 little colors, like little clothes and things. So there's some amazing places you can go to and you can find a little color that you can have to yourself still, obviously off of August and things. But, yes, such a great place when you're talking about hidden gems going down back streets and things. [00:08:14] Speaker C: I bought this book, didn't I? [00:08:16] Speaker B: Which obviously people that are listening. Hidden beaches, Spain. Yes, I bought that yesterday, which has got a load of in there for Ibiza, actually. Which is quite amazing. I like valeric hidden coves. Actually, there's a lot, I've been to yorker quite a lot recently. Recently, since the pandemic. But I don't like going to the. [00:08:40] Speaker C: Large british orientated resorts. I like to go elsewhere. [00:08:44] Speaker B: And so I've actually been going up the. [00:08:48] Speaker C: I think it's the northeast. Yeah, the northeast area. Canyamel was where I've been staying, which is a small little horseshoe bay. [00:08:59] Speaker B: There was actually a crafty reason why I went there, because, as you know. [00:09:01] Speaker C: I'm a surfer and I got surf there. And rather than taking my normal surfboard. [00:09:08] Speaker B: I took an inflatable surfboard, which are quite rare. But, yeah, you can actually get them. And it was my kind of excuse. And I just remember saying to my. [00:09:16] Speaker C: Wife, well, I'll take this just in case there's any waves. [00:09:22] Speaker B: Knowing down, well, there's some very. Anyway, but canyon is a good surfing spot. So I thought, okay, I might be lucky. [00:09:32] Speaker C: And I was. [00:09:33] Speaker B: I've been there a few times now, and I've had waves there. [00:09:36] Speaker C: But the interesting thing was, the result. [00:09:38] Speaker B: Is really only French, Spanish and some. [00:09:41] Speaker C: German, but not many Germans. [00:09:43] Speaker B: Quite a lot of French and Spanish. But in the horseshoe bay, they have. It's not a massive bay, so don't get this illusion. [00:09:52] Speaker C: But because of where it is on. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Mallorca, they tend to have a lot of touring boats around the Mediterranean, touring yachts and everything come in there, catamarangs and stuff like that. And they stop there for a couple of nights. So you get people up from New Zealand that are traveling around the world, Australia, America, and everything, that are literally sailing around the world and have come into the Mediterranean, and they stop at. [00:10:11] Speaker C: This particular bay for protection. [00:10:14] Speaker B: That's really nice area, but around there. [00:10:17] Speaker C: Is lots of little know. [00:10:19] Speaker D: I love those places. [00:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I like to hire a car and go out and see things, which is quite. I tend to always get convertible, which is the last thing you should do. [00:10:29] Speaker D: When it's, gosh, absolutely. [00:10:31] Speaker B: 35 and you get sunburnt. [00:10:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:35] Speaker B: But, hey, it's a bit of fun. [00:10:38] Speaker C: Okay, well, I guess I've discovered quite. [00:10:43] Speaker B: A few hidden gems over the years. One of them, actually, another one, thinking. [00:10:49] Speaker C: About it, was Jerona in Catalonia. I went to Jerona to get my work visa or work thing Bob created. [00:11:02] Speaker B: And that was in 92. [00:11:05] Speaker C: I went there for that, and it. [00:11:07] Speaker B: Was only a day. And I was amazed by this beautiful little city that not many people go. Some people flew into Drona, have flown into Drona airport. Most people use Barcelona nowadays, but Drona is still there for, I think, Ryanair. I don't know whether they still fly there, but there used to be a. [00:11:21] Speaker C: Lot of charters went into Drona, but. [00:11:24] Speaker B: They never visited the. [00:11:28] Speaker C: Know. [00:11:28] Speaker B: I went to Drona and I really was impressed. [00:11:30] Speaker C: So again, I spoke to destination management. [00:11:34] Speaker B: Company that was dealing with excursions for us and they did it for multinationals because I was with cosmos then and so we shared, which I didn't really like, shared. Shared excursions with other companies. [00:11:46] Speaker D: Oh, I hated that. When the guides would speak about three languages and you'd be waiting for the bit that you understand. [00:11:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So I wasn't too keen on it, but they put one on for Jerona, which I was really pleased with because I spoke to them about it and it sold quite well, actually. [00:12:03] Speaker C: But it's a fantastic little city because. [00:12:06] Speaker B: It'S got a beautiful river through it and very old buildings, and it's just not quite what people expect when they've. [00:12:13] Speaker C: Come from the coastal beach resorts. [00:12:18] Speaker D: What's your favorite excursion to sell then? Wesley? [00:12:22] Speaker B: Just interrupting for a small commercial break and then we'll be straight back to the podcast. [00:12:28] Speaker E: Do you hear it? The world is calling. From untouched beaches to the heartbeats of age old cities, pure vacations is your gateway to authentic travel experiences. We don't just take you to destinations, we dive deep into their soul. Into their soul with expert insights, local secrets, and mesmerizing tales. Our online travel blog is your compass to the world's wonders. Pure vacations. Discover, explore. Be inspired. Your journey begins here. Visit purevacations.com. [00:13:18] Speaker F: Hi there, listener. I am a strawberry. Not an ordinary one, but a blue one. You are probably wondering why strawberry is talking through my radio. [00:13:29] Speaker E: Good point. [00:13:30] Speaker F: I have two questions to ask you. Do you feel like your posting on social media is draining you? Are you just too busy to have your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Twitter pages updated with creative content? If your answer is yes, luckily for you, I have a secret to reveal. As a listener, I have prepared a special offer to help you generate 18 months of creative social media content in under two minutes using your own generative AI from your existing content. Sounds juicy. Go to bluestrawberry app and grab your free trial blue Strawberry Manage creative social media posting the modern way. [00:14:20] Speaker B: God, that's a hard one. [00:14:21] Speaker D: Put you on the spot now, haven't I? [00:14:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:26] Speaker C: Your must do or favorite destination trips. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I like historical cultural stuff because I'm very much of a believer when you go to a country, even if you went to the Caribbean. I believe you should get involved in the culture. So I'm very much a culture. [00:14:47] Speaker D: The flavors of the country. [00:14:49] Speaker B: That is what I believe. And I believe as overseas reps, that's our job to do that. And unfortunately, I see so many reps just selling things like party on the boat. Now, it's different for you when you were club 1830, because I can appreciate your excursions. [00:15:05] Speaker D: No, we didn't know we had traditional turkish nights, but we also had a date at the hammam so that you could be interesting. The Turkish. Yeah, we had stuff like that. I think Turkey as a destination back then was less commercial than it is now. But we did have a little food, cultural things. There was no getting away from it. Even in your small hotels, the food would still be predominantly turkish. [00:15:34] Speaker B: You were there. [00:15:37] Speaker D: 93. So it was still a relatively new destination in 1994. [00:15:43] Speaker B: I was there. I put up a specialist. 93, 94, actually. I did. That's when I'd finished repping and I was contracting, actually, I was in charge of a travel company. So let's tell the full picture here. And I actually went. [00:16:00] Speaker C: Started off in Istanbul and flew down to Antalya and then I did Alania. [00:16:07] Speaker B: Chema and we were contracting there. We actually owned a hotel in Kema at the time. Not me personally, the company I was working for and then went round and then went all up the coast, so. [00:16:17] Speaker C: Ended up doing cash. Cowcan. Dalian, is it? [00:16:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:26] Speaker C: And then Oladenis, the Dalaman area, Bodrum. [00:16:31] Speaker B: Area, Turkatrez, just around the corner from Bodrum. I contracted some little nice little hotel rent at Turkatrez. Smaller place in those times. [00:16:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:40] Speaker D: A lot of pensions, as they were called. [00:16:43] Speaker B: Yeah. But that whole area has changed now from what? [00:16:48] Speaker D: Big hotels and things. [00:16:49] Speaker B: So I went up to. [00:16:51] Speaker C: I did that area as well. [00:16:53] Speaker B: We had a huge great five star. [00:16:55] Speaker C: The company owned at the time in. I can't remember the name of it. [00:16:58] Speaker D: So let's go back to the question. [00:17:00] Speaker B: Did you realize I did a very conservative MP, avoid the question, so I shouldn't be political? Yeah. [00:17:08] Speaker D: You swerved again. I did pick up on your swerving now. [00:17:15] Speaker B: Yeah, you did. You're a very good interview. [00:17:18] Speaker D: I'm going to tell you about mine, actually, then, because while you're thinking and swerving, it was working in Goa. [00:17:28] Speaker C: Oh, really? [00:17:29] Speaker D: Yeah. We had amazing program, excursion program. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Miranda in. [00:17:36] Speaker C: Sorry, I know. [00:17:38] Speaker D: Do you know what? There's a drink called Miranda and all the goan people thought it was hilarious that my name is Miranda and also Miranda is a portuguese surname. So you would go, like, past a doctor surgery and it was Dr. Miranda. Honestly, it was the joke of the season. And every welcome meeting, the little guy will come in and I was like, oh, gosh, here we go again. Everybody laughed because he's expecting. Yeah, yeah. We had an amazing trip program there, so we'd go really out of Goa. But one of my favorite trips to sell and the one that I actually got to go on because I used to sell it off the back of people telling me, it's called the Mumbai darshan. Now, that meant nothing to many people and I changed it to the Bombay. [00:18:28] Speaker B: I think we might have lost you a bit. Yeah. You phased in and out a little bit and then try it again just in case. I'm not going to edit that out. So if we did lose you, you came back, then listeners know it's a real excellent production. [00:18:49] Speaker D: I know, well, I am in a different country and time, you know, these things happen. But this particular excursion, I just wondered why I didn't sell any. And people used to ask me about it and I'd be like, oh, it's a train journey and this up to Bombay and stuff. And then I started to sell it and I just completely changed the name. I called it the Bombay Express. And honestly, it was my biggest selling trip. It was brilliant. And I did it myself afterwards at the end of the season. Just getting to experience the whole train journey through India. Of course, Mumbai being an amazing city to go and visit with so much going on there. It's a real hustly, bustly place. But for me, it was all about the train journey. I'm a bit of a train geek, I think, on the fly, but it was a sleeper coming back as well. And I was just amazing. It was just such a great trip and such a lovely experience to go cross country, get to experience a rail journey in India, but then also get to see parts of the countryside that you wouldn't see if you was flying because the train journey was, what, 13 hours, something like that. But it was just rest, recuperation, you got a bunk. It was one of my favorites, and to me, that was not as much of a hidden gem, but I think it was one of my all time favorites to sell. [00:20:09] Speaker B: I'm still struggling to think of my one. [00:20:11] Speaker C: I actually think, funny enough, it might be, and it's not a hidden gem, it might have been Barcelona, simply because it was a really fantastic one to sell. And I liked Barcelona. When I look back now, you know what? [00:20:31] Speaker B: I've spent an awful lot of time in around that area until we started doing this podcast. I remember how much time and how much I love that particular part of the world. But I think it was Barcelona. [00:20:42] Speaker C: It was one I enjoyed selling. [00:20:44] Speaker B: It would sell itself because everyone wanted to go there. [00:20:47] Speaker C: But I think I was very fortunate. [00:20:49] Speaker B: Because I was only in that region. [00:20:51] Speaker C: For a year, that particular time. [00:20:54] Speaker B: So to jump to number one for. [00:20:56] Speaker C: Me is pretty good. But we had the Olympics there as. [00:21:00] Speaker B: Well, so they had the Olympic park. [00:21:02] Speaker C: Being built going on. [00:21:05] Speaker B: They'd put 150,000 palm trees. [00:21:11] Speaker C: Into the city that they'd grown on, the canaries. [00:21:14] Speaker B: And everywhere else, and also in the Caribbean, I think. And they shipped them all over and. [00:21:18] Speaker C: They literally every single avenue, they were. [00:21:20] Speaker B: Creating avenues throughout the whole city, which are there now today. And people take for granted. They're walking around and say, oh, it's beautiful, all these trees and everything. Well, all those trees, majority of them were planted for the Olympics in 1992. [00:21:33] Speaker C: Interesting fact. [00:21:38] Speaker B: I guess also. [00:21:42] Speaker C: There were. [00:21:42] Speaker B: Some fantastic ones in the churches, very different, the churches off of Moscow, Red Square and then going up to Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. Of course, I don't really want to focus on those ones, so I would have put those ones up the top. [00:21:58] Speaker C: As well, but I won't because the current climate, if you don't mind, I'm. [00:22:03] Speaker B: Going to be a little bit political there, but I don't believe what's going on. [00:22:07] Speaker C: But I would say certainly they were. [00:22:12] Speaker B: Fantastic to see the summer palace and the winter palace. [00:22:16] Speaker C: They're full of gold. [00:22:17] Speaker B: Miranda, you walk in the ceiling. Have you been to them? [00:22:20] Speaker C: Have you seen them? [00:22:21] Speaker D: No, I haven't. I've seen pictures, seen pictures. But. [00:22:27] Speaker B: You could actually. I don't even know if that boat still runs. But there used to be a boat from Helsinki all the way into St. Petersburg. [00:22:38] Speaker D: Absolutely. Clearly. [00:22:40] Speaker C: 4 hours, 8 hours it was, yeah. [00:22:45] Speaker B: Before the war, you could actually go there and you could get a two day visa so you didn't have to go through the whole rigmar or get a visa for Russia. You could literally catch the ferry there. And on the ferry, as you come off the ferry, they'd give you a two day visa. And your two day visa did let you travel around the whole of Russia, but you can't because of the size of it. So you just stay in St. Petersburg. But it was interesting. [00:23:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:07] Speaker B: Anyway, off the beaten track, you've done quite a lot. You went to Goa, you must have done some really off the beaten track experiences. [00:23:16] Speaker D: We had some amazing things like staying in. Like I remember staying these beach shacks down in the south of Goa, but they were like old colonial tents. And you had this little. Oh, they were beautiful. We had this little lagoon all to ourselves. Chef would come in and cook. We'd cook on the campfire and things. The beds were actually made of, you know, like the ox pulling truck trailers. What's the word I'm looking for? From Rajasthan? [00:23:47] Speaker C: That's it. [00:23:48] Speaker D: And the beds were made of that. And just. I always used to say to my guests, if you've ever seen the movie carry on up the Khyber when they're in the colonial tents, it's just like that, and it's just stunning. And then we also had a trip called the jungle tour, and that is where we went into the hills. And we were stopping in these old huts that didn't have roofs on, the bathrooms and things. The beds, everything was made from the ground, so it was like a mud hut. And in the morning we'd be bathing the elephants. We'd go into the village in the nighttime, meet the local people, learn, know how cows are treated in India, because, of course, they're a sacred animal. How they would have a calf in the corner of the room where we would have a dog in its basket, they'd have a calf in the house because it was safe and it needed to be protected. Just some amazing, amazing experiences. And then, of course, working in Cuba as well. Some great. [00:24:43] Speaker B: That must have been incredible. I feel I've missed it now, really. Although Cuba's changed quite a bit now. [00:24:53] Speaker C: But I was kind of used to. [00:24:57] Speaker B: Communist type of things, so I spent. [00:24:59] Speaker C: A lot of time in Czechoslovakia, Poland. [00:25:01] Speaker B: Yugoslavia, places like of. And Cuba was one on my list. [00:25:06] Speaker C: And I wish I'd gone earlier. [00:25:10] Speaker B: You've seen all the old buildings, all the old cars and everything. Yeah. But I think it's changing quite a bit, though, isn't it, since Castro's gone? [00:25:17] Speaker D: Yes. [00:25:18] Speaker B: It's not the same everywhere. [00:25:21] Speaker D: Time moves on, doesn't it? [00:25:23] Speaker B: I think Americans were able to travel and then they've been stopped again. But they were able to travel there. [00:25:27] Speaker C: For a while, wasn't it? Weren't they? [00:25:29] Speaker D: We had some come in Via Mexico and stuff. It obviously wasn't very safe for them, but, yeah, a lot of Canadians and Argentinians, of course, with the Guevara connection we had Argentinians. [00:25:44] Speaker C: I didn't know. [00:25:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that's interesting. [00:25:45] Speaker D: Argentinian doctor. [00:25:47] Speaker C: So what would be an excursion in Cuba? [00:25:51] Speaker D: Well, I was in Varadero, so I was about an hour and a half from Havana, so that was a huge one. Everybody went to Havana, wanted to go. [00:25:57] Speaker B: Was the main one. [00:25:59] Speaker D: Yeah, the main one that we'd sell. But we also had some little plane excursions as well, down to some islands down the south. And I loved those. I went on one of those, and it's like a twelve seater plane. And the pilot shakes your hand as you go on, and then he gives you a suite before you take off. And we'd fly down into these beautiful islands. [00:26:17] Speaker B: But not a parachute, where. [00:26:20] Speaker D: No, we would land on a Runway. [00:26:21] Speaker B: Have a suite. I've got the parachute. You can have a suite. [00:26:24] Speaker D: Yeah. Honestly, the plane tilted. You'd have to walk in. It was one of those planes that tilted and the little propellers would start off and you'd be like, oh, my word, what have I done here? But then also we had this tour over the east side of the island, and that was in a place called Trinidad. Trinidad in Cuba is actually a UNESCO site. So it was absolutely stunning. And we stopped there overnight and we'd go into the hills and we did tours of them, like mountains and stuff, with a guide. So there'd only be, like four or five of you on this. And oddly enough, we would be driven round in old russian trucks and things so literally, like, piled onto back of these mean, I presume they probably don't do these things now or they've not got them, but, yeah, really amazing. And Havana, if you look along across, there's a viewpoint from the opposite side, and if you look up to the malacon, you can see old Havana and New Havana, and there's literally like a line down the middle. You can see exactly how it's formed. It's an amazing place to go to. And when you were talking about off the beaten track there, I remember going to Havana to meet flights, and it was just like a sea off, but they wanted somebody there. And our man in Havana, as we called him, he wasn't very well. So I took a taxi over to Havana, and on the way back, I got chatting to the taxi driver, and he wanted to improve his English and I wanted to improve my Spanish. So I said, look, don't take me the easy way. [00:27:50] Speaker C: Take me like you. [00:27:51] Speaker D: I like to get into the villages. See, the real was we. This one and a half hour journey became a four hour journey on the way back because we did, like, a tour of all these different places and explained to me the history. And that's something that's really etched in my memory, is going into the proper towns, because Cuba is very much that Castro in those days kept it separate. You was in Varadero, which was anywhere in the Caribbean, a row of hotels on a peninsula, and then there was even a checkpoint at the entrance to that. So you'd have to show your papers that you worked in tourism to even enter there. So it was lovely to get to see the real Cuba with a real Cuban. So, yeah, really great experience. One that go down in my memory. Yeah. [00:28:38] Speaker C: Really interesting. [00:28:39] Speaker B: No, I like that sort of stuff. That sounds like a real hidden gem. You've actually just sold it to me. [00:28:47] Speaker D: Sign you up. Sign you up. And what about the Bombay Express? Do you fancy that as well? [00:28:52] Speaker B: No, I'll probably get deli belly if I went somewhere like. [00:28:56] Speaker D: No, never got deli belly. [00:28:58] Speaker B: Did you know, I've always wanted to go to India on my task because my father. It's not my father. My grandfather served in the northwest frontier. [00:29:10] Speaker C: As it was called in World War II. Yeah. [00:29:13] Speaker B: Yours too. [00:29:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:15] Speaker B: So he spent most of world War. [00:29:17] Speaker C: II in that area. [00:29:19] Speaker B: And he was with the horse guards, artillery and everything, I believe. And so he was in all the outfit that they wear, like in London, that you see them in all the outfits when they do the stuff for the royal family. But, yeah, so he did that. [00:29:37] Speaker C: I'm trying to actually just diversify. [00:29:40] Speaker B: I'm actually trying to trace down his war records and everything at the moment to find out exactly where it was. But I'd love to go and see exactly what he did and where he was. And did he go into Burma and places like that as well? Yeah, so I'm sure he was. That's exactly why, I think my grandfather ended up. I know what my other grandfather did. [00:30:02] Speaker C: He studied in Africa and he ended. [00:30:06] Speaker B: Up being in kind of like the. [00:30:09] Speaker C: SAS type thing because it was being. [00:30:11] Speaker B: Formed, as you know, in World War II. Gradually it was a lot of different organisations forming into one. [00:30:15] Speaker C: And he ended up. [00:30:16] Speaker B: It was behind enemy lines a lot in Africa and fought warmer and all that. And then they went over to Italy, in Italy. [00:30:23] Speaker C: And then he came back after a. [00:30:27] Speaker B: Mission in Italy, and he got pushed over to Yugoslavia. They walked back. They just got back after being behind enemy lines. And there's another story there, which I'll share privately, which is very funny. [00:30:41] Speaker C: And his commanding officer said, benjamin, he said, ben Benny, or whatever they called. [00:30:49] Speaker B: Him, and they said, grab your gear, we're going on another thing. He said, well, I've been out for seven days. And he said, no, grab your gear, we're off. Didn't know where they were going and it was only when they landed, he said, we're in Yugoslavia. And they were dropped off and they fought in Yugoslavia behind enemy lines and there was only like 200 british soldiers there at any one time. And he was on the islands and everything else. So that was my attraction to Yugoslavia and Croatia. Fantastic. So for most of my life, I grew up being connected with the british yugoslav society, which was formed for people that have been served in Yugoslavia and their families. And one particular incident, we were at one dinner and this old chat was with my grandma and my mum and dad, and this old man came up to my grandma and hello, are you Benny Webb's wife? And she. Yes. Oh, I met him. I went with him and he was crazy. I won't use the words he was crazy. And apparently he drove the boats once in this mission and there was eboats firing at the minute. Anyway, I won't get onto this because it's totally different subjects. Honestly, I'm like a wicket. I'm all over the place. But I have stories. Yeah. And I find historical stuff really interesting and it's great. Well, on that diverse, I think we'll. [00:32:19] Speaker C: Call this episode to an end. [00:32:22] Speaker B: And this is the second to last one of this series. The next one's coming along, which will be lessons from the road, which I'm looking forward to. [00:32:33] Speaker C: Until then, let's say goodbye to the listeners. Goodbye from me. [00:32:37] Speaker D: Goodbye. [00:32:38] Speaker C: Yeah, me too. [00:32:44] Speaker A: As we wrap up for another episode of Journeybound stories from overseas travel representatives, we're reminded of experiences and adventures that connect us all. The world is truly an expansive place, yet stories like this bring us closer together. Join us again next podcast. More captivating narratives from across the globe. And until next time, safe travels, wherever your journey may take.