Travelling With Your Partner

(Picture by Richard Huckvale)

So as you can imagine we have met a lot of people so far on our travels, mostly solo travellers who have made friends along the way or groups of friends who have decided to see the world together. We have only met the odd one or two couples and we get asked the same question all the time!! "What is it like travelling with your partner?"

My answers to this question is always the same, "It's AWESOME" I get to see the world with my best friend my partner my soul mate. I get to see some of the most amazing places and experience some of the wonders of the world with someone right by my side. I mean it's all well and good seeing the sun set at the beach or walking The Great Wall of China or touching the marble walls of The Taj Mahal but doing these things with someone you want to spend the rest of your life with means that we will forever share these memories and relive these moments.

Obviously evening is more expensive and booking popular hostels can be a pain when there is only one bed left but other than that there are no issues, we both wanted to do this we both wanted to see the world and we both want to get the best out of the experience. We have our little arguments when stuff goes tits up but you'd do that with your mates so again it's no different.

We have slept in dorms and booked private rooms depending on price, some hostels are the same price for a private room as it is for 2 beds in a dorm, sometimes we just want our own space with our own bathroom and sometime we want to chill with others and share the backpacking experience with everyone. The main plus side is we get each other, although we are both more than capable of making new friends and having conversations with others we don't have the stress or worry of whats going to happen at the next place, or I don't fancy going there on my own. We can literally pic a place on the map and go providing there are 2 seats on the bus or plane that is.

We have been travelling for just over 3 months now and so far there has been no major issues but when the odd little thing has gone wrong and we've had our little stress and moan about it, we have each other so one of us will always be in a situation where we can tell the other to stop stressing lets go get a beer and work out what to do. We can do this and just get on with our day.

We had one girl ask us whats it like when you see other people you find attractive??? yes there are attractive people in the world and just because we have both ordered out food doesn't mean we can not look at the menu but in all honesty I know I won't find anyone like Lauren and she dame knows she's hit the jackpot with me so there has been no issue there either and that can happen in your local shop if your in a relationship so travelling is no different.

We have been together 2 years and we have lived together for most of that, I couldn't bloody get rid of her once she saw my apartment in East Didsbury, so travelling the world is no different to us than being at home. There have been times on this trip we have done things separate when we have met people and times when Lauren has her daily afternoon naps I have a wonder to find somewhere for us to go and eat that night or go the next day.

We keep each other on our toes but above all we have a laugh together, we have done that since we met and it's not going to change now even if we are spending pretty much every second of everyday together, believe it or not you can still have space when you're in the same room, there has been times Lauren has been drawing or writing while i watch a movie or times when I've been blogging or playing football manager while she listens to her podcasts.

It's all about keeping it real and knowing that no matter what we are in this together through the good and the bad if that every happens. We both saved up our own money but we have just been using the money we have and when we run out we take it in turns to get money out. We are not counting the pennies or arguing over who bought what with who's money, we don't see the point in that because over the course of the trip it will even itself out as we both had the same amount of money saved.

We look at places to go together we look at places to stay the night together and once we find somewhere we both like we go or we book it. It really is that simple we do things together we are a team and we have always been a team.

So there is no issue from us about travelling together I am sure it either makes or breaks some couples but we are just enjoying the ride and seeing where it takes us and then when we are old and pissing ourselves in a rocking chair we can reminisce about the time we travelled the world and experienced so much that we never wanted it to end.

Take Care

Richard

P.S. She does my head in at times but I know I do hers in too so we are all good :)