Meet a traveller: Bernadette Jedlinski, 100 countries (and counting)

It’s our global community of travellers that makes Lonely Planet awesome, and we never tire of hearing about your travel adventures.

So when we saw this photo of Bernadette Jedlinski’s incredible collection of Lonely Planet guides, submitted to our Facebook album, we had to hear more. Bernadette works for an airline and lives in Brisbane, Australia – when she isn’t flying out to far-flung locales – and she was kind enough to share her life in travel (and some penguin photos) with us.

Bernie loves getting to know people when she travels, but enjoys meeting the local wildlife too. Image c/o Bernadette Jedlinski.

Where was your last trip?
My last trip was to Belarus. It’s a challenging country for non-Russian speakers to explore, but its evident history of the Soviet era makes it a unique European destination to visit.

Where is your next trip?
I’m very excited about my next trip; it will be to my 100th country. I’ll be spending it in Portugal and then Switzerland. In both countries I will be staying with friends I have met whilst travelling. Shortly after it will just be my Lonely Planet guide and I backpacking through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

What is your first travel-related memory?
I didn’t start travelling until I was 18, but my curiosity with travel began at the age of seven when I started collecting travel brochures and pamphlets. I remember storing them in folders and flicking through them while imagining all the exotic places I wanted to visit. Today I still think that half the fun of travelling is reading up on the destination, and learning about the sights to see.

Aisle or window seat?
For short haul I prefer the window, but on long-haul flights it’s the aisle. I like to drink lots of water on the flight.

Do you have any travel habits or rituals?
Whenever I first arrive in a country my ritual is to spend the first day just walking around seeing what the locals are doing, starting conversations and getting a feel for the country. I am also in the good habit of learning ‘hello’, ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ in the local language on the plane/train/bus before my arrival.

Favourite city or country or region?
This is always a hard question to answer. I like different countries for different reasons. My favourites are Japan for the food, Europe for the cities, the British Virgin Islands for the beaches, Antarctica for the scenery, North Korea in terms of uniqueness and the Philippines for the friendliness of their locals.

Bernie came across this rather unique zebra crossing whilst on safari in Tanzania. Image c/o Bernadette Jedlinksi.

What is your best or worst travel souvenir?
I rarely buy souvenirs, but one thing I do collect is the local currency. My favourite is my 1 ngwee coin from Zambia. The ngwee coins are rarely used today as the exchange rate is US$0.000002 to 1 ngwee. I went to a local marketplace in Livingstone and asked around for some coins, everyone was searching and about an hour later a lady selling hardware items found one. I paid her $2 for it. She was very happy with the exchange rate!

What is the best or worst piece of travel advice you’ve received?
The worst travel advice I receive is from people telling me not to visit somewhere. I get this in relation to cities people don’t like, sights assigned as boring or places deemed unsafe. Travelling is a personal thing and should be treated as such. I like to experience, and judge things for myself and often find this advice unfounded.

What’s your biggest travel fail?
My biggest travel fail would have to be not wearing supportive enough shoes for my trekking holiday in Madagascar. This, along with my lack of co-ordination in a wet and muddy rainforest, resulted in a broken foot five days into my 12-day tour. Given the lack of medical facilities within the southern region of this country our guide sought advice from a local healer, who told me to put honey on it and get a massage. My chances of contracting malaria shot up from the honey and I had to keep rejecting the massage for the remainder of the trip. I continued without painkillers, crutches, or plaster for my foot and now travel with expensive, yet supportive, footwear.

Quick, an asteroid is going to hit the earth in one week! Which is the one travel dream you’d rush to fulfil?
I’d be on the first expedition ship in Spitsbergen. I would love to see polar bears in the wild.

What advice would you give a first time traveller?
My advice is start up conversations with the locals. I’ve been invited into homes for traditional meals, slept in local housing and even attended a wedding after striking up a conversation. Oh and wear supportive shoes when trekking!

If you want to read more, check out Bernadette’s brand-new travel blog.

Meet a traveller: Jessica Crouch, Lonely Planet Online Editorial team member and overland travel enthusiast

We get some of our best trip inspiration by chatting to fellow travellers. We caught up with Lonely Planet’s very own Jessica Crouch, part of our Online team and a tireless overland traveller, to pick her travel brain.

Jessica during a Spanish sunset. Image by Jessica Crouch.

What is your first travel-related memory?
Being introduced to the pilot in the cockpit of a Melbourne–Sydney flight when I was about four. He didn’t seem to be doing very much, it was confusing.

Where was your last trip?
Overland from Hanoi to London, going through China, Mongolia, Russia and Eastern Europe. I set myself the challenge of only catching buses, trains, and the occasional jeep. A sleeper bus packed to the rafters with what were probably smuggled goods en route from China to Mongolia was surprisingly comfortable.

Where is your next trip?
I’m going to take it a bit easier on the next trip and go and explore southwest France.

Aisle or window seat?
Definitely aisle – I hate climbing over snoring people to go to the toilet.

Do you have any travel habits or rituals?
The ‘rule of three’ when packing. I first read about this concept on Lonely Planet author Tim Richards’ blog. Only pack three t-shirts, three pairs of trousers or shorts etc into a carry-on bag. It might seem extreme but it has changed the way I travel – I feel more mobile, have a less sore back and find myself buying fewer useless souvenirs.

Favourite city or country?
China.

What is the best/worst piece of travel advice you’ve received?
‘Climbing that mountain before sunrise will only take you about 15 minutes!’ (It was an hour of climbing, in the dark, before breakfast. Grrr.)

Standing on frozen Lake Baikal, Listvyanka, Russia, on a break in the Trans-Siberian journey. Image by Jessica Crouch.

What’s your biggest travel fail?
Finally making it to Muktinath after eight days of trekking the Annapurnas and then getting locked into the temple grounds when they closed up for the day. Had to scale the fence but even struggled doing that because my legs were so tired.

Quick, an asteroid is going to hit the earth in one week! Which is the one travel dream you’d rush to fulfil?
Catch a fishing (not pirate) boat across the Red Sea from Yemen to Eritrea.

What is your best or worst travel souvenir?
A comb made out of a bull’s horn that a Chinese student gave me for helping with his English homework on a 40-hour train journey to Beijing.

What advice would you give a first time traveller?
Go for at least a month and it will change you forever.

Got some travel stories of your own? We know you do. Share your travel habits, dreams and disasters with Lonely Planet on Twitter and Facebook.

Meet a traveller: Paul Clammer, author of Afghanistan, Haiti and Pakistan guide books

Paul Clammer has worked as a molecular biologist, tour leader and travel writer. For Lonely Planet, Paul has covered countries from Afghanistan and Haiti to Nigeria and Pakistan. He keeps telling himself that he’s going to start writing about easier destinations, but he’s probably fooling himself.

In the great sand sea of the Sahara, near Chinguetti in Mauritania, researching LP’s West Africa guidebook in 2012. Image c/o Paul Clammer.

Where was your last trip?

I was recently in Morocco, researching for the new edition of the LP guide. It’ll be the 11th edition of the guide. I first went to Morocco in 1993 and used the very first edition, so I have a lot of history with the title. I travel to Morocco pretty much every year, most often to Fez.

Where is your next trip?

I’ll be in Jamaica, again working for Lonely Planet. That said, I’m currently based in Amman, Jordan and haven’t had much of a chance to get out of the city yet, so actually the next thing will be a weekend trip to the Dead Sea or Petra!

What is your first travel-related memory?

Family holidays in Scotland and France. For ‘proper’ travel, taking a safari overland truck trip from Nairobi to Harare when I was 19. It was a formative experience in many ways, and ten years later I ended up working for the same travel company.

Aisle or window seat?

Window for short daytime flights, the aisle for everything else. I like being able to get up and stretch my legs as much as I need to on a long flight.

Do you have any travel habits or rituals?

Wherever I am, I love going to the barber for a shave with a cut-throat razor.

Favourite city or country or region?

Seeing the New York skyline lit up at night certainly fills me with childish glee. If I can also get to spend time with New Yorker friends exploring their favourite neighbourhoods, all the better. Favourite country would probably be Haiti. It’s beautiful and exciting – and way more than just where the big earthquake took place.

What is your best or worst travel souvenir?

Not sure about the best or worst, but thing I seem to collect a lot of are local SIM cards for my phone. Roaming fees are the devil’s work.

What is the best or worst piece of travel advice you’ve received?

Taking a two-day minibus ride in Afghanistan after being told that a certain road was safe by a security consultant. It wasn’t.

Taking a break in the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan in 2006. Image c/o Paul Clammer.

What’s your biggest travel fail?

Arranging to meet my girlfriend when she flew into Casablanca and standing for an hour at the exit for the wrong terminal. Not my greatest moment.

Quick, an asteroid is going to hit the earth in one week! Which is the one travel dream you’d rush to fulfil?

As someone who travels for work, I’d be happy with friends and good food anywhere in the world that doesn’t involve doing a dozen hotel reviews a day. I hear this interesting rumour that some people use guidebooks for holidays, and I quite fancy trying that for a change!

What advice would you give a first time travellers?

Take about half as much luggage as you think you’ll need. And take your time – sometimes the best way to get off the beaten track is just to stop, even if you’re on the beaten track. I’d much rather spend a week trying to get under the skin of one destination than rushing around trying to see half a dozen different places.

Find Paul Clammer on Twitter, LonelyPlanet.com and his website, www.paulclammer.com.