Travel Tales of Luxury & Backpacking in Southeast Asia (feat.Melissa Rodway)

Join hosts Shannon and Ann on Travel Time Stories with Shannon as they dive into the vibrant and unpredictable world of Southeast Asia with special guest Melissa Rodway. Melissa, author of 'The People You Meet: Luxury, Leeches, Love, and Lao-Lao' and host of Fly Travel Radio, shares captivating stories from her 2010 trip through Southeast Asia and China, blending backpacking with luxury travel. Discover the challenges, unforgettable characters, and profound life lessons she encountered along the way. Don't miss out on Melissa's unique travel insights and humorous anecdotes. Grab your favorite beverage and tune in for an exciting journey! Be sure to subscribe, like, and share this episode! 

00:00 Welcome to Travel Time Stories 

00:38 Introducing Melissa Rodway 

02:01 Melissa's Journey Begins 

05:54 Backpacking vs. Luxury Travel 

08:31 Memorable Characters and Lessons 

12:16 The Leech Story 

16:13 Travel Challenges and Realities 

18:11 Advice for Aspiring Authors 

20:48 Travel Companionship Challenges 

23:52 Luxury Hotels and Travel Fatigue 

26:02 Starting Fly Travel Radio 

28:16 Advice for Aspiring Adventurers 

33:33 Rapid Fire Travel Questions 

36:45 Conclusion and Where to Find More 

Melissa Rodway Book & Contacts: Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/106904430X?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title 

Instagram: /@fly_travel_media Website: https://flyrodway.com/ 

#melissarodway #flytravelmedia #podcast #tunein #travelpodcast #traveltimestorieswithshannon #southeastasia #southeastasiatravel #author #vietnam #cambodia #laos #leeches #healingjourney #relationship #peopleandvlogs #backpackingasia #luxurytravel #thepeopleyoumeet #travelmemoir #independentauthor #canadianauthor #adventurestories #easyreading #funnytravelstories 

Transcript

 Hello and welcome to Travel Time Stories with Shannon. I'm your host Shannon from Texas, and I'm joined by my co-host and best friend Ann, if you're new here, this podcast is about real stories. Real journeys and real healing. We have an exciting show for you. Tonight we're diving into the vibrant, unpredictable, and unforgettable world of Southeast Asia with a very special guest, Melissa Rodway.

Melissa is the author of the People You Meet, luxury, leeches Love, and Lao-Lao, a memoir that blends backpacking. Grit with luxury travel, unexpected friendships, and a dash of romance. She's also the creator and host of Fly Travel Radio, a podcast that celebrates off the beaten path adventures.

So let's welcome Melissa to the show. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here with both of you. It's nice to meet you. We're so happy to have you, Melissa. Thank you. It's nice to meet you too. Nice to be here. As we say on travel time stories, grab your favorite beverage and let's get into it. So Melissa, we were talking a little bit before we started recording and letting you know that we have both read your book.

Thank you. I thought it was fabulous. Me too. I could not put it down. So when I started reading it, I literally finished the whole book in one day it had me captivated. Aw. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to take that 2010 trip through Southeast Asia and China, and then how it kinda evolved into the book?

Yeah, so, I was 35 at the time. It was 15, 15 years ago. I'm 50 now. And what happened was, I wasn't really in love with my day job, so, I had a partner who worked in luxury travel and he, decided that he was gonna go to Southeast Asia and research all these travel routes and make these connections with some people at luxury hotels to sort of create a future business for himself.

And I really didn't have any reason not to go so off I went, quit my job. And we did that together. And I'll say that it was 90% backpacking, 10% luxury. But the luxury was certainly welcome. We traveled a lot before this, so we were pretty, we knew each other pretty well. We knew what we were getting into, but

35 is not 25. And even at 35, I recognized that after like a few weeks on the road, I was getting really restless. And when you're with somebody who has a purpose and an agenda and is working towards a future goal, it's very different than just being the tag along. And I learned a lot. I mean, of course I was going on some of these like hotel site visits with him, but it's still, it was his.

You know his baby kind of. And so this is where I discovered that I needed a little bit of purpose when I was away. So I would be on these long trains and long buses, and my mind just started creating these stories in my head about what I was seeing and doing and thinking and feeling. And, I've always been a bit of a writer, but I guess this was the first time where I really like kind of.

Took it seriously, I guess. So that became my purpose on the trip. And then it was 2010, so we didn't have cell phones. And every chance we got, I mean, probably once a week I went to an internet cafe or a hotel with a computer in the lobby. And I would send these emails home to people that I've been creating in my head and they kind of.

Took flight a bit like people at home were loving them and sending them to their friends and family. And I guess that was the first time where I realized there was something to it and people were loving it. And that's where it came from. So then I didn't do anything with them until about a year and a half.

So it took me a while, I was in and out of deciding if it was something that I should do or not do. And then about a year and a half ago, I just said, I'm gonna go for it. So here we are and I'm glad I waited. I mean, there's a part of me that's like, 2010 was the time when blogging took off, so I'm kind of an idiot that I didn't do it then.

But I will tell you also two things. One is that you can't really say the things now that we said in 2010. I would've been canceled very quickly. Mm-hmm. True. And so that's a good thing. I waited. And I think that also you don't realize like even, you know, I guess 15 years later you're still processing experiences.

Mm-hmm. So if I had just let it go public, what was happening at the time, I don't think it would be the same as what it is now because I'm, I think we're still like marinating and things and we don't even realize it. Mm-hmm. And when I revisited these emails, yeah, I was still learning from that trip and that came out in the book.

So there's a very long-winded answer to your question. Your journey was part luxury, part backpacker. A lot of backpacker. Yeah. What was it like navigating those two very different travel styles? Do you have any shock moments in your five star hotels? Yeah, certainly. I mean, , I had been with that person for a few years, so I was used to them to, to luxury hotels a little bit.

Mostly we were always backpacking, he and I, but we did have, you know, was part of our repertoire to do that because of his business. But, I think there's a lot of things that happen when you're a backpacker who's like showing up to luxury hotels. You feel weird, like you, you look disgusting and dirty, smell terrible, like you don't fit in.

And I think people look at you like, what are you doing here? So there's a bit of that. There's, sometimes you feel a bit guilty too, right? That you're. You're kind of leading this like double life compared to everyone else that's roughing it. But at the same time it sometimes it was glorious. I mean, it was exhausting.

So we were on the move so much that those. Those moments in luxury hotels were actually like opportunities to recharge and relax and get a proper sleep and feel safe sometimes. And yeah, you know all that, but there's another thing that comes with them and it's like when that's not really your world, it's very overwhelming.

The luxury hotel. Yes. And you. There's a pressure on you to feel like you have to experience every inch of it, especially if you're only there for 24 hours, which was usually the case. And so then you're almost like, oh my God, did I play tennis? Did I go to the sauna? Did I go to this beach? Did I swim in that pool?

And that is stressful actually, because you also wanna get everything you can out of it. So it was an interesting. Aspect of this trip. And it wasn't, always easy though either. Yeah, I can imagine. That's like when, we cruise a lot and we just did our first 14 day cruise.

Normally we do the shorter cruises, seven days at the most. And we were. Discussing that about the difference in that the 14 day cruise was so much more relaxed because we felt like we had plenty of time and we weren't trying to cram everything in that we could do. Yes. Within that short time span.

Yeah. So it's the same thing, like what you're talking about with the being at the luxury hotel. You're trying to cram it all in. Yeah. You know, so you don't miss out on anything. Yeah. And it's like pressure. So yeah. That was like, I won't say that was a downside, but that was certainly part of the experience was like trying to get it all, experience it all.

Yeah, I can imagine. So the title of your book emphasizes the people you meet along the way, and I can just tell you. My favorite character out of the book is the one that you called. Elle. Mm-hmm. Yes. So can you share a story about one of your most memorable characters that you encountered? Well, Elle is probably the.

Most memorable character of that trip. For sure. And I love that she, impacted you 'cause she was wild. But there's so many people, you know, that come along your way and can be, you know, I don't know if you remember that guy, bat from Bat and Bong in the book. Mm-hmm. Batman. He was like this, larger than life character with this megawatt smile.

And then there was that guy, I don't know if I changed his name or not, but, the guy in, at the plane of jars who his name was, nude, who had the stitches in his toe, and the local people that you meet are quite fascinating usually. And people that end up working in tourism in these places usually do have big personalities and they're very, very interesting.

So there's always, these characters that just sort of stumble along into your journey that you don't expect. But, people like Elle are just like larger than life, but I would say the person who impacted me the most from that trip and into the present day is the woman in the book called Bea.

Mm-hmm. And Bea was, very well traveled and very interesting and just super cool. And I was always with a guy on this trip. And then with Charlie, so to, to run into women on occasion was really cool and kind of refreshing. But what I learned from her was, the beauty of knowing when it was time to go home and understanding travel ego.

So she and I and the rest of us were in one of those small villages in, I think it was Northern Lao, but maybe you remember more than I do. Just read the book and, we were waiting for a bus or we were in the middle of nowhere. We waiting for a boat and she. Looked at these two young girls that were like 25, they were backpackers, and she looked at me and said, they need to leave.

They need to go home. And I said, what are you talking about? And it was the first time someone had ever talked to me about travel fatigue and that there comes a point in a journey where it's time to go and it's sometimes really hard for people to do that because. Especially amongst backpackers, there can be a bit of ego, who's on the road longer, who's been to more countries, who's got the better story.

And, knowing when it's you're done is very important. And so I thank goodness I'd had that conversation with her because on the trip from the book. I was on this trip indefinitely and after four months I was out and I knew it. And she had sort of given me the freedom to understand that was okay.

And it's, you have to like, when you stop seeing things, it becomes a job. You're just like going through the motions. You shouldn't be doing it. It's time to go. And so since then. Any trip I do now. I took a year off two years ago and I made sure that the longest I was gone was eight weeks because I knew that I would be done.

Yeah. That's your max, so that was like, that person probably changed the way I view travel more than anyone I've ever met. That's amazing. Wonderful. So in your book you mentioned Leaches Love and lao-lao in the title. That's quite the trio there. Can you tell us about a moment that involved one or all of those?

I have to tell you the leech story. He had me rolling. Yeah, the leech story. I was, that one really got me laughing so hard. Oh yeah. Well, yeah. So, I'm a pretty active person and when you travel or when you do like regular travel, you're often sitting, on buses and trains and I was determined that we were gonna get some multi-day exercise in there.

So we went up to Northern Lao and signed up for this Jungle Trek and we'd had a few drinks and probably weren't really paying attention to the signs that were there. But this company, this tour operator company that we signed up with kind of like warned us saying There'll be leeches, there'll be bees, and.

I don't know. They didn't really convince us enough for us not to do it. But anyways, we signed up and it was hell on Earth, as you know. 'cause you read the book? Yes. So basically it was this like three to four day Jungle Trek and it was extremely hot. And I'm from Canada, so I'm in Celsius. So this won't mean much to you, but for us it was like 35, 40 degrees.

That's very hot. Yeah. They had promised us enough water. They didn't come through with that, so we were dehydrated, but it was the leeches, right. That really stole the show here. So, they just were everywhere. They like, were crawling up your pant legs, they were falling on you from the. Sky. It felt like they, you couldn't escape them.

And I do have this vision of the guy in front of me like on the trip. 'cause it was my partner and I. And then we'd ran into some random travelers also on the same hiking trip. And I remember this guy who was from Malaysia wearing like tennis shoes and shorts, which was crazy. And just seeing gobs of blood running down his legs in front of me.

Wow. And after a while, there's nothing that you could do because they were nonstop and it was hell. It was. And then we, there would be like a creek, so we'd jump into the creek to escape the heat and the creek would have leeches in it. And then, at night you're sleeping in this, open concept hut with holes in the floor and holes in the ceiling and leeches crawling in your sleeping bag.

And in the morning there'd be bees like circling your mosquito net. So it was just like, yeah, I love to call the tail, but I wouldn't repeat that one. So yeah, the leeches were like, I've never seen anything like that, to be honest. So yeah, first time I had a leech on me, I about had a meltdown. Yeah. I just had no idea even what it was.

So, I'm running screaming to my dad. Yeah, they're gross. What is this? Fair enough. So disgusted enough. They're disgusting. Yeah. Yeah. I can't imagine having. A ton of them on you. No. It's bad enough. You get one or two or whatever. But yeah, I can't imagine being bombarded with those things that they were everywhere.

Everywhere and like crawl, you think you have socks and shoes on. Like one of the girls in the story like undid her hiking boots and they were in her boots. Like, how? Yeah. Everywhere. Wow. Yeah. Gross. So in that way, you're lucky I did it for you. You'll never have to do that. Right? Yeah, I will never sign up for that.

I just want you to know. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, me either. Oh, I was so bad. I was just there feeling the heat while I was reading it. I was like, oh my God. Yeah, it was so hot. And usually, you know, I've done a lot of hiking trips and. There's always an element of unpleasantness, but usually it's worth it.

Right? There's beautiful view, right. Or there's a beautiful place to swim. Mm-hmm. And there was none of that. It was just nonstop difficult times.

Now. I know you talk about the heat in different parts of the book. And I have heard from my boss, she did, Vietnam, Singapore, and I forgot which other countries she went to a couple years ago. And she was telling me that in Vietnam, that the heat was so bad.

It was like really hard to breathe. Yeah. Yeah. Is that how it really is? Yeah, definitely. I think the hottest was China. So Beijing and July was deadly and I wrote about it, but our T-shirts had like white salt stains everywhere from all the sweat coming out of you. Oh yeah. And there was so hot, and this, the pollution is so bad that you couldn't.

Even see the sun like it was so hazy. So I remember it was hot everywhere, but I remember China for me was like unbearable with the, that's crazy. Yeah. So don't go there in July. I have no idea. Wow. After reading your book, I really don't want to go to China at all. I know. Sorry. I feel badly about that.

And I wonder if China had been first. I might have had a different perspective, but I tell it like it is, and that's how it was. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. That's what I loved about your book. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And it actually surprised me to hear that about China because in my mind, you know, you picture what these different countries or places.

Are like, yeah. Mm-hmm. And I had a completely different picture in my mind about China, and then I read the book and I'm like, oh my goodness. Yeah, I did as well. But some people love it and it is beautiful. I will tell you what is beautiful. But for me it was very challenging. Yeah. So do you have any advice for others who are considering writing their own book?

Yeah. I think that we live in a world now. We, where we are thinking about what we're doing for other people and who's gonna, you know, I'm thinking about influencers and all of that, and I really struggle with that world. I think if you're gonna write a book, you write it for you and mm-hmm. And. You have to be true and authentic and not worry about who's gonna read it.

Maybe no one will read it or maybe everyone will read it, but you're not really doing it for that. You're doing it for you. And that's where the best stories come from. And I think you have to be a bit vulnerable and honest and, yeah, I think a lot of people sugarcoat travel, and I'm sure after reading my book, you know that I don't do that.

Mm-hmm. And I think that's important too. We don't really learn anything when everything's perfect and Right. You know, so it's gritty. You're mostly in survival mode when you're traveling. It's not all butterflies and unicorns. And the more that we can. Write about that. It's fun. It's funny also, right?

Mm-hmm. So I think you just have to be human with it and, that's my advice. I don't know if it's good advice or not, but that's what I do. I think it's great advice because I, again, I'd loved your book and I loved your writing style because it was so honest and you did just. Put it out there, you didn't sugarcoat it.

And I don't want it sugarcoated. If I'm reading a travel book, I wanna know everything before I go. I wanna be prepared. Oh yeah. And a lot of those books do not prepare you at all. No. So I have to ask you all through the book. In the whole book, I'm asking myself, will they, will they not, will they, there's a subtle love story going on.

Mm-hmm. Travel is stressful. How did it impact your relationship at the time and what did you learn from that? That's a really good question. Ah, that's a loaded question too. We had traveled a lot. We met traveling, so that's what we knew in some ways we were better at traveling than we were in real life.

But I will say that when you are with a partner, it can be isolating and lonely traveling because you're less appealing for people to talk to you 'cause you kind of stick to each other. So. He was and is the most amazing person to travel with ever. But, I like meeting people when I'm traveling and as, yes, for as many characters as there were in that book, if I had gone.

In a very different way. I would've probably met three times as many people, because you're right, you're different right when you're alone. So there was that, and I struggled with that a little bit on this trip. I started to miss, like having more people around. Also, when you're in and out of luxury hotels, you're not meeting anyone interesting in a luxury hotel except for the workers.

The workers thought like amazing. But I think it's also, I'm a pretty independent person, and when you are with somebody who, he was a much better traveler than I am, he had way more journeys under his belt. He'd lived in Mexico and done so many wonderful things, often, I mean, I love travel and I love adventure, but I'm not always good at it.

You're always learning your entire life. Right. And he was, so he had a lot of power in some ways because it was his trip, his journey. He was like, had all these hotels lined up. And when you're an independent person is very hard sometimes to be like the tag along or whatever.

And that was another reason why I knew I had to leave after four months. I was burnt out and exhausted, but I also. Really needed to reclaim myself in some ways and not be like attached to this person who was like organizing my life for four months. And it was amazing. How lucky am I that I got to do that?

But, it's also not easy when you're like with the same person 24 hours a day. And however, I will tell you that you're also, super bonded. I mean, we're still friends to this day and we have done things together that I will never do with anybody else in my entire life. In the stories that we have and the shared like moments that we have.

Really don't compare to anything I've experienced since. So we're very lucky that we're still friends and we're very lucky that we got to do that together. So it does bond you like there's no tomorrow, but, it's not easy. It's not easy. Yeah. That is hard when you're traveling for, long periods of time together.

Yeah. Yeah. Totally. And you're, it's disgusting, right? Like I remember he looked at me and I looked at him at one point and we said, do you think we'll ever find each other attractive ever again? Like it's just nasty. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, definitely backpacking compared to just going on a vacation to some resort or something like that, or even, a cruise ship or whatever. Two completely, totally different experiences and things like that. Yeah. So did your perspective on comfort and adventure shift any during this trip? Do you know what I mean, those hotels are pretty like awesome.

I'm not gonna lie. Luxury hotels are Yeah. But I think as we got more tired, and he was tired too, but he was on a mission, so, you know, he ended up being on the road for nine months. I was on the road for four. But as we got more and more tired, those. I remember in the beginning it was like, okay, we'll just use it to sleep and go swim in the pool.

But then at night we're going out to eat and we were just using it as a place. But as we got more tired, we were hiding in those places. Yeah. 'Cause we were just so tired. And sometimes you also need to just shut everything out and you also start needing more normalcy. And even though.

A luxury hotel is not a normal life thing for me. We would go hang out in the library and watch movies or read books or just like, mm-hmm. And so it started to become like more and more important for me 'cause I was just exhausted after a while. So I think it was more like, yeah, that was the part of me that was like.

That's how I started to see, luxury and also like it was a chance to rest. 'cause you're not, like when you're sleeping in weird places where there's like band-aids in the sink and strange people everywhere. Yeah. You're not sleeping well. Mm-hmm. No. And to keep going on a trip like this where you're on the move every two days, you have to rest.

And we weren't doing that. So the luxury hotel became that symbol for me of like safety and rest. For sure. Yeah. And being a able to balance the wonderlust with some self-care, you know, to Yeah, totally. Kinda balance everything a little bit. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And to just have a pause.

He and I were always, from the day we met, our style was like, go, go, go, go, go. So it, yeah. Really taught us. Cut it with you. Yeah. Slow down. Yeah. You definitely have to take time for self care. Yeah. That's very, very important. Yes, sure is. Yes, yes, yes. So tell us about fly travel radio. What inspired you to start that, and how does it connect with your book and travel philosophy?

Hmm. So when I got home from this trip in 2010, I had no money and I quit my job. So that was not easy and I ended up going back to university 'cause I had made some interesting choices when I was younger. So I decided to finish my degree and while I was there, someone. Had told me about the community radio station at the university, and I'd always wanted to go into radio and so I just ended up volunteering there and then I got a job there and then I created my travel show.

So I really didn't go away for many years after that big trip because I had to rebuild money. I was back in school and that was my way of. Traveling through other people. So I created, it was all about adventure travel, so it was all off the beaten path type of stuff. So one of my guests, had walked like across Africa literally for two years.

Gosh, another one of my guests, , rode his bike home from China to Canada. People like that. And it wasn't, not everybody was like that, but that was sort of my. Angle. And it was really cool. I met tons of people. I built a really cool community and just as you're, as you know, the adventure of even going into broadcasting and journalism mm-hmm.

And interviewing people. Yes. I mean, I wasn't trained. I've just learned it myself. Right. And, it was cool. It was really fun. So I did that, for about five or six years and then. I, it actually is on hiatus because I went traveling, two years ago and I took a year off, and then I decided to do standup comedy after that.

Oh my gosh. And then I wrote my book, so you can't do everything. I'm trying to do everything, but you can't.

Yeah. So here we are. You crazy woman. I'm telling you. Yeah, I'm, yeah. So I have to ask. Yeah, do it. So what advice would you give to someone who is, really dreaming of this type of adventure, but they really don't know where to start. They feel a little bit stuck. What do you say? You know what, I do a lot of group travel because, and this is a funny thing, like I did.

I started doing group travel when I was in my late twenties. So I go by myself and then meet up with, 11, 12 people, strangers, wherever I was with a company. And then you travel with them. It was organized, but it wasn't like a, 35 person bus tour. It's 10 to 15 people. So I started doing that and I loved it.

And then when I met the guy from the book. I stopped doing that and it was just he and I traveling all the time. And I actually remember being like in China or somewhere and seeing a bunch of these group travel people and I was like, oh my God, I missed that. I missed like the social camaraderie of that.

I just had a flashback when you brought that up. But, I think that. I think that's a really good place to start for people if you are afraid and you shouldn't be, but it's human. Of course. We're all afraid. Yeah, that's part of the journey. But I think that's a really good way to get into it is if you're a solo traveler, and you've never done it, sign up for one of these trips and you'll actually even learn how to travel.

Like you'll learn things along the way. You're gonna learn things from other people, and it's a way of not feeling alone. You're with a group, but there's still elements of independence and you're gonna learn about what makes you tick, what doesn't, you're gonna learn about what kind of travel that you like, but there's so many of these companies and they cater to all styles of travel and.

It's like, it's just awesome. I think those are, and I still do it. I do tons of that to this day. I think that's a really good thing. I think you can also just have like adventures that are close to home if it's really new to you. There's so many things that you can do, but the internet has changed everything.

Like I was in Mexico by myself for a couple weeks, two years ago, and. You can like load your day up with a walking tour, a cooking class, anything to like just meet people and to kind of find your legs and to explore. Like, it's quite easy now. I just, it's much easier than it was, the internet has changed everything and made it safer in a lot of ways.

So those are the things that I would do. And then, find your purpose. Like I just talked to somebody who was telling me that when they travel. Everywhere they go, they find a place where they can help in a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter or somewhere where they can contribute to the community. And if that's important to you, then that's something else that you can do and make connections with people and also feel like you're meeting that need of service.

And I think that's another huge thing is like I don't think people travel for the sake of travel as much as they used to. I think we're now more aligning. Our interests and our goals and our passions, and combining that with travel. And I think that's amazing. So that's another rambling answer, but that's, those are ways I love it to get your feet wet, you know?

Yep. And you make friends along the way when you travel like that too. Totally. Yes. Exactly. And that's like the most fun part is the people. Yes, I agree. I'm a people person too, so Yeah. I love to meet people. Yeah. Yeah. That's my favorite part when we travel, is meeting other people, and especially if we're going to a different country or something.

Meeting the locals. Yes. Interacting with the locals, eating the authentic local foods and a lot of people aren't adventurous like that, but it's amazing. Yeah, totally amazing. Yeah. And if you eat where the locals eat, usually you can't go wrong, so. Oh no. We've learned that too. It's the best food.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. We just had that experience in San Juan. We, yes. We were there in port on one of our cruises, and we stumbled upon this restaurant just a hole in the wall. And we're like, this looks good. We'll check it out. Mm-hmm. And they were kind of surprised to see us come in there and the waitress told us, only locals eat here.

So y'all are getting a really authentic experience, so Oh, good for you. And the food was the best I've ever had to die for. It was amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They brought us just to. Huge sampler platter, so we had a little bit of everything to try. It was awesome. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Good for you.

That sounds really fun. You guys look like a ton of fun to go away with, actually. Thank you. We try. Yeah. We'd like to take you with us sometime. It would be so fun. All right. Yeah. We always, every time we travel, we have so much fun together and with other people that we meet. Yeah. And invariably. Every single time we travel, there's some type of misadventure that Yeah.

We get into and that just makes it even better. Yeah, totally. Yes. All about the misadventures really, isn't it? Exactly. Oh, definitely. Yeah. So before we wrap up here, Melissa, if you're up for it. Would you do a, quick rapid fire round course and you just say the first thing that comes to mind?

Yep. Let's do it. Okay. All right. So favorite country in Southeast Asia. Cambodia, yeah. Most surprising food You tried. Oh, like, disgusting, sandwich in Vietnam on one of those, market boats that I don't, I still don't know what it was to this day. I don't wanna know. Floating water? Yeah, floating water?

No. You probably don't wanna know. Really? No, I don't wanna know. No. Yeah. Probably not the best travel splurge. Oh my gosh. The best travel splurge. Oh, you've got me. You know what? I think I paid a lot of money to go paragliding in Nepal once. And it was totally worth it. And I have two, actually, I did that in the same thing in Nepal.

I paid to go in like a six seater plane above Everest, parts of Everest. Oh my God. That would be amazing. Yeah. That was not cheap, but that was worth it. And yeah. Oh, that was worth it. That was cool too. Oh yeah. Nice. And I can probably guess, but what was your worst travel moment? There's so many. So we've touched on the leeches and.

I know you read about the roundhouse in China mm-hmm. Where we slept. But you know what was really bad was, the hydrofoil in Vietnam, that boat where everyone was throwing up around me. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And not imagine. Yeah. And I read that. I was just trying to picture it in my mind and I'm going, oh my goodness.

Yeah. That, had to be horrendous. It was horrendous. So I'm gonna say that one actually. I'd rather take the leeches over that, if I can be honest. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I probably would too. I don't blame. And one item you never travel without. Oh, toilet paper. Oh, that's a good one. Oh, good one toilet. I usually have this kit, like toilet paper and hand sanitizer and soap.

All in a Ziploc because, it's not common everywhere, you know? Yeah, yeah. Bet. Yeah. Wow. We learned, we went to Scotland, in 2024 and, spent a little over two weeks in Scotland and learned that they don't have wash rags over there. So we didn't have, any wash rags with us.

Lovely. Yeah. It was the strangest thing. Yeah. It, I mean, it was strange for us, obviously not for them, and it was the first time I had the realization that, oh, okay, not everywhere in the world. Uses like washcloths or whatever to wash with apparently. Yes. So now you'll pack that wherever you go, right?

Yeah. So now I know to pack a wash rag. Yep. Yep. Definitely. Sure. Good. Melissa, thank you so much for sharing your stories, your insights. Thank you. And lots of laughter with us today. Yeah, I loved it. Your book is a reminder that travel isn't just about places, it's about people growth, the unexpected.

Tell us where can our listeners find your book and follow your adventures? Yes, thank you. The book is on Amazon, so just look up, the people you meet by Melissa Rodway. 'cause I have learned that there are other books with that title that I didn't know. There are. And then, Instagram is a good place to find me.

I'm. Fly_travel_media and then I have a website, flyrodway.com and you can find all my, interviews there from Fly Travel Radio, and I think those are the greatest places to get me. Awesome. Perfect. And to our listeners, we'll include all the links in the episode description for Melissa's book and her social media.

And thanks for joining us on travel time stories. Be sure to subscribe, hit the like button and give us a thumbs up and share this episode with someone you think would love to hear it. Until next time, keep exploring, keep connecting, and keep making memories for life.

   ​