Where was your first international trip to?

[Tywais]

Saigon, 1968 - 19 years old.

Me too. But 1st place where I voluntarily went for a holiday visit was London shortly after leaving the military and in my new job in Chicago.

It was the time when England was making a major transition of their currency so sometimes not sure what I had was still valid.

[sloperating]

1950's: From Brisbane to Bribie Island!!

Local group (Rotary, Apex or similar) were on the bridge from the mainland selling "visas" as a fund raiser.

[kayo]

By age 12 had lived in (7) and or visited most (Western) European countries and a summer in Turkey and one in the USA.

Set out on my own at 15 from France to the UK then NL.

From NL about age 19 then, I went to Thailand where I worked on Lonely Beach (circa2000) and Kanchanburi til I was 23.

Landing in Bangkok was the first time I'd landed in a totally and vastly alien world. As somebody mentioned earlier in this thread, the sounds, smells, and sights of that first day stick with me. I was immediately mesmerised.

That first month there. Man! To a guy who's grown up in western towns and suburbs and lame European beaches, it was just like being on the most enjoyable rollercoaster ride:

*Ease of everything

*The unbelievably vast and mostly delicious food, all around, off of street carts in dirty alleys

*The insane driving

*Prices! (I think it was 74baht to the Pound Sterling )

*The sheer amount of incredibly beautiful woman, most of whom I would never speak to

*The train rides across the country, swinging the doors open and sitting in the stairs to smoke with the conductor.

*Then settling (after 28 days, for a couple of years) on a near deserted island building bungalows and living with Thai family and staff, watching the sunset straight infront of me, as if we'd bribed God himself to put it there.

That was, I guess, my first inter-planetary trip.

Incredible women

[manfredtillmann]

Fieberbrunn, Austria, skiing aged 10.....all the way by train from Lincolnshire (except for the ferry). They still loaded cargo and luggage in nets in those days, and gave access out onto the deck while at sea (admittedly, we had to man the oars).

And no doubt the train section would have been on a Stephenson's steam loco.

steamtrain.jpeg

that was only running from Darlington to Stockton.

the oestereich section version would have been built by someone else...

[Don Mega]

Lebanon, Age - 27. Work trip.

[sgtsabai]

Mexico, Nuevo Laredo, Boy's Town (no wise asses, not the same as boyz town in Sin City). 18 yrs. old, classmates from High School, brand new '63 SS Impala, 409, 4spd. Oh yea, and pretty, wild ladies in Nuevo Laredo. Yep, back again several times, along with Tijuana, a short trip from Camp Pendleton. 1st overseas trip, slow over crowded troop ship from San Diego to Okinawa, stop over in Hawaii. A couple of months MP duty and party down at Camp Hansen/Kim Ville, then on to the beautiful bitches, oops beaches of sunny Vietnam on an expense paid "vacation" courtesy Uncle Sam's Misguided Children. I'm still paying for that "vacation"...lol.

[wtraver]

Vietnam 1966

Hot, Beautiful Country, For young US Marine (18) during the war, dangerous in many places. Had a chance to see Saigon, was nice and a lot safer than out in the country.

[AlQaholic]

I am Swedish, but I was born in Ethiopia, and then we moved to Liberia, and then to Sweden, there I studied Engineering and after graduation took a job as Commissioning/Installation Engineer, visited and worked in about 35 countries before settling down in Thailand.

[bazza40]

1950's: From Brisbane to Bribie Island!!

Local group (Rotary, Apex or similar) were on the bridge from the mainland selling "visas" as a fund raiser.

I suppose that IS international travel for a banana-bender.

[stoneyboy]

Wales 1997,working in Wrexham travelled all the way from Great Yarmouth Norfolk England.

[Ghostnigel]

Greece, aged 19. Athens was 'different', never drank Pernod again after that trip....so drunk, apparently i gave like a weeks wages as a tip.

[TJR4ASR]

Ivan mine was the same just I was 16.first bar and strip club. Still go to Mexico every year

[neverdie]

Spain in my young teens

Cant remember a damn thing about it.

I can't remember my first trip either, but I asked my father about it many times.

My sketchy memory seems to recall him talking about the flight taking many days. The flight took off from Sydney and two days later the plane was still in Australian airspace, apparently after leaving Darwin the plane flew for a number of hours before turning back and relanding in Darwin due to extreme headwinds, the following day they had another go and eventually made it to Singapore.

It was extremely expensive to fly back then.

Ohhh yes and eventually we ended up in Siam but we didn't fly into Siam, we arrived by car. Lol.

......wish I had memory of it.

I think it use to take two weeks to fly between Sydney and London, only the wealthy flew and gentlemen were gentleman ...... There were no thongs, wife beaters, drunken fools or loudmouths on the plane, that's for sure 555555. How things change and not for the better either.

[neverdie]

1950's: From Brisbane to Bribie Island!!

Local group (Rotary, Apex or similar) were on the bridge from the mainland selling "visas" as a fund raiser.

I was going to mention the manly ferry being my first trip overseas but I can't remember that either 55555

[Naam]

First international trip: Viet Nam
Age (at that time): 24
Country of origin: Germany
Impressions: good food, climate hot and humid, not much fun

name of fiancée: M16

weight of fiancée: ~9lbs/4kg

[Bobotie]

First international work trip:

Mainland China 1990 - 18 months in PRC

[Speedo1968]

To bazza40 and F4UCorsair

Timor 1971 flew from Darwin to Dili, should have left day before Christmas 1970 but pilot drunk, report back everyday for flight finally left 3rd January 1971 once he had sobered up. Free hotel provided by airline near airport. Group of us rented car, drove where we could; found large pond for swimming.

Boarding the flight,first weigh goods being sent to Dili, next weigh post ( mail ), finally any left over weight is for passengers lowest weight and least baggage.

In Dili slept on veranda of local government office woken every morning by pigs snuffling in ear or cockerel crowing.

Swim in the local swimming pool, owned by Jose Antonio DeSilva Sorres; you could write your name in the sand at the bottom of the pool.

Travel by road ( what roads ? ) to Baccau and visiting the beaches, the scenery was too beautiful to capture on camera.

Only way to travel westwards from Dili ( not wanting to fly ) was by boat and risk malaria or wait for the local army truck to the border then walk.

After that the choice was island hopping or a flight from Kupang to Dili ( if my memory serves me well ).

Portuguese soldiers had been in the Timor paradise for years - never sure if they had been forgotten or they enjoyed their conscription ( no offense meant ).

It is a place I never will forget !

[wannascuba]

near Schofield Barracks HI, visiting best mate in the forces. 1988.

Edited April 2, 2016 by wannascuba

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Southern Spain,aged 14.Loved spit roasted Chicken and red wine.We never had a lot of money and went camping on a beach resort called la Bellina Allegra.The weather was hot,the sea was clean.We had shared shower rooms and toilets.The campsite shop had all sorts of wonderful sweets and foods i had never seen.And at night there was a show of flamenco and fireworks.We were near a town called casta la fells not too far from Sitges.At night the stars were bright and low it looked as though they were diamonds that had been thrown on to a black velvet blanket.We slept under the sky.There was no robberies or peado's and our parents didnt have to keep their eyes on us every 5 minutes.it was fun,it was exotic and it was the best 3 weeks of my teenage years.

[Wilsonandson]

Rhodes, Greece. When I was 14. Found a shop that sold playing cards with pornographic photos on the back. I bought 3 packs. Also during that same holiday saw my first pair of knockers on a beach. Cor, I thought to myself. I got through a lot of tissue paper on that holiday. My mum asked me why I kept going to the bathroom. Oh its diahorea.

When we got back after the holiday I showed my friends the naughty playing cards. Wow, they loved them, I made lots of friends that summer.

[The manic]

Saudi Arabia 1960. It was a shithole.

It still is.

[totally thaied up]

15 years old - Bali for a surf trip

Next trip was at 17 years old - Thailand for 3 months and I grew up heaps. Life back home was so boring after that trip and I never had an Australian girl friend from that point. Asian girls had hooked me and I came back to all of SEA as often as I could. Spent a lot of time working in China and Japan. I think if I did not do that trip when I was 17, my life around Asia would have been so different and I would have just been like my mates and been married off to a hometown girl in Australia.

That was over 25 years ago now and I have now lived in Thailand full time for almost 8 years happily.

[ThaiKneeTim]

Wales 1997,working in Wrexham travelled all the way from Great Yarmouth Norfolk England.

I suppose anywhere outside Norfolk seemed foreign!

[stoneyboy]

Wales 1997,working in Wrexham travelled all the way from Great Yarmouth Norfolk England.

I suppose anywhere outside Norfolk seemed foreign!

Yes there was a little sarcasm in that post.

I actually went to Greece.

Corfu Rhoda north of the island.