Bonjour.
My name is Jamie Hodges and I am a project manager/tour manager/TV presenter/dancer/actor/Turkish oil wrestler/human being who was born in Bristol, England. I run the Instagram account Join_Jamie and also the soon to be launched personal travel website/blog under the same name.
On my travels around the world I never say no to anything, which has had resulted in me getting myself in some peculiar situations. I’ve performed on the Thailand equivalent of the X Factor, I’ve gotten drunk on vodka in a Kazakhstan truck stop at 6am with locals, driven across the Kazakhstan desert, shepherded in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, swam naked in a lake in Australia, dangled off a mountain in China, wrestled in the national Oil Wrestling championships in Turkey. Oh and in my last job I performed as a lead role for a Chinese-speaking dance show/play touring China (which involved me dressing up as a dirty evil wizard who glows in the dark).
That’s just off the top of my head……..
Oh and you can even watch a little television show that I starred in here.
When were you first bit by the travel bug?
Since my teens I possessed an innate desire to one day just drop everything that was normal to leave for a chance to experience the unknown and to go on a true adventure. So around a year and a half ago when I came across a poster advertising for a television show where you go on a road trip with a group of strangers to an unknown destination I had to give it a try.
The roadtrip turned out being longer than I anticipated; in fact it was to drive all the way from England to Australia. This was in a 30 year old Bedford Rascal camper van which was so unreliable you wouldn’t trust it to make it past the end of your road. Oh and the van was bright gold (obviously).
I quit my job the next day.
What’s your travel style? Why do you prefer this style of travel?
My travel style is fairly spontaneous; I act on impulse rather than spending months organising and planning every meticulous detail. The problem with me is that I am always on the look out to try something new and exciting, so if I want to do something then I just do it……..
I prefer a laid back style of travelling as too much planning can take away the thrill of adventure, I mean if you have already spent hours researching every detail of your trip then you always know what you are going to see and when you are going to see it, its hard to deviate from a schedule. Impromptu decisions result in you living in that moment so if you enjoy an experience you end up savouring it, and at the same time if you don’t enjoy it then you just move on to the next one. Last minute decision making allows you to have your own personal and unique travel experience without following someone else’s potentially very different preferences and recommendations.
‘Don’t listen to what they say, go see’
How do you fund your travels?
I have been extremely lucky with the fact that with my last two ‘jobs’ I have been paid to travel the world……. Unfortunately this is not a 24/7 reality. I have funded previous trips by full time work as a project manager and literally saving every single penny I can, whether I am home or away I try to never waste money and make my money go as far as it can.
The more you travel the more you appreciate how far you can make your money last overseas, because of this I am always aware of frivolous spending and stop myself knowing that purchasing something I really don’t need could give me the budget to live for an entire day somewhere weird and wonderful in the world.
What first inspired you to start Join Jamie?
One day I was wasting my day flicking through Instagram and I came across some of the very popular travel Instagram accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers.
These people are out there exploring some of the most amazing places in the world yet all they can do is take a photo of the back of their head looking into a view with a generic description cut and paste from Wikipedia and finishing the description off with an ‘imaginative’ question such as: ‘who would you like to be here with?’ ‘where do you like to relax?’ etc. BORING. Talk about impersonal, it is just so fake and really isn’t what travel is about.
Travel is about absorbing yourself into another way of life, you should be living in each and every moment and above all else travel is about the people you meet on the way, whether they are fellow travellers or locals to the area. Sometimes you miss perfect picture moments but it doesn’t matter, because you have enjoyed your own personal experience. People shouldn’t focus on the picture, they should focus on the feeling. I don’t want my travel experiences to look staged, fake or impersonal so that is why I started Join Jamie and the more people I can join my journey the better. I want anyone who wants to immerse themselves in whatever the world has to offer to #joinjamie
What’s been your most popular blog post? Why do you think this blog post resonated with your audience?
My upcoming blog www.joinjamie.co.uk will resonate with people as it will communicate directly with them on a personal level. I want to use it to connect with people who want to go out and experience the world and I want my website to provide a way in which they can build on their own personal journey whilst also hopefully helping them save some time and money along the way (through my mistakes).
I want Join Jamie to be a place where not only do people read my own experiences and tips but where people feel they can communicate with me directly with questions and maybe even join me wherever I am in the world! I want people to talk with each other and the aim is to build an online community for people who travel (or want to) who can talk freely, openly and honestly with each other to help each other on their journey. What I can promise is that my website will be 100% honest and will not be an unrealistic description of seeing the world… I won’t be gazing into the sunset overlooking a beach on every picture that’s for sure.
What’s been your favorite destination and why?
This question is near impossible…. However……
In your life there are a few places which you dream of visiting above all others, these are places you read about in books as a child, watched in films etc. I am going to pick a city that had been on this list as long as I can remember and that I was lucky enough to visit this year, Shanghai, it is absolutely mind blowing.
Shanghai is the showpiece of China to the world and allows you to see the incredible diversity that China (my favourite country) offers albeit at a more relaxed rate than other cities in China. It is a must visit for western travellers though, I absolutely love it there it just makes me feel so alive!
What picture have you taken during your travels that you’d consider to be your favorite and why?
If I had to pick just a singular favourite of me whilst travelling then it will have to be me in China dangling off of Mount Huashan.
I am absolutely petrified of heights (to the point of ridiculousness) so this picture always reminds me that I can do anything once I have set my mind to something, no matter what it is. Apologies about my stupid face, I make them a lot.
(For full disclosure I may have cried like a baby around 45 seconds after this picture was taken)
You can watch a video of me taking on the mountain here.
Have you eaten anything during your travels that absolutely blew your mind? What was it and where?
Wherever I go I try to live as close as possible to how the locals do which is fantastic in many ways as I end up trying delicious foods I would have not known existed. It can however result in me putting myself into situations involving me having to eat things I otherwise would never considered as food whilst growing up in Bristol. Some of these include:
- A Raw chickens foot
- A full pig’s brain
- Maggots
- Sheep’s ear
- Scorpion
- Sheep’s eye
- Kumys (Fermented horse milk ball)
- Cockroaches
- Tarantula
- Grasshopper
- Bone Marrow
The list does go on…….
You can watch a clip here of me attempting to eat a raw chicken foot. I was doing fine until I bit into the toenail….
Tell us about one of your greatest experiences during your travels.
Just one? This is so hard to narrow down, I have had so many positive things happen to me during my travels all of which have given me beautiful memories of that place.
However if I had to pick just one I would have chose the time where I took part in the Turkish Oil Wrestling National Championships. This was my first real challenge on my trip to Australia and everything about it was such a shock to my system that it blew my mind. Thousands of people were there to watch me cover myself in olive oil and wrestle a big Turkish man by putting my hand in his ‘private area’. It was incredible!
To take part in the championships of a sport practiced since 1362 was an unforgettable experience, the atmosphere was electric and it was a huge honour to be a part of this incredible tradition. I will never forget the way taking part made me feel, I loved every second and it will stay with me for the rest of my life.
You can watch a video of me wrestling here.
Tell us about one of your worst experiences during your travels.
Unfortunately I am writing this interview whilst in the middle of it!
Whilst exploring Phuket on my moped I came into contact with a pothole that had no place on a road and resulted in me flying off of my bike. I have had six stitches in my head as well as bandages covering my entire arm and leg where my skin had been ripped off as I bounced 30 metres along the not so soft concrete…..
As well as the obvious pain I experienced I have had to delay my Muay Thai training and pay money out for hospital bills, to fix my phone and fix the bike….. When travelling overseas drive safe kids, the roads here aren’t like I’m used to in England that’s for sure.
The only positive that came out of this was that due to it being Halloween I saved a fortune on getting a costume, what a great mummy….
What has surprised you the most about traveling?
There are so many things I have discovered in this world that have surprised, astonished and amazed me. These things are usually associated with the unique and incredible place I have visited as well as the people I was fortunate enough to come across, however above all the thing that has surprised me the most about travel itself is:
How easy it is.
I spent so much time in my younger life fantasising about all of wonderful places in this world I could go and visit, however I kept on saving money yet kept procrastinating and not doing anything about my dreams because of how much organisation I thought I needed to do. Then the first day I dropped everything and left I suddenly realised that it was the most natural thing in life. I should have known, I mean how can you plan adventure?
What’s one thing you seek out in every destination you visit no matter what?
The first thing I want is to get an authentic feel of what life would be like for a local. So that, along with the fact I will literally eat anything results in me seeking out local street food.
Do you have a favorite travel hack or best piece of travel advice?
My main tips for long term travel would be:
1) Only book major travel plans beforehand (long distance flights, long-term accommodation) as otherwise you may end up spending too long somewhere you don’t like or have to leave somewhere you love. Sometimes it is easier to book short term accommodation and last minute travel once you are actually in that country, as the internet can only show you so much (as well as that you can save a fortune). It also gives you an excuse to talk to local people and fellow travellers for advice, which is never a bad thing
2) Never go with the first option you see or are offered, always double check that you are making your money go as far as it can (you’d be surprised how much you can save in 5 minutes).
3) Don’t stick to what you know and keep an open mind. Be prepared to try new things and do as the locals do, if its fine for them then it will be fine for you. From personal experience having Mexican food in China and Sushi in Kazakhstan to fulfill a craving is NOT a good idea. (Trust me you don’t want more detail)
4) Know what it is you are taking from each journey and once you identify it then make sure that is the focus for your trip. Plan each and every trip for just for you, don’t try and have someone else’s experience.
Any future travel plans?
As I was getting itchy feet and bored a few weeks ago I decided to buy a one way flight to Thailand and here I am now in Phuket. Currently I am training at a Muay Thai training camp for a month and after I think I will do some island hopping and hope to land in Koh Tao to fulfill a person dream of mine and do a PADI course. After that……. who knows?
One way tickets make things much more exciting than return ones.
Favorite travel quote?
I have seen so many inspirational quotes, both famous and anonymous so it is hard to choose just the one….. So I am going to be greedy and choose two. These are two quotes I have seen and heard however have no idea who originally said them.
The first one is when I was performing at a theatre in Wuhan, China I saw a sign outside which read:
‘Take nothing but beautiful memories with you’
I thought it was one of the most wonderful things I have ever read in my life, it can relate to both travelling and everything that you do.
The second is for people who have a burning desire to travel but have not yet taken the risk:
‘How can you find yourself if you don’t get lost once in a while?’
Think about it.
What has travel taught you?
Travel has taught me many things which I would have otherwise not known such as history, culture, religion, food, the environment, traditions… The list is endless. However what travel has taught me above all is that anywhere can feel like home.
Where you are born is just a series of circumstances (location, social, religious etc.) all of which have massively dictated your way of life however what you have grown up around is just a miniscule fraction of what this beautiful and varied world has to offer. Travel has taught me that when I should throw myself out of my comfort zone as much as I can and I have discovered that once you immerse yourself into another way of living then, no matter how different it is from your own, you can still find yourself feeling as if you were at home, wherever it is in the world. So if there is anything out there that fascinates you, anything than you truly want to do, just go and do it. You won’t get any younger.
Special thanks to Jamie of Join_Jamie for taking part in our Good Travel Interview series. Leave a comment below with your thoughts on the interview.
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