Abou Chris, Aida & Maya

We have been together since January 2012, marrying in August 2013.

Chris’s Story

I was born in St.Helens, Merseyside (close to Liverpool) in 1976 and lived for most of the next 30 years in my home town although I did spend 3 years living in Leeds when at University between 1995 and 1998.

My travel adventures when I was younger were similar to most UK kids growing up in the 80′s. We would go to Butlins and Pontins where my parents could put my siblings and myself in the Crocodile Club or other such activities (for me it was always the Sports clubs). 

My parents (Sandra and Dave) then bought a trailer tent so we started to go down south to Cornwall or into Tenby in Wales which we truly enjoyed and looked forward to every year.

When I was 13, we went abroad for the first time. It was again similar to most UK families and we headed by bus to Estartit in Coats Brava, Spain. I remember it being very hot and the chicken tasted so much nicer than in the UK. From then we tended to head to other parts of Spain or Majorca which in hindsight must have cost my parents a lot of money and we always came back considerably pinker than 2 weeks earlier.

School and football trips abroad where also great experiences and one of the reasons I love organising overseas trips for my students in every school or college I’ve worked in.

My extensive travelling didn’t really start until I was 30 after taking voluntary redundancy from work. 

I always wanted to have a year in Australia and once I hit 31 it wouldn’t ever happen so it was a case of now or never and with my friend Barry Foy also doing the same thing I decided to rent out my house, dig out the rucksack and start living!!

When I returned to the UK I realised that I didn’t want to live any longer in the UK so started looking for jobs overseas. One thing led to another and I found myself in Saudi Arabia and I’ve never looked back. Since 2007 I’ve been away and don’t have any real urges to move back home, settling on the yearly visits in the school holidays.

Aida’s Story

I was born in Tehran, Iran. 22 Sep 1980 in the first day of Iran-Iraq war which lasted for 7 years, 10 months, 4 weeks and 1 day. Assume it wasn’t really the best start but was really out of me and my mum’ hands. I lived in Tehran till 2009 when I decided to do my M.A in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur where the real adventure began.

As a result of holding a precious Iranian passport, travel destinations from inside  Iran are very limited, usually U.A.E, Dubai, Turkey, Armenia, Malaysia, Thailand, India and maybe few more but believe me not many more. In contrast living in Malaysia opens up the door to the new world with new interesting destinations in South East Asia which are not very popular between Iranians.

In the first year of living in Malaysia as a student, I only had a chance to travel to Indonesia and in the second year to Norway for 2 weeks to visit my family. 

In 2013 I met Chris and fell in love with him and his passion for traveling  (He has another passion ‘RUGBY LEAGUE’ which is not my passion, but I love watching him enjoying that anyway) , He had a ticket to Phuket, Thailand and I decided to join him for this trip and that was the first and one of the best of our trips together. The rest of our travelling just happened on the back of our blossoming romance.