Most memorable journeys

Simone Lugeon started working for Kuoni (Switzerland's biggest tour operator) during her student years and did the tour guide training with me. We immediately became friends, and I was very impressed with her flawless Swiss German even though her mother tongue is French.

In this episode, we are talking about some boring Rhine Cruises and how she nearly lost a client in Boston but also about her wedding to Arne on the beautiful lake of Geneva which I attended. The last time we met was in 1994 when she came to Cyprus with her firstborn boy. After that, we kind of lost touch because life took over and both our families grew.

When we got together for this interview, we picked up the conversation from where we had left it off over 20 years ago. She had moved to Singapore, then to Myanmar, then to Vietnam and now owns a hotel in Seam Reap, Cambodia.

Simone is a true tourism expert and has lots of stories to tell, some are most memorable journeys.

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On March 11, 2020, the day the World Health Organisation declared Covid19 a pandemic, I traveled 18 hours from Cyprus to Buenos Aires because I thought this will be over when I come back two weeks later. I had arranged to meet my daughter Natalie and her boyfriend Saemi in Argentina's capital to travel around the country, explore the vineyards of Mendoza and admire the Andes. I am stubborn and nothing could have stopped me from going on this trip. Little did I know into how much trouble I was getting myself and that the Cypriot Government would lock me up for two weeks when I finally managed to come back. You know what? I would do exactly the same again, I had a wonderful time and even if I only managed to stay in Argentina for three days, it was worth every minute. I got to hug my daughter, made a friend who dances the Tango, had one of the best steaks in my life, saw a rainbow from above and had a Margarita at the airport lounge in Sao Paulo....

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I know a fun person when I see one and when Katie turned up in my exercise class, I immediately thought that she is a genuinely kind, clever and special person. We started having coffees after class, and I asked how she ended up in Cyprus all the way from Alabama and then found out that she has lived in many other places before. She is definitely my kind of girl, and I love having her as a friend and neighbour. This episode is dedicated to her and her husband Nash's beautiful baby Alex who was born after we recorded this conversation.

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New York, New York, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere and this is where I realized that I could. Travel with me from New York to the Jersey Shore and via Philadelphia to Washington DC. Find out where the word lobbying comes from and why the White House is called the White House and then we continue to one of the most beautiful towns in one of the most beautiful states: New Orleans in Louisiana. Let's gooooo!

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She is the first princess that I interview as a podcast guest and at first I didn't know how to address her but she made me feel comfortable with her kind and sweet way. She has many stories to tell, about how to keep up royal appearances even when her heart tears apart. Princess Zama Zulu is a descendant of King Shaka Zulu who was a Zulu chief (1816–28) and the founder of the Zulu empire in Southern Africa. The princess talked to me about her life as an abandoned child and how she got assaulted by her stepmother and how she used all the obstacles in her life as stepping stones.

She is the author of the book "A Zulu Princess Warrior"

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Did you know that St Augustine is the oldest continuously-inhabited European-established settlement in the contiguous United States and did you know why Walt Disney built Disneyland in Anaheim and later created Disney World in Orlando. Florida as a state full of diversity and a very different East coast to the West Coast. I travelled all over Florida and met Mickey Mouse personally but I also know the most quiet benches to sleep on in Epcot Center.

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Monette Hamlin served on the Tourism Promotions Boards of the Philippines as a director representing the Meeting, Incentives Travel, Conventions, and Exhibitions & Events Services & Facilities Sector for three years. She is my friend and the perfect person to talk about journeys, life, travel and her beautiful country of 7400 islands.

Monette is also the founder and president of TeamAsia, a 29-year old

award-winning integrated marketing experience firm that builds

brands through branding & design, digital marketing, content

marketing, events & activation, video production. Monette

concurrently serves as chairwoman of the Women’s Business Council

of the Philippines (WomenBizPH); chairwoman of Hopkins

International Partners, Inc.; president of the Government-AcademeIndustry Network (GAIN), and Vice President for Conventions of the

Philippine Association of Convention/Exhibition Organizers and

Suppliers (PACEOS).

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Egypt isn't only Cairo and the pyramids, it's carving a path out through

millennia by the Greeks, Romans, Medieval pilgrims, Egyptologists and, now, travelers. But beyond the astonishing antiquities, it’s a magical country that swirls with myth, legend and mysticism. Egypt is also geographically a very fascinating place. It is kind of a Middle Eastern nation in the north of the continent of Africa and also partly Asia while it borders the Mediteranean Sea in the North and the Red Sea in the East. I visited Egypt with many tour groups and when I was preparing this episode, I realised how much I want to go back and do it all again. Follow me!

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Baria Alamuddin is an outspoken award-winning political journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is the editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of states like Margaret Thatcher, Benazir Bhutto, King Hussain of Jordan, Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro, to name a few.

Baria was the last journalist to interview Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Baria Alamuddin is also the mother of Amal Clooney who is a celebrated humanitarian, high-powered barrister, mother of twins, and fashion icon—who happens to be married to a George Clooney.

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1988 was a complicated year, I came back to work in Cyprus even when I knew that it wasn't a good idea. However, I made a new friend, Daniela, and we travelled to New York, Florida and Puerto Rico together. It was also the year, where I moved on, to a new employer with lots of new adventure opportunities.

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