A green trail to Aber Falls led on to Llandudno's big limestone hill, the Great Orme — up its old tramway, along Marine Drive with the sea far below, a gull sitting on a wall above fields full of sheep, and a grinning pirate statue outside a fairground ride. Below, the old town buildings caught the evening light with the Orme's cliffs behind them, a church spire against the sky, and a day trip to walk around Conwy Castle.

Bangkok on foot — from the "Welcome to Thailand" sign at the airport, past tall buildings, to Wat Arun's tiled spire glowing in the afternoon sun, and Asiatique's riverfront lit up with string lights at night. Then boats hopping between limestone islands in Krabi's turquoise water, before slowing down in Phuket old town — pink and yellow shophouses, a yellow clock tower over a red crossing, and a shopfront buried in pink flowers.

A much younger me, leaning back for a photo at the foot of the Burj Khalifa, its glass floors rising into a cloudy sky behind cranes still building nearby towers — my first trip abroad, and it showed.